My boss isn’t looking so I thought I’d post this topic. Ha-ha-ha! Shhhhhh…
I was sitting here doing my drafting duties when a rare thought popped into my head. Does anyone out there make a gloss olive drab or can you only get it in flat?
Just a thought.
Eric
I’ve only ever seen it in flat, but that doesn’t mean someone hasn’t made one. I’d personally just spray it on flat then Future it up glossy. I like painting with flats much better than I do gloss.
i’m with Josh!! with future, you can make any paint glossy. later.
Recently I was using Model Master flat Olive Drab enamel paint and found that if I thinned with a 30% ratio it becomes a nice semi gloss tone……if I reduce the thinner ratio to 20% I get the normal flat expected for that paint….same situation happened with RLM 70 and RLM 71 at 30% both of them come out with a semi gloss finish…I don’t know if this happened to anyone or it is just me doing something wrong??[%-)]
feli250,
You’re probably onto something. About two years ago I was airbrushing some OD onto a P-47. I must have had the mixture “just so” and when I airbrushed it on, it was so silky smooth! I couldn’t believe it! It was great because it wasn’t dead flat and yet it wasn’t glossy. I decided to gamble and I applied my decals right over it without any type of prep work. They didn’t silver or anything like that! That has only happened to me once. What a wonderful day that was. Ha-ha-ha! I’ve never been able to recreate that effect. Perhaps it was due to my mixture ratio.
The reason I asked about the gloss OD is because I was reading FSM’s review about the Roden OV-1A Mohawk. I thought the author mentioned something about an Xtracolor brand of OD. X28 gloss enamel I think he mentioned. I just thought it would be neat to have a gloss OD plane to apply decals to as well as washes, THEN apply a flat overcoat.
Eric
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but what the heck, another time won’t hurt.
Flat paint 101…
Flat paint is flat because of additives in the paint - similar to talcum powder - that give the finished surface a “texture” that breaks up light waves and gives it a matte surface. As you dilute flat paint with thinners, you are proportionally reducing the amount of this texturing agent in the paint. As you add more and more thinner the paint will go from flat, to satin, to semi-gloss. It will rarely, if ever get to true gloss.
Additionally, because flat paints rely on the texturing agent for a matte appearance, it is doubly important to ensure that the paint is 100% mixed before thinning or spraying full strength. Flat paint that is not thoroughly mixed will dry with a satin or semi-gloss finish.
Enjoy your modeling…
Thanks Robert!
Gotta love folks who can break it down technically for ya!! great post Robert!![;)][tup] what about this, why does unthinned flat paint go to super glossy tone when you hand brush them? i’m speaking of a few experiences with MM OD and MM flat black especially?
Just a guess…
but maybe the material that gives it texture has a tendancy to stick to the bristles, yet the liquid flows off the brush…less textured…textureless…de texturfied.[;)]
I know what you mean about posting when the boss isn’t looking [:D]
XtraColor do a gloss OD and faded OD. These paints are very good and are all gloss and come up beautifully with a coat of Polly Scale clear flat.
Cheers
Darren
had the same thing happen with those two colors Chris… really wierd but I didn’t care cuz I planned a coat of dull at the end anyway… still puzzing all the same…
I use MM enamels exclusively and haven’t run into this situation myself. I’ve brushed both colors many times and they’re always flat. My only guess would be that any flat brushed in a thick coat could dry unevenly (top to bottom). It’s possible, I suppose, for the texturing agent to actually settle away from the surface in the brushed on paint and leave a semi-gloss appearance. As I said, this is only a shot in the dark guess since I’ve never seen it myself.
Enjoy your modeling…
Maybe I’ve missed something, but any of the RLM paints in the Model Master Enamels line I’ve used have been semi-gloss whether thinned or used directly out of the bottle. In fact they are all listed as sem-gloss on the bottle. Just like the Japanese colors are all gloss.
I have purchased spray cans of OD in the PX in both flat and gloss. They stock two different colors of OD - one that is a standard OD and one which is a very dark (almost black) OD. The supply system could get you OD in regular paint cans or spray cans in both flat and gloss. The amazing thing was the variance in the colors and/or tones of paints with the same stock number caused by being from different batches or different manufacturers. And an enamel OD will rarely match a laquer OD. But they are all supposed to match the same 595 color.
They all do match, in a vague sort of way [:)]
That is exactly why I’ve never been terribly particular on colors. There is that sometimes large variance, and then what the sun and various elements do to the paints after that. Close is close enough for me, who’s to say that you didn’t hit the color exactly right?
Mine was with MM acrylics, one MM enamel did that tho… and it wasnt thick… in fact this was a 2 coat job to cover… I dunno, I just chalk it up to mojo… like I said it’s no big deal because I am either going flat, which will be shot over with a coat of flat in the end… or gloss and I’m already there…
(easy to please I guess)
Eric;
Gunze Sangyo makes OD in semi-gloss or gloss. I have some that I got from Squadron.
Steve