Tamiya TS-13 Clear Miracle clear or demon clear - an experiment

[Microbike]

I started this Porsche 911 GT-1 10 years ago; had a few problems with the build so it got shelved. Along came lockdown and I blew off the dust a decided to use the model for some experiments

I typically build 1/48 Aircraft and 1/12 motorcycles so not really a car buff. I spray all my models with Tamiya TS paints and use the Tamiya TS- 13 clear with very few problems its my favourite clear coat. I do have the Zero 2K clear but I don't use it as the risk to family health and my airbrush is too great. Though I always use a spray booth I find that the Zero clears are just too much of a hazard. I tired it once and the fumes were just really bad and the spry booth did not seem to cope with the fumes (it’s a graphic Air booth so a decent booth. I have never use the Zero clears since then. (family members rebelled as well)

 

Furthermore and this is just my very personal view I am not exactly convinced that the super shiny “wet look”is actually realistic for car models. Tamiya TS-13 does produce a very nice glossy finish and in my mind is a very nice scale gloss finish - but this is only my opinion. I feel that the super "wet look" is not realistic and dare I say a bit of a modelling fad. Anyway for me it just not worth the health risks.

 

I have also noticed that Tamiya TS-13 gets very bad press and is considered a "hot" clear. Since I have only used TS-13 on aircraft and motorcycle kits and not really had any problems with it I decided that this car presented a good opportunity to really test Tamiya TS-13 as it sure has a load of decals. I also wondered if the clear smooth shiny undercoats could explain why the TS-13 seemed to attack decals. Tamiya do on many of their earlier kits (from the late 1980’s era warn that caution is required when over coating with clear as it could “damage the decals”

 

Anyway I compete the Porsche though its far from perfect, I had lost the seat (so I had to sue a spare Ferrari seat, I had lost the clear indicators so my car doesn’t have indicators and I forgot to add the blue Porsche decal to the windscreen – ooops

The Porsche is sprayed with the following paints:

1. One coat of Tamiya white Primer
2. Two light coats of Tamiya TS-26 Pure White
3. One slightly heaver coat of Tamiya TS-26 Pure White to create a gloss base for the decals

 

The decals were added as per the instructions and went on very well, a couple were fragile and cracked but nothing too serious. The decals had yellowed a little so I had to cut away the white background where the numbers are. This idi make the decals very fragile in some places. The car also has a number of smaller decals so a good opportunity to test and see if the TS-13 would eat into any of the decals.

 

After the decals were on I added the following Tamiya TS-13 Clear Coats:

1. Two light cots of TS -13
2. One heavy coat of TS-13 to ensure the gloss layer over the decals. This was a fairly heavy coat but not enough to cause any runs

There was no adverse reaction to any of the decals and the clear cost went on very well without any problems but you be the judge of the outcome

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JeroenS]

That's a nice ride! I've used the TS13 as well, no problems. Good stuff. 

[Spiny]

That looks very nice work, and as you say it has covered well.

 

Unfortunately my experience wasn't quite as good. I did a similar method to you (two mist coats plust two wet coats) when building up Tamiya's Honda S600, and the bonnet badge showed signs of starting to wrinkle. Not badly, and being a car with few decals and all only small I got away with it, but it acted as a warning for me and now if I'm going to be clear-coating decals I stick to Revell's clear as it's less aggressive. If there's not much in the way of decals though I go with Tamiya as it's more robust and gives a better shine out of the can.

[Codger]

My findings are the same as yours and I agree. Also had similar good results with Testors Wet Look Clear, which does produce the higher wet look gloss, but has inferior nozzles to TS-13. But neither attacked decals.

Very nice GT-1, which is a decal monster...

[JCH]

Very fine modeling work, very fine!

[Redstaff]

In my experience, the best rattle can clear coat I have come across is the Mr Super Clear UV cut gloss, but everyone has their own favourite

I use it the same as you have with the 2 light coats and a wet coat and have never had any issues with it affecting the decals and it gives a decent gloss finish. Works a little better if you stand the can in warm water for a few minutes before spraying as well 

When it's properly dry after a few days, it stands up to micromeshing and polishing should the need arise

With the UV cut as well it is supposed to stop the paintwork underneath from fading, but I haven't had any models painted long enough to find out as yet  

 

Ian

[Mike]

That's a lovely looking Porsche, but I couldn't help noticing that the pics were loading slowly.

 

I tested some of the pics, and they were 1.7mb in size, which is huge when posting up on the internet.  You should be aiming to save your files to around 200kb optimally, give or take a bit.  To accomplish this, you can reduce the size of your pics, as anything over the recommended 1024 x 800 maximum we advise, it's wasted bandwidth and storage space useage.  Most people view these pics on phones, tablets and 1080p screens, so huge photos of 4000 x 3000 px will have to be shrunk down by the forum software (load on the server and delay for the user), as well as the extra bandwidth that is uses up (10x what's necessary).

 

The downsides of this from a viewer's point of view is the waiting time before you can view the pics, and some people might get bored and click away.  From the server's point of view, it's wasteful of bandwidth, storage size (we cache images to improve speed), and it's also wasteful of the server's resources, which means a slower experience for all of us.

 

This isn't meant as a "telling off" BTW, more of a bit of useful advice to help you as well as help us.  If you can size your pics to the recommended limits, we'll be really happy, and so will the members

[Andy J]

If you can smell fumes of any kind when spraying your kits then maybe a mask and extractor upgrade are required 🙂

[Microbike]

2 hours ago, Mike said:

If you can size your pics to the recommended limits, we'll be really happy, and so will the members

Thanks Mike will bear that in mind

[Microbike]

2 hours ago, Redstaff said:

if you stand the can in warm water for a few minutes before spraying as well 

Hi Ian 

yes I agree I have also found that the clear sprays better when warm  I don’t use a rattle can I decant the paint and spray through my airbrush but I hold the bottle in my hand for 5-10 minutes Which warms the paint bottle nicely 

[Microbike]

2 hours ago, Redstaff said:

everyone has their own favourite

Hi Ian 

so true I have adapted well to the Tamiya clear paints the TS FLAT Clear is also great and doesn’t attack the decals at all in my experience. I also find that £/ml the TS paint is very cheap considering that it’s £5.99 for 100ml compared to the £1.89 per 10ml for the Tamiya Lacquer paints. The TS paints is sprayed through an airbrush are very economical 

[Microbike]

23 hours ago, JeroenS said:

 

That's a nice ride! I've used the TS13 as well, no problems. Good stuff

 

Thanks for your compliments and I agree I have mostly had good luck with TS13

[Microbike]

23 hours ago, Spiny said:

Unfortunately my experience wasn't quite as good.

Hi Spiny sorry that you had a problem with the decal 

 

Did you use a rattle can or spray through an airbrush? 
 

how long did you wait between the second light coat and the lady wet coat?

 

i once had a problem when TS13 managed to fuse two adjoining colours ie the red and green paint merged - groan it was a disaster - since then I wait a good few weeks after painting to clear coating 

[Microbike]

2 hours ago, Andy J said:

If you can smell fumes of any kind when spraying your kits then maybe a mask and extractor upgrade are required 🙂

Hi Andy

 

i could not smell the fumes through the mask and the spray booth is a Graphic Air booth which I believe to be really good booth however the fumes from preparing the paint etc was clearly smelt in the house and the Minister of Interior banned any further use of the paint - can’t say I blame her though 

[Andy J]

1 minute ago, Microbike said:

Hi Andy

 

i could not smell the fumes through the mask and the spray booth is a Graphic Air booth which I believe to be really good booth however the fumes from preparing the paint etc was clearly smelt in the house and the Minister of Interior banned any further use of the paint - can’t say I blame her though 

So the TS13 doesn't smell then ?

[Microbike]

2 hours ago, Redstaff said:

the best rattle can clear coat I have come across is the Mr Super Clear UV cut gloss,

Hi Ian 

 

I haven’t tried this clear so I think I will give it a try - do you spray it through the rattle can or an airbrush? 

[Microbike]

1 minute ago, Andy J said:

So the TS13 doesn't smell then ?

It’s not as bad a the Zero 2K and is a lot less noticeable as once I have decanted the TS13 Into a bottle there is no further preparation required unlike the preparation and disposal of the Zero 2K Clear which needs preparation every time you use it 

[Redstaff]

7 minutes ago, Microbike said:

Hi Ian 

 

I haven’t tried this clear so I think I will give it a try - do you spray it through the rattle can or an airbrush? 

I spray straight from the rattle can, but you can get it in a bottle as Mr Hobby GX112 if my memory is correct that you can mix 50/50 with Mr Hobby self levelling thinners for the airbrush

I've never tried decanting from the can and spraying through the airbrush, doesn't that get messy?

[Spiny]

51 minutes ago, Microbike said:

Hi Spiny sorry that you had a problem with the decal 

 

Did you use a rattle can or spray through an airbrush? Rattle can, I'm rubbish with the airbrush
 

how long did you wait between the second light coat and the lady wet coat? The lady wet coat sounds interesting It's about 2 years since I did the Honda paint, so can't be 100% about it but I usually leave at least 20 minutes between coats. There would have been at least a week, more likely two weeks between decal and clear coat. However, the bonnet on this didn't go fully according to plan - the clear didn't just react with the decal but also the paint so I had to mask the decal and respray the colour (see pic below).

 

i once had a problem when TS13 managed to fuse two adjoining colours ie the red and green paint merged - groan it was a disaster - since then I wait a good few weeks after painting to clear coating 

 

This is the best picture I could see of it. As I said, it only wrinkled slightly around the edges so nowhere near being a disaster, but it did make me wary of clearcoating decals with TS-13, particularly given the warning on the can. Unusually, in this case the camera makes it look better than real life.

[Microbike]

34 minutes ago, Redstaff said:

've never tried decanting from the can and spraying through the airbrush, doesn't that get messy?

No not really it’s quite easy just put a short plastic straw on the nozzle and it decants very neatly into the bottle, does let off some fumes and then you neeD to degas the paint in the bottle. I use the small Tamiya mini bottles as they fit directly into my Badger 200 airbrush 

 

thanks for the info on Mr Hobby I will give it a try 

[Microbike]

3 minutes ago, Spiny said:

The lady wet coat sounds interesting

Sorry that should have been last wet coat - 

 

two weeks between decals and clear should have been ample to prevent the decal still having moisture under it? 
 

I might be having better luck with TS13 because the airbrush spray a lot less volume and possible there is a difference in the way that the paint atomises and reaches the painted/decal surface? 
 

it would seem that air brushing might be a safe route than say direct painting with the rattle can - can’t be sure though 

 

I sue do have at least two new clears that I will buy and experiment with so appreciate the suggestions  

[Codger]

Micro, since you decant the clears, have you tried adding thinner for a top coat or two? I have read that some lads here like Andy J do that and get wonderful, thin gloss top coats.

[Andy J]

6 minutes ago, Codger said:

Micro, since you decant the clears, have you tried adding thinner for a top coat or two? I have read that some lads here like Andy J do that and get wonderful, thin gloss top coats.

Absolutely right the TS range benefit massively by adding just 10% mr colour leveling thinner. Spray under a good light source and watch the clear landing on the basecoat if you can see ripples or waves move the airbrush further away get it right and it will look as flat as a mill pond and you'll have created perfection 🙂

[Codger]

3 minutes ago, Andy J said:

 Spray under a good light source and watch the clear landing on the basecoat if you can see ripples or waves move the airbrush further away get it right and it will look as flat as a mill pond and you'll have created perfection 🙂

As you ALWAYS do. Thanks for amplifying Andy.

[Microbike]

19 minutes ago, Codger said:

Micro, since you decant the clears, have you tried adding thinner for a top coat or two? I have read that some lads here like Andy J do that and get wonderful, thin gloss top coats.

Hi Codger 

 

yes I add Bennett’s cellulose Thinners about 10-20% to the bottle once it has been decanted. I just squire some in the jar with a pipette and you right it is very thin so have to be careful for runs - I think the thinner might evaporate a bit on route to the plastic so perhaps laying down an even thinner coat of clear this not harming the decals?