1/72 Fine Molds F-4J - Mr. Hobby Mr. Super Clear gloss coat melting the decals...

[wm_cheng]

Argh, I might be getting old, but it always seems like 2 steps forward and 1 step back.  Thought I'd finally seal in all the decals under a gloss coat before the final finish, but for some reason, the gloss coat (maybe the Mr. Hobby Mr. Super Clear gloss spray cans - are these different to Mr. Color Spray gloss?) went on a little too thick, it "melted some of the decals" and pulled them in the direction of drying - I stood my model up on end vertically (in hopes to provide less surface for dust to fall on the drying clear coat) and the clear coat seems to have shifted and took some decals down with it.  The VF-84 is now distorted (just the center portion) and the 7 in the tail code is partially melted.  So weird, has anyone had this happen?  In all my years it hasn't happened before.  It also partially melted my weathering above USS ROOSEVELT into this weird pattern, don't know if I will keep it yet as I haven't seen weathering like this on a real plane.  I had to mask and re-spray that VF-84 with the gull grey (I thought it would be less intrusive than going through the clear coat to remove it) and pieced together another VF-84 to replace it and clear coat again.  I'm going to let the "7" and the "N" go as it is (as I don't have any spares to replace it with), but haven't decided on redoing the weathering or leaving it alone.

 

[wm_cheng]

I think I managed to save it by re-piecing the VF-84, but the font is subtly different and because I always know what I did, my eye is always drawn to the paint repair instantly, I hope it doesn't look repaired to the fresh person seeing it.  Its getting there very slowly, very hard to find time to work on it when I'm working.

[BuNo02100]

Nice save, I’d run with it and never look back

[seawinder]

For future reference I'd suggest either thinning/airbrushing one of the bottled Mr. Color clear glosses or decanting the spray can stuff, thinning it and airbrushing.

[wm_cheng]

Thanks for the advice, I went with spray can so I don't have to use my airbrush for the clear coats - I find they often clog up my airbrush really fast especially the flat/matte clear coats.  I would just go back to spraying airbrush clear coats instead of decanting, I think I should try again with a much lighter initially misting first and build up in layers, I thought I wanted to give a thick enough clear coat to hide the decal carrier film edges and allow it to self level, but I think I might have over done it and maybe didn't shake up the can long enough.

 

OK I've finally gotten my F-4 to a stage where I can sit back and take a little breather/rest.  Unfortunately, when I took off the mask for the canopy, a bunch of paint flaked off, as though the primer and paint didn't bite into the clear parts (only the canopy, this happened to my F-15 as well, I think my Alclad grey primer doesn't bite into clear parts as well and I had to hand brush fix a lot of chipped edges on the canopy unfortunately.  So much detail into the cockpit that is hidden in the photos, at least you can see a lot more with the naked eye.  I've always wanted a VF-84 Phantom (now I've got to do a VF-84 FineMolds F-14 to go with it).  Gotta say FineMolds did an excellent job with the gears and gear wells, although they are nicely augmented with Eduard PE parts.  I do love the Quinta 3D cockpit panels, much better than PE parts - just wished they did more in 1/72 scale.  I'm going to take a break down to do chores while I figure a way to weather the fuel tanks properly and build and paint the missiles which are a separate thing.  It's hard to not go overboard with the weathering, I've seen some amazing examples other modeling masters have done on the internet, but I have never seen any photographic evidence of the actual aircraft that was so weathered and stained.

[GeneK]

Quote

I've seen some amazing examples other modeling masters have done on the internet, but I have never seen any photographic evidence of the actual aircraft that was so weathered and stained.

 

Amen!

 

Your masterpiece is absolutely stunning in all respects, highlighting your "modeling master" abilities.

 

Gene K

Edited November 8, 2022 by GeneK

[Memphis]

Great work. Did you have any problems installing 3D decals? This set is for the Academy.

[wm_cheng]

22 hours ago, Memphis said:

Great work. Did you have any problems installing 3D decals? This set is for the Academy.

Not really, they were good, just some trimming here and there to fit, the only thing was the rear RIO panel was not the right shape and I had to piece together some bits and was left with some empty space to fill in the upper section.  I do wish they had a specific set for FineMolds.

[Memphis]

Thank you very much. This is valuable information for me. I bought a Eduard's set for F-4J (for Hasegawa) a few years ago. But the Quinta Studio product looks great. I think I need it. My Reskit's nozzle kit is in the mail, but I'm on a business trip right now.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Memphis