What comes first, the dullcoat or the weathering...

[Anonymous]

I have a few locos that need to be weathered, and I've heard that before you apply weathering you should cover the model with dullcoat to prevent 'beading'; then I read somewhere else that I should do the weathering first and then apply dullcoat to protect the weathering from handling. Now I'm totally confused...[%-)]

[Anonymous]

I depends on how you are going to do the weathering. If you use weathering powders as offered by Bar Mills or Bragdon, they suggest to use them on a flat dull surface to allow the powders something to grip onto. If you are using chalks, Dullcoat is usually added after to seal the chalk. It also diminishes the effects of the chalk, so you have to either add it extra heavy or add additional coats.

If you are going to do it with paints and an aribrush, then it really does not matter. If using acrylic paint to weather, then I guess the Dullocat before might prevent the "beading" problem you mentioned. I have no experience in this myself, having used mostly Floquil over the years.

Bob Boudreau

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by FundyNorthern
If you are going to do it with paints and an aribrush, then it really does not matter. If using acrylic paint to weather, then I guess the Dullocat before might prevent the "beading" problem you mentioned.

Thanks Bob, I was planning to spray a few layers of thinned acrylic [Polly Scale] light gray to make the brightly-colored paint look faded, so I guess I'll do the dullcoat first.

[Anonymous]

I use Bragdon Powder, I fini***he models with dullcote BEFORE weathering. I can always "Knock" the powder down with more dullcote if it gets too heavy.

[ereimer]

on thing to note about Dullcoat , if you spray it on first , then weather using an alcohol wash it will turn the Dullcoat a misty white . respraying with dullcoat seems to fix it though so don't panic !

[Anonymous]

Thanx HighIron and Ernie, I guess I'll test my approach on a piece of painted "junk" styrene first!

[Adelie]

Ken,

When airbrushing, I dullcoat afterwards. But that's me and I don't ever think I considered dullcoating (is that a word) beforehand.

I spent a couple of hours yesterday spraying the world with a highly thinned wash of Floquil "grime." It had the desired effect of turning the somewhat bright red Walthers Sawmill into something more muted and dull. Next is a little finishing work on the assembly, and then, like you, a wash of light gray. I'll probably dullcoat after that, then streak it a little with weathering powders. It also turned the yield sign yellow casket factory into something I can look at for more than about 30 seconds without my eyes burning!

Good luck. The nice thing about weathering is that even mistakes often look good....sometimes better than planned.

[Anonymous]

When I weather with chalks I usually dull coat first then dust and finish with dull coat, the chalk adheres better to the dull surface, when using acrylics and airbrush, it's best to wash plastic model with warm water and some dish soap. This gets rid of parting oils from casting and finger prints from handling, then use latex gloves and paint away. I've had success using a watered down white(reefer white), to spray on models that I've wanted to look older and faded, just repeat light coats to achieve desired results.

[Anonymous]

when I paint a new model, I go through several steps.

first, after the paint is dry, I spray the model with glosscoat.

then I add the decals

then I spray the model with dullcoat

then I add the weathering

then I spray it again with dullcoat...and it's done.