Painting Problem

[Amateur modeller]

i am a born again modeller and have bought some starter kits to develop my skills after a 45 year absence. I am working on the Mini Cooper S kit and rather than using the Union Jack strip for the roof, I have decided to paint the roof white. I have applied 2 coats of primer (no 1) and have now applied so far 2 coats of White ( Humbol acrylic white no 130) but the colour is more greyish  white and as the 130 paint is very watery, how many coats do I have to apply for the roof to look like white gloss or am I doing something wrong?

[Braille Dave]

Silly question, how long did you wait for the primer to dry before you put on the subsequent coat?

 

Personally I would use matt white as a primer, if your top colour is going to be anything like white, cream or even yellow.

[Amateur modeller]

from memory, about 2 hours between each coat and then 24 hours before applying the first coat of 130. i remember when I bought the grey  primer, the guy said iyou could use it for any colour

[Braille Dave]

You can use grey for any colour, the problem is, as BLJ says, that white is notoriously bad for coverage...For any paint. If you have a look at custom car paints, you'll see they have four primer colours, white, grey, dark grey and black. 

 

As a rule of thumb, I would use matt black for very dark colours, grey for mid colours and matt white for pale, or difficult colours, like yellow (a real s*d, of a colour!)

[ironsides]

I would use white primer for some paler colors, white red and yellow and probably silver(although a light grey would also work but the top coat would be a shade darker), grey under camo colours such as green and brown and black under very dark colours etc.... black is not a favourite under coat for me though... I dont use a spray gun but for large areas would use a flat brush and thinned paint in several coats, I use Acryllics usually.-)

 

[vimal_indrasoma]

 Gloss black is recommended for some metallics and metalizer paints - fluorescents (hi-viz orange/red) usually needs matt white.

[Amateur modeller]

Thank you all so much for your valued input to my question...I will now get  some Matt White Primer. 

[Ratch]

 Halford's Appliance White aerosol gives a good finish (even on grey primer).

[Bert1707820915]

 Halford's Appliance White aerosol gives a good finish (even on grey primer).

Yep - I'd go along with this, it's a great spray for large areas of white topcoat (eg. Ant-flash white Vulcan or TSR2).  I use this over grey primer - the coverage of the white is good and using the grey primer allows you to easily see which areas have been sprayed (using white over white primer makes it a bit more awkward!).

[Jonathan Mock]

I've been expermenting  with airbrushing white paint over - wait for it - black primer. Sounds anomalous? Actually there is sound colour science behind it!

[Braille Dave]

Yes I can see that... you get an even base, which, as long as you put the white on in an even coat should stop the patchy look, 

[Jonathan Mock]

Yes I can see that... you get an even base, which, as long as you put the white on in an even coat should stop the patchy look, 

It's all about contrasts, Dave. I use less white paint spraying over black than over grey or even white. And the covering power of modern acrylics when airbrushed means the old adage of painting from light to dark is pretty much redundant these days.