The use of future??

Modeling Subjects Armor
1

I was wondering about future (glosscoats) and could y’all give me a quick rundown on it? I hear it’s good to apply it before oil washes and after applying decals… forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is it and where can I get it? Can it be shot through and airbrush and do i need to thin it first?

Thanks!

2

I have tried it , but really don’t care for it as 2 more layers of paint have to be blasted on to do this ( the future itself , and a flatcoat or 2 to get rid of the gloss) .
I now just pinwash /filter where I want the color to be .
I hate to bury detail under paint .[;)]

3

Check out the tutorial @ http://www.swannysmodels.com/TheCompleteFuture.html. Swanny has a bunch of great tutorials and he is just about the Future guru. It’s used more on aircraft than armor because it is so amazingly glossy, but even on my armor models, I usually hit mine with two coats… One before decals and another before wash. It takes a lot and, I really mean, a LOT of flat coat to make your armor flat again though.

~ Garth

4

Tankergeoff,
I use Future as a quickie glosscoat prior to decals (my Hassie PzIV was the latest project to benefit from this treatment). I don’t airbrush it on because it 's not really necessary. Future has a tendency to “self-level” itself out nicely into a nice, flat coating (assuming you’ve left the model to dry fairly level). The nicest thing about it is it can be applied with a q-tip and is dry and ready for decals in about an hour or two. I do the microscale thang with the decals then follow up with a final coat of q-tip applied Future to seal it all up. Dullcoat everything at the end, of course.
I agree about the Swanny site. Excellent info.

Oh, and I’ve never felt the need for a barrier coat of clear between acrylics and an oil wash. Just gotta be careful not to scrub too hard when removing the unwanted wash…

AND a bottle of the stuff will last forever! [:)]

Dennis

5

[#ditto] on reading the Swannys site article.

My primary use for future is sealing decals. If the paint I use is really flat then I use it to prepare for decals also.

Source: grocery store in the cleaning section
thinner: 70% IPA if you want - I use it straight from the bottle
brush on: If you just want to prepare a small area for a decal
airbrush: high pressure (20psi) from a least 12in away creates a nice thin even coat for me. What are other peoples settings for airbrushing the stuff?
cleanup: squirt some windex (ammonia) through and cleans it right up.

You can go on and on about wingy thingy canopies but this is the armor forum [:p]

6

I put it on straight out of the bottle with a brush before I put on decals. One thing to look out for with this method- if you get it on too thick, there will be a demarcation line where the future stops. To avoid this, I generally will paint the entire panel with furture up to the panel lines. After the decals are on, a couple coats of flat does the trick. The brush cleans right up with windex. As for airbrushing, I did this once and got an “orange peel” finish, so I never tried again. I am sure it was me doing something wrong and being to lazy to figure out what

7

Wow, over on the aircraft side this one would have gotten blasted for being an old topic and why don’t you search? I replied over there and expet some shrapnel my way any minute. Anyway, I use it all the time now on aircraft and armor. I paint primary colors, then seal with 2 coats of future, usually sprayed on but sometimes for no good reason, brushed. I then do my weathering with my mix of flat black acrylic, water and dishsoap. The future seal allows me to get the black into all the crevices and then simply wipe it off with a damp cue tip from the places I don’t want weathered. I then add decals, actually before the weathering step to make them blend in. The future allows the decals to sit wonderfully. Then, I add a coat of MM dullcote and wallah, done. Put that sucker in an acrylic case, put on my desk at work and wait for the compliments.

8

Shame people feel the need to complain about stuff like that. I prefer the “if it annoys you, ignore it” approach

9

HI,

Here is the straight goods on future in summary:

  1. 2 coats over flat before decals and one coat after.
  2. If you future entire model before washing with oil base wash, the wash will flow better and it is easier to wipe of where you put too much on. Use a q-tip with a little paint thinner to get the “extra” off. I have found that washing over a flat surface makes it too hard to get the wash off flat surfaces that you didn’t want to wash. It also changes the colour more than I want.
    3)Future mixed 4:1 with tamiya dull base makes an excellent flat clear coat. Cheap and easy.
  3. Pastel weathering over the finished flat clear coat makes an excellent finish and further dulls down the colours.
  4. Airbrushing future straight out of the bottle works fine. Try 15-20 psi and it will work perfect
  5. Future even smells nice!!

Good luck