Making water-based metalics work with a brush- Dilute like a watercolor wash…

So I’m looking at some of my 1/700 planes and huge globs of aluminum paint in various shades that disfigured them and I was thinking about stripping, spraying and trying to decal on the markings… and then I though, nah, that’ll take too long.

So I sanded off the old paint, and repainted using Polly Scale Bright Siver/Shiny Aluminum something like that- look it up and fix later. And it would have glopped like oatmeal too BUT I dipped the tip of my brish into the water I was using to apply decals and WAY diluted the paint- almost to a water-color wash, and flowed it all over and around the model… and it dried pretty nicely, no brush marks, no globs. A second coat was needed to cover, bring it on, I say. Multiple thin, coats are always best. Result looks pretty nice. I recomend it. I imagine the same would work for oil based, Tamiya, blah blah.

Try it, and if it doesn’t work, I’m sorry, let me know anyway. If you’re careful, it ought to work for you too. I’d say it was good for up to a square inch (2.5 X 2.5cm), maybe more if you use a big, soft, laquering brush.

Bill