Why does Tamiya hate me?

For the longest time I lived up north and had no LHS, so I had to go with what Wal-Mart carried, in this case Testors spraypaint.

Moved here and finally had an LHS, and everyone raved about Tamiya paints in terms of quality. Well I gotta tell ya, it's been 50/50 for me and Tamiya paints. Why is it so damn hard for me to lay a consistent paintjob with TS sprays? :banghead:

The Camaro SS project (see WIP) has been about 80% done for the last week, because I had to paint it, and then strip the paint twice. Both times I got severe, SEVERE bubbling fisheyes along every panel line. It was almost as if the panel lines WERE fisheyes, that's how bad it was. :(

I went through all the typical reasons for fisheyes--humidity, particulates on the body, moisture on the body... prepped it perfectly, washed it with soapy water, gave ample drying time.... laid 2-3 very thin mist coats... didn't matter, they just came back.

So this situation again brought back my love for Dupli-color's simple automotive paints. They work so flawlessly it's scary--and they're half the cost of Tamiya paints! Stripped the car a third time, did no additional prep work, no change to the environment, and laid down a perfectly smooth paint job. This just reinforces my belief that I need to stick with Dupli-color unless absolutely necessary.

Anyway... feel free to offer suggestions of what went wrong, but mostly this was just a rant I had to get off my chest :popcorn:

It's because they have noticed that you are in a conspiracy with Aoshima and thay want revenge!! :D

Seriously though, it is not unknown for a bad can of Tamiya TS to turn up once in a while - particularly in some colors. They are great paints IMO but not perfect.
What color were you using?

Sometimes I guess it's good to just stick with what works for you already...

It was black... and honestly like I said, it was always a 50/50 shot for me... and it always seemed to be that SAME problem too, with severe fisheyes... I've never had any other kind of problem with TS paints.

I've never had a problem with black, I usually have problems with tamiya's yellows and silvers. Though today i had bubbling problems with blue, but it is a 3 year old can.

I gave up with Tamiya Black last year, it was getting rubbish and I could never get it down nice either. I think they changed the fomula .

Uhhh..:uhoh: I've painted mine with tamiya black! But white primer as a base. Went out not bad! Only problem is that the paint ended...But,yours is a TS color,mine was airbrushed...But,was black... :cwm27:

Along panel lines sounds like you're laying the paint down too heavily and trapping propellant in the paint which can result in bubbles as the gas tries to escape.

Everyone has their own way of laying paint down i guess... tamiya seems to be my best colour... i always get a super shiny finish even even without sanding the last wet coat... oh well :screwy:

Along panel lines sounds like you're laying the paint down too heavily and trapping propellant in the paint which can result in bubbles as the gas tries to escape.
I think Ray has it right. It is most likely for you to have more paint in the panel lines and more likely to have gas trapped. You might want to try spraying from father away to solve the problem and laying less paint on per coat. I suggest spraying the panel lines first and laying down at least two coats on them before painting the large areas of the body. I like to spray the holes, panel lines around windows etc.. until I am happy with them then I worry about the large areas of the body.
David

I'm with Klutz, I think it is your recent alliance with Aosima.

But I'm also with Ray. It sounds like laying down thinner coats and leaving more time in between them may make all the difference in the world for you. TS is easy to get good results from, but often it requires considerable patience in applying it.

Good call, that may very well be the case... But I mean, it's not as if I changed my method and, like I said, the exact same method worked great with dupli-color... I did try several fairly fine mist coats first though...

I used tamiya ts 14 black for my 67 chevelle( see tamiya gallery for pics). It was my first black model and my only time using tamiya. Iused to use testors, but that up and down love affair is over. Could testors make a can that can spray a mist not shoot out globs of paint. Maybe you have just gotten unlucky with a bad can of paint, or maybe it doesnt like your primer. Not really sure though. Keep on trying though and dont be to disgruntled!

You know that's a good point, I am using Dupli-color primer... but they're both acrylics and worked together in the past... maybe I'll give it one more try on my next model with Tamiya primer...

But I think the price issue is the real deal breaker for me. I can buy huge cans of dupli-color for $9 cdn and get 7-8 cars out of them, vs 2 for a small Tamiya can that costs $9.99.

it's not as if I changed my method and, like I said, the exact same method worked great with dupli-color...
I think that's the exact problem. Tamiya and Dupli-color are different type of paints, so you must not spray the same way.

Dupli-color dries much faster than Tamiya's, so Dupli-Color's gas is less likely be trapped even if you apply a relatively thick coat of paint. But if you do that with Tamiya (or any other hobby paints for that matter), you're taking a great risk of trapping gas, which causes fisheye.

Next time, make sure you keek a certain distance for the gas to evapolat, and also avoid wet coating.

Everyone has their own way of laying paint down i guess... tamiya seems to be my best colour... i always get a super shiny finish even even without sanding the last wet coat... oh well :screwy:

Me too.. i've never had one single little itty bitty problem with Tamiya TS

I had a bad problem 1 time with TS while painting my Tamiya SLR!!! Bad fisheye. It was Pearl Light Blue....ahh! Oh well.

-Chris

Damn, I remember this post when it started. Since then, I have accumulated about $1000 more of Tamiya product. I think that hands down, nothing in our hobby compares. Sure there are better options for clears and putties, but I love Tamiya!!! Something had to of went wrong. They have been around for over 30 years. I doubt that you were their first. No other company has capitalized on the hobby like they have, that is why they are always coming up with new product.

I've had the same issue, only in the panel lines and recessed areas where the gases get trapped. The rest of the body look slike glass but is messed up in these other areas. I solved this by warming the can in warm water from the tap or by blowing it with the hair dryer before shooting, I think this thins the pant dwon enough that the degas can happen quicker and with a wetter paint so the bubbles don't form. Last week I was doing a quick build, didn't warm the paint and got the bubbles for the first time in a long time. In my opinion it is the best paint out there but like has been said earlier it needs to be sprayed differently than other automotive paints that we use. Stick with it though, you'll be glad you did!!!

I've had the same issue, only in the panel lines and recessed areas where the gases get trapped. The rest of the body look slike glass but is messed up in these other areas. I solved this by warming the can in warm water from the tap or by blowing it with the hair dryer before shooting, I think this thins the pant dwon enough that the degas can happen quicker and with a wetter paint so the bubbles don't form. Last week I was doing a quick build, didn't warm the paint and got the bubbles for the first time in a long time. In my opinion it is the best paint out there but like has been said earlier it needs to be sprayed differently than other automotive paints that we use. Stick with it though, you'll be glad you did!!!

Warm up every can of TS, and you will not have issues like this.

Tamiya has always been bad for me going over other paint brands. I dunno about everyone else but I have never used primer under black tamiya and always got smooth shiny finishes. If I have used a base coat it has always been light or dark gun metal depending what colour the car is molded in.
I know what you mean on how expensive Tamiya is though for the amount of bodies you can get painted out of one can, it's stupid. The paint is good qulaity but not that good....

But I think the price issue is the real deal breaker for me. I can buy huge cans of dupli-color for $9 cdn and get 7-8 cars out of them, vs 2 for a small Tamiya can that costs $9.99.
$9.99cdn...ouch. I get them for $4.65cdn (130TWD)...but, I live in Asia. :rolleyes:
I'm starting to accumulate Gunze paints as they are better quality, cheaper, easier to use, and have a much larger selection of colors. I generally stick to the same brand when it comes to paint/primer.