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Flat/Clear Coat Opinions Please...


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Hey guys.. SO after being on a 20 year hiatus or so, I restocked pretty much everything I used to have... Paints, adhesives etc... What I forgot, was to get a good flat/cear coat and wondering if any of you can suggest some good ones! 

 

Thanks for everything! -Ed

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What paints are you using?   I’ve switched over to lacquers.  I’ve been using MRP clear but recently bought a quart of clear from an auto parts store and some Mr. Color flattening agent to mix my own flats and semi-gloss clears. 

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On 3/9/2023 at 9:01 PM, Scott Smith said:

What paints are you using?   I’ve switched over to lacquers.  I’ve been using MRP clear but recently bought a quart of clear from an auto parts store and some Mr. Color flattening agent to mix my own flats and semi-gloss clears. 

I'm getting ready to gloss an F-15E that was painted with AK Real Colors.. Need a gloss/flat coat.  

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I’d stick with a lacquer since that what you’ve used. How smooth is the color coat?  I haven’t tried AK, but my experience with Mr. Color is that it is smooth enough for decals to not silver underneath them.  No need for a gloss clear first.  But any of the lacquer brands will be fine.  MRP, Mr. Color, etc. 

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I've had better experience with Gunze H30 as a gloss than Tamiya X-22. For the matt coat I use Tamiya XF-86 but I'm not too happy about it. Feels not matt enough. It might all be because of the paint to thinner ratio, as I'm mixing it more like 30/70 to 50/50 thinner/clear.

I've used Vallejo clear gloss and matt - the white bottle ones. They seemed ok. Gloss was amazing. But it felt sticky for like a week. I used Tamiya thinner, and I might have just added too much. I'll have to do some more testing. This time thinning with water.

Oh, these are all acrylics.

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  • 2 weeks later...

For a flat finish, I cannot recommend AK Interactive Ultra Matte Varnish #183 highly enough!!!  I used to use Testor's Dullcoat, which works great also, however, the Testor's is a lacquer, and as such, uses lacquer thinner for thinning and cleanup, which means nasty smell and other negatives involved with lacquers, whereas AK Ultra Matte is water based, which means easier thinning and cleanup, no smell, and it is absolutely DEAD FLAT!  I LOVE this stuff.  You can apply it with either an airbrush, or paint brush, and they both work great.

 

For gloss, I agree with the previously discussed Tamiya X-22.

Edited by Curt B
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I still use MM enamels. As such, I use Testors gloss/dull coat on my models. No mixing, no adding, no levelers, etc. Straight out of the can.

 

The base coat grey was airbrushed, the clears were rattlecan.

 

 

A-6E.jpg

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Any yellowing issues?  I tried it on a white model years ago and it had a slight yellow tint to it.  Had to strip it and start over. 
Not sure if I had a can from a bad batch or just really old. 
Also had some Tamiya spray can lacquer that was gloss but dried a semi-gloss.  Apparently it was a bad batch or just labeled wrong.  

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I havent had any yellowing that I have noticed. Then again, my cans never get more than about 3 years old. (Im not a prolific builder) I do shake them quite a bit, and make sure that they are at least room temperature.

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