After a years long hiatus from model building, I’ve caught the bug again as I finally have some free time. When I built autos (modern sports cars are my thing) before, I would always polish the finished paint with a sanding kit using 3200-12000 grit sheets. I have never clear-coated (gloss) a model.
While I was ‘generally’ satisfied with my finishes, I was never exceptionally pleased. I could‘nt quite achieve that mirror finish that everyone strives for. So now I’m thinking of clear-coating my finished paint. What I’d like to know is:
Is it necessary to polish out the final color coat BEFORE clear-coating? If not, will the color coat still show imperfections under the clear coat?
If the answer to question 1 is NO, then is it necessary to polish out the clear? I would imagine the best finish would be achieved from polishing BOTH. It just seems like that would be a huge amount of work.
Do people generally experience yellowing of the clear in time? Would this be noticeable in darker colors as well as white?
I think the subject may determine whether you want to clear coat or not.
If the model has to have a flat finish, and you applied gloss for decals to sit on, then you need to clearcoat, and often the finish of flat paint doesn’t look too bad, so you may not need to polish.
For a final gloss finish, if you can put down a flawless gloss coat (a real challenge) you may not need to polish. Then, too, with some of the super-fine sandpaper readily available (2000, 3000 grit), sanding becomes an option instead of polishing. Clear gloss goes over a surface sanded with those grits fine.
If I do achieve a good gloss paint job, whether I clearcoat or not again depends on the subject. A heavy clearcoat of gloss gives a really wet look that is out of place on some subjects. Great for show rods, and new cars- out of place on civil aircraft (except maybe racing planes and airshow planes), and on older racing cars and new street machines made before eighties or so. On the models that shouldn’t have the wet look I try very hard to achieve a good gloss paint to start with. That also usually gives a surface that the decals stick well to without sealing.
Thanks for the replies, and the good advice! As you can see, I have some serious orange peel going on here. I’ve started sanding with 2400 and it still doesn’t flatten the paint. Really don’t want to go any coarser as I‘m sure I will sand throught the color coat at some point.
I’m very tempted to try polishing it. I use AutoGlym Super Resin polish on my vehicles, but I’m wondering if I would have issues spraying clear over the polished body.
The main problem you face is wax. Some polishes use wax as a carrier. Wax can bother adhesion of following coats. So be sure the polish you use does not contain wax. Do not use those polish/wax combinations sold for a quick clean and polish on full size cars.
Agreed. I decided to play it safe and just poilsh out the color coat using 24-12000 grit sheets. Followed this with coats of Testors High Gloss Clear. I will need to polish out the clear as well. I wonder if I can get away with just using say, 6-12000 grit sheets followed by the polishing resin, or would the resin be sufficient to take out slight orange peel and dust nibs?
I polished out the clearcoat right up to 12000 grit. Then followed with Meguiar’s Swirl Remover. Still had fine scratches, so went more aggressive with their Compound Power Cleaner, followed by the Cleaner/Polish, then Swirl Remover again.
While the results are pretty good, I wasn’t able to completely restore the deep, rich luster that existed before polishing out the clearcoat. At least the orange peel is gone. It seems there’s the odd spot of hazing that I couldn’t remove. Possibly the Meguiar’s is too hot for the model paints?
