Tamiya Acrylics, grainy texture...

Hey guys

i mixed up some Gold Leaf and Bronze to create a nice shade for my Wheels, however it's a little bit grainy. The paint looks flat. Is there anyway to bring the gloss back up? It was airbrushed on, maybe i can try some Future?

Originally posted by djmr2
Hey guys

i mixed up some Gold Leaf and Bronze to create a nice shade for my Wheels, however it's a little bit grainy. The paint looks flat. Is there anyway to bring the gloss back up? It was airbrushed on, maybe i can try some Future?

Tamiya's Acrylic metalics are just to grainy for anything execept some of the newer colors like X31 Titanium Gold and X32 Titanium silver. They have a nice Bronze in this line it's X33.
If you can airbrush get some of these colors in Floquil's railroad paints. use thir thinner Dio-Sol.

Those colors are flat and grainy by nature. Future may work, though be careful since the color may be affected by the acrylic clear. Make sure the Tamiya paint has dried overnight at least.

If you can afford them, Alclad II airbrush colors are incredible. They leave a nice sheen to the surface, far nicer than Testors Metalizers or these Tamiya acrylic colors. I sprayed their magnesium the other evening on a friend's set of Pegasus rims that had been stripped, and the resultant finish was spectacular. At about $7 a bottle, the stuff isn't cheap, but it is amazingly good. Dries almost immediately as well. They have a great color range too, best to find a hobby shop that carries them and see them in person. The chrome, polished aluminum, gold, magnesium, and others are all the bomb.

Yeah i have the titanium gold and silver, still pretty grainy.

I have some Mr. Metal color that i have yet to try, since i'm still thinking of how to clean my airbrush of lacquer without killing myself or anyone :)

I considered using some lacquers to try and mix the color, but i can't find something similar to bronze which i used (tamiya).

And plus stripping Acrylics is so easy! i can spray the wheels and repaint within 5mins if i needed too!

Originally posted by ZoomZoomMX-5
...are all the bomb. :spit:

Hehehe... sorry... Just caught me off guard there... ;)

Yeah, Tamiya acrylics are grainy (like been said 10x before ;) ) it's best to go with a metalizer. That's why I'm trying to find equivalents for all the Tamiya metal paints I have. From the board I've heard from several people Magnesium is a good replacement for XF-56, and I think Pale burnt metal is good for either X-31 or X-32.

Testors metalizers can be mixed, for the most part (maybe there is some rule against mixing their buffing and nonbuffing metalizers), and so can Alclad II (except for polished aluminum and chrome). Testors model master metalizers are in the same price range as Tamiya pots of paint, so they would be a viable cheap alternative.