White vs. Grey essentially, but it's not really that simple.
Take a look at the pics. You can probably see the differences for yourself. Same colour pieces, same basic spraying pattern.
My Tamiya gray ran out so I decided to finish the other parts with the Mr. Hobby Surfacer.
As you can see the gray really goes on thicker and provides more of a flat texture. The white gives it a slight shine and doesn't go on as thick. Not so good for what I'm trying to do here which is recolour the pink to black.
Yes I'm going from pink to black so technically I should be fine with just spraying the black on straight away but it doesn't work that way in practice.
If you look at the piece sprayed in white, you can see that the edges are still quite pink.
This is why modelers use the "C-men technique". A technique I may be forced to employ. I realize now that I didn't have this problem on my Sinanju because of all the curves in the armour. All the straight lines on the Infinite Justice might cause a problem when I'm trying to do a recolour like this. I don't want a trace of pink to show anywhere when I'm done.
I'm even repainting the beam effect parts. I used the white surfacer on those originally but the result was less than satisfactory so I sprayed again with the gray primer and I was pleased.
The problem now is that I have a lot more pink parts to paint and no more gray. I'm going to use up the rest of my white primer just because I'm trying to go through all my cans and move onto smaller bottles to use in my airbrush from now on.
Another problem with the white primer is the potential for over spray and having it pool up along edges as shown here.
For some reason the Tamiya gray primer is much more forgiving of over spray. You can barely notice it when it happens and you have to be spraying pretty hard and pretty close to get it to happen. Basically you have to be trying to get it like that. Either that or you're spraying completely wrong.
I'm going to trying doing my recolour job on legs first to see what's in store for the rest of this build.
I'm under the impression that this is going to be a bit more challenging than I'm expecting it to be.
As you can see the gray really goes on thicker and provides more of a flat texture. The white gives it a slight shine and doesn't go on as thick. Not so good for what I'm trying to do here which is recolour the pink to black.
Yes I'm going from pink to black so technically I should be fine with just spraying the black on straight away but it doesn't work that way in practice.
If you look at the piece sprayed in white, you can see that the edges are still quite pink.
This is why modelers use the "C-men technique". A technique I may be forced to employ. I realize now that I didn't have this problem on my Sinanju because of all the curves in the armour. All the straight lines on the Infinite Justice might cause a problem when I'm trying to do a recolour like this. I don't want a trace of pink to show anywhere when I'm done.
I'm even repainting the beam effect parts. I used the white surfacer on those originally but the result was less than satisfactory so I sprayed again with the gray primer and I was pleased.
The problem now is that I have a lot more pink parts to paint and no more gray. I'm going to use up the rest of my white primer just because I'm trying to go through all my cans and move onto smaller bottles to use in my airbrush from now on.
Another problem with the white primer is the potential for over spray and having it pool up along edges as shown here.
For some reason the Tamiya gray primer is much more forgiving of over spray. You can barely notice it when it happens and you have to be spraying pretty hard and pretty close to get it to happen. Basically you have to be trying to get it like that. Either that or you're spraying completely wrong.
I'm going to trying doing my recolour job on legs first to see what's in store for the rest of this build.
I'm under the impression that this is going to be a bit more challenging than I'm expecting it to be.
You know, if you're trying to get rid of your paint cans you can just decant the primer and paints into spare bottles. Just make sure you de-gas it first, otherwise that might cause you some messy problems. There are a couple of tutorials on how to do this at both Gamera Baenre's site as well as at Ghost of Zeon.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't have a ton of spare bottles lying around, as long as you have one you could just decant as much as you need out of the can, and clean up the bottle between uses. I do this and it allows me to get colors that aren't available in bottle form. It's also handy because most of the paint/primer is already thinned enough to immediately use in an airbrush.
FYI this also helps conserve paint and you don't have to worry about the can overspray problem thanks to shooting it through the airbrush.
that is a great idea! thank you! i'll take a look at those tutorials.
ReplyDeletei have to admit i still like using the spray cans a bit because they're so quick and easy. i need to get a better airbrush setup so i can do all that stuff faster.
thanks for the advice though!
The Primer is designed to sink in in prep for painting, however, the Mr. Surfacer (depending a lot on what grade you use 500, 1000, 1500) is there to smooth the surface over, hence the surfacer name. It is good for covering up little blemishes or smoothing a surface after sanding. It does make a good primer too!
ReplyDeleteI was planning to submit a MG Astray for upcoming gunpla challenge in June, recolor the red frame, and mod, into MG Mirage Frame. So, practically the red inner frame will be sprayed purple (i'll be using Tamiya polycarbonate spray). So, which type of primer is better? The grey one?
ReplyDeleteI used to spray dark colors directly on light colors but i want to avoid that, it is for a competition and i want a good finish (i will topcoat the kit when finished anyway.
I'm not really getting a clear idea of the c. men technique. What exactly does it do? D'you think the grey primer would cause issues for using white paint?
ReplyDeletegaigun - yeah mixed results with it as a primer unfortunately. maybe more for smoothing and fixing blemishes but the grey can do that as well.
ReplyDeleteK' - if i were you i'd go grey. but white could work too. hell even purple on red wouldn't look back but i think white would be a good call for that type of a colour change.
lupes - all it does is prevent paint from missing the edges by giving the paint more of a surface area to adhere to. that its really.
grey primer is going to cause your white to look a bit darker than usual unless you do a couple of coats. it'll give it a slight grey tinge in most cases but it depends on the paint and your spraying method.