Hi all,
I’m about to spray a couple of light coats of Future (which is the way I understand it should be done) on my 1/72 Phantom kit in preparation for putting decals on it.
Here’s my question. I have already dipped my canopy in Future, let it dry, masked it, painted it, and then dipped it again in Future. The canopy is on the model, and I’m wondering if I should mask it when I spray the rest of the model.
Is it possible to put too many coats of Future on a model?
Regards,
-Drew
I imagine that you could fill the detail at some point but for practical purposes two or three coats should do the job. Don’t get too far away or too light - you want enough on the model to get some cohesion going and get it to level out. Did you read “The Complete Future” on my site yet?
There’s no such thing as too much future.
And actually, I don’t reccomend airbrushing it, as this tends to produce runs and clog the airbrush(also, it’s a waste of Future!).
I reccomend handbrushing it on, so that you can use as much(or little) as you want, and so you don’t go over the same spot twice!(also, it’s much harder to miss a spot when you handbrush!)
Hi Swanny,
Yup, I’ve read “The Complete Future” and even printed it out for …um… “future” reference. 
Tenchi,
It seems that a lot of people are pretty happy air-brushing Future. Did you have a bad experience with that technique?
Regards,
-Drew
yep. Borrowed a friend’s airbrush(I still don’t have one of my own), and just didn’t like the “feel” of spraying the future. It just didn’t feel right, I geuss I have gotten too used to handbrushing! Also, the airbrush did a poor job of spraying future into crevices and corners.
Maybe I was holding the airbrush too far away? I don’t know. I handbrush mostly, it gives me more control of where the paint is going.
If, however, you have a Paasche H, piston powered compressor, water trap, and set of airbrush needles and tips that you simply HAVE to give away for free, call me first!
Luftbery,
I just did this as an experiment on a Hasegawa Shinden that will be hanging from the ceiling, so a little haze or craze on the canopy wouldn’t matter.
I left off the canopy masks while I sprayed the entire model with future as a prep for decals. I applied three coats of future. At first the canopy looked all mottled and hazy, much like future tends to do when first layed down on a painted surface. But after the three coats, 24 hours apart, and two days of drying the future cleared up on the canopy. But it was not as shiny as a dipped canopy, it was however not hazy.
The final verdict, I would, in the future, mask canopies before applying Future on the model. But it doesn’t ruin the canopy to spray Future on as you spray the entire model.
Thanks. It looks like I’ll be doing a bit of masking. I dipped the canopy and got it to the point where I’m very happy with it. I don’t want to mess it up.
Regards,
-Drew
Sounds like you had the air pressure too low to atomize properly.
Mike
Lufbery,
here is the sequence i use for canopy.
0) give the canopy a Future dip
i suppose there are some schemes this won’t work for, but it has done ok for me so far.
ed.