Help with painting.

[Wes Moran]

Ok I'm about to start painting a car I have but the color I'm painting it with is a transparent red and on the side it recomends painting the car with a Silver,Gold,Bronze undercoat.

So my question is should I paint the car with a whole 2-3 coats just like I would with a normal paint job and then put the Red on, or sould I paint with a single coat of silver then the red?

See the reason I ask is because I was worried if I paint the car with 2-3 coats of silver and then another 2-3 of the red the paint job might get to thick and look weird.

Also the only primmer I've been able to get is Flat Grey but I know must ppl here like to use white but does it really matter if I use gray since I'm puting a silver base coat on and also darker blues on the other cars?

Ok one more I also plan painting another car with a Testors: Saphire Blue Metallic, do u think I aught to put a silver base coat on it.

Thanks for the help.

[freakmech]

ok for on thing.... if your going to do a silver under coat, which i totally think you should for a trnsparent paint, i would use a gloss black for primer. also, i have put over 16 coats of paint on my models you just need to keep them light and with that much paint just buff it out dont worry about wet coats. its expensive but if you saw my Golf model it has a similiar paint scheme. i started with a gloss black 2 light coats as primer... then 3 coats of silver... then 7 coats of a clear green, yellow, and silver mixture over top. looks good so far. and i havent lost detail.

[RallyRaider]

Grey primer would be ideal for a silver base coat.

As for the number of coats depends what type of paint you are using. If lacquer then several coats each of primer, silver and red will not be a problem as lacquers go down very thin. Enamels on the other hand tend to go on thicker so could be a problem. Haven't got much experience of water based acrylics so don't know how they'd fair.

Using different types of undercaots will affect the final finish so your best bet is to experiment and see what you like.

[freakmech]

well personally i believe that using black under silver is the best way to do it.... for example... Alclad metallics recomend only using black under there metallic colors. black allow more reflection and is easier to see if you have a good even coat then using gray primer though Rally Raider has some incredible silver paint jobs but he is in the "pro" category of modelling. most any paint company will recomend a black undercoat for silver which gives the siver paint much better reflectiveness under transparent paint.

[RallyRaider]

For sure as freakmech says, a black undercoat before silver will work, and give a slighty different result. Silver tends to cover well and will work with a lot of undercoats. But if grey is all you've got - use it with confidence.

As I said before, experiment and see what you like!

[freakmech]

this is my Golf where i used regular black gloss paint for primer, then silver, then a Transparent green, yellow, silver mixture. looks great so far!!!

[Wes Moran]

Well guys since it dosnt really matter how many coats of paint I put on wouldnt it work just the same if I did it like this:

1.) Gray primmer to help all the paint adhear to the car.
2.) Then do the coats of blk.
3.) Then the Silver.
4.) And finally the Transparent red.