I’m new getting back into the hobby of model aircraft and would enjoy any advice of a problem I’ve encountered. I painted a model with Testors Model Master paints and it came out fine. I then used Pledge Future floor polish to create a gloss coat prior to enhancing panel lines with mixture called “sludge” as suggested by Paul Boyer using 5 parts water (DI), 3 parts soap (Ivory dish soap), and 2 parts paint (Polly Scale). First off, my Future finish had noticable orange peel finish. I let it dry for 3+ days and then applied the sludge mixture and let it dry over 5 days. Upon trying to remove the excess using dry Q-tips, the mixture would not come off. I then used plane water and it only removed the heavy excess but left stains that required the use of Windex to remove with aggressive rubbing. Upon drying, I noticed that all the panel lines had a dull finish vs. the remaining panel that was glossy as if the sludge had etched into the future floor finish. Can anyone recommmend how to correct the orange peel finish with Pledge and why did the sludge mixture attach so aggressively?
Not sure but 5 days seems an awfully long time to wait to clean up the sludge. Perhaps that made it hard to get off. As far as the clear coat orange peel I don’t know.
I usually wait till the next day or if I applied the sludge in the morning I might start working on it that evening. Wait too long and it will act the way you described. With the future I usually will spray a squirt or 2 in the jar (I use a Badger 200siphen airbrush for my Future). I’ll spray at about 40psi and give the model a light dusting (more like fogging it) and let it dry a bit. Then I will spray more light coats and let things dry over night. If I need more gloss I’ll repeat the process. Sorry I cant be more exact for you but this is what I’ve found to work best for me and go mostly by feel.
I find Testors glosscoat a quick and effective way to seal a surface before applying a wash. I don’t do much acrylic work, but I did try it one time and it worked okay. Certainly works well on enamels.
I like a little different coat for sealing before a wash, assuming a seal coat is needed. But I don’t know if it will be around much longer, my present bottle may be the end of the line, it’s the Model Master Metalizer clear coat. It’s very thin and just a couple of dust coats is sufficient so you don’t get a big build up. I believe it’s lacquer, smells like it. Hah, the Testors gloss coat might be the same stuff.