Painters

[paddy]

Quick question on painting high gloss
Do you cut back to a perfect finish the colour paint before top clear coat or do you just cut back the clear ?

I have some small specs of dust in the colour coat and wonder whether to tackle them now or get a good thick clear coat on and smooth that back.

 

[moon puppy]

Not sure but I think you need to get the dust out before top coat. But don't ask me, I've stripped the Green Comet about 5 times now..

 

[paddy]

Yea i know the clear coat can be a great leveller as it fills imperfections.
Maybe trial and error on the E-type hood and see how it goes., i know it needs at least a week to harden before i do anything

 

[Heavens Eagle]

I have used this process quite a bit since I discovered it. As to the turds, (dust specs) I simply took my super pointy #5 tweezers and plucked them out while the paint was still a bit soft. Then the wet mist of thinner retarder and have a smooth glassy gloss coat.

 

[Greg Kimsey]

I like Paul's trick and will try that next time. Normally, I give the paint layer a good rubdown with my finest polishing cloth just to give the gloss coat a better start.

 

[moon puppy]

If spraying Humbrol gloss, do not do the thinner trick. Ask me how I know.

 

[paddy]

Hmmm, i think i may be looking for something here that most dont need or reach ?

 

[moon puppy]

I feel like I got it with the black base of Alclad finishes. also didn't do back with the first version of Black Magic. Did a flat color then progressive gloss coats.

 

[paddy]

This where i am see the bit just above the headlight at the bottom

this bare paint

 

[moon puppy]

Sand it out with high count wet paper or even polishing compound?

 

[Paulw]

A lot of the car guys here in my area usually sand with the high count paper as Bob said. then a high gloss clear. We usually use 2K but that me be unavailable in the UK. I would go with a high gloss lacquer or just try liquor. In the last instance it probably wont matter anyway.

 

[moon puppy]

Well it looks like I'm putting it to a test tomorrow.

this is about the 3 or 4th time I've stripped the Green One and every time it orange peels. I've tried thin coats built up slowly, heavy thick coats...all of it orange peels. I'm going to sand this and clear coat it.

 

[Rhino]

Resin is porous to a small degree. When you strip it, leave it alone long enough for the solvent of the stripper to cure all the way out.
Even if it's just Windex (amonia).

You have a surface prep problem. Park it in the sunshine for a couple of days. You must not rush the chemicals.
I advise against using Humbrol clear over Tamiya acrylics. Enamel paint is unharmed by acrylic clears. It seems the reverse is not true.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

What brand of green paint are you using Bob?
Then what thinner are you mixing with the green paint to thin it?

 

[moon puppy]

Resin is porous to a small degree. When you strip it, leave it alone long enough for the solvent of the stripper to cure all the way out.
Even if it's just Windex (amonia).

You have a surface prep problem. Park it in the sunshine for a couple of days. You must not rush the chemicals.
I advise against using Humbrol clear over Tamiya acrylics. Enamel paint is unharmed by acrylic clears. It seems the reverse is not true.

I think this is it. I did let the Tamiya yellow cure overnight before hitting the Humbrol. You told me before, I'm not letting the chemicals work. I'm going forward with the sanding to see how that works today.
I remember reading all this on Matt Swanns old website years ago. someone even did graphics how the different layers interacted. Gees....totally forgot the acrylic over enamel issues.

 

[paddy]

Ok so an update.
I wasnt happy with the dust i had although it was only a few specs it did notice. I flattened the whole thing back to a uniform finish with 3000 grit and removed the dust but then i found if you do that it also removes the metallic effect
I am using Tamiya rattle cans with Mica paint thats like a std metallic but much smaller particles so more to scale on a model.
I want to now give it a clear coat but I'm paranoid about dust now having got rid of it in the colour coat so i got some of those vacuum packed lens cloths today and will give the paint another day to harden then go for the gloss clear, all being good i will give it a week then cut the clear coat back..

Here is the dust free attempt and also a close up of the fine metallic

I think my problem was the part was originally sat in a box and the spray stirred up dust, this time i did it hanging in the open so no dust to disturb.
Any way....pleased with these results.

 

[moon puppy]

I'm out cutting the grass today, passed the shop a couple of times and went in giving this a go. Sanding with progressive grains to get the wobbling out but if I start to see base colors again I'm going to strip a roma it.

 

[Rhino]

I'm advising you not to put Humbrol solvent clear over acrylic paint, Sir Pup.

Paddy: The Jag is so big it's almost like painting a real car. We used to wet down the floor in the garage to keep dust from flying when we painted 1/1 vehicles in the old days. I haven't any notion about whether such advice will aid your model paint process. Grounding the rig you use to hang big parts to paint to get rid of static couldn't hurt either, one should think.

 

[moon puppy]

I'm advising you not to put Humbrol solvent clear over acrylic paint, Sir Pup.

NP, I don't have Humbrol clear so no danger!

 

[Heavens Eagle]

I have been using Xylene (available from your local hardware store) to thin my enamel paints such as Testors and Humbrol. It works just fine in and airbrush and so far has not caused any real problems. I would NOT use the Xylene directly on any plastic surfaces as it will dissolve the plastic. I almost had a FUBAR with one kit when I tried using it to remove some paint or something. Noticed the surface change suddenly and stopped before it went too far.
With the Alclad paints I do different solvents. Alclad has an airbrush cleaner that I have used to thin their metallics. I have sprayed their gloss black, flat black, and primer grey directly from the bottle.
To make the gloss black settle down and the orange peel and pebbling go away I sprayed some Mr. Retarder on the gloss directly as a heavy wet mist. Just enough to make the surface of the paint look wet and it then settles to a smooth almost glassy surface. I did this with a Testors gloss blue paint on the Bugatti. NOTE: I did the thinner (retarder) overspray right after spraying on the gloss coats so they were not fully dry yet and it worked perfectly.
I have not used much in the way of Tamiya paints or even the Mr. paint colors. So I have not idea how they would work. If in doubt, put some paint on a piece of scrap plastic and try a thinner on it to see what happens.