I painted a car body with Tamiya’s gloss Brillant Blue out of a spray can. Waited 24 hours and decaled it with DMC decals($12 a sheet! UGH!). I used Microset and Model Masters Decal solvent. I tried Microsol first but it badly krinkled the first decals and I had to buy a second set. I waited 24 hours and wiped down the body with water and a paper towel to remove any cloudy residue from the decal solutions. Dried everything and shot a coat of straight Future from my Iwata Revolution. What a mess! It was fish eyeing, almost beading up in places. I almost had a panic attack. I dropped the wet body into an ultra sonic filled with windex and turned it on. That saved the decals and paint. With in 2 minutes the Future was off and I rensed the body off with water. I am now ready to try it again. Can someone tell me what went wrong? Any suggestions to prevent it from happening again? Thanks, Greg.
I’ve never had that problem with Future, and sure hope not to! I have a car body waiting for decals and Future, using that same paint and color.
My only guess is that somehow there was still water on the body affecting the Future. Either that, or the rattle can paint wasn’t fully mixed and is causing the fish eye.
I would try painting a piece of scrap with the same paint and testing before proceeding.
Sounds to me like you’re getting water in the air line. I use two water traps, one at the compressor & one in the air line to avoid the problem, especially in more humid weather conditions.
Regards, Rick
Fish eye and beading are almost always a surface contamination problem. In this case, the source of the “contamination” may well have been the Tamiya gloss Brilliant Blue from the rattle can. High gloss enamels often contain a small amount of silicone additive that migrates to the surface during the final stages of cure. It makes the surface very shiny, and nearly impervious to any water based solvent—or even other enamel paints. I strongly suspect this is the problem, since both Tamiya and Gunze have had similar problems reported in the past.
The cure is simple: either sand the surface with very fine grit (2000+, or the paint polishing kits you car guys use to produce a “candy apple” finish); or wipe the surface thoroughly with 90% isopropyl alcohol, denatured alcohol, or ethyl alcohol. If you use the alcohol wipe method, test the alcohol on a spare decal from the same sheet to insure that it will not adversely affect the ones you’ve put on the model.
I use CO2 so it is not a case of spitting. I will try the alcohol prep. What does it do, remove the silicon traces? A couple of guys at the LHS said to go to the auto parts house and get some Duo spray touch up paint-clear coat. Would Future still be a better choice? Thanks, Greg.
Well, Future is a great inexpensive alternative, but it’s not the be-all end-all solution we like to think it is (sacrilage, I know!). I have to admit, most of my car bodies are sprayed with Tamiya or Testors rattle can and end up “glossy enough” out of the can.
I need to protect the decals. The body will be used for slot racing.
Well, you said you wiped it down with water. That probably wasn’t enough to get it clean. Just add a little dish detergent to your water and wash and rinse the body. I understand some dish detergents contain silicon, I don’t have any problems with Dawn(original).
But, for a slot car body I’d use a regular clear coat. Like Tamiya? If you go with Duplicolor then test it first.
Tony
From experience I can tell you water will NOT cause fisheye from future. The problem probably stems from the decal setting solution you used. My method is to spray a coat or two of future of a lightly sanded body then apply decals and setting solution. This usually fogs the future really bad, and it since it kind of eats in a little bit it really helps to set the decals onto the surface. I then wash it with a VERY mild detergant solution. Like maybe 3 cups of water and one drop of dish soap, to wipe it down and then a really good rinsing under nice warm water. Which also tends to help fog the future even more. Then a few more coats of future and the fogging clears right up, and from there I usually use the lower grits of a polishing kit, like 4500-8000 grit, and then I hit it with some color back auto wax, which makes it shine like a show car, and this also makes the clear film of the decals dissappear. Check out the last picture in my flocking tutorial to see a pic of a body I used this method on. Almost the whole body was fogged out until I put the final coats of future on. The decals look like they are painted on, except for if you get up real close sometimes with a magnifying glass and you see the tiny dots that makes up the decal color, if that is how it’s printed.
What Ross said.
If the surface is to slick via some sort of gloss agent sometimes material will bead on it. Think car wax. Water beads on it much like Future is beading on your car paint and for the same reasons. Sand it like Ross mentioned. Or, strange as it may sound, apply a light flat coat then Future it.
Alcohols are good general purpose solvents for removing silicones or other oil-like things from the surface. Surfactant cleaners work well, too. But be careful, some will affect paint and decals.
The saga continues. I wiped the body with alcohol and let it sit 30 minutes. I tried a coat of Duplicoat Acrylic Laquer clear and it was beautilul! I let it sit and applied a second coat and wa-la! Leather texture and slightly krinkled decals. I am now going to soak it in brake fluid and repeat the process minus the Duplicolor. Did I mention it will be the third set of $12 decals? Who said it was cheaper to get the unpainted body? I will spray the blue, lightly sand, future, decal, future, polish, wax. [sigh]