LOL… I’ve rarely been able to get the spiral decals to lay out properly… I just learned to cut my Tamiya tape to the desired width and mask! The last time I tried a decal, it took me about 30 min to find the prop assy ! (LOL)
Came close to that this morning Doug! I made it through ok. Just seems like it takes a lot of decal set to get it positioned right and then a lot of Microsol to get it to lay down right.
**Greg:**That’s not a problem on the advice. That’s part of why we are all here!
I’m fairly happy with the Aqua Gloss. It needs no thinning so I just pour it right outa the bottle into the airbrush. It dries fast and can have tip dry issues, so have a cotton swab handy. I’ve learned if the flow starts to diminish, don’t push it by opening up the airflow all the way, as you’ll just get dried boogers sprayed on to the model. Quit right away and wipe off the tip, and continue on spraying. If it seems to orange peel, don’t worry. Just walk away when you’re done and it seems to level out as it dries.
Thanks for the dry tip warning, Nathan. I’ll be prepared for that then.
Alclad Aqua Gloss? I never heard of that. I am using Alclad’s “Clear Kote” though. It comes in “Flat”, “Light Sheen” and “Gloss”. It is acrylic based, so maybe we are talking about the same clear coat with different names? I can only recommend that stuff. It is the best clear coat I know of…
Aqua Gloss is Acrylic, water/glycol based and Alclad’s clear Kote line is an enamel, aka Mineral spirits. They are different, but I’ll agree both lines are great. I just don’t use the clear Kote cause oil washes will ruin it cause they are both Mineral based Enamels.
They are enamel based? That’s odd. I use Revell “Aqua Color Clean” (strong acrylic thinner) to clean my AB after spraying them and it works perfectly. I can remove the clear coat from my models with Gunze acrylic thinner as well (I tried different solvents in combination for a whitewash project). I always thought it was acrylic paint because of said characteristics. I’m kinda confused right now…
Here’s a link to the whitewash project:
cs.finescale.com/…/147648.aspx
Just scroll down to the middle of the page…
I tried using different acrylic thinners to remove Vallejo paint without damaging the clear coat underneath. Every solvent dissolved the clear coat except Vallejo’s AB thinner (that one is a really mild solvent)…
Just now leaving home from lunch and applied a 7th coat of Microsol! I think that got 'er there. I’ll post pics of the spinner when its all weathered.
Clemens, on the bottle of Alcad Clear Kote it says “contains mineral spirits”. I’m not surprised that other thinners can dissovle it though. I just know I’m not a chemist.
Joe is that spiral an Eagle Cals decal, or Tamiya from the kit?
It’s Eagle alright but its a long spiral. The shorter ones don’t do this stuff as bad. My A8 did it but I worked it out quicker because the spiral wasn’t as long.
Now that’s really wierd. I can’t find anything regarding mineral spirits on my bottles of clear coat. I’m either blind or too dumb to find it… Or it just isn’t there…
Hmmm, I’ll look when I get home as I do have 1 bottle of Clear Kote Gloss.
I think I got it. It says something about the mineral spirits on the gloss coat bottle, but I was only looking at the flat one, which seems to not be labeled the same…
If the clear coat is petroleum based, I’d think you would be able to smell it?
Alclad definitely has two similarly named products, just as Nathan said. Saw them both in person at my LHS today.
Clemens, the Aqua Kleer is milky white in the bottle. I failed to notice today if the other product is, though.
Here we go. Nose is almost done but I do have that pic of the spinner that Nathan asked for and then the nose section. Nose module is almost complete! Now …on to the prop…after a coat of flat!
Sweet. Nice work. Decal looks like it finally behaved.
Thanks Nathan! Yeah it finally snugged down the way its supposed to. I’ll be painting the prop tonight and applying a dull coat to the pieces shown above.
Joe: It looks gorgeous! Really nice work. I think your Micr-Sol frenzy worked out as planned. The decal looks like it was painted on! Do I spot a piece of an Devastator canopy in the background?
Greg: My gloss clear coat looks like water, but the semi-gloss and the flat one are a bit milky… Joe showed us his spiral, now it’s your turn!
Thanks Clemens. Nope on the Devastator. Thats a Dauntless canopy for your group build there buddy!
Spiral looks great Joe, laid down nicely in the end!