Airfix 1/72nd Westland Sea King HC.4

[Flip]

it's too humid and too cold at the moment

Doug,
I have the same as you - a non-air-conditioned garage
I was spraying a Buccaneer with EDSG. Looked fine at the time. Went back an hour later and they were a ghastly patchy white. Cold and humid - caused a bloom.
Easily solved with an additional coat.
Answer? I negotiated with SWMBO to get mantelpiece space. Now I spray in the garage and transfer to the living room to cure. No more bloom.

[Waspie]

Just caught up with this Steve. Wow, this SK is certainly testing your metal.
On the plus side, it's your first kit and this is the one you can really learn from. Disasters - PaH!! Happen because they're testing you!!! Your doing ok bud, you'll recover the paint problem I'm sure.

From my perspective, I've had no real issues with Vallejo acrylics, other than I don't like their primer. Shame it looks like you have to remove the good work you've already done but I can testify the meths treatment will remove the paint already on the SK. I cocked up my Beetle and luckily it was at a stage where I could immerse the bits in a meths bath. It does remove the paint quite quickly. Copious cotton buds should work a treat. Remember to clean the meths off too of course!!

The lessons I have learned from these guys when I'm spraying is patience. At the moment the weather is too humid, I'm itching to get cracking with my King with my airbrush but I know if I do something will go wrong, it's too humid and too cold at the moment. (My workspace is in my garage, cold and lacks heating so I am at the mercy of the elements!! I also, leave a good 24 hours or more between primer and top coats longer if it's cold and wet!! Then a goodly drying period between subsequent paint coats. I'm only on my fourth kit and by no means experienced and I do treat every kit at the moment as a learning curve.

I'm sure with the advice of the big boys you'll recover the SK to what you want it to be and come out the other end with a Sea King that you'll be happy with.

[Flip]

I'm just hoping I don't have this issue when I get some decent masking tape

I just hope I'm not muddying the waters too much...
If you want to try a quick fix with a better masking tape using locally-available materials, I can recommend Frog Tape. I have been using it on models where low tack is important.

But only one type of it:

It must be the yellow (delicate surface) one. It now comes in 24mm and 36mm widths. Cut down to suit.
You can get in a lot of places now including B&Q, Tesco, etc

If you have poor ventilation I would definitely not recommend these Steve, a strong smell is an understatement and it don't want to be breathing it in!

Yeah, unfortunately that's the case. Well, I'm just hoping I don't have this issue when I get some decent masking tape, we'll see.

[Ancientmariner]

If you have poor ventilation I would definitely not recommend these Steve, a strong smell is an understatement and it don't want to be breathing it in!

I've just read that laquer paints have a strong smell, that's possibly a deal breaker for me. I have close to zero ventilation in my flat (most of the windows don't open)
That's one reason why I liked Vallejo, no strong smell. I don't want to paint and end up high on the fumes haha!

[Flip]

Or go onto the Shop, "Paints, Mr Hobby, Mr Color" (GSI Creos have the Mr Hobby range which includes the Mr Hobby paints)

I'd recommend Mr Colour lacquer based paints, thinned with Mr Colour levelling thinner. Same principles, you'll just notice a huge difference in quality of finish and they tend to spray a little easier than acrylic I have found but each to their own

I'll see if I can get them around here, thank you!

[Ancientmariner]

I'd recommend Mr Colour lacquer based paints, thinned with Mr Colour levelling thinner. Same principles, you'll just notice a huge difference in quality of finish and they tend to spray a little easier than acrylic I have found but each to their own

[Flip]

Tamiya do lacquers - John has them in shop (quite a few of which have ended up here with me :smiling5. Look under "Paints, Tamiya Paints, Lacquer")
Mr Hobby also do good lacquers - also available in the shop
MRP (ready to spray from the bottle) - not so easy to get hold of as there are only 3 UK suppliers but, IMHO, simply the best paint around.

I would say, if you're venturing into lacquers, go for just a couple of colours just until you get up to speed with them. Personally, I would recommend sticking to Tamiya lacquer thinners for their paints. I know other folk use Mr Hobby thinners with Tamiya paints, but I have both and tend to keep things within manufacturers in order to reduce the number of variables.

With the thinners, there are the plain type or the retarder type. I started off with the plain type but have found myself gravitating to the retarder type as they allow more time for self-levelling. Again, both types of thinners are available in the shop. Look under "Paints, Thinners" and filter by Tamiya.

Vallejo acrylics I have had more issue with than anything else with tape removing them, even with decent tape. They seem very sensitive to any surface contamination and at best needs to be done very gently. Lacquer based paints I haven't had the same issue with or with the Tamiya series paints.
I have left my Vallejo paints for brush application only now due to this. Incidentally the lacquer based stuff sprays 100 times better as well.

Looking forward to see the finished result when you've repainted those little areas.

I know diddly squat about lacquer paints. Can you recommend a brand for me to buy? (I just looked for Tamiya but they were acrylics) also what do you thin it with?

Thank you!

I once had a fish head Rodney rush over to me in the shed asking where the heads were, my response of “On your shoulders sir?”, didn’t go down well. When he clarified he meant the lavatory my next response was “Oh! You mean the $h**house?”. He looked like he was about to explode.

One of my favourite RAF slang phrases is “T*ts up on sticks in the shed for a double donk change”.

How about 'Gobbling rods' for knife and fork...

[stillp]

Vallejo acrylics with their thinner and a touch of flow improver.

That'll come off easily with cotton buds dipped in meths. No need to sand, but you might need to use a paintbrush in places the cotton buds won't reach.
Pete

[rickoshea52]

Vallejo acrylics I have had more issue with than anything else with tape removing them, even with decent tape. They seem very sensitive to any surface contamination and at best needs to be done very gently. Lacquer based paints I haven't had the same issue with or with the Tamiya series paints.
I have left my Vallejo paints for brush application only now due to this. Incidentally the lacquer based stuff sprays 100 times better as well.

Ditto. Even my MIG Ammo acrylics are about to be relegated. Too many times I’ve have paint peel off with them, never with Tamiya though.

[Ancientmariner]

Vallejo acrylics I have had more issue with than anything else with tape removing them, even with decent tape. They seem very sensitive to any surface contamination and at best needs to be done very gently. Lacquer based paints I haven't had the same issue with or with the Tamiya series paints.
I have left my Vallejo paints for brush application only now due to this. Incidentally the lacquer based stuff sprays 100 times better as well.

Looking forward to see the finished result when you've repainted those little areas.