Tinting Tamiya Liquid Surface Primer?

SeoulWind · Post by **SeoulWind** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 12:59 am

So, lets say I have some parts that come out of the box in the perfect color and I don't want (or I am too lazy) to paint them. Let's further speculate that there are some gaps that need to be filled between these parts, and that my primary filler of choice is white Tamiya Liquid Surface Primer. This is a small problem because the parts I don't want to paint are not white.

According to Tamiya this stuff is not quite a paint, despite the name, though it can be thinned and airbrushed if you want to. My read on it is that it's Tamiya's answer to Mr Surfacer. My question is, can you mix some color into it without screwing up it's putty-like gap filling properties?

Thanks in advance!

Mark in Okinawa

Fokker Ace · Post by **Fokker Ace** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 10:27 am

I've used the Tamiya stuff quite a bit and have a feeling what you are doing will end in much frustration as the material isn't meant to do that. You can probably change the color but it seems like a bad solution instead of just filling, priming and painting the entire model as is usually done.

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 10:48 am

I'd try mixing in some Tamiya paint. It can work as a lacquer so it may do what you want.

But... it may, as FA said, end in frustration as the dried color won't exactly match the wet color. You're going to have to spend a lot of time in proper lighting matching filler to plastic and even then, due to plastics' subsurface scattering, it won't match.

You can try shaving sprue into some liquid glue like Tenax to make a color matched putty.

SeoulWind · Post by **SeoulWind** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 7:29 pm

Thanks, guys, I was afraid that would be the answer. I was thinking about the disolved sprue approach - If I can get the sprue to glue ratio right that's probably my best bet.

Thanks again!

Mark in Okinawa

naoto · Post by **naoto** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 9:30 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLJiWWzt ... ure=relmfu

asdqwe · Post by **asdqwe** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 1:24 am

SeoulWind · Post by **SeoulWind** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 7:34 am

Thanks, Naoto! He has a nice little series on the concept...

Mark in Okinawa

Tankmodeler · Post by **Tankmodeler** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 10:02 pm

Remember, unless you get the amount of filler absolutely perfect, you're going to end up sanding or at best scraping away the excess. As soon as you touch the surface of the kit near the seam, the scratches will become super visible. You can polish them out of course, but it's a pilke of work to restore the mirror finish of the kit parts.

Also, even chopping up bits of the kit sprue doesn't guarantee that the filler matches the rest of the plastic exactly.

At what point does the extra work involved in trying to match the kit plastic colour & texture outweigh the hassle of painting the kit?

Just sayin'.

Paul