ok im juz a newbie and trying this hobby out on a 1/48 scale Comanche helicopter by italeri.
i started off with the cockpit,took the advice of a fren and decided to dry brush it. now its looks like poo-poo. i applied a coat of acrylic white allowed it to dry then a coat o light ghost grey on the cockpit floor. the problem is air bubbles often form or brush lines can be seen. the entire floor is has looks uneven cause some parts have too much paint and some lesser. (i dun know why) so its a bit bumpy. any way i can save it? and how do i avoid those irritaing brush lines?
thanks in advance

Hi Voltec, welcome to Armorama :-)
Slightly confussed as the problem you describe dosen't sound like dry-brushing?
When hand brushing you will nearly always need more than one coat of paint. This is particularly true with light colours. The bubbles and uneven coverage are, probably, caused by trying to cover in one go. What you need to do is apply a thin coat, let it dry, apply a second coat, let it dry. With white, yellow and possibly red and maybe other colours you might have to apply several more coats. (This is one reason I use an airbrush). When applying the paint avoid build ups around raised detail.
Dry-brushing is when you flick or drag a brush, with bearly any paint on at all, over edges and raised detail depositing minute amounts of paint. This is usually done to highlight detail and is done light on dark. The affect needs to be subtle and can take many passes to build up the desired look.
As to saving the paint; one option might be to paint over it, using the method I suggest. you already have a "base coat". you might need to sand it a little first to remove the air bubbles and the brush marks. Another option is to remove the paint!
Please post again and clarify what it is you want to achieve and we can discuss it forther. Be assured all is not lost, we are here to help :-)
Mal

hey thanks! at least now i know the difference. i try to thin it but dunno exactly how thin it is to be. often its too fluid and the paint will gather around the edges of raised detail or too thick that i get bristle lines from the brush.

:-) Dry-brushing is a subject on it's own, so lets first see if we can get a good paint job first, then we can deal with dry-brushing. Yeah?
Cleaning
For a good paint job, no matter how you apply the paint, you must first of all make sure that the surface you are painting is clean. There will be mold release oil, oil from you fingers as you handle the model parts and all sorts of other undesireable substances on the plastic. The easiest way to remove this unwanted gunk is to wash the parts in warm soapy water (dishwashing soap). use an old tooth brush to get into all the nooks and crannies. Be careful not to loose any parts down the sink. When I used this method I would put the water in a dish and wash the parts over a table (put some news paper down) The way I clean the parts now is to use Isopropyl Alcohol (rubbing alcohol, bought at chemists in the UK). I use a tooth brush for detailed items and a cloth on large surfaces. You should ware gloves because Iso' "de-fats" the skin (I don't and I don't have any problems, just don't wash in it). The reason I use it is because of it's rapid drying, with water you eaither let it air dry (at least a day) or use a hair dryer (I don't own/need a hair dryer). When I have done this there has always been water left in hard to get at places, which are dicovered by the air-brush.
The paint
Depends on the brand of paint (I am no expert) but in general, I believe that acrylics don't hand brush as well as enamals. However I think there are some on the market that are very good at hand brushing, Valejo (spelling?) springs to mind. Doesn't matter though, because if you follow one simple rule everything will be OK. This rule is patience. When hand painting do not try and cover in one go, apply the paint thinley and in as many layers as are necessary to achieve the coverage you desire. Thats why you need patience, waiting for the previous coat to dry. The great advantage of acrylic paints is their rapid drying time, some you literally only have to wait minutes between coats.
Brushes
Using thin layers will help to eliminate brush marks, using good quality brushes will also help, they will also last longer, if looked after, than cheap ones. That is not to say you must buy the most expensive, the best brushes are sable, but buy the best you can afford. If you are just starting out in the hobby and don't want to spend on brushes, no problem. As you get more involved then look at up grading them, they will make a difference :-)
Practice
Like most things in life you get better the more you do it.
Help
There are plenty of people here willing to help, just ask.
Read over what I have written, if you have any questions come back again. We will answer any and all questions, if we can. Remember the main thing is to have fun. I hope I have been of some use, remember if anything is not clear don't be afraid to ask. When you have cracked the painting, we can have a go at dry-brushing, or anything else :-)
Mal