user cause painting problems

Just found these forums and wish I would have known a lot longer about them. ive built quit a few models and am usually never happy with overall quality but I always have fun. I have gotten a bit better. painting has been a big trouble. I recently talked to a guy at a local shop who turned me on to the tamiya brand paints. awesome stuff. he told me I didnt even have to use primer with it. anyhow, on to my problem.
im working on a Soarer model that I was very happy with. I spent some time trying to get molding lines out, and any flaws. I filled the license plate holes on the front and wanted to sand everything down. a local at a shop told me do a 600 sand and then a wet 600 and ill be good to go. thats exactly what I did. I did not layer a coat of primer :frown: . I laid lots of light coats of paint. it came out half decent, but definately lots of orange peel and a few things caught in the last coat. I would really like some good advice on what I should do. reading the faq I would guess do an 800 sand , wet sand, and then lay a few more coats. is this a good idea? thanks in advance I hope to learn a lot here!:p

You don't have to use a primer, but your paint coat will turn out better when using a primer. You can see any defects in the body, stuff you might want to sand down again, etc. I might be overdoing on sanding, but I go up to 1000 before primer, then use a 800 on the primer before painting (after touching up anything I notice on the primer coat, if anything).

As for stuff catching in the paint, get a box you can place over the body for a day or so. The paint will harden up enough that dust and stuff won't get stuck in it, and then you can leave it in the sun for a week or so to harden up completely. Orange peel is normal for me... you're going to sand that orange peel out with high grit paper and then a rubbing compound (hence multiple coats of paint). If you want to keep your orange peel down, I think it's important to do a deep wet coat of paint - spray the paint on thick for one coat (I usually do it on my final coating), so it looks really shiny and wet.