The Meteor, Volume 3 Issue 4

I loved those old Athearn Super “F’s”. The addition of a lot of weight to its already solid mechanism allowed this unit to walk away from any yard with all one would ever care to put on its rear coupler.
Everyone has his own method of painting with Floquil paints, and I used these methods with success.
1. In order to prevent the Floquil solvent from attacking the plastic, I used a base coat of Floquil Barrier. If the model was to be painted a light color, I followed the Barrier with Primer, which provided good color base for the light colors.
2. I liked to add the Floquil Glaze and Glosses with a bit of Floquil Retarder to the paint. The paint flowed together on the model’s surface, and when dry, the surface was ready to decal. I also believe that this method provided a more durable surface.
3. I like to seal my mask job with a light spray of clear or the color being masked. For example, if masking over yellow, I would seal my mask with yellow, and then proceed to paint the black. I didn’t have a lot of problem with bleeding under the mask.
4. An index card or business card placed between the model and the grab iron will simplify painting these items.

 

In almost fifty years of modeling, I have never washed a shell before painting, never used Barrier, and very rarely use a primer gray on plastic. According to the experts, I am doing everything worng, but I have only had trouble one time. I always air brush Floquil at 30 PSI staying about six inches from the model; spraying lightest to darkest colors. Light colors like white or yellow may take two coats on black plastic. I use a Badger single action brush and my home built spray booth which vents to the outside. I have enough Floquil paint that I will probably die before I use it all up, and I have never used any water based paints in those 50 years of modeling. My air brush is about 40 years old, I spray lacquer thinner through my air brush after spraying the Floquil and I have never taken the air bursh apart to clean it. I have probably gone through about four spray heads and two needles in those forty years. I use a old Freon steel bottle and pump up the bottle to 50 PSI with a piston pump I bought from Sears a very long time ago. Once pumped up, I shut off the pump, and spray off of the bottle in quite using a regulator and moisture trap at 30 PSI to the air brush. I am not saying everyone should do it this way, just that this is what has worked for me.

 

I would like to echo Richard's comment. I use lacquer thinner with conventional Floquil paint. Prior to fairly recently, I simply sprayed over the raw plastic, although with the newer Floquil formulation it is now sometimes necessary to shoot primer first as the paint by itself will not always cover. However, I have never found it necessary to wash the model nor to use Barrier. Like Richard I am doing everything wrong, but everything still turns out right. As my old college counselor used to say, "Every monkey to his own rope," but airbrushing is not as hard as it is sometimes made out to be, and if you goof it up, throw it into a container of brake fluid, clean it up and start over again.

GS