Hey guys, Im finishing off painting a few cars, and wanted a factory new finish. I just decaled (for the first time) over scalecoat II's gloss finish, and now I need to tone that gloss down.
I recall finding dullcote at 100% too matte for a non-weathered car, so I was wondering what people did to get a satin finish? Do I mix 50/50 dullcote and gloss? maybe 75/25? What do you guys recommend?
Thanks,
Charles
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Modeling the PRR & NYC in HO
Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/@trainman440
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Trainman440Do I mix 50/50 dullcote and gloss?
I'm in the process of experimenting with the ratio myself. I have quite a few passenger cars that I've painted with Scalecoat 1 and would like to retain some gloss as the cars did get an occasional run through the wash rack.
I tried 50:50 a few weeks ago and found it to still be too much matte looking.
I'll be doing another pair of PRR observation cars in the next week or so and I'm going to try about 80% gloss to 20% matte.
The bottled Dullcote seems to have considerably more "solids" than what is in the rattle-can formula.
Good Luck, Ed
Hi Charles,
If you are airbrushing, I hope you don't mind my sharing the following.
I've gotten away from using Dullcoate and, imho, for a realistic satin appearance, Alclad II "Klear Kote Light Sheen" (ALC-311) leaves a smooth finish without having to mix it with any other clear coat formulas. It's ready to spray from the bottle.
Cool factor is that Alclad adheres very well over Scale Coat I and Scale Coat II paint lines with no chalking or chemical reactions.
I like using Alclad's clears (Gloss, Light Sheen, Semi-Matt, Flat) becuase they eliminate the fuss of having to mix formulas to achieve appearances within the semi-gloss and flat range.
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
I've found 50/50 to be pretty decent for what you need, but you can always tweak it a little either way. I usually thin Dullcote, Glosscote and mixtures of the two using an equal amount of lacquer thinner - that keeps the clear finish thin, so it doesn't look like the item has been dipped in it.
This modified Red Caboose X-29 is one of three identical cars that I built for a couple of friends and myself. The clear coat on it is pretty-well a 50/50 mixture of Glosscote and Dullcote, mainly for the purpose of adding the lettering (the car shown has yet to be weighed). It's based on the real car, which is still in existence.
I model the late '30s, the friend who had charge of the real one models the mid-to-late '40s, and the other friend, who provided financial support, the mid-'50s...here's the three versions, in the same order...
re-weighed in '37...
...re-weighed in '47...
...and re-weighed in '53...
The shine is still there, but hidden by dirt and the passage of time.
Wayne
I use a rattle can of Krylon semi-gloss. Work great.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I use Scalecoat's clear gloss and clear flat, about 60-65% gloss for that "new" look.
Sheldon
Thanks for the replies, I did roughly a 60/40 gloss and matte, and it looks great!