When DullCote goes bad....
Dullcote, in the small spray cans, has been used for some time without adverse effect and without complaint. On the contrary, it has worked very well, thank you. It has been used to take the shine from model trains, specifically, HO German freight cars.
It usually worked fine with two coats, applied evenly, spaced three hours apart, outside in the shade where the average temperature and humidity are 75 and 50% respectively. The HO cars were then left in the direct sun to dry thoroughly. The cans are shaken for more than five minutes before application and the recommended distance was maintained.
September 2004 twelve cans of DullCote were obtained at the same hobby shop. At least two of the first four cans used produced a semi-gloss finish that refused to dull despite repeated applications. The remaining eight cans all worked as designed. Alas, 31 freight cars received the rotten Dull Cote.
After registering a call for help the engineering team at Testors became involved. Unfortunately, they were stumped with the problem and were unable to rectify the semi-gloss finish on the 31 cars despite weeks of tests with freight cars from the disastrous batch.
In lieu of coming up with anything substantial they did send three cans of an “enamel DullCote” for testing purposes along with a returned freight car that had been sent to them for testing purposes. The car that returned from Testors Engineering looked like it had been repeatedly sprayed/abused at a cheap auto-repainting franchise with a semi-clogged spray gun... all the detail was lost behind rounded hills of thick paint.
The 31-minus-1 cars have been relegated to the “heavily weathered” group of freight cars after hours and hours of rubbing... alcohol washes with India ink... etc. Strangely, they still have, beneath all that weathering, a semi-gloss finish that is all too apparent.
If you have ever come across a bad batch of DullCote what have you done to rectify the problem? If you have not experienced this failure, be certain to test each can/jar before offering your completed treasure(s) to the chancy Gods of DullCote spray.
Clinton (still fuming)