got started on my f15e eagle 1/32 tamiya i,ve washed the parts in detergent left them to dry but i,m having awfull trouble getting the paint to adhere properly it goes all streaky the paint i,m using on this particular part is xf19 tamiya its an acrylic and is taking 3/4 coats to get a decent finish i,m brush painting not spraying does any one have any soloutions please??

For years i also burhs painted everything, and the first time i came to working on a larger kit with larger surface areas such as a 1/32 aircraft, i ran into the same problem.
I found that if you thin the paint enough, not too much, maybe 70% paint 30% thinner, it will tend to "smooth" itself out, removing the brush stroke lines.
However, if you really want to solve the problem, and your able to, get a hold of an airbrush, i only got one last year, and they really do work wonders.
Cheers

2 points:

seriously, if you don't want the cost of an airbrush/compressor setup, get a can of gunze primer, the finer the better. it's much easier to brush paint after that.

and not so seriously, this might not apply to you, but i just have to mention it. having spent six years in australia as a foreign student, i noticed a few interesting lifestyle issues. the relevant point being that of how to use dishwashing detergents. my aussie friends generally dip dishes into a sinkful of detergent water and then scrub it clean and then leave it to dry. singaporeans will as a rule, carry on an extra step of rinsing the suds off the clean dish with running water. (i know it's wasteful) the common belief being that dishes left to dry as is will still have detergent stuck on it and hence not hygenic.
so assuming that this is true, and all you did was to dip the f15 into detergent, then detergent was still on the model when you painted and that's why it streaked.

i know this might be irrelevant, but then again you never know...

yes intresting point swingbowler what i done was washed the spru,s in a bowl of soapy water then scrubbed with tooth brush then washed under hot tap and left to dry should i paint matt primer enamel first do you think ???

Pod,

Here's what I do: Pop down to your local Halfords or whichever car spares place is near you and get a can of white car primer for plastic. Spray your parts with this, being careful not to try and overdo it (tempting to try and cover in one coat!) and you will find it much easier to overpaint afterwards. Works for me! but like others have said, it's crucial to get rid of all traces of the detergent. I use the shower head on fine spray at the end of the cleaning process on mine.

Good luck, and take some pictures of the work in process so we can see how you get on

Steve

thanks red steve i,ll try that i,m off to halfords first thing tomorrow :-) :-) i will take some pics not to sure how to post them in the forums i know how to get them into my gallery so any tips there would be great as well thanks again

Glad to help On the posting images in threads, the lovely people here at Armorama make it easy for us. Just go to your gallery, and right below the piccy there will be a line of text that looks like this:

{IMG}http://gallery.kitmaker.net/data/15644/Starboard_Full2.jpg [/IMG]

Except it will be square brackets around the IMG commands at both ends of the line (I've put curlys on the first one to stop it actually working so you can see the text). Just hilight the text from below the picture you want and copy it, then paste it into your thread entry and whahey! pics in threads.

Oh, and on the Halfords primer front, this is a pic of the first time I tried it - the interior green in this pic just wouldn't cover evenly on the bare plastic, as you can see it went on lovely on the primer.



Steve