Subject: Tips and tricks.
From: "Robert Kwikkel" <[email-masked]>
To: "Steve Bamford" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2001 10:00:08 +0200

A long time now I've been fiddling about with painting photo etched
instrument panels. My first technique was to spray it black and then use the
weather-wash way to fill in the gray. But the wash colour always showed the
black thru it. Technique two was to spray the gray first, mask everything
with Bare Metal Foil, cut out all the instruments and then spray them black.
Drawback was, it is very time consuming and the foil glue, that softened the
acrylics. I know that a lot of people use the old method of dry brushing,
but I find it messy.

Now my new technique: with the knowledge that acrylic clear varnish is the
toughest thing there is, I came to the following way to do my panels.
First I clean it, of course. Acrylics bond to metal like nothing else, so
the panel is sprayed Tamiya XF-63, dark gray. Now you can clean your
airbrush.
By the time your done, the gray is dry. Here's the key point. Spray a layer
of Tamiya clear X22 Acrylic. Clean airbrush. Varnish is dry. Now it's time
to spray the gray.
Use an enamel paint. This is crucial for this technique to work. I used Xtra
x131 dark gull gray 16231, with their airbrush thinner, witch speeds up
drying time. Let it dry so, that you can touch it without leaving finger
prints. Now take a tightly woven cotton cloth, damp it with white spirit and
wipe it over the instrument bezels. You remove the grey enamel whithout
harming the acrylic clear. And look at that tight panel, everything thats
etched in to it is grey.
Try it, you won't be disappointed.

Greetings, Robert Kwikkel.