making white a darker shade, and slightl transparent

ash1502 · Post by **ash1502** » Sat May 25, 2013 1:31 pm

im painting the uss enterprise and am having some issues with the paint colour.
so far i have just done 2 coats of grey primer so it is even coat all over.
im thinking of painting it white, but i dont want it to be a bright white. im hoping that the grey primer will darken the shade.

secondly

ive got to paint an aztec design on the body. im thinking of doing this with maybe an enamel of pearlescent white, but id like the finish to be almost as if the design is showing through a complete top layer, almost as if hte top layer is slightly transparent / translucent.

any ideas on how i could achieve this

Mr. Badwrench · Post by **Mr. Badwrench** » Sat May 25, 2013 10:24 pm

Are you using an airbrush?

photoguy · Post by **photoguy** » Sat May 25, 2013 11:48 pm

The gray primer will darken your white paint. Probably end up in the neighborhood of "sky gray" or "light camo gray" depending on your white paint. After that, you have several choices for the aztec. Assuming you are not using the decals, you could airbrush AutoAir Pearl White, or rattle can Krylon Pearl clear coat. - which looks really cool IMHO.

For my 1:1000 kit, I preshaded the grid lines with black, then sprayed the ship white, followed with an uneven coat of the Krylon Pearl. Then I applied the aztec decals, then a mist coat of white to blend everything together before I added the marking and lettering decals.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater

ash1502 · Post by **ash1502** » Sun May 26, 2013 2:13 am

i tested colours on the stand first. i grey primed the stand then sprayed it in gloss white spray paint. it didnt seem to darken it at all. ive come to the conclusion that the enterprise is not gloss white all over, and is a very light shade of grey or off white.
still need help though

Mr. Badwrench · Post by **Mr. Badwrench** » Sun May 26, 2013 3:03 am

That's one of the big differences between using spray cans and an airbrush. Spray cans give you a nice, even, opaque coat, even if that's not what you want. With an airbrush you can apply just exactly as much paint as needed, even if it's only a tiny bit. But they take a lot more practice. I'm not sure how you can get what you want using spray cans only.

dizzyfugu · Post by **dizzyfugu** » Mon May 27, 2013 5:05 am

My tip: do NOT use a full/pure white at all, rather go for a very light gray. Pure white makes model kits look pretty toylike, and if there's no color reference, the very light gray will look like white - but the kit will overall look less "harsh". And the gray will create a more even finish...