Future/Pledge wax

First time user of Future, after applying a coat I can’t use Tamiya’s panel wash!!
It just won’t flow in the cracks, Am I to understand that I cannot do panel wash after applying a coat of Future?

Thanks in advance
Have a great day

Not sure what the problem is. I’ve been using future for years as a gloss coat and barrier before applying panel on washes, both with enamels and oils. Allow at least 24 hours for the future to cure before applying any washes. If you happen to have a food dehydrator, that makes a great paint drying accelerator.

Is it possible that you “flooded” the model with too much Future? It is not hard to do that with an airbrush.

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I don’t know much about Future and how to use it on model kits, but yes, you probably filled in the seams you are trying to panel wash.

One of the things I do to help panel washes flow better is I apply a light layer of gloss clearcoat. My preferred clear coat paints are Mr Super Clear from Mr Hobby. Tamiya makes a great clearcoat as well. Spray on a light coat, just enough to get a little shine.

If you leave your surface flat it will absorb the wash. But you might already know this if you are trying to do the wash after Future.

Now I am going to add that I am still trying to figure out why people use Future on their kits. There are so many products out there that are made specifically for clearcoating model kits. Why not use a product designed for kits instead of a product designed for floors?

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Now there’s an idea and a half. I can’t believe I’ve never thought of it.

Availability and cost was the answer for me, when I got back into the hobby a decade or so ago, and had only one local hobby shop, and struggled with airbrushing varnishes of any kind. Pledge/Future sprays effortlessly, dries fast, never causes problems with other finishes, and you could spray a whole hobby shop’s worth of kits with one bottle.

I’ve since graduated to using other clears for various things, but I still use Future for decals and wash barriers a lot of the time. It’s easy and it works.

I agree with the others that there’s something else going on. When I’ve had bad pin/panel wash results after using Future, it’s usually because the paint coat underneath wasn’t smooth enough to allow good flow anyway. Is Tamiya’s panel wash acrylic, or enamel? I’ve found acrylic washes to not flow all that well in general compared to enamel ones.

Could also well be a combo of these factors: shallow panel lines, a “rough” base coat beneath the clear, a slightly sticky acrylic wash?

First off, thanks for all the replieso, I really appreciate all of your inputs. Thing is there’s no Hobby Shop close by. The nearest Hobby Shop is like 30-40 minutes away, even then It’s not stocked that much, but get this I live in Montreal which is a pretty big city with NO HOBBY SHOP!!!. So when I learned that you could use Future floor wax. that was great news.
You’re right in saying that applied a thick cooat, too thick it filled the seams. I’m planning to order some clear through an online store.

What I don’t like is a super glossy finish. I’m leaning towards a pearl finish. Not glossy prob a in-between finish. There’s a lot of clear from different companies, prob. going towards Vallejo, not sure.

Anyways, thanks again for your contribution

Robert
Have a great day

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I have worked my way through a lot of different satin and flat clear coats, trying to find “the one” that looks good and sprays well for me. Seems most modelers do this and we all end up with different conclusions, and a bunch of bottles of stuff that doesn’t work …

Anyway, I’ve had great luck with the Vallejo acrylic polyurethane varnishes, in satin and matte. Sometimes they are sold under the “Mecha” line.

Just make sure to practice on scrap models first, and take notes of the thinner ratio and airbrush PSI that produce the best results.

What an awesome thread! Thanks to everyone for jumping in and helping out Trebor.

I know people like to support their local hobby shops, but ordering online is an option. Amazon has everything. Or you can support hobby shops that are online.

I have played with a number of clearcoat options. There are lots of companies that make great products but I have kind of zeroed in on two brands that are consistently good. They behave well with other kinds of paint. And they are readily available in hobby shops or online.

Mr Hobby Mr Super Clear series and Tamiya TS series of clearcoats.

Mr Hobby Mr Super Clear is availabe in jars that you can thin and apply with an airbrush. Or you can buy them in spray cans. The spray cans work so well that I pay a little more for them and use the spray cans just to avoid cleaning my airbrush. They are that good.

Mr Super Clear has gloss, semi-gloss, and matte options. The semi-gloss starts to lean more towards gloss if you apply it thick enough. And the matte starts to get semi-glossy if you apply it thick enough, so you have to monitor how you use it.

And the Tamiya TS spray cans are also great. Available in gloss, semi-gloss, and matte.

And finally, is you want a clearcoat that will agree with everything you spray it over, you might want to look at 2k clearcoats. These are a 2 part epoxy clearcoat. You can spray them over anything and they just work. And they cure harder than regular laquers and acrylics so they offer better protection.

Because it works, and it’s cheaper by volume than products made by hobby supply companies. Using Future is an old-school technique that goes back to the days when we Boomers were entering our teens and learning new techniques. It’s a clear acrylic liquid, regardless of whether it was produced to use on floors.
However, that’s not to say no one should use a purpose-made product from the hobby suppliers. Everyone should use what he likes, what works best for him.
In this case, I agree with those who have suggested that OP probably laid down too thick a coat of the acrylic, and that’s why the wash isn’t spreading through capillary action. That’s precisely a use for a clear coat, to seal a surface so the next coat won’t bleed into relief areas.
If anyone is interested in using Future (from dwindling existing stocks, of course, since Future is no longer made), it’s like anything else-it takes practice. But for its price and its ease of use, it’s hard to beat.
I have not yet tried the relatively common replacement yet, Quick Shine, because I still have about half a bottle of Future left.
As far as remedying a thick coat of Future goes, you can re-activate the dried clear with a weak ammonia solution, such as Windex with ammonia, or by mixing your own. Depending on the work, it may or not be practical in this case. But if there are drips or pooling, they can be cleaned up by applying the ammonia solution with a brush, and then the excess Future can be wicked away with a piece of paper towel.
I’ll also add that I use Future as a clear gloss sealer on my toy soldiers. I paint them with matte acrylics, the seal them with the clear gloss, to reproduce the look of classic toy soldiers. I do dip clear pieces in it, too, like canopies or windshields, to fill the tiny scratches and other surface imperfections in the clear plastic and improve transparency. I know the real things often were finely scratched or pitted, but in a model, I like it to be clear as possible.
Anyway, that’s why many modelers use it.

Trebor, I meant to swing by earlier and drop a couple of links for you. As you can imagine, over the years, FSM has done a lot of articles about using “Future.” It’s gone by many names, the last of which was Pledge Floor Gloss (we called it PFG for short). Back in 2012, Aaron and I did a video about using it, and it is sadly now lost because of server changes. In any case, we recently did a video about possible replacements for PFG. Click here to see it.

We heard back from many viewers who wanted us to do a deeper look into Quick Shine. So we did what we called “The Quick Shine Tests.” Click here to see that.

I doubt we’ll go back and do another PFG video because it’s no longer made. But a couple of tips: Shoot in thin coats to avoid drips and flooding the surface. Place your model under protection to allow the PFG to cure. You do not want to let dust or hair get into it cuz that’s gonna be stuck or leave a mark. Clean up with Windex and be thorough. If you think you’ve done enough, do it again. We had a PFG seize up an airbrush and it was done for. No matter what we did, we couldn’t ever get it to spray well again.

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