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Old 03-07-16 | 11:12 PM
  #8  
DIMcyclist
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Joined: May 2012
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Originally Posted by Spaghetti Legs
I use Testors for touch up but won't boast any real skill at it. I wouldn't paint over rust, remove it all first. You might also want to get a bottle of white, maybe a darker blue. A drop of these either way can help you fine tune the color match.
You might also look into various sparkly nail polishes. Nail color is also enamel and can be blended/ mixed into Testors hobby paints without any problems. Beyond that, its pearlescence has a wide degree of granularity, from very coarse (like glitter) to extremely fine & metallic, which makes it a good add-in for matching the pearl of an original paint.

Originally Posted by big chainring
More and more I use artist acrylic tube paints. Quick dry and it is thick. Can fill cracks and chips easily. Then I finish with an acrylic gloss varnish.
Speaking as a pro illustrator with over 30 years of experience, I'd never use a tube-based acrylic for something like this. Even though it's still grossly unsuitable, a 'jar' acrylic will give you better results.
See, acrylic paint in its 'raw' form is liquid, just like latex house paint; in order for it to work out of tube (like toothpaste or traditional oil paint), minute polymer strands are added to the paint, making it viscous. All fine & dandy; however, the downside is that once this is done, you'll never be able to thin it out evenly again; you'll always have streaking because that extra polymer will tend to bind to itself on your surface just as it does inside the tube.

This isn't to suggest that I'm opposed to acrylics on a bike. I often use 3-part automotive paints when I fully repaint a frame, and I'll usually have it mixed & matched at a custom car shop (the accuracy of the color is worth the cost). This starts out as a pretty normal liquid acrylic latex, but you then add a solvent & a hardener in a precise mixture. You have to be careful with this for a variety of reasons- and the clean-up has to be quick & thorough (lest it dry inside- and thereby ruin- your airbrush)- but the final surface is quite hard and can be sanded & polished.

Last edited by DIMcyclist; 03-08-16 at 01:11 AM. Reason: Phrasing; syntax.
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