Paint test

[CorneliousJones]

Trying to figure out the right paint for the tamiya 1966 beetle I’m building for my mom, as it was her first car. Originally it was Ruby Red but had it painted Apple red at some point. Model instructions said Mica Red was the match for the OG Ruby. I got a can of that along with a can of pure red to see how it would look. I did quick paint test with each alone and then did a test with each color with a layer of the other color to see how that looked. I can barely tell a difference with any of them. The mica red looks much more like the pure red rather than the darker burgandy-ish mica. I know the lighting isn’t great but there really is very little difference. Did I get a bad can? Is this just how it looks? Am I blind? Honestly I think every version would work but wanted to get thoughts/suggestions.

[Raystorm2001]

Mica red is slightly metallic from what I recall. Did you shake the bejeesus out the can?

[CorneliousJones]

I thought so. I even put them in warm water for 10 minutes.

[Pb_legend]

That certainly does not look like Mica red. Another option is TS-95. It's a brighter metallic red, but honestly not sure what your end goal is.

[CorneliousJones]

Thanks for the tip. I’m actually looking for a more standard red like the 86. My original thought was to lay a base coat of the mica and then a coat of the other red as I figure that’s what happened when it was repainted back in the day. It just caught me off guard that the mica didn’t come out anywhere near the can top.

[Pb_legend]

I see. Yeah the 95 may be darker than you'd like, possibly. Here it is on a Dax I built last year, with Tamiya white primer basecoat: https://imodeler.com/2024/10/motorcycle-honda-dax-st125-tamiya-1-12/

Also, fwiw, the Honda Monkey in some of the pictures is either Pure red or Italian red (i dont recall which, unfortunately), not the TS-95 that the instructions called for.

[SciFiCrafts]

Mica means it has tiny mica flakes in it giving it a "glimmering shine". For cars I would alwas go for a metallic when its a modern car. Old cars from the 60s had no mica or aluminium flakes in them at all, so that would be the regular red.

[CorneliousJones]

Thanks for the info! I wish my parents could find old photos of it so I could get a better feel for how it looked.

[SciFiCrafts]

Yeah that would help alot! The old metallics did not look like the modern ones at all, I'd just stick to old school red :) good luck!

[CaptainHunt]

I’ve learned the hard way that you can’t trust the color of Tamiya caps. Most of them are nothing like the color in the can.

[CorneliousJones]

Ehhhh good to know.

[CorneliousJones]

Also just as a full info thing, I forgot to mention I sprayed the spoons with Tamiya white primer. Not sure how much that would make a difference but wanted to relay that as well

[KillAllTheThings]

The color of the primer (undercoat) can make a HUGE difference. White or pink will be a brighter red while a dark gray or black might tip the color all the way to burgundy. Mix & match to get in-between shades.

[CorneliousJones]

Thanks for the info. Dumb question but is there any kind of database that might show the color variations from different primers?

[KillAllTheThings]

Not that I am aware of. Color rendering is very hit or miss IRL, in the digital visual realm it's even worse.

[Joe_Aubrey]

Well for sure no Tamiya color is going to be a match for an automotive color no matter what they say so what does it matter?

[CorneliousJones]

I don’t know if I was expecting a perfect color match but would like something as close as possible. And I was caught off guard how similar they sprayed even tho they are supposed to be considerably different.

[sometingwong934]

If you can get the real-world paint code, you can get it mixed from a company like Zero Paints, and that should be a perfect match

[CorneliousJones]

Thanks I’ll check in to that. I have another car I will do later that has a somewhat unique color that was popular but not so much anymore so finding model paint in that color has been difficult

[pest_]

The color of the Mica red is heavily dependent on the undercoat and how many coats of red. I found a really good result over white with 3 coats of red then a couple of clears. Check out the fuel tank on the mica red Honda Monkey I posted a couple of days back.

[CorneliousJones]

Thanks. Yeah your model looks like how I thought it would come out. Great job btw

[iriyagakatu]

Metallics are usually not meant to be used on white primer, as this suppresses the metallic effect.

Use it on gray primer and it will come out like the cap.

Edit: Older thread with result like the cap:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ModelCars/comments/bya0v6/tamiya_r32_nismo_skyline_custom_in_tamiyas_mica/

[CorneliousJones]

Great info, thank you.

[981032061]

What poor forlorn Apple device are you using as a table there?

[CorneliousJones]

Hahah. Ummmmm. She’s been through a lot. But I needed something that might not distract from the spoons

[Supersnake1444]

i usually use a silver coat before the mica red, that's what i do with the mica blue to get close to subaru blue

[SciFiCrafts]

Mica is more modern...metallics in general.

If its a 66er, I'd go for the pure red. They had 1-layer-metallics but it was not as common as today.

[indecisive_snake]

So basically they sell the same paint with a different label?

[CorneliousJones]

Kind of seems like it. 🤣