Brush Painting

[TransAmMike]

What with the cold weather set in, and in my case no heated garage or shop to air brush parts,  I thought I'd ask for some advise here.

For those of you who have successfully figured out how to brush paint small to medium size parts such as engines, suspension parts etc. without brushstrokes appearing.

Suggestions like what paints and brushes will be appreciated.

Bring it on guys'!!  😊

[LennyB]

Honestly I’ve always used Testors to paint small bits like engines, suspension etc. And I just use one of their brushes, nothing fancy. Don’t have any issues with brush marks but you do have to make sure the paint flows when you apply it.  If the paint doesn’t flow just add some thinner to it.  

[Dave G.]

I just airbrushed yellow/cream Createx into a kitchen trash bag yesterday, for 34 Ford pickup wheels. I cut the flow back to where I saw no over spray around the bag at all. I had to move the brush in close to see paint build on the wheels. I've done this for wheels before with various paints. The wife was upstairs sleeping, I was in the kitchen downstairs doing my thing. But actually, I've painted the whole truck the same way, though with more flow. The only thing I step outside for is spray can paints and or decanting solvent paints. The yellow I mixed was about 6 parts white to a heavy 4 ish yellow. I added the usual 25% or so 4030 and cut the whole mix with 4021 reducer. The paint went on awesome. Tomorrow is 4050 clear coat on them.

That said, I paint my engines now ( for the last three years or so) with a brush and mix my colors from craft paints, even in 1/16 scale. You see no brush marks. Just thin with a little Liquitex retarder and plain water. But I could air brush those the same way I did the wheels yesterday. To which I wore a dust mask but there wasn't anything visible to breath. Anyway, brush painting the engine/driveline parts takes me back to my childhood, IE I enjoy it 👍. And the crafts paints work great for me, back then so many years ago, I used Testors enamels.

Edited January 5 by Dave G.

[Brutalform]

I’ve had great results with Vallejo Air. The only reason I use the Air over their regular acrylics, is the Air is thinned as  I don’t need to add water. I pretty much stay away from the Tamiya acrylic in the jars, for the most part. I understand that these are not really meant to be brushed on anyway, but I have had good results adding a retarder to the Tamiya jar paints. 

[Mark]

A lot of people don't like the Testors nylon brushes, but I do.  I prefer the ones with equal length bristles, not the angle cut ones.  As for brushing enamel, I prefer Humbrol but do use Testors on occasion.  I picked up a few of the new Tamiya enamel, but haven't tried those yet.

Making sure the paint is thoroughly mixed is half the battle.  Settled paint will have too much "carrier" and not enough pigment.  The latter issue will prevent proper coverage and probably slow down the drying process.

[TransAmMike]

Hey guys', some good ideas suggestions so far.

52 minutes ago, Dave G. said:

I just airbrushed yellow/cream Createx into a kitchen trash bag yesterday, for 34 Ford pickup wheels. I cut the flow back to where I saw no over spray around the bag at all. I had to move the brush in close to see paint build on the wheels. I've done this for wheels before with various paints. The wife was upstairs sleeping, I was in the kitchen downstairs doing my thing. But actually, I've painted the whole truck the same way, though with more flow. The only thing I step outside for is spray can paints and or decanting solvent paints. The yellow I mixed was about 6 parts white to a heavy 4 ish yellow. I added the usual 25% or so 4030 and cut the whole mix with 4021 reducer. The paint went on awesome. Tomorrow is 4050 clear coat on them.

That said, I paint my engines now ( for the last three years or so) with a brush and mix my colors from craft paints, even in 1/16 scale. You see no brush marks. Just thin with a little Liquitex retarder and plain water. But I could air brush those the same way I did the wheels yesterday. To which I wore a dust mask but there wasn't anything visible to breath. Anyway, brush painting the engine/driveline parts takes me back to my childhood, IE I enjoy it 👍. And the crafts paints work great for me, back then so many years ago, I used Testors enamels.

Well Dave, I knew you would have some answers for me.   Not so sure about me doing the airbrushing indoors.  The air compressor noise.

I do use craft paints for brush painting.  I need to try the Liquitex.   What type brush do you have/use.  I think I read a long time ago certain type brush bristles are better to use.

[Dave G.]

11 hours ago, TransAmMike said:

Hey guys', some good ideas suggestions so far.

Well Dave, I knew you would have some answers for me.   Not so sure about me doing the airbrushing indoors.  The air compressor noise.

I do use craft paints for brush painting.  I need to try the Liquitex.   What type brush do you have/use.  I think I read a long time ago certain type brush bristles are better to use.

My compressor once aired up, I could spray small parts for a week lol. I don't even have it plugged in for the in house airbrushing.

The brush won't matter much, but with craft paints and water clean up in general, you want synthetic brushes. Natural hair brushes eventually turn into a bad hair day brush from cleaning up with water all the time. They're best for oil painting anyway. I had a small set of Taklon brushes I liked for models but I think they got integrated into the artist inventory of brushes my wife and I have. We must have over 100 brushes between us, and as many colors of craft paints. To which craft paints aren't our main inventory since we use artist grade paints, both acrylic and oils more so.. Speaking of which, artist grade acrylics are another good source of paint for brushing small parts.

You had some of the Liquitex redarder fluid already, for making up my blend of thinner, same stuff... But you don't have to use it, just water will do. You just want the paint thin enough to where it flows off the brush and levels out when dry.

[RSchnell]

I use good sable hair or taklon brushes and Tamiya acrylics, AK 3rd generation acrylics, occasionally Humbrol & Testors enamels. I brush paint 90% of chassis components & interior and usually only airbrush or spray bomb bodies or other big surfaces.

Sometimes I'll brush paint a body after all that's how I was taught all those years ago by my Grandfather who was a master modeler by every definition of the term.

[Pierre Rivard]

Welcome to my world Mike. I live in a condo and brush painting is what I do... for everything. Now I am not promoting brush painting over spraying but I am always surprised to see builders get into very complicated masking operations just to airbrush something like a headlamp pocket when brush painting such a small surface is so easy. For small/medium parts a simple synthetic brush will do (I use a variety of AK brushes). I use acrylic paint and the best are Vallejo. Model color needs to be thinned about 1/1 with a dedicated acrylic paint thinner (I use GSW), Vallejo Air needs less thinning. I do a few thin coats with about 10 min dry time intervals. I take the liberty to post an example below and I hope you won't mind. Everything is brushed and I have also added washes and dry pigments to create weathering. Takes practice but it's quite doable.

 

[Shark]

Whatever Pierre does is what I would do.

On another forum (now extinct) he had a group of brush painters that had their own pinned topic. He is the master.

[Straightliner59]

I was going to suggest that Pierre might have a thing, or a thousand, to share on this subject! I see he's chimed in, now. When it comes to brush painting, I'd consider his word the gospel.

[Beans]

multiple thin coats is the key.  You won't cover in one pass.  You have to build the paint up over several.  

[TransAmMike]

On 1/5/2025 at 5:16 PM, Dave G. said:

I just airbrushed yellow/cream Createx into a kitchen trash bag yesterday, for 34 Ford pickup wheels. I cut the flow back to where I saw no over spray around the bag at all. I had to move the brush in close to see paint build on the wheels. I've done this for wheels before with various paints. The wife was upstairs sleeping, I was in the kitchen downstairs doing my thing. But actually, I've painted the whole truck the same way, though with more flow. The only thing I step outside for is spray can paints and or decanting solvent paints. The yellow I mixed was about 6 parts white to a heavy 4 ish yellow. I added the usual 25% or so 4030 and cut the whole mix with 4021 reducer. The paint went on awesome. Tomorrow is 4050 clear coat on them.

That said, I paint my engines now ( for the last three years or so) with a brush and mix my colors from craft paints, even in 1/16 scale. You see no brush marks. Just thin with a little Liquitex retarder and plain water. But I could air brush those the same way I did the wheels yesterday. To which I wore a dust mask but there wasn't anything visible to breath. Anyway, brush painting the engine/driveline parts takes me back to my childhood, IE I enjoy it 👍. And the crafts paints work great for me, back then so many years ago, I used Testors enamels.

Got cha Dave and thanks!!

On 1/6/2025 at 10:17 AM, RSchnell said:

I use good sable hair or taklon brushes and Tamiya acrylics, AK 3rd generation acrylics, occasionally Humbrol & Testors enamels. I brush paint 90% of chassis components & interior and usually only airbrush or spray bomb bodies or other big surfaces.

Sometimes I'll brush paint a body after all that's how I was taught all those years ago by my Grandfather who was a master modeler by every definition of the term.

 

On 1/6/2025 at 11:01 AM, Pierre Rivard said:

Welcome to my world Mike. I live in a condo and brush painting is what I do... for everything. Now I am not promoting brush painting over spraying but I am always surprised to see builders get into very complicated masking operations just to airbrush something like a headlamp pocket when brush painting such a small surface is so easy. For small/medium parts a simple synthetic brush will do (I use a variety of AK brushes). I use acrylic paint and the best are Vallejo. Model color needs to be thinned about 1/1 with a dedicated acrylic paint thinner (I use GSW), Vallejo Air needs less thinning. I do a few thin coats with about 10 min dry time intervals. I take the liberty to post an example below and I hope you won't mind. Everything is brushed and I have also added washes and dry pigments to create weathering. Takes practice but it's quite doable.

 

 

On 1/6/2025 at 2:29 PM, Shark said:

Whatever Pierre does is what I would do.

On another forum (now extinct) he had a group of brush painters that had their own pinned topic. He is the master.

 

On 1/6/2025 at 7:03 PM, Straightliner59 said:

I was going to suggest that Pierre might have a thing, or a thousand, to share on this subject! I see he's chimed in, now. When it comes to brush painting, I'd consider his word the gospel.

 

12 hours ago, Beans said:

multiple thin coats is the key.  You won't cover in one pass.  You have to build the paint up over several.  

Appreciate all the great suggestions, a lot for me to think about and products to consider.

[slusher]

On 1/5/2025 at 5:59 PM, Mark said:

A lot of people don't like the Testors nylon brushes, but I do.  I prefer the ones with equal length bristles, not the angle cut ones.  As for brushing enamel, I prefer Humbrol but do use Testors on occasion.  I picked up a few of the new Tamiya enamel, but haven't tried those yet.

Making sure the paint is thoroughly mixed is half the battle.  Settled paint will have too much "carrier" and not enough pigment.  The latter issue will prevent proper coverage and probably slow down the drying process.

I. Like the Testors and good art brushes. When cleaning them rolling them in thinner and rolling them dry they last longer."

[Ulf]

On 1/6/2025 at 6:01 PM, Pierre Rivard said:

Welcome to my world Mike. I live in a condo and brush painting is what I do... for everything. Now I am not promoting brush painting over spraying but I am always surprised to see builders get into very complicated masking operations just to airbrush something like a headlamp pocket when brush painting such a small surface is so easy. For small/medium parts a simple synthetic brush will do (I use a variety of AK brushes). I use acrylic paint and the best are Vallejo. Model color needs to be thinned about 1/1 with a dedicated acrylic paint thinner (I use GSW), Vallejo Air needs less thinning. I do a few thin coats with about 10 min dry time intervals. I take the liberty to post an example below and I hope you won't mind. Everything is brushed and I have also added washes and dry pigments to create weathering. Takes practice but it's quite doable.

 

Fantastic build, a curious question, do you brush the primer too or do you use spray can type Warhammer ? 

[Ulf]

On 1/5/2025 at 11:49 PM, TransAmMike said:

What with the cold weather set in, and in my case no heated garage or shop to air brush parts,  I thought I'd ask for some advise here.

For those of you who have successfully figured out how to brush paint small to medium size parts such as engines, suspension parts etc. without brushstrokes appearing.

Suggestions like what paints and brushes will be appreciated.

Bring it on guys'!!  😊

Hi Mike

I am in the same situation as you for slightly different reasons, season and sensitive cat mainly. My learning curve with Vallejo is at least pointing upwards, an important insight was that Vallejo's primer, which is available in different colors, is more durable but also a little different from the colors.
See picture, the primer is polyurethane.
A piece of Tamiya tape on the primer bottles makes it easier to tell them apart in the box…

 

[Pierre Rivard]

3 hours ago, Ulf said:

Fantastic build, a curious question, do you brush the primer too or do you use spray can type Warhammer ? 

Primer also brush painted. Vallejo polyurethane. 10-20% thinned with water. Again multiple thin layers.

[TransAmMike]

Thanks Ulf and Pierre. I was wondering if it was the AV Vallejo