Using Alclad Aqua Gloss Clear

This is in regard to Alclad Aqua Gloss (the -600 water based stuff)

For the TLDNR crowd: anyone use Alclad Aqua Gloss for your clear coats and have success polishing (wet sanding with 1500 or higher + Tamiya Polish)??

A friend said he’d been using this for gloss coats on his airplane kits a liked it a lot more than future or other stuff. Also, being water based it has less/no fumes. I’ve tried on several builds (these were actually airplanes that I clear coated before decals, weathering, etc.). Typically my workflow is Mr. Surfacer Primer, MRP Lacquers, Aqua Clear, Sand/Polish any defects, weathering, decals, final dull coat.

I was building another kit this week and I decided try out AK Interactive’s Real Color line. After airbrushing on the paints and letting them dry for a day, I put 4 coats of Alclad Aqua Gloss and let it dry for 48-hours. Last night I went to do a wet sand with some 1,500 paper and it stripped right down to the plastic is like 5-seconds. I maybe rubbed it back and for the 3-times and suddenly I’m hitting plastic! It was as if the clear and AK Paints were just microns thick and I had nothing to polish….

Could it be the combination of the AK Paints being a acrylic base + the water base of the Aqua Gloss being super sensitive to wet sanding? I swear I used the Aqua Gloss on an F-14 I did last spring and had no issues sanding/polishing the clear prior to weathering and decals.

I’ve found one post on another forum where a someone said the results were terrible trying to micro-mesh the Aqua Gloss.

Thanks

You have the same question/concern as me. I was planning on using Aqua gloss over a liquid metal finish so as to not effect the underlying effect, but in my testing, Aqua gloss seemed very soft.

The website says its an acrylic lacquer, so you probably had a paint compatibility issue. I've had a clearcoat pull up like that when I did acrylic over another type of paint.

That stuff is like Future it does not like water. Try dry sanding and then polish. I would only use Micromesh(32000 grit and higher) or Tamiya sanding sponges because they conform to the shape better.