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Weathering Sealant?

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  • Member since
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  • From: Spokane, WA
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Weathering Sealant?
Posted by K Davis on Sunday, November 17, 2019 6:16 PM

I having been weathering my Walthers mining tipple with artists pastels and was wondering what would make a good cheap sealant? I was considering hair spray... thoughts?

Tags: Weathering

Keith

Santa Fe, all the way!

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Posted by wvg_ca on Sunday, November 17, 2019 7:41 PM

probably i would use dullcoat [ or similar] ... it -can- attenuate some weathering, especially when applied heavily

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Posted by mbinsewi on Sunday, November 17, 2019 8:41 PM

My thought, if it's a freight car or a locomotive your actually going to be handling, I would use DulCoat, but if it's a structure that I 'm not handling, I wouldn't worry about sealing it.

 

Weather to your liking, and leave it sit.

Mike.

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Posted by doctorwayne on Sunday, November 17, 2019 11:42 PM

I agree with Mike, although even when I use pastels for weathering freight cars, which get handled regularly, I don't bother to seal them, nor to I apply Dullcote over brushed or airbrushed weathering, as it makes it too uniform in appearance for my tastes.

Wayne

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Monday, November 18, 2019 5:51 AM

K Davis
I having been weathering my Walthers mining tipple with artists pastels and was wondering what would make a good cheap sealant?

.

I have tried many alternates, Krylon Matte, Artist's Sealers, Hair Spray, etc.

.

Nothing works as well as good old Testors #1260 Dullcoat. There really is no substitute.

.

-Kevin

.

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Posted by K Davis on Monday, November 18, 2019 9:02 AM

Thanks for the suggestions!

Keith

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Posted by dknelson on Monday, November 18, 2019 10:18 AM

Hair spray tends to create globules of stuff when sprayed on plastic and I'd shy away from it.  Artists themselves who use chalks and pastels use artist's fixitive, which comes in a spray can.  But remember that artists are usually working with an absorbant surface such as paper or canvas while we are mostly working with non absorbant plastic.  Shake the can VERY thoroughly of fixitive if you use it.

Testors Dullcoat (and it remains to be seen if Dullcoat will survive the recent decision by RustOleum to discontinue many of the "hobby" lines of Testors paint) can be tricky stuff.  I had the problem many others have had that my carefully weathered surfaces would seemingly be wiped nearly clean by spraying on DullCoat!  Well DANG! Angry It wasn't until I read an article by a good modeler, I think named John Faraca, that the trick is to spray the surface with Dullcoat FIRST -- then apply the powders and pastels etc - and then seal with Dullcoat again.  That first application of Dullcoat is to give some surface "tooth" base for the powders and pastels to adhere to. Bare plastic even if painted is smooth and gives little or no such surface - which is why the weathering seems to disappear.  (With one bizarre exception: somehow fingerprints retain the weathering otherwise wiped clean by Dullcoating - which is why latex or nitrile gloves are part of the process.)

It can be a repetitive process: Dullcoat / weather / Dullcoat / weather again/ still more Dullcoat.  That is why for structures may folks follow Wayne's advice: weather it and then don't touch it.  Easier to do with structures than with rolling stock.

Dave Nelson

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Monday, November 18, 2019 1:36 PM

dknelson
I had the problem many others have had that my carefully weathered surfaces would seemingly be wiped nearly clean by spraying on DullCoat!

.

I had problems using different scraped pastels for weathering where Testor's #1260 Dullcoat would remove the weathering.

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When I switched to Monroe Powdered Weathering Pigments, I have had much fewer problems like this.

.

-Kevin

.

Living the dream.

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Posted by K Davis on Monday, November 18, 2019 1:43 PM

Good to know, I think I will leave my building unsealed...

Keith

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Tuesday, November 19, 2019 11:17 AM

Since my LHS closed, and the next nearest one is further away, I found that Krylon flat clear spray is an acceptable substitute.  It comes in a bigger can, too.

Original Dullcoat was better than the same product bought recently, I found.

I do seal any weathering powders I put on, rolling stock, engines and structures.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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Posted by BATMAN on Tuesday, November 19, 2019 5:37 PM

My general rule of thumb is I hit it with Dullcoat before powders and maybe yes or no after depending on what it is. If the subject will be handled a lot then yes. 

I just did my turntable bridge and pit and did not use Dullcoat afterwards as it will not be handled. To avoid powder gumming up the works I lightly vacuumed it to get the really loose powder up.

There have been a couple of times I was not happy with the post Dullcoat result so I do my best to avoid doing it post muck.

Brent

"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."

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Posted by K Davis on Tuesday, November 19, 2019 6:09 PM

Nice job!

Keith

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Posted by kasskaboose on Thursday, November 21, 2019 9:15 AM

For strcutures and freight cars, also suggest DullCoat. 

Hairspray is fine for trees.

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Posted by rrebell on Thursday, November 21, 2019 10:40 AM

Model Masters lusterless flat. Once got the dreaded white splotches with dullcoat but never with the former.

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