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Clear lacquer advice


Windy37

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Hi . Having completed applying decals to the body of my Aoshima Toyota Celica I then sprayed the body with clear lacquer . However some of the decals have bubbled or even melted as soon as the spray was applied. I used Tamiya TS13 clear and have used this before with know problems. Any advice would be kindly welcome . 

Thanks , Gary.    

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Unfortunately you've been unlucky with these decals or lucky with the others, TS13 is lacqure based and if applied too wet can have that effect on decals.

I tend to use Mr Levelling thinner with either Tamiya X22 or Gunze clears, as it seems more gentil when airbrushed over decals

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I have used Halfords clear lacquer over Tamiya paint and decals before.  It was on the Porsche 934 Vaillant, so lots of decals.

 

i sprayed a light mist coat at first then a couple more with a final heavier coat.

 

no problems at all, it turned out to be my best finish on a model so far, and I haven’t completed a build since but have one in progress and I intend to use the Halfords clear lacquer again in the same way. 

 

So so it’s a vote for Halfords Clear Lacquer - misted, misted, light and then a final slightly wetter coat

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That's the problem with a can, they tend to be either on of off when you spray, very hard to get a light coat by pressing the top, you could try distance, but then you may get gritty clear coat as some of the spray may have dried before it hits the model and spoil the smooth finish your after. You could probably wet sand back between the coats if that happens, but be careful you don't sand to hard around raised detail.

Someone may be along who uses cans to offer some more detailed advice before too long

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Cans are tricky indeed, like you said it's all or nothing. A little more distance, a little faster movement and just 1 or 2 passes will get you a lighter coat. Well, at least that's how I do it. 

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I tend to use the same procedure as Jeroen above, although I often don't increase the distance, but tend to just do one, or at most two, quick passes with the can. With a colour coat, it's quite easy to judge as you don't want to get a complete change of colour with the first mist, but with the clear it's much harder to judge. Until recently, I'd been managing fine with Tamiya, Revell and Humbrol clear coats, but on the current Charger I did overdo the initial coat (my own fault - I couldn't see that the mist coat had gone on so thought I'd do "just one more pass") and got a bit of wrinkling and crazing. This was with Revell clear which is an acrylic clear, so ought to be less hot than the Tamiya, but I still managed to overdo it.

 

Fortunately, once the clear had dried things had improved a lot, so I did a proper couple of mist coats on that, then a wet coat. After that, I wet sanded back to get a smoother finish to the paint, before adding a final wet coat a fortnight later and it's mostly ok, so just because the decal has some initial wrinking all may not be lost. That said, some decals do seem to be more delicate than others.

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As above, I use the Halfords clear, and simply pass it over quickly for a couple of passes.  When I want to wet coat it, its about 3 normal passes (whatever normal is 😋

So a couple of mist coats with a short drying time in between.  After a wet coat, I leave the body shell in the spray booth, turn it off and immediately covert front up.  Then don't peek for a day at least, and then its literally pull back a corner and grin.  (hopefully).  It will remain there for a fortnight before a wet sand and polish.  Others use a box and pop it in the airing cupboard.

 

Best advice would be to practice on a plastic spoon as if it were a model.  You'll soon get a gist for what works for you and you can get 1000 model spoons for about £13, so half the price of 1 model car 😆

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  • 4 weeks later...

I’ve used Halfords rattle can clear without much problem on some die cast refurbs. It does take a bit to get it right, suggest trying on an old model to see how far away etc gives the best finish. I find a light mist, let it flash off then a fuller coat to finish.

Moving onto a couple of 1/24 plastic car kits, have ordered  the appropriate Zero colours but am wondering if anyone has tried Halfords clear over the Zero paint rather than their own 2pack?

All suggestions gratefully received, especially if it works!

Dave

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