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1/32 Trumpeter P-38L Lightning- "Kicked Up A Notch"


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Thanks again Guys. A I have mentioned many times, it is my custom to not respond to every single post unless there’s a question, because I find it clutters up the build thread. I do enough of that stuff already with my personal pics!

The after shocks from the GOOP fiasco are slowly going away and I think they are finally over. To make sure they are gone for good, I painted the front of the nose with gloss black lacquer, which shows every flaw. So far so good for about a week now. It’s amazing how long the plastic has taken to settle down, hopefully forever. One thing I have failed to mention before is that the scratch-like mark on the nose is actually a plastic flaw that is really quite smooth and will not present a problem after painting.

Windscreen1.jpg

As mentioned before, my subject is “Marge”, which has a combination of bright polished aluminum and painted aluminum, or at least it was until 2009. There are some good pics of it here:

Marge up to 2009

In 2013, however, Marge has been repainted, so there is almost no polished aluminum anymore:

Marge 2013

I like the “2009 look” of contrasting bright aluminum and painted aluminum, so that is my target look of how I plan on painting this model. I also plan on having empty pylons without fuel tanks or bombs, no matter what era, but something I noticed on both Marge and most other P-38’s is that the pylons have a curved bottom with a square-like hole at the front. The kit parts are flat bottomed to accommodate fuel tanks or bombs and in a few of my reference books, it shows that the bottom of the pylon is also flat with fuel lines and other anchor points hanging down. After making some enquiries in the other forums, I found this reference pic, showing that there is indeed a curved fairing for the bottom:

P-38%20Drop%20Tank%20Pylon.jpg

To replicate this curved bottom, I used Tamiya light curing putty which I sanded to shape, then drilled a front and rear anchor point hole. This putty works great to make parts, because it’s hard in no time and sands very smooth. The left pylon has the gun camera in the square hole, which is very poorly moulded in the kit parts, so with some sanding and a brass face plate, it looks more the part.

Newpylons1.jpg

After a coat of gloss black lacquer and Alclad polished aluminum, they look very much like the pylons on Marge- and most other P-38’s

Newpylons2.jpg

After a lot of sanding and dry fitting all of the clear canopy parts, as shown before, there were two problems with the rear canopy area. There’s a fairly large gap on either side of the radio platform and the canopy is a bit too wide.

Canopy9.jpg

To fix the gap I thought about using putty or some other filler, but I settled on ordinary strips of styrene pre-painted interior green. They fill the gap and provide a bit of a wall for those electrical wires to plug into on the left. You might also note the upper radio control that plugs into the rear canopy has been loosely installed with very thin wiring according to reference pics. The front kit gauge was cut off and replaced with one from Airscale, with the corresponding decal, which looks a lot better and realistic. Many thanks to Peter at Airscale for supplying many samples for me to use in this and future builds.

Filledgap1.jpg

In hindsight, I should have done all this wiring before I installed the cockpit, so that I would have easier access to all the little parts. This wiring is very thin at scale, so I was initially planning on doing no wiring because I couldn’t find wire that was thin enough. When throwing out an old computer recently (yes, I recycled it!), I thought I would find out what kind of wire was buried in those belt-like wire connectors. Well, it was a pleasant surprise. The thinnest wire I’ve been able to locate at electronic stores or fly fishing shops is about 30 ga., or 0.25mm. This wire is tiny, likely less than 0.10 mm….

Computerwire.jpg

Another angle, showing the wiring and the styrene strips on the sides. I drilled tiny holes in all the parts to accept the wire connections, then glued them in with CA glue.

Filledgap2.jpg

Getting the upper radio unit to plug into the rear canopy is tricky, because you want to push it onto the post on the canopy fairly snugly. Using tweezers is clunky and they are likely to scratch the painted parts or clear plastic, so I wedged some Tamiya masking tape under the part to provide a backstop.

Radiowire2.jpg

With the upper radio unit wedged onto the rear canopy, I removed the tape and then applied some Tamiya Extra Thin Cement (TETC) to the join so that it won’t move, then applied more TETC to the right side of the canopy at the base. Once the glue was dry for 30 minutes, I applied a long strip of Tamiya masking tape to the left side of the canopy and pulled it over so that the base of the canopy was flush with the bottom, then applied more TETC to the left base, allowing capillary action to pull the glue into place under the painted base. This mucks up the paint at the bottom slightly, but I plan on re-painting the base of the canopy and windscreen later anyway.

Radiowire3.jpg

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The canopy fit is now pretty good, although I’ll need to fill the front a bit.

Radiowire5.jpg

Rear canopy fit is now flush on both sides.

Radiowire4.jpg

Before the front windscreen is glued into place, it’s now time to attach all those tiny and fragile control handles and the gunsight. All of the handles were dipped in CA glue to create a circular knob at the top, then dipped into paint.

Windscreen12.jpg

I made sure that the gunsight fit below the front glass slightly and did not touch it

Windscreen4.jpg

As with the rear canopy, TETC was oozed underneath the canopy to fuselage join, which will be cleaned up and repainted later.

Windscreen5.jpg

The top canopy lid now fits like a glove, although I plan on adding some flaps to the front corners, which the kit parts have tried to replicate with panel line detail.

Windscreen6.jpg

I added some PE to replicate the locking mechanism and the rear view mirror is actually from the Tamiya P-51D kit, which supplies two of them. This mirror was painted black on the back, as per most reference pics.

Windscreen7.jpg

The inside, to show the silver mirror surface- without any paint! The whole mirror assembly was first immersed in Future and just before it fully dried, I attached it to the canopy with more Future to avoid glue marks. Since the canopy was already immersed in Future, it provides a fairly strong bond.

Mirror.jpg

The side windows will be glued on later, but before I do, I “painted” the bottom of the clear glass with a black Sharpie pen. The bottom needs to be black so that it doesn’t show the grey plastic underneath and the glue itself, which will transmit through the clear part in an almost fiber optic way. The part won’t stick to black paint, but with the black ink instead, the ink mixes with the TETC to form a black glue that won’t show detail flaws underneath. This is a trick I use on all my builds where clear plastic needs to be cemented onto a lighter color.

Windscreen3.jpg

One closing comment, just in case it’s not obvious. The canopy parts all fit fairly well due to lots of dry fitting, sanding and carving the plastic with a #11 knife before they were painted. If you don’t do this, the fit is actually quite poor and there will be gaps all over the place. Thanks for your continued interest in this build. I’m hitting the one year mark in 3 weeks, so it’s been a long journey!

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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Thanks Guys. To expand on the Sharpie idea, here is where it works wonders. On the Tamiya F-4 kits, the canopy is glued into a frame (which I hate!), which leaves a light colored base at the join. Not so good, as I experienced on my F-4J build about 6 years ago...

F4J-14.jpg

On my more recent F-4E build, however, I used a black Sharpie marker along the edges of the clear plastic before cementing them in. MUCH better....

Canopydone1.jpg

The base of the P-38 side windows are no different, so I think they will look more natural when I finally glue them in. I need to wait for another set of masks from Randy at StencilPal before I do, because I don't want to take any more chances with the clear plastic before I add TETC to the base. Did I mention these masks are fantastic?! :thumbsup:

Canopy3.jpg

Edited by chuck540z3
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Great as usual Chuck! one question, how come you never add figures to your builds?

Good question, but I have 2 answers.

1) In my opinion- (and I know that I'm in the minority here)- I think that little figures take away from the realism of the aircraft, because in most cases they aren't very good. It might be the figure itself or the very difficult painting involved, but many of the figures I see look like bad toy soldiers. Stick those in or next to a well made aircraft and it pulls down the overall quality of the build. Again, that's just me.

2) I really suck at brush painting. Even if a figure is airbrushed, you still need to add detail and touch-ups with a brush, which for me would not have a happy ending.

Yes, I have seen some really good figurines that have met or exceeded the quality of the aircraft next to them, but I think they are in the minority. Having said all that, I think an aircraft in flight needs a pilot figure for obvious reasons, so I might actually add a figure to a future model if I build one. Hopefully the thick canopy will hide all my brush marks!

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Good question, but I have 2 answers.

1) In my opinion- (and I know that I'm in the minority here)- I think that little figures take away from the realism of the aircraft, because in most cases they aren't very good. It might be the figure itself or the very difficult painting involved, but many of the figures I see look like bad toy soldiers. Stick those in or next to a well made aircraft and it pulls down the overall quality of the build. Again, that's just me.

2) I really suck at brush painting. Even if a figure is airbrushed, you still need to add detail and touch-ups with a brush, which for me would not have a happy ending.

Yes, I have seen some really good figurines that have met or exceeded the quality of the aircraft next to them, but I think they are in the minority. Having said all that, I think an aircraft in flight needs a pilot figure for obvious reasons, so I might actually add a figure to a future model if I build one. Hopefully the thick canopy will hide all my brush marks!

I agree MOST figures just ruin the illusion of scale for me. I go from seeing an airplane to a model real quick.

As for the brush painting I like to use liner style brushes. You can get them in 10/0 size but they have fairly long bristles, about 1cm on finer brushes. My favorite, a #2 has 1.7cm bristles. The long bristles really dampen the little shakes and movements of your hand resulting on some surprisingly straight smooth painting. They also nestle into an edge or feature beautifully and track along it. These style brushes hold a nice amount of paint as well so I find if I moisten the brush in thinner every couple paint reloads it flows very nicely off the brush, and comes out smooth. No brush strokes. I think Tamiya is the hardest paint to brush. I do but I try to airbrush as much as I can. Currently building a Tamiya 1/6 Harley fatboy to give to a dear friend so it's been easy lately, what a cool scale to work in.

Anyways your Lightning is looking awesome! And wow you've faced some adversity on this one, I would have thrown in the towel on this build after the goo incident. I can't wait to get a plane on my desk. Either a Trumpeter 1/32 AV-8B with goodies or a Tamiya Spitfire which I'd build O.O.B.

Edited by MaxPower
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  • 3 weeks later...

November 27, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving & Black Friday to our American friends!

Not a lot to show today, but what you see took a LOT of work to get to this stage. I’m also running out of parts, which means that I must be nearing the end of this build that I started one year ago. No surprise there, because typically I’m very slow anyway and my GOOP disaster has cost me at least one extra month of work. What I lack in skill, I more than make up for with my OCD with anything plastic. With a bare metal finish (BMF), you can’t sweat the tiny details enough, because every tiny flaw will be magnified.

The last parts to deal with are the landing gear doors. Like a most of the Trumpeter parts, they are fairly crude with variable rivet and panel line detail and lots of sprue attachments to remove. I spend a lot of time cleaning up these parts, then re-riveting them to bring back the missing detail. I also used the Eduard PE parts to replace most of the hinges. On the nose gear door, you remove all the kit hinges and the holes where they are to be inserted. As is, the kit door does not fit the gear well opening as it should, with the front of the door flush with the sides of the gear well and the rear with a gap. Instead, there’s a gap at both the front and back, which is wrong. With the Eduard hinges, most of that can be fixed.

Here’s the doors after removing the kit detail and attaching the Eduard parts in their place. I left off most of the hinges, which will be attached when the doors are glued on permanently at the end of the build.

Gear%20doors1.jpg

Here’s a door dry fitted to the boom. The outer kit hinges were trimmed back to conform better to the Eduard hinge fascia glued onto the sides.

Gear%20doors2.jpg

Another angle. I’m not happy with the plastic rod at the rear, which is too thick. I will cut them back later, inserting a pin into each rod to taper the rod to the Eduard PE assembly at the rear.

Gear%20doors3.jpg

I have long been a big proponent of using Krylon gloss black as a primer for Alclad paints. It sprays really nice and the drying time is fairly short, but I have noticed that it takes at least a week to fully dry and cure, which seems too long for a lacquer. Talking to my modeling buddy Mike O’Hare (Mofo on ARC), he informed me that Krylon was changed from a lacquer to a fast drying enamel a few years ago. I also learned the following from talking to him and looking at paint labeling:

High gloss Alclad finishes like Chrome or Polished aluminum are alcohol based and are not true lacquers, even though the bottle may say so in the generic "Alclad Lacquer" labeling. That is why Alclad recommends enamel base primers for them, so that they will adhere to the base coat stronger than other paints because the enamel retains just enough "stickiness" to bond to these high shine finishes. If people complain about the Alclad finish rubbing off, they probably didn't use the correct base coat. The other Alclad colors like Aluminum, Steel, etc. are true lacquers, which can be sprayed on well cured enamel finishes (like Krylon) or, better yet, lacquer base coats like the Tamiya TS-14 Gloss Black. The high shine finishes don't mask very well and they may react to decal softening solutions, so make sure you coat them with Alclad Aqua Gloss Clear finishes like ALC 600 before doing so. The other real lacquer colors are quite tough and don't really need a clear coat, but you might add one anyway to add shine if that's what you are after.

Before painting the base coat, make sure your plastic finish is as PERFECTLY SMOOTH as possible, with careful sanding with progressively finer sandpapers. This takes a lot of time, but if you want a really nice BMF, this step is compulsory. Once you find flaws- and you will- repair them and re-spray the primer coat before you spray Alclad.

Whenever I have yakked about Krylon as a good base coat for Alclad, somebody pipes up and says that Tamiya Gloss Black Lacquer is equal, if not better than Krylon. As modelers we generally stick to what we know that works, but for this model I thought I would give it a try. Am I ever glad I did- and I doubt that I will ever use Krylon again! Here’s what the TS-14 spray cans look like it you are looking for them. Unfortunately up here in bilingual Canada, we have to have all labeling in both English and French, so covering some of the English instructions is a real PITA.

Tamiya%20TS-14.jpg

This paint is called a “synthetic lacquer” according to the Tamiya website, whatever that means. All I know is that this is the best paint I have ever sprayed from my airbrush. Decanted from the can, I found that I had to thin it a lot with Tamiya lacquer thinner in order to get the right viscosity after the propellant was “degassed”. My guess is about 60% paint and 40% thinner. Although Krylon is great, this paint seems denser and it doesn’t ball up and cause dusting with air turbulence near wing roots, etc. It also dries fast- really fast- so that you can finger touch it within 5 minutes if you are careful. It also dries really nice and hard, so that sanding within 24 hours is possible. Here’s an example of TS-14 sprayed on the gear doors. Beautiful.

Gear%20doors4.jpg

After a day of drying, I sprayed on the Alclad. I used regular Aluminum on the inside of the doors and high gloss Chrome on the outside to replicate the polished aluminum look I am looking for. Alclad makes a Polished Aluminum which is pretty good, but I like the Chrome better to get the look I want. Spray each Alcad coat on in a misting pass and don't let the Alclad pool or run or it might bite into the primer coat and bubble up. Go over the area to be painted several times to get the saturation you want, but let the Alclad dry a bit before misting on another coat.

Gear%20doors5.jpg

Next was painting TS-14 on the whole model after extensive surface prep with sandpapers and paint thinner to remove any oils from my hands. I usually start on the bottom of the model, just in case I screw something up that won’t show that much later if I have problems. Fortunately, I had no real problems at all. Here is the first very thin coat, which will expose any flaws. BTW, masking off the gear wells was really hard to do and took a lot of time.

First%20Paint1.jpg

Wings generally look good with no big flaws, although some dust has settled on the dried paint already.

First%20Paint3.jpg

The inevitable flaws, which are easy to fix. Those “Tiny Bubbles” were encountered in several places, where I believe I didn’t get all the oil from my hands off with thinner. No problem. A little sanding and repainting will fix that, while the seam lines that shouldn’t be there will be fixed with CA glue filler.

First%20Paint2.jpg

Tiny scuff marks from sanding will show up too. If they aren’t fixed now, the Alclad paint will magnify them later.

First%20Paint4.jpg

Next I’ll paint the top of the model, let it dry for a day, then fix the flaws on the bottom which will have dried for at least 2 days. When that is done, I’ll attend to the inevitable flaws on the top.

Thanks for checking in!

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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Chuck,

VERY RESPLENDENT ...

PHWAOR .... It is SUBLIME work :worship: :worship: :worship: :worship: :worship:

What BEAUTIFUL work you create :wub:

...and I agree Figures detracts from the aircraft....and yours doesn't need one..

Very enjoyable build indeed.

THANK YOU :salute:

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So? Don Ho made an appearance with is Tiny Bubbles, did he? Sorry... Now I see what you were referring to Chuck. Your paint job will be the feline's behind. I am really looking forward to the results.

Continued success my friend.

Mike

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Thank you Gents!

A small update. The paint flaws were driving me nuts, so I got after them today with sandpaper and "Mr Laplos" polishing cloths, which are super fine. I used these cloths extensively on my Mustang build with great results.

Finecloth1.jpg

Here's an example I showed earlier. Besides the flaws, the paint could be a bit smoother.

First%20Paint2.jpg

As nice as the paint was in most areas, some of it had to go, so I used the cloths on the entire bottom.

Second%20coat1.jpg

After cleaning up all the dust with a damp cloth, I repainted everything. This time I put on a thicker coat and the really cool thing about the TS-14 Tamiya lacquer, is that you can really load up the paint on the surface, even the sides, without it running. This filled many micro-scratches that I missed with further sanding. Now a "walk around" of the bottom. I LOVE this paint!

Second%20coat2.jpg

Second%20coat3.jpg

Second%20coat4.jpg

Second%20coat5.jpg

Second%20coat6.jpg

There's still a few flaws I found that I need to touch up, but 95% of the bottom primer coat is DONE! Next up, the top.

Cheers,

Chuck

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Chuck,

I'm enjoying your build; as I do all of yours. What airbrush/compressor setup do you use?

Cheers!

Kent

Hi Kent,

I started off with an Aztec about 8 years ago, but I found the painting results were crude, so I upgraded to Iwata airbrushes and I love them. My first was the HP-C Plus with a 0.3 mm nozzle, which is good for spraying wide areas and some detail, but then I upgraded yet gain to the Custom Micron line CM-C Plus, which has a 0.23 mm nozzle for finer work. Although it works great, I sometimes want even finer detail, so I modified it with the optional 0.18 mm needle/nozzle which you can buy separately. I love it so much, I don't even use the HP-C any more, which now feels like an Aztec! The Iwata airbrushes are very easy to clean and get parts, so I highly recommend them. If you are interested in the CM line, I would buy the CM-C and not pay extra for the Plus, which is that small valve at the bottom behind the nozzle, which regulates air flow. Once I set whatever pressure I want on the compressor, I don't need to play with the valve, which I leave wide open.

Using enamel and lacquer paints exclusively, I have a PACE paint booth in my garage to keep the fumes out of my house, although I still wear a chemical mask and wear rubber gloves. My compressor is just a cheap oil-less one with a small tank about 15" long and the sucker is noisy as heck, but I don't mind because it's in the garage and one cycle of compression will last me a long time without the need to re-charge. For example, I painted the entire bottom of this model using only half a tank, so the spraying session is silent.

Cheers,

Chuck

Airbrush1.jpg

Edited by chuck540z3
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Chuck....awesome results as usual. As modelers, it's very hard to deviate from what we know works and achieve good results with so I commend you for stepping outside of your comfort zone. I recently did something similar by trying out a new brand of paint.....Mr. Hobby Laquer. I've been using Model Master paints as long as I can remember but recently have wanted to try something different as I can never seem to get it to spray just right out of my finer tip airbrushes. Just like you I'm glad I did. Initial results seem promising. Now all I have to do is perform some tests to see how the paint interacts with primers, Future and Testor's flat coats.

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Chuck....awesome results as usual. As modelers, it's very hard to deviate from what we know works and achieve good results with so I commend you for stepping outside of your comfort zone. I recently did something similar by trying out a new brand of paint.....Mr. Hobby Laquer. I've been using Model Master paints as long as I can remember but recently have wanted to try something different as I can never seem to get it to spray just right out of my finer tip airbrushes. Just like you I'm glad I did. Initial results seem promising. Now all I have to do is perform some tests to see how the paint interacts with primers, Future and Testor's flat coats.

Hi Elmo,

I have often wanted to try Mr. Color lacquers, because I have heard nothing but great things about this paint. Unfortunately, I can't seem to buy it locally (in a large selection of colors) and nobody will ship it to Canada from the US, because I think it's illegal to ship solvents through the mail- or at least across the border. I'm sure I might be able get it from an Asian supplier, but the shipping hassle, customs, etc. seems like a lot of work. Meanwhile, MM enamels work for me, but if somebody in Canada knows how to get Mr. Color paints easily, please let me know!

Thanks,

Chuck

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Great build Chuck! Really a]enjoying this, as with all your builds!

Could you please explain how you decant paint from a spray can into the airbrush please?

Sure, but my way is crude and simple. I bet there are lots of better ways to decant paint, but this method is effective.

--Get a clean plastic or metal tube of some kind, that is at least 10-15mm in width, maybe 6 inches long and a jar that you want to fill with paint. I use the Tamiya paint jars, because they are wide, allow room for the tube and provide a lot of surface area for the propellant in the paint to escape easily.

--In an area that is safe to spill paint, wearing an old shirt, a chemical respirator over your face and rubber gloves, insert the tube into the jar and cover the top of the jar with your free gloved hand. After you shake the paint in the spray can thoroughly, spray the paint into the top of the tube, allowing the paint to shoot down the tube, into the jar. Make sure you don't totally seal the top of the jar with your hand, because gas in the paint needs to escape somewhere. Keep spraying until the jar is maybe 1/2 to 2/3 full of paint. You will notice that jar will become very cold as the propellant in the paint expands, which I vaguely recall from a million years ago when I was in High School, is the basis of refrigeration. Paint will splatter a bit, hence the glove and old shirt, although I have never had a drop of paint hit anything but my hand.

--When you are done, clean up the paint on and around the jar, but DO NOT cover it! The propellant is still escaping the paint, so if you do cover the jar tightly, you have just made a small paint bomb that will explode when you open it again.

--I let the paint de-gas with no lid for about 5 minutes, then I VERY LOOSELY put the cover on the jar, which will keep dust out and let the gas continue to escape.

--Set the jar aside for several hours- at least 3-4- where nobody will bump it and make it spill, including you!

--After this de-gasing time, it is safe to stir the paint. If there are still lots of bubbles coming out of the paint, it is still too early to use it.

--When the paint has settled down, you will very likely need to thin it, because a lot of the solvents have evaporated as the paint degased. With the Tamiya lacquer I decanted, I used Tamiya lacquer thinner, which also works with Krylon and other rattle can paints. With Krylon paint, I usually need about 20% thinner, but with the Tamiya paint, I needed 40-50% thinner to get it to the right viscosity for spraying.

This all might sound complicated, but I decanted some more Tamiya today and it was very simple. It took me 5 minutes to decant the paint and clean up the mess and after 4 hours of degasing and some thinner, I was spraying again.

Hope this makes sense,

Chuck

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Chuck,

I came across a similar situation trying to source the Mr. Hobby Aqueous line of acrylic paints here in the US which I keep hearing is better than their Laquer type. I looked under every rock but I soon realized my efforts were exercise in futility so I just threw in the towel and bought a few of the Laquer based paints. My understanding is the aqueous line has been discontinued in place of another formula which I just bought a bottle of recently but I can't remember the name. I'm hoping this new line of paint is even better than the Laquer type.

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Chuck,

I came across a similar situation trying to source the Mr. Hobby Aqueous line of acrylic paints here in the US which I keep hearing is better than their Laquer type. I looked under every rock but I soon realized my efforts were exercise in futility so I just threw in the towel and bought a few of the Laquer based paints. My understanding is the aqueous line has been discontinued in place of another formula which I just bought a bottle of recently but I can't remember the name. I'm hoping this new line of paint is even better than the Laquer type.

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