AK Xtreme Metal - Gritty?

[Curt B]

Hi All,

 

I just sprayed parts of my 1/48 Hurricane with AK Xtreme Metal (AK 479, Aluminum), and for the first time, encountered a less than perfect finish.  The first few parts have a rough, gritty appearing finish, while the rest of the parts have their usual perfectly smooth 'polished metal looking' finish like I have always gotten in the past.  I mixed thoroughly, used the same pressure for all the parts, and sprayed from the same distance for all the parts, just that the first few have this gritty finish, that you can feel in addition to see.  I am in Las Vegas, the humidity is very low, and it's in the high 80s.  I've never encountered this before.  By the way, all the parts were sprayed from the same color cup, the earlier parts when the cup was at its most full, the later when the cup was closer to empty.  I'm using a CREOS Mr. Color PS289 (0.3mm needle) airbrush.  The brush was pristine clean when starting.  Those are all the parameters that I think are relevant.  It's not the end of the world, just puzzling.  Thoughts?

Edited May 18, 2020 by Curt B

[Bob Beary]

Were there any sharp angles involved?  Like wing to fuselage, where air turbulence could be a factor. Was the surface of the model consistently smooth?

 

Bob

[Curt B]

8 hours ago, Bob Beary said:

Were there any sharp angles involved?  Like wing to fuselage, where air turbulence could be a factor. Was the surface of the model consistently smooth?

 

Bob

Yes sir, no sharp angles, flat planes.

[TheRealMrEd]

You didn't say that the new painting was done from the same bottle of paint as the original.  Could you have a bad bottle?  I would test paint a test mule with another color from the earlier bottle if not the same, and also test the newer bottle/batch and try to pin down the quality aspect.

 

Also make certain that no different thinner, etc. made it's way into the picture.  Could just be a batch or poorly ground paint pigment.

 

Ed

[Curt B]

3 hours ago, TheRealMrEd said:

You didn't say that the new painting was done from the same bottle of paint as the original.  Could you have a bad bottle?  I would test paint a test mule with another color from the earlier bottle if not the same, and also test the newer bottle/batch and try to pin down the quality aspect.

 

Also make certain that no different thinner, etc. made it's way into the picture.  Could just be a batch or poorly ground paint pigment.

 

Ed

 

 This is the same bottle I've used before, several times on other projects, and never encountered this.  And again, the finish at the end of the color cup was perfect, it was just the first few pieces that were 'gritty', while I did absolutely nothing different in terms of pressure, distance, volume of paint, or anything.  Everything was exactly the same between the beginning and the end of the volume of paint in the color cup.  I can't figure it...  The airbrush was perfectly clean at the beginning, so it's not contamination.  I didn't need to thin the paint...it's perfect right from the bottle.  This is metal Aluminum...so no thinning required.

[11bee]

I used their stuff, it airbrushed beautifully for me.   You have to shake the crap out of it before painting but that's it.   These are my new go-to paints for metallics.