About clear coat

hello fellow car modlers, one of the most important aspect of car modeling is to get a brilliant shine onto the car body, we spend hours doing polishing to get the mirror surface that we all love, but one of the very important bases is the clear gloss, this coat can have different properties that will affect how the paint surface turns out, so ive decided to create this thread to let all car modlers to talk about what clear gloss they use. and how u think of their properties.

ok me first, generally i prefer to use mr hobby clear gloss (actually i dont have a choice) haha~
first of all, it comes in a big package, so about one per car will give u a really nice thick coat of clear, this will prevent sanding through the closs coat and sand wawy the color.
secondly, if you let it to dry for a 2 week + period, it dries to a pretty hard coat, and it will have a lot less shrinkage. for my er34, i only waited 2 days to start polish, the polish effect is really good, but after a while, orange skins reappeared. so from other modlers, i concluded that it's best to let it sit for a while before starting to polish. now i will see how the 430 will turn out after a while, see if any orange skin appears.
so overall i quite like b515.

ive also used tamiya clear, which i think is reatty bad, after a 2 week drying period, it still felt pretty soft, and could left marks of u scratched it with a nail. so i dont like to use it.

please feel free to discuss any type of clear gloss u have used. especially the ones used on airbrush. cos i might buy a set soon.

cheers y'all~

I have used Future as suggested by (mainly) armour modellers, and it turns out to be too thin and runs too much, and doesn't cover scratchs on colour coat that well. It does dry very fast and super hard and can be brush painted, which is the only plus points I found for it. The shine of Future coating is very glossy, but somehow it doesn't look like automotive paint, it give a fake plastic shine LOL. I may still find use for Future, like glue windiws and clear parts, clear coating smaller parts etc.

I have now moved onto Mr. Hobby Top Coat Clear, and have to say I love it. After a week or so the coat is very hard, I can nail it all I want and don't leave any marks. It also sprays well from the can and is just thick enough to give a beautiful auto paint like glossy effects. it also covers scratches on colour coat very well. I think it's also water based, so doesn't harm decals.

The negative points include - it's expensive, £4+ for a 100ml can which can only do one to 1.5 cars from my experience. It also bubbles very easily if you are laying on thick coats. you have to move the can very fast and never stop over model surface, otehrwise it WILL bubble. Some times the bubbles will levelling out but most times it will turn white after drying.

With no hobby shop for 100's of miles, I like to use automotive clears. I used to clearcoat with Future with great results. Althou a bit trickier then using paint I still find it pretty easy to use. Just spray and walk away, no peel or polishing. My corvette ( hard to see in my sig) is futured but I ran the separate trunk lid and was very hard to sand and correct so it's not without its flaws. Since then I have switched to acrylic polyurethanes which I buy in bulk. I love how easy it is to use and how fast it dries. But you really need good ventilation and a proper respirator to spray with it.

I use to find future runs too much to but I figured out how to use it. I don't find it give a plastic shine ... Here a pic :http://www.hiboox.com/images/4706/e025a4c5.jpg

I think the trick is that you never flow air from your airbrush on it without the clearcoat, using a 2-3 mist coat let it dry for 2 min, while drying future is really sticky so 1 mist coat and voila!

I use Omni 2 part urethane automotive clear...great stuff

PPG 2-part auto clear, although I am about to switch to a HOK clear. For my money, nothing beats the auto stuff.

Bill

but after a while, orange skins reappeared.

Really???

I use the Mr Hobby clear coat as well. I like it so far and I am not going to switch anytime soon. But I never have a problem of orange peel re-appearing. As long as you sand the surface smooth and polish well... I also polish after 2 days of drying time. So my scenario is almost the same as yours.

If you have orange peel underneath the clear coat, then yeah...you may see it re-appear I guess. That's because after the clear coat shrinks, the stuff below it reappears. Does it make sense? It is just my guess.

Have you tried to re-polish after the orange peel shows up again? does it work in the long run?

Winston