I thought I would share with you my process of painting armour parts. This is subject to change of course, but is currently how it works for me with the mediums i’m used to.

The paints I use for armour parts in order are Alclad grey or black primer, glossy tamiya acrylics, hombrol enamel, alclad aquaclear and finally, Tamiya flat clear. You can replace the Tamiya paints here for Vallejo model air – something I am currently experimenting with.

The process is simple, but can be time consuming.

1. Once all your armour parts are prepared and ready to paint, give it a normal coat of primer according to the brightness of your final colour on a low psi of around 15 right out of the bottle. Make sure everything is covered, not too thick and grainy but with a little texture to touch.
2. Wet sand, using a very fine 1500 grit until all parts are silky smooth. Make sure you get right in the curves and details. Don’t worry if the edges start to show through. Give the parts a rinse in clean water after. You don’t need it to be glass-smooth so no need for any buffing.
3. Repeat! Prime, wet sand again. You should have very nice, smooth surfaces at this point.
4. Base coat in your chosen thinned Tamiya glossy acrylic at a normal 25psi.
5. Pre-shade according to your chosen colour scheme, thinned at a low 10psi up close. get right into those details and recesses.
6. Medium coat in your chosen ‘final’ colour at normal psi.
7. Highlight in either a lighter tone, or the same tone as your final colour, light coats until you have a good looking depth, that’s not too overpoweringly contrasted.
8. Do 1-3 light coats of aquaclear, check that nothing is gathering in detail.
9. Panel line in enamel, thinned with enamel thinner. I find lighter fluid a little too destructive for the aquaclear to take, if it breaks through to the acrylic underneath it’ll come right off in clean-up.
10. Do another light coat of aquaclear to seal in the panel lining.
11. Apply decals.
12. Another 1-3 coats of aquaclear to seal in the decals and close off any edges.
13. Top coat in Tamiya flat, according to how matted you want it. (best to do this part when the entire model is assembled as a final step, for consistency).

And that’s it. The process of double-priming for me is key here – it get’s rid of any sinkage in the plastic parts, and any tiny flaws, while providing a good, strong and smooth base for the acrylic to grab onto. Aquaclear provides that extra protection when panel lining, and adds that extra touch of glossy smoothness. It seems a little contrary to be doing al this if you are going to ultimately flat-coat the kit in your final stages – but float-coating over a really nice and smooth paint surface looks gorgeous, and flawless. It’ll also give you a choice as to weather you ultimately flat or gloss coat in your topcoat – and not be forced to flat-coat to cover up any nasty, grainy work.