Painting taillights

I have searched and read the threads on painting tailights, and also painting silver or metal foil of the body recesses where the lights are on.

Well, I brush painted the recess of the car body (where the lights are supposed to be attached) using Tamiya Chrome Silver and painted the BACK of the tailight parts using Tamiya Clear Red and Clear Orange.

However, on painting the clear colours, they got worse looking on each layer of brush painting. In other words, they looked ugly especially when dried.

Am I missing something? Or is it mandatory to airbrush for the best effect?

Any advice is appreciated.

On which side did they look ugly, the painted side or the clear side? And how are they 'ugly'?

In my experience, shaking Tamiya clear paints is not recommended since air bubbles form in them, so that couild be a cause ; stir, don't shake. Also, you may not be mixing it well enough, causing uneven coatage.

They don't look good from the "outside". "ugly" as in uneven paint coats, somewhat like translucent little "patches" of varying shades of the same colour.

And yes, one possible reason could be I may have over-stirred the paint.

When I paint on the second layer after the first layer is dried(day before) it seemed to be affecting the first layer too.

I painted the lights (clear parts) inside and outside (didn't know what the exact procedure was, so I just tried it) and I must say, it looks very good.

That should be normal. Keep on applying coats until an even color has been achieved. Should take at least two or three coats, possibly more.

I'm sorry if you misunderstood me but I said it might because your paint was understirred, not overstirred. You can't overstir paint. :)

i think best results are achieved with an airbrush.

Do thin coats and allow plenty of drying time.
Sounds like you maybe dragging the bottom layer off with the next coat.

Originally posted by primera man
Do thin coats and allow plenty of drying time.
Sounds like you maybe dragging the bottom layer off with the next coat.

Ditto - drying time is the key. Let the applied coat dry well before applying another coat. Painting the head/tail lights is one of the 1st things I now do when I put together a kit.

Originally posted by primera man
Do thin coats and allow plenty of drying time.
Sounds like you maybe dragging the bottom layer off with the next coat.


Do I paint thin coats using the paints straight & stirred from the bottle or do I thin some first with Tamiya Acrylic Thinner prior to brushing the thin coats?

You can thin the paint a bit with water. The coats will be thinner, so you'll need to put on more coats. But as stated before, make sure you give it plenty of time to dry.

Do you get best results by painting the back of the model (where the lights go) silver and then painting the inside of the lense with the clear colours, or is there a better way to do it?

Originally posted by BOOSTD
Do you get best results by painting the back of the model (where the lights go) silver and then painting the inside of the lense with the clear colours, or is there a better way to do it?

That's what I've done in the past, and if you haven't got a steady hand, some of the silver paint can go outside the light recess in the body, which doesn't look pretty.

This here looks like a much better way of doing things...

http://www.tamiya.com/english/howto/car1/tip2.htm

Wow that link is great. Thanks for that :p