I am working on an F1 car and getting ready to paint the body. I’ve seen some spectacular mirror finishes on car models.
Just carefully paint application or can they be polished and waxed? I am using Tamiya rattle can paint for plastic. It smell like a lacquer. Dry pretty fast and hard.
I learned by practicing Alex Kustov’s method: http://www.italianhorses.net/Tutorials/PerfectPaint/paint.htm
Tamiya can be polished and is a tough, forgiving finish. Personally I like to put a clear coat over it, but the color coats polish out just as well as the clear.
Jon, thanks for the link, very informative, I’ll have to try it.
Marc, onto F1 cars now? Now you have to add a spoiler to on your plane/tank. Funny thing is that I’m finishing up a on car too, a 20 year old kit of the first new car that I bought. And was wondering how to get it really shinny, I already screwed up the paint job twice.
Jon thanks.Great tutorial. I got the paint down and it looks really great. Picking up the compound and wax today.
Hey Waikong… yup cars too.[:D]
I use Finishers Urethane Top-coat, works well as it is the same stuff used for real cars.
Hey Marc,
Don’t start polishing/waxing until you’ve got the last of the paint/clear coats down. The wax may repel paint and cause undesirable side-effects.
Polishing should be the absolute last step unless you have a polish that you know contains NO wax. If there is any wax on a surface you cannot do any repainting or touching up. Many polishes do contain wax.
I was wondering about using pumice as a polish. I remember a woodshop class in grade school where we used pumice to polish a varnished piece of wood. We used oil with the pumice, which is also not good to paint over, but at least it is easier to remove oil from a surface than wax. But, I wonder if water would work with the pumice. Do hardware stores still sell pumice?
I know many friends who use lacquer on model race cars- I have used it occasionally. It polishes out very nicely. I mean the real lacquer, not acrylic lacquer. Doesn’t go down as glossy as some model paints but sure polishes nicely. Used to be common in real car auto parts and paints stores, getting harder to find.
Thanks for all the info guys. I wasn’t;t going to do any buffing or waxing until the very last coat of clear goes down. The racing green I have down is darn near perfect so I am moving on to the stripe. Then some decals and clear coats. I will leave it alone for a while to really cure well before polish/wax.