Clear Flat Disaster. Help Needed!

I just redid the clear flat using a 60/40 mix of Tamiya gloss clear and flat base, in good light, watching how much was going on and it worked fine! Woohoo!

Glad you like our country Rick. The north of Australia is very different, I would love to live up there one day. Hope you get back here some day.

Matt

Glad you could salvage your models. Mine was the wing root on a 1/48 Spitfire and couldn't be salvaged without re-painting. Another flat you might want to experiment with , if it's availble in Australia, is Polly Scale Acrylic flat. Thats about all I use these days and it works very well for me. PS: I spent several weeks in Sidney & Melbourne a few years back on a work assignment and really enjoyed your Country and it's people. I hope to get back someday as a tourist and explore more of northern Australia.

You're welcome phroosh. One thing I do to get a dullcoat is to mix Tamiya's Flat base with my Future, which in Australia is called Klear, I believe. Mix it 60-40 and it comes out nice and Flat!

Good luck with your models my friend!

Well, I sprayed a acrylic gloss cote (tamiya) over the models and it improved things a bit. Some areas remained quite bad so I actually put a gently wash of raw umber oil paint over the gloss cote, and it took away most of the remaining whiteness. I am quite happy with this as a result, all things considered.

I still need to flat clear them though, and I will do it this week before I get too gunshy!

I will keep what I have been told in mind, and hopefully things will work out better.

And I will do them one at a time. I will learn patience, and ruin my models individually!

Thanks Rick and Duke!

Matt

I haven't used Humbrol Matt cote, but have had a similar experience using Testors Dullcote. Chances are you thinned the paint too much, or sprayed from too far away,so that the paint was drying too fast. Atomized paint tends to bounce around a bit at 90 degree intersections or inside crevasses and if the particles dry in the air they will adhere to the model as the dreaded white grit. You can try the Future, but I doubt it will correct the problem. I had to strip and repaint mine, but now I am very cautious when spraying flat top coats.

Thanks Duke, I will try that and let you know how it turns out.
I might have to try and track down the Aussie equivalent of Future, because I understand it is alittle easier to remove if disaster strikes. Probably smells better too, that stuff today gave me a headache!

Matt

I'm not familiar with Humbrol's Matt Cote, but it almost sounds like you applied too much or sprayed it on too thick. One thing that might work: Try respraying with a glosscote to see if that takes away the white residue. When I mixed too much Flat Base into my Future one time, it caused one of my models to turn white. I thought my model was ruined, and since I felt I had nothing to lose, I reshot it with straight Future to gloss it up again and the white went away. I was able to respray it with a proper mix of Flat Base and Future and it turned out well.

If not, then you'll need to find a way to strip the Matt Cote off and start over. Hopefully the glosscote will help, but again, I'm not that familiar with Humbrol's Matt Cote to be sure that idea would work.

Good luck, and I hope you can recover that model