Painting light colour over black Solartex?

[martin collins 1]

I am considering covering my next build in black Solartex, would yellow paint go over it ok or would i need multiple coats, anyone tried this before..........

[Futura57]

Never done it, but I'd say it comes down to the quality of the paint and how it's applied. Brush or spray I'd go with a white primer coat or two first. I've no idea how well different paints adhere to Solatex though.

[kevin b]

Painting solartex is not a problem.

However these days many paints have different opacity.

Paint pigments are very expensive minerals.

Having a "neutral" colour under your top coat has always been a good idea.

For instance, if you want a bright yellow finish it is best to have a white undercoat.

Also if you decide to paint over a red finish it is always best to give it a coat of black first.

[Engine Doctor]

Apply a coat of white first then yellow should cover well and look much brighter.

[john davidson 1]

why paint it white? black is actually a good colour  for seeing in the air

[Geoff S]

1 hour ago, john davidson 1 said:

why paint it white? black is actually a good colour  for seeing in the air

 

I feel you need contrasting colours.  Any single colour will 'disappear' in certain sky/cloud conditions.  Our traditional cycle club colours are a white horizontal band against a blue body and I always found it easy to spot my wife as she climbed a col at her speed often far below me.  (She didn't mind as long as I waited at the top 🙂 )  I've pursued the same principle with model covering and it seems to work.  My current Fokker D8 build will be yellow and black stripes painted on Diacov.  It will be the first time I've used Diacov but I'm hoping it's similar to Solartex.  My intention is to paint the yellow first followed by black as I think the darker colour will cover the lighter more effectively.

Edited November 7 by Geoff S

[Nigel Heather]

On 07/11/2023 at 16:11, john davidson 1 said:

why paint it white? black is actually a good colour  for seeing in the air

As I read it, the airframe is black but he want to adds some yellow contrasting decoration.  The advice given to paint it white is referring to just the decoration parts as an undercoat so that the yellow will cover more easily and more opaquely.

 

From my experience of painting plastic miniatures for wargaming I know that the colours red, yellow and white are notoriously challenging because the pigments used do not provide good opacity.  White used to be okay, but the pigment that did a good job was lead based and is now banned in Europe so white paint doesn’t cover so when now.  My experience is with acrylic paints, it may be a different for enamels and lacquers but I doubt it.

 

Yellow is probably the hardest to get an opaque cover and takes many coats to achieve.  So if using paint, I’d recommend an undercoat first.  The latest fashion in miniature paint is to use a pink undercoat for yellow, many swear by it, but that does alter the tone of the yellow, so I’d probably stick with white or light grey.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

[Mike T]

For light over dark, I spray a coat of silver first - Plastikote or Guild is as good as anything and a couple of light coats cover well.  Then apply your chosen light colour.

 

(Got this trick from my Dad back in the swinging 60's.  We had some old fashioned dark wood wardrobes that he wanted to do a 'Barry Bucknall' on, so coat of silver enamel first, then white gloss over the top.  Looked really hip...)

 

Edited November 12 by Mike T