I've been working on repainting my Bowser 4-4-4-4. I gave the engine and tender a fresh coat of Scalecoat II enamel a few days ago at the same time. I then touched them up and added decals over the past couple days. today, I clear coated them at the same time with Model Master spray lacquer. The tender came out perfect, but the body is covered in nasty little wrinkles!!! Why in the world did this happen? Do I have to strip the entire body down and repaint it again? I put hours into the body alone, carefully placing each individual gold strip on the rear ladders and brushing the piping and other details to look just right, so this is extremely frustrating.
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Was it Testors Glosscote or some other product? Maybe Scalecoat does not like Testors?
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
It was Testors Model Master semi-gloss coat. I've always used it with Scalecoat II paint with perfect results, and like I said before, the tender I painted at the same time with the same paint came out fine. I have no idea why the engine turned out so poorly.
did you strip the loco and tender ? if not is the tender an old brass sided one or a plastic one ?
Mixing Enamel and Lacquer is a NO NO......You got lucky on the tender. You should always try a dust coat first...... You could have used Acrylic Gloss coat. Review link:
http://techtalk.parts-express.com/forum/tech-talk-forum/33593-lacquer-wrinkled-ruined-paint-job
Good Luck!
Frank
Did you use an airbrush or spray?
In general heavy lacquer coats may affect acrylic / enamel undercoats. The way to avoid this is to lay down a few lighter coats. Let them dry, and when you got enough coverage, lay down a wet coat. I have destroyed my share of paintjobs and decals by spraying heavy coats directly.
I suspect that the wrinkles on the main loco shell are near corners or reccessed areas?
I reworked a large scale snow plow. I painted the blade scale coat II black. First time I had used it. When i overcoated it the next day. It wrinkled. That will wear off as i push snow with it but yours wont. Those wrinkles are premanent. I found leaving at least a month for the paint to cure before appling decals and finish coat works. Only thing you can do is strip and restart. You got lucky with the tender. Testors is made by RPM. So is rustoleum and minwax. They all play well together because of that. Scalecoat is made by a diffenet company. Different base formulation. Does not play well with RPM paints. Good drying time is the key to making them play together. Give time for the solvents and such to evaporate off and the pigments to solidly cure.
Wolfie
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
I have had the wrinkling problem too. I believe I put the top coat on too soon after the base coat and put it on too heavy.
Yannis Did you use an airbrush or spray? In general heavy lacquer coats may affect acrylic / enamel undercoats. The way to avoid this is to lay down a few lighter coats. Let them dry, and when you got enough coverage, lay down a wet coat. I have destroyed my share of paintjobs and decals by spraying heavy coats directly. I suspect that the wrinkles on the main loco shell are near corners or reccessed areas?
Enamel over lacquer = OK
Lacquer over enamel = NOT OK
Yannis is spot on as to how you cheat this rule. The enamel layer thickness and amount of dry time will impact success. Thin enamel = better. Longer dry enamel = better.
Alan
Freelancing the LK&O Railroad
Definatlly do not want to mix those two types of paint. But you can also have this happen if you do not let the underlying coats fully cure. The outgassing of the paint on the model can cause this same issue if you recoat a model to soon or without a proper baking time in the oven. When I paint brass or metal models, each coat gets an hours baking in the oven at 170-180'F. Only way to fix properly is to strip the model and start over. Mike
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
So, the obvious question is why not just use Scalecoat clear? It comes in gloss and flat which can be mixed to any sheen you desire.
I bought my first airbrush at age 12, and in 48 years the only model train item I have painted with a rattle can are the steel weights under Athearn freght cars........
Sheldon
Thanks! I had no idea that lacquer and enamel didn't go so well together. I've been using the same Testors clear coats with Scalecoat for years with great results, so I guess I have just gotten lucky so far! I'm almost out of the Testors clear coat, so I'll try again with a Scalecoat clear coat. To make sure they match, it should be fine to spray the Scalecoat over the Model Master already on the tender, right?
The wrinkling actually happened mostly on the smooth top surface instead of cracks and corners. Weird.