Newbie Seeks Help

[boonimusprime]

Hi everyone

Inspired by the awesome stuff I see on this forum, I have started customizing my own Minimates. I am working on a figure for the Design a Villian contest, but I made a mistake.

I thought I had picked up acrylic paints, but instead I got enamel. I finished painting the figure, but it doesn't look right because of the paint (it dried kind of globby). Would painting over with acrylic work? I tried sanding off most of the enamel and painting over it, but since my airbrush doesn't work right since using enamels with it, I painted the rest by hand. the good news is the figure is mostly one color. When I seal it with acrylic spray, will that help cover up the brushstrokes?

Also, I was wondering if anyone can give me some pointers with the airbrush. I tried a couple different ways of cleaning the attachments, but the enamel is pretty sticky on the attachments. The paint has not dried completely--I had started soaking the parts immediately after working with the brush the first time--but I can't get the enamel paint off completely. Also, the airbrush flow is very thin, then chokes off entirely, so I think it may be unclogged. Can anyone please give me some advice on fixing this? I have the cheap mini-airbrush available at Wal-Mart (if I decide customizing is really the hobby for me, I will probably invest in a higher quality brush), so maybe there si a place where I can get the tube and nozzles separately.

Thanks for any help, and I apologize if I put this in the wrong place.

[TM2 Dinobot]

Hey, welcome! My #1 advice? DON'T USE ENAMEL!!! Acrylic only, for several reasons. There are several plastics (like vynal) that enamel has a chemical reaction to and will either "eat", shatter or melt the plastic. Sometimes it never dries. It should be used on metal only to be safe. Paints I use are the cheap craft paints from Hobby Lobby, like Anita's and Testors. I know the model paints of choice are usually Testors, Taymina or Games Workshop. I've never had much use for an airbrush. I figured if I couldn't do it by hand it wasn't worth doing.

Hope that helps!