TIE Fighter in progress

ohbejuan said:

try it on a cheaper "weekend" build.

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Definitely. I used it to seal plaster, then in wood, Vallejo acrylics, and light Tamiya enamels for weathering with no issue. But it may react differently to other paints.

Marktastrophe said:

Definitely. I used it to seal plaster, then in wood, Vallejo acrylics, and light Tamiya enamels for weathering with no issue. But it may react differently to other paints.

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this is good info. I am almost entirely Vallejo acrylic

I live in Japan where the use of lacquer paints for modeling is pretty standard. Thus, I've become rather comfortable with them and use them primarily. Since you'd already used future, you could have used Tamiya clear acrylic semigloss over your surface.

The problem is with Tamiya gloss paints, clear or otherwise. They do not harden as strongly as Future does. Upon handling the parts, you can easily cook your fingerprints into the surface, requiring polishing. I enjoy doing car model kits, but for the life of me I cannot imagine how anyone can build anything with gloss Tamiya acrylics. The newly formulated Mr. Hobby Aqueous acrylic paints that came out in 2019 or so, on the other hand, are rather resilient. You can even put box tape on its gloss surface and it won't mess it up. Using Tamiya masking tape on Tamiya gloss acrylic paints will ruin the surface.

I have only be doing this for a couple of years, and Tamiya spray lacquers have been nothing but trouble for me. In this example, it was Tamiya clear gloss or Future. I have some Vallejo varnishes I am going to try. I also don't have an air brush, so it is either rattle cans or brush.

ohbejuan said:

I have some Vallejo varnishes I am going to try. I also don't have an air brush, so it is either rattle cans or brush.

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I do like the Vallejo Varnishes, the reason I tried ModgePodge is because I had a deadline and the Varnish turned straight to gum in my AB (not sure if there was some left over cleaner in there or what). And I'll be honest.. I would categorize my application of that ModgePodge as abusive in a couple of spots...

For reference I have the project I used it on here, it was semi-gloss that I used. I used a gloss Vallejo Varnish on the colorshift piece, then ModgePodge Acrylic rattle can spray over everything, lol.
Anything that looks gloss was just soaked in semi gloss ModgePodge. Sometimes we move fast and break stuff... sometimes we move fast and gain new tools

I poured epoxy water down the middle, but the wet looking muddy sides is just plaster, ModgePodge, Vallejo browns and blacks, some Vallejo green and umber shades, some GamesWorkshop drybrushing and disgusting amounts of ModgePodge to get the gloss to build.

Only enamels used in this were Tamiya Weather Master" and the ModgePodge went over that with no issue as well.

I'll give it a go on a clean build one of these days. (sorry for the heavy pics, not trying to steal the sub, just trying to add support to my wild craft store supply claims )

ohbejuan said:

I have only be doing this for a couple of years, and Tamiya spray lacquers have been nothing but trouble for me. In this example, it was Tamiya clear gloss or Future. I have some Vallejo varnishes I am going to try. I also don't have an air brush, so it is either rattle cans or brush.

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I know how you feel as I've been in the same situation. I sold my airbrush before moving to Japan 10 years ago. I have a drawer full of rattle cans I never used because I was accumulating them during the period before I bought another airbrush. I could have just used that money on saving up for an airbrush instead.

Tamiya has released most of their lacquers in glass bottles for their LP line, fortunately. I don't think they've released their Bare Metal Silver in a bottle though, which is unfortunate since this is a perfect color for many WWII subjects like Mustangs.

Mr. Hobby's Top Coat is an acrylic spray can you could have used. Since you had applied a coat of Future, I assumed you had an airbrush. I guess you must have just hand-brushed it on.