Please excuse any ignorance said here, I’m a new modeler and this was my first attempt at airbrushing/wash/clearcoats, etc, etc…
I had finisht my Tamiya Zero in a light grey version. Once I was through airbrushing (enamels) I applyed a good coat of Future. I then applyed my decals using testors decal set. They went on realatively nicely for a newbie. I then sprayed it with another good coat of Future. After waiting a day (there was at least a day between said steps above) I started to apply my wash. I decided to use an acrylic black (don’t think this should have been a problem). I mixed roughly 90% water and 10% color (I don’t think I had too much color). I started brushing along seams and panel lines. It looked ok, the black was going into the recessed lines and such. But some of the lines were so small that there is no way to paint just inside the lines. So I went ahead and lightly brushed over the lines. Several problems occured. One, as the paint dried, the color seemed to accumulated at the sides of the water line outside of the crack. Some stayed in the crack but most or a lot went to the edge of where the water had been brushed. Two, I tried to brush the excess off with water and if I did it to early when the paint was wet, it wiped off the color in the seam. If I waited too long, as I did for most of it, I can’t get the color off, especially where I don’t want it. I’m using just a water dampened napkin. Should I used some chemical? Three, the wash wanted to soak underneath decals when I applied the wash close to them, it ended up staining a good portion underneath several of my decals.
What did I do wrong? I tried to follow other peoples suggestions. I know you live and learn, but I think I just ruined my first model. Thanks for any help.
Well, I just made it worse. Water wouldn’t clean up the acrylic, so I tried laquer thinner. BIG MISTAKE! Even with the Future, it ate through the Future and the underlying paint. I screwed up a few decals too. Arggggggg.
As you found out, never, ever use lacquer thinner as it will cut through anything! [:0]
Did you allow at least 72 hours between the Future and doing this wash?
I am sure Swanny or one of the other experts here on weathering can give you the specific things you should have done.
I only waited 24 hours after the last Future coat. But I had read many places that said that Future dried really fast, even in just a few hours. Swannys weathering page is one of the many I looked at. I forgot to add the two drops of soap, however. Other than that, I did pretty much what his page said. The paint seemed to dry so fast, though, and once it dried, water would not get it off. I scrubed really hard with water. And I only waited a minute or two. If I didn’t wipe it off right away, the paint wouldn’t come off. I must have done something wrong.
How do I add insult to injury? I said, what the heck, and went ahead and sprayed it with a clear matt. Well, it had a horrible reaction with the areas I tried to clean up with laquer thinner and it wrinkled and crackled all over those places, which was the tops of the wings and tail. Unbelievable.
You could just strip the paint of the wings or a wing section and redo them, but I think you will get a better more even result redoing the whole plane.
I guess most of us been there and done it.
You know the top-coat starts bubbling on your contest kit 18hrs before the contest starts and you need to redo 2 weeks in 10hrs.
[;)]
I new to modeling, much less redoing a paint job. How do I strip a paint job? And how do I repaint with all the small stuff on it, like landing gear, etc.?
I hear that brake fluid is great for stripping paint (never actually tried it, though). just leave your model in the stuff and forget about it, and voila! plastic again!
Forget about it too long and you end up with a clumb of plastic from the dungeon or twilight dimension.
[;)]
Brake/hydraulic-fluid works VERY WELL as a paint stripper, but it is strong and WILL warp plastic if not careful as well as loosen putty, etc.
Soaked rag, surgical gloves and toothbrush for me.
I turned 50 Plastic Space Marines into Chaos Marines by soaking them overnight in the stuff.
[banghead][banghead][banghead]
What makes me really mad is that the places that I hadn’t screwed with the laquer thinner look awesome. I can’t believe how the decals blended so well after the matt finish was applied. I can’t hardly tell the difference in the decal and the paint job (Keep in mind this is my first model). I almost wish I wouldn’t have even tried the wash. But I know you never learn unless you try.
Dang, sorry to hear about the misfortune. Not to long ago i sprayed a P51D in my garage, I work nights so I generally spray before I go to work and then move them inside when I get off. Well I forgot about it, I live in arizona and this was in July so needless to say when I finally remembered and went to look at it, well it was melted in more then 1 place. It seems modeling and mishaps go hand in hand.
sorry to hear that. I am also very afraid of washing my models…
I have used ammonia (that kind sold in walmart) to strip acrylic paint. it is very efficient, and I think it is possible to strip partial area if being careful.[:)]
However, I don’t know how it will work on Future coat…(since Future is also acrylic base, it might work as well)
One thing for when you try washing again (if you try it again [;)])-- I see you used just paint and water…but if you mix in a few drops of dishsoap-- it’ll help you get the paint off the areas you don’t want washed much better-- the soap interferes somewhat with the cohesion of the paint- so if you scrub it off lightly, all the recessed areas will keep the paint and it’ll come off everything else…
How do I strip a paint job? And how do I repaint with all the small stuff on it, like landing gear, etc.?