the quest for the mediocre paint finish.

[Paul]

After the Miata build I sort of got the bug to build curb side kits. so I got to thinking of a way to get an affordable kit. I bought the Revell '85 Olds 442 from Hobby Lobby. Looking at the plastic it appeared to be molded with several different types of styrene. It had swirls different shades of white among other things. 400 grit sort of kinda smoothed it out a bit and then I shot some Rustoleum, which turned out to be a bad decision on my part, as a guide coat and did a color sand to get the high spots and smooth out the surface. I then shot four tack coats and two wet coats of Tamiya metallic blue. This is what I came out with. Basically a bunch of what not to do knowledge which is good all around in any case. I also am going to stick to kits with better plastic.

[jeaton01]

Seems to be some granularity there, Paul. Kind of like when I did a repair on my 1962 Chevy in college.

[Ceaser_Sa1ad]

Okay big question first: Did you prime it with real primer? No matter what kinda plastic *and I have seen some baaad kinds* a good primer usually helps.
Secondly, I don't know how well Tamiya paint goes over Rustoleum. When I use spray paints, I stick to one brand only. That way you can 100% know that they will play nice.
3rdly, have you colour sanded the Tamiya?
*Edit: That is a pretty nice finish though, even if you just cleared that and polished it would come out really nicely!*