Stupid Orang Peel!

Does anyone know how to get rid of it without sanding? Or does anyone know how to prevent it? Its such a pian in the arss!

You'll get better over time. Practice makes perfect. When I first got my airbrush, I practiced a lot on just little old toys that I didn't really care about, and now I'm ok. I've gotten one paint job to have that P-man shine, but only one so far. It is a total pain. Just work at it.

You can try applying several layers of mist coat, then spray a last wet coat.
But, honestly, it will never look as good as hand sanded and polished finish, though.

But, honestly, it will never look as good as hand sanded and polished finish, though.

Yes Hirokfukuda is correct. Before I could not get a decent shine. So I would always have to sand with 2000 and compound.

But in a period of maybe a year or 2, I was able to prevent the orange peel. Call it superstition but after I give my car a wet coat I blow dry it quickly and it remains shiny I don't know why. Then I just compound.

Because all I need to do is get the paint shiny and compound it I can now paint 1 can to 2 cars. Before it was 1 to 1 because I needed my paint thick in order to take away all the orange peel with out sanding through.

See my Fd and S15. Both were just compounded, not sanded.

You really need to sand it down and get rid of the orange peel if its bad. Adding more coats and you can start to loose detail on the model or end up making it worse

I had the same problem as you when I started out, that was 13 years ago, but after a while I got a technique down, that's why I still use testors and model master spray paints. Thats what I learned with, and that's why I stick with it, to me, it's all about knowing the shrink rate of your chosen paint. I know that I can get one or wet coats of gloss on right after I put down my color coat to get a smooth finish. At the time of applicaton, it looks like I went a little overboard, but by the time it's fully dried, the paint has shrunk down and brought the detail back. Again you really have to know your paints, and back in the day I ruined several bodies in the proccess, lucky for me they were all replaceable.

Most of it is technique. I use airbrush whenever I can. I have been airbrushing for quite some time now, and I have learned over that time that if you spray close but not real heavy it comes out with a decent shine, not p-man shine, but still good. Its because the further away you sprat with an airbrush the paint starts to cure in the air and its getting splattered on. Its kind of hard to explain sorry.

With an airbrush, spray close, light coats. :2cents:

A tip:

http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/plastic/tips/syntheticlacquers.html

What do you think is better? Tamiya rubbing compund or Tamiya clear coat for a gloss, because I got clear coat for my integra and the gloss came out ok but someone told me rubbing compund is better.

Both.
Clear coat the body color, and sand and polish the clear coat with 2000 or above sand paper and Tamiya compound or similar product.

Heres a little trick if you are airbrushing, A friend of mine who painted cars for a living shared this with me and it works particularly well with clear coat and solid colors. When you have good coverage and before the paint falshes mix up a batch of really really thinned out paint and lay it on, he called it a kiss coat. The extra thinner allows the paint to flow out better, just be careful when doing this with pearls or mettalics as the pearl or metal flake can move around and pool if you get it too wet.