Hey everyone, new guy... kinda.

[Ifoundmymodel]

Hey everyone.

I've frequented the site for a long time but don't post that much. I've got 2 questions that some or all of you might be able to help with.

I can't for the life of me get a good shine on my Carrera GT, I've sanded, primered, sanded, base colour, sanded, lacquered, micromeshed, compounded, polished and then waxed but there's still holograms and swirls. Any idea how to get them out?


Secondly, I had to move house sharply last year and in amongst the chaos I lost a few wing mirrors and was wondering if anyone had spares/could copy some for me? I've lost them for my Tamiya Supra and Revell Dodge Viper SRT -10

Here's a random pic of some of my models



Thanks in advance for any help.

[coolnight]

Hi!

I think the issue might be in the color coat as I've found the color coat has to look pretty good prior to being clearcoated in order to achieve a nice finish.

Having said that, personally I feel like that might be too much sanding. In the future, try perhaps not sanding the color coat or at the very least spraying a coat of color before the clear goes on.

I understand many people build this way, but imho good results can be had without that much sanding.

If it is indeed the color coat thats not smooth then I'm afraid theres not a whole lot you can do other than just repainting it (starting from the color coat onwards).

If the issue is with the clear, spraying another coat of clear and going about your normal polishing routine would likely alleviate the problem.

BTW that's a nice collection of models you've got there. The Takata NSX looks particularly intriguing!

[hirofkd]

Make sure the paint is completely dry, because a soft paint film doesn't become a mirror-like finish no matter how thoroughly you sand and polish.
Also you can use several grades of compound progressively, and use a fine polishing cloth.

Swirls can be caused by dry residue of the compound. Moisten the tip of the cloth with water to reduce the friction. (Some people even add dish
soap.) That should prevent the compound from drying, and mitigate the risk of leaving swirls.

In fact, you can control the aggressiveness/mildness of a compound by altering the water to compound ratio. I use Novus polishing system and
Modeler's Top Compound 2000 "straight from the bottle/tube," "with some water," and "with mostly water," before moving on to the super fine
Hasegawa Ceramic Compound to get a swirl-free finish.
Here's a sample.

[Ifoundmymodel]

Thanks for the reply guys.

I sanded that much due to being taught it at a college I went to while studying vehicle body repair and spraying.

I know what you mean about the different levels of fluid, I usually just stick to what I know, water and then progressively add soap to get my desired lubricity but it hasn't turned out that great this time.

Guess I'll leave this one as a learning curve (it is my first real attempt at black anyway)

I'll be adding the majority of my finished models into one big thread, although, don't get too excited a lot of them were finished when I was just starting out and wanted to get them done as soon as possible