Hobby color - zářivě červená

Bright red and its treachery

Bright red tones hold a special place among modeling paints: they look splendid, but everything underneath shows through them. The pigment has low covering power, so over dark plastic it comes out rather brownish. The remedy is simple and costs one extra coat: put a white or light pink base under the shade and only then apply it.

A procedure that has proved itself

Spray three or four really light passes and let the surface rest for a while between them. Trying to cover everything at once leads to runs and to the paint flooding the panel lines. With a brush work on small areas and lay the paint down rather than spread it. Over the dried coat you can apply a gloss varnish, which at the same time prepares a smooth bed for decals.

Typical use

It comes into its own on national insignia and numbers, on fire extinguishers, on warning stripes, on the bodywork of racing machines, on sport aircraft and on small levers and triggers in cockpits. Darkened with a drop of brown it gives a shade suitable for older finishes.

The paint is thinnable with water, it works without a marked odor and the tools are cleaned before it dries.

Masking and sharp transitions

Signal areas usually have sharply defined edges on the real thing, which on a model means tape. First overcoat the taped edge with a thin coat of the color that lies under the tape; it runs into the microscopic gap and seals it, so that the final red stays crisp. Remove the tape while the coat is still fresh, pulling it back on itself.

Decals are an alternative, but on a broken surface they often fail. A painted marking holds more reliably where there are rivets, corrugations or irregularities.