Tips for nice paint job...
1. Roughly sand the model car using 1000 sand paper untill all the mold line gone....and make sure it is clean before u spray..
2. Wash the body and let it dry in a tupperware (to avoid the body collecting minor dust)
3. Spray a layer of primeron the body to spot any imperfect..if so sand again then spray some primer to check whether the spot is cleaned...(remember u just spray primer to check any imperfect spot...if possible try to spray as little asd you can, however for grey color primer u must make sure to spray it even and make sure the body is all cover with thin layer of grey primer. Otherwise the color then spray on the primer will be different)
5. Try to spray a few mist coats with the color of your choice...2-3coats...
6. Shoot another few wet coats...u can try shoot at a nearer distance...until u get some watery effect....but dont spray untill the paint bleeding...
7. After u satisfy with the color and you think the color is thick enough to withstand next round of wet sanding...remember after spray the color remember to spray clear coat, this is a must to protect the paint...(if the paint is thin, when u wet sand the body u will sand untill primer then u have to spray the spot again)
8. Put the body in the same tupperware and let it dry for a few day/few weeks...depends on u...then when the paint is dry enough then u can start wet sand and polish. (To check whether the paint is dry or not u can try touch whether the paint is becoming hard and smell whether there is still any paint smell) (To let the paint dry faster, u can put the body in a closed tupperware and put it under the sun every day.)
9. For wet sanding, u need 1500 and 2000 sand paper. U can get them in hardware store, very cheap one. Then u dip the sand paper in water and start sanding evenly to make the body surface smooth...to check whether if u have sand the surface properly...U can take a tissue and wipe the body...when the body is dry u can see whether the surface is completely smooth or not...if there is still some color which is not dull it mean that those spot need to be sanded...
10. After u wet sanding with 1500 sand paper then u do the same step with 2000 sand paper...but during the sanding time..be careful not to over sanding untill u burn through the color layer and sand very soft in edge as they are very easy to sand through...
11. After you have completely sand the body and satisfy with the smoothness..then u can start applying tamiya compound in the body..in this step what u need is patience and rub a lot of time to get the shine u want...i can almost spend one day on rubbing the compound..so if possible please rub as many times as u can...( for those whose do not have tamiya compound u can try using the normal car wax...but u have to rub more times compare to tamiya compound)
12. Now u can enjoy ur nicely done paint job...
P/S Remember when come to achieving a nice paint job, a lot of patience is needed...