What is the point of a clear coat?

GMorrison

Morrison's Second Law: There's never enough time to do it right, but somehow there's always enough time to do it over.

 

No, it's neither. What was happening was I was using the common "Tamiya Extra Thin Cement" to put several pieces of a Formula One wing together after having airbrushed them and waited a day. These were very finicky parts, and because you have to wait a while for the glue to bond properly, the pieces kept falling apart and I had to keep re-attaching them AND finding a way to keep the shape while the glue dried. All that time touching & stressing with the pieces led to a lot of paint getting scratched off.

Eventually you'll develop your own technique. Once you find a method that works best for you you'll have a better building experience. I too use Tamiya Extra Thin and find that I get a better, stronger bond on bare plastic before primer and paint. I like to paint sub assemblies as a unit then pick out certain parts for detail painting. Everybody has their way and it works for them, this just happens to be mine because it works for me. Have fun with it and Good Luck.

   Ohms, no offense the reaction is on my end. I did not fully understand what exactly you were asking and the responses given are some of the best advise to the question. I have no issue nor do I intend to start anything negative between us, it is all good in my book and I will execersize a little more patients next time. Good luck and enjoy the hobby....it can be really fun

I tend to use the regular Tamiya cement with the orange cap when I'm attaching parts that are already painted, and always scrape the paint away from the mating areas of both parts.  The extra thin can sometimes end up running places you didn't want it to go, and can foul a nicely painted area of your model.  For that reason, I generally only use extra thin when joining unpainted parts like fuselage halves.  I work the joint maybe an inch at a time, holding the parts so there's just a tiny gap between them.  Touch the brush to that area and the cement will flow along the gap.  The tiny gap will keep the cement from evaporating too quickly and will give it time to work on melting the plastic (about 20 seconds).  After 20 seconds, make sure your alignment is still good, and squeeze the joint together so a little bead of melted plastic forms along the edge.  After you're done gluing your parts together with this technique, after 24 hours, you can use a Squadron seam scraper to gently remove that plastic bead and you'll have very little puttying and sanding to do because the two pieces are now one.  I usually just have to touch up a couple of tiny spots by dabbing a tiny bit of super glue on them (usually where the sprue was attached).

armornut

   Ohms, no offense the reaction is on my end. I did not fully understand what exactly you were asking and the responses given are some of the best advise to the question. I have no issue nor do I intend to start anything negative between us, it is all good in my book and I will execersize a little more patients next time. Good luck and enjoy the hobby....it can be really fun

No problem. I'm not easily offended.  I had to defend myself, though, because I don't want to be flagged by the admins or anything like that.

Beyond the internet, the only person I can really speak to is the nearest hobby shop owner (if he's not busy when I'm there), and that's a 130 kilometre drive. 

Thanks to everyone for the responses. Believe me when I say, it's not in vain. I may not try everything, but I always come back to answers for my old questions.

   Well good sir with your situation please feel frre to PM me if your comfortable I will try to help as best as I can. Also I had no idea that your 130klicks from another modeler...dude thats like being on the moon. Good luck on getting to Telford, I'm trying to get to the Nats here in the U. S.  Darn COVID. Hang in there and keep your internet connected.

ohms

....my models are my only point of reference. I have yet to meet someone else since I began the hobby who can show me one of theirs.

I hear that.

I started modeling as a kid, and 5 decades + later I don't recall ever meeting anyone else in person who built a model (as an adult).

That's one of many reasons I value the folks here so much.

It was worse being somewhat serious builder as a kid. No internet, no instant answers from online friends. We had magazines. And I think that's why so many here react as they do when they hear of a favorite magazine going away. Understandably so.

I hope you feel welcome here and continue to participate.

Look up IPMS for a club or chapter in your area.

ohms

 

Pardon my ignorance but what's a goober? I'm getting the definition "goof" on Google. Did you mean you have less chance of making a mistake if you eliminate a process to your model, such as clear coating?

Or is a goober something that's got to do with the airbrushing process? 

 

Goober, blop, snot are acronyms for something blowing into your paint job, be it airborne or from the gun.