Old Imai Mecha Kit Painting Help Needed!!!

[DarKev]

Hello Folks

I have a couple of the "OLD" Mospeada 1/72 Scale kits molded in color (Red and Green) in the stash and I need some suggestions to get these two to their proper colors of "white" with red and green parts and panels!!! I'm up in the air over using Tamiya Fine - White Primer, Gray Primer or who knows. I remember having one of these ktis back in the day (before I had an Airbrush) and my results back then to be bluntly honest truly sucked!!!

So any suggestions would be GREATLY Appreciated!!!

Darkev

[Scratchawan Learner]

Prime them black... Red is probably the most difficult color to paint over, without "bleed through"... from personal experience. I've rehabbed houses, that have been gone through with the Graffiti artist's favorite colors of paint.... red, and neon orange. Very difficult to cover those colors, without multiple applications of white Primer...even if it's a dense color coat, such as what "KILZ" markets to consumers. Spraying black over those colors, negates that...and evens the "back-tone"... so that you can then spray a white, or off white base primer... and then your final color coat(s). It really does make one wonder, WHAT was Imai thinking, "back in the day"... when they used those awful bright colors, to inject their molds with. I had one of the original "Valkyrie-Gerwalk" Imai models, but at least mine was "shot" in a neutral grey color... (circa 1984...)

[naoto]

… It really does make one wonder, WHAT was Imai thinking, "back in the day"... when they used those awful bright colors, to inject their molds with. I had one of the original "Valkyrie-Gerwalk" Imai models, but at least mine was "shot" in a neutral grey color... (circa 1984...)

Speaking of kits molded in colour -- how 'bout some of those Matchbox that have combination of three different coloured sprue (e.g. olive green, red, and white) ? At least the paired parts like left and right fuselage halves were the same colour...

I do remember having a Tamiya kit of a motorcycle that contained about four different colours of sprue -- three were metallic (chrome, aluminum, flat aluminum), along with the vinyl (seat, handlebar covers) and rubber bits (tires) -- at least the colours made sense there. Of course the most amazing examples of colour molding were the Bandai "system injection" kits -- where you might have two (or more) colours on the same sprue ( e.g. this -- the eyes are not a sticker nor decal ).

And of course, "molded in colour" isn't just for styrene or ABS.. Volks has a lineup of resin kits in the CharaGumin lineup that feature parts molded in colour. The parts aren't multi-coloured, but the parts breakdown follows color demarcation lines, and decals for the eyes are provided. They don't look half bad if you simply glue them together, but obviously some painting they'll look much better.
http://volksusastore.com/webstores/hobb ... ory_id=629

[Scratchawan Learner]

My "Crab Pod" kit, was molded in BRIGHT ORANGE... which is great, if you're planning on painting your crab pod that color. If, on the other hand, you are planning on painting your pod in a more "institutional, high visibility white"? You have some heavy priming to do... that hopefully won't mess up all that nice, intricate surface detailing molded in. I have seen early release matchbox kits, just as Naoto has...that have multiple areas, molded in multiple colors. Matchbox's early releases of the EA-6B Intruder come to mind... as do their early releases of the 1/72 Victor Bomber. I have no idea what possessed the company to "shoot" the model in multiple different shades. Perhaps they felt it would make the model better looking, without paint? Who knows. Bandai, is by far the most egregious offender of the "brighter than hell plastic" crime...that makes it more difficult to cover. Magenta, Bandai? REALLY?? Dear God. So priming with a high density primer is necessary, when what you are covering is such an intensely bright hue. Failing to do that, results in "bleed-through"... particularly in brighter lighting conditions... and it's embarrassing. Makes you look like you adapted your model, from a toy.