Question on Final Top Coat

[cyberia]

A lot of great suggestions here, but I agree with PM. I have kits in my collection that were built 35 years ago and never had a top coat.

They have all survived just fine.

[Jim O]

Originally Posted by cyberia

A lot of great suggestions here, but I agree with PM. I have kits in my collection that were built 35 years ago and never had a top coat.

They have all survived just fine.

Showing your age my friend...

[cyberia]

Originally Posted by Jim O

Showing your age my friend...

Well, Jim, age is like poker. When you can't bluff anymore, you just have to show your cards.

[Whiterook]

Yes, a lot of good input indeed. Thanks fellas! The reason I wanted to put a Gloss topcoat on was first, I read how putting decals straight on a flat acrylic was not advised, that the surface is too rough, and the decals will possibly loose adherence after awhile; second, I had planned to do some filters and washes, and the gloss coat supposedly protects the paint scheme, whereas an acrylic surface will "wear" under that kind of "abuse"; and third, after doing some weathering with pastels, and to eliminate any shine still evident from the prior gloss coat, applying a flat coat will seal everything up. Now where advice is fairly well available out there on the net in that procedure, actual paints are never specified, hence the "will this work with that" conundrum.

I painted up some plastic scrap with Tamiya Acrylics last night...I'll let it cure properly, then give a gloss coat a whirl to see what happens. Now whether I'm brave (or stupid, as the case may be) enough to try and actually go the full yardage with the above method on a $50 Panther that I poured a lot of time into remains to be seen. Experimentation is necessary when honing a personal technique, but the price in this case may be high. I'll keep you posted!

[lufttiger]

Let us know what happens, cuz if this works i'll do it as well.
I hate having to use my airbrush for clear coat stuff, it plugs it up big time.
A rattle can would be great!

[Aussie Dave]

Originally Posted by lufttiger

Let us know what happens, cuz if this works i'll do it as well.
I hate having to use my airbrush for clear coat stuff, it plugs it up big time.
A rattle can would be great!

I bought one of those "Cheap" single-action Syphon Bottle airbrushes just for clear coats and I NEVER use my Aztec for them.

Cheers,
Dave

[lufttiger]

Was thinking of doing the same thing, but if i can do a rattle can, that
would save me alot of time.

[Whiterook]

Well I got home from work and headed down to the workbench. I sprayed the scrap piece, and so far so good. It didn't bubble, peel, haze, or alter the paint in any way, other than putting a light gloss on. I'll let it sit overnight and check it tomorrow. If it still looks good, I'll try a little wash on it, and see what that looks like/how it reacts. I'll keep you posted. I didn't think to take before pics of the scrap to show you guys...maybe I'll snap a ppic tomorrow before I do anything further, so you can see what's up. Stay tuned!

[lufttiger]

My guess is, you won't see any problems. I've been mixing Tamiya Acrylics
with Testors paint for years with no problems. Alot of the times i do a
overall spray of tamiya, then paint seperate items with Testors enamels.

Although i have never used the Testors rattle can, i think its going to work.

[Whiterook]

The can I bought is Model Master version of Testor's...splitting hairs, probably, but I was directed away from the Testor's Dullcoat to the Model Master vesion, the hobby shop dude advising it was a bit better. Yeah, I was surprised how well the rattlecan worked. I was able to direct a pretty thin coat onto the scrap piece. I'm sure an airbrush would work better, but I don't want to get into the clogging issues you mentioned.

I just bought an airbrush this weekend (with a 50% off coupon at a local store), so I now need to find a good compressor...I'm looking at the Silentaire Scorpion II, so far as the front runner.