Createx Wicked Colors Paint Questions

[rsxse240]

So I've bought a few of the Wicked Colors water based airbrush colors at Hobby Lobby. I like the way they lay down, but I haven't had good luck with clearing it. enamel and lacquer clears either fog, craze or fisheye. I would like to get paints local, but don't want to spend $60 on 2K at the body shop. Is there a one step urethane available that I can get at a local shop like lowes, home depot, any auto parts store or body shop?

Another thing I'd like to know about the colors, is with their blacks. There is a Wicked Black and a Wicked Jet Black. Is there enough of a difference in the two that a two tone paint job can be done or is it only a difference sheen or is one metallic or pearl?

[bobthehobbyguy]

What about using future to clear it?

[ferrarijoe]

I use future as a clear over it. You can add a little simple green to it for a wet look.

[jrherald420]

Why not use the Wicked Colors clear?

[kalbert]

I haven't used the Wicked Colors, but have used lots of future since being told about it a few years ago. Future will go over anything, and gives a good gloss without being thick.

[rsxse240]

I hadn't thought about that. I don't know why. I usually use future for aircraft canopies and headlight/tail light lenses to remove any scuffs and to "thin down" the material. A friend let me borrow a can of "Jambing" clear which is used for blending clear coat into the paint on door jambs. I haven't tried it yet, he says it's urethane that is designed for use on acrylic automotive paint.

Thanks for the tips, I'll try the future for sure.

[Chief Joseph]

Wicked Jet Black is one of the "Detail" colors and Wicked Black is a standard color. The Detail Jet Black will dry to a flat sheen and the Standard Black dries to more of a satin of semi-gloss sheen. There is no metallic or pearl in either one, but these paints will easily take Pearl-Ex powders.

You really shouldn't have any trouble using regular hobby clears over Wicked Colors paint; if you decide to use Future, go easy with the application. I've had Future crack the surface of a Wicked Colors black paint job after four or five days.

[Skip]

I've been using the Wicked Colors for a little while, use their reducer. It lays down really well, shoot it through my Harborfreight DeLuxe airbrush. Use future for clear coat polished out with Novus plastic polish. This system gives a very good shine without a bunch of toxic fumes in the Hobby Room. There wasn't much of a learning curve (for me) getting the system to work. Still use decanted rattlecan primer to "anchor" the bodywork.

[carro]

Last kit I built I used wicked grey and cleared it with Duplicolor gloss acrylic lacquer clear decanted and sprayed with my airbrush. Besides a little bit of orange peel it laid down good and after polishing it looked great.

[my80malibu]

I have not had any issue with wicked paints and duplicolor clear at all

[jbwelda]

Skip, you mention their reducer. This question will probably reveal my ignorance as far as airbrush goes, but is a reducer the same as a thinner?

reason I ask is because I bought some of this wicked color paint a while ago and only tried it once. when I did I used their reducer to thin it out. but what it seemed to do was make it puddle up and not dry. I was shooting at my normal 20 - 25 psi and I just could not get it to work. a friend of mine with more experience than I suggested that the reducer was not to be used as a thinner but was more to reduce the amount of color or something (really didn't follow what he was saying).

I just wrote it off but now I am curious...what is this reducer stuff and how is it different from thinner? I was to thin the viscosity of the liquid, not the color. if reducer is not for that, what is? would this stuff thin with distilled water? I tried lacquer thinner and it immediately turned into a goopy mess that clogged my airbrush.

any pointers would be appreciated, I would like to use this paint. I already found out about the semigloss finish but I can deal with that with Future.

thanks

jb

[Chief Joseph]

"Reducer" is a term I think the paint industry came up with a while back to differentiate between the "thinner" that lacquer and enamel paints used and the chemicals used to thin the newer urethane paints. They aren't really cross-compatible, so "reducer" was used to help the manufacturers and the end-users communicate more effectively. That's my theory, anyway. Whether it's called thinner or reducer, the purpose is the same.

The Wicked Reducer is wonderful stuff (there are actually two different versions, standard and high-performance-- not sure exactly what the difference is) and you can literally mix the paint & reducer at any ratio and still get a usable paint mix. Wicked colors can be thinned with distilled water, but after too much dilution, the paint film will become weak. In my experience, Wicked Colors perform best when sprayed at fairly high pressure. They really need to go onto a good primer surface, too. Spraying them directly onto bare plastic can cause the paint to bead and turn splotchy. The reducer will extend the drying time and help keep the paint from drying at the tip.

[jbwelda]

hey thanks joseph, that makes sense and what you said about reducer delaying the drying time is just what I experienced. and I was shooting onto bare plastic (though I tested it first on something I use for paint tests so it had effectively been "primed" and had good results). so what you say matches exactly my experience. I will continue to use the reducer but will be sure to prime the surfaces I want to paint (I usually do but in this instance I did not).

so what is "fairly high pressure"? I was at about 22 psi I think.

many thanks again

jb

[Skip]

jb, Joseph's description of "Reducer" is spot on with my understanding what it is. The term goes back farther than Acrylic and water based paints, it probably came about when paint manufacturers went to "paint Systems" I.e. Using same and or recommend thinners from the paint manufacturer. It may refer to the fact that there is a thinning agent only versus a thinning agent with an accelerator or retarder.

Hobby Lobby (other dealers probably too) sells a DVD along with the Wicked Colors which gives some pretty good application tips. One which probably would have helped your first paint job would be to "roughen" the surface with something like a Scotchbrite pad to give it a little tooth. This probably is the reason you got a pilled effect where the paint beaded up on the surface. They go into reducing and the use of non-pigmented acrylic base mixed in with the paint itself as well as some basic manipulation of the air pressure. I would recommend picking up the DVD for anyone new to acrylic painting as well as watching Chris Chapman's Acrylic Tutorials here in the Tips, Tricks section.

I currently thin the Wicked Colors with their Reducer right around 1:1, air pressure set at 20 - 25 psi, so far I have only shot through a gravity feed airbrush, it may need adjusted a bit for siphon feed. I haven't had a surface that I didn't do some bodywork on yet so I haven't just scuffed the surface and sprayed, it works on their DVD so I'm sure it will work on a models surface as well.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Skip

[jbwelda]

thanks Skip, I will look into that DVD.

>non-pigmented acrylic base

yes this is beginning to sound familiar. I would think that adding this to your pigmented paint would keep the same viscosity but lighten the color, not thin the viscosity of the material itself.

sounds like my problem was definitely the smoothness of the plastic because everything else I was doing sounds like it was within tolerances. I did have a problem earlier that night with mixing the WC paint with lacquer thinner and clogging my airbrush badly. it could be I was still having problems later after I cleaned my AB, probably because I had not cleaned it well enough. when I did take it all apart I found a bunch of the congealed gunk in some nooks and crannies, so maybe that was contributing to the problem.

now that I know this I might try again tonite or tomorrow to shoot some onto a primed surface. or maybe some spoons or something.

thanks again!

jb

jb

[Skip]

Spraying acrylic paints is sort of a learning curve for those of us who have sprayed toxic anything onto our models and other stuff for years.

Lacquer used to be kind of fun until the "lacquer buzz" turned into the "lacquer headache"! One of the automotive Art magazines I subscribe to has a monthly column on materials safety, seems a whole lot of us Old farts are getting sensitized to the chemicals we've used for many years. I've been pretty careful over the years, I got laughed at once or twice for wearing respirators while painting even with rattle cans, I've had a Paasche spray booth for a long time. I've noticed the weird side effects of using many of the paints was lessened just by using a few simple safety items and techniques some as easy as reading labels.

[Jon Haigwood]

If you look on youtube for AutoAir (same people that make Wicked colors) paint tips there on video.

http://www.youtube.com/user/SMDesignsAirbrush

[trapper]

Hello everybody, Iam just wondering if anyone has used wicked colors airbrush paints? If so, what did you think? Iam thinking about trying them but I would like to know what they are like first. Any help would be great, Thanks.

[Chief Joseph]

They work well. To see some past discussions, copy & paste this line into Google or your browser address bar:

site:modelcarsmag.com wicked colors

They are water-borne, so they don't adhere to bare plastic like good old enamel or lacquer. Bare plastic should either be primed or cleaned really well and scuffed. The paint works straight out of the bottle with a large-ish airbrush nozzle and lots of air pressure, or you can reduce it to work with smaller airbrushes and lower air pressure. Don't thin them with water-- only use the Wicked or Auto-Air reducers. They go on either satin-like or matte ("detail" colors), and should be top-coated with a clear if you are painting a body. Just about any clearcoat will work over them.

[fseva]

They are water-borne, so they don't adhere to bare plastic like good old enamel or lacquer. Bare plastic should either be primed or cleaned really well and scuffed. The paint works straight out of the bottle with a large-ish airbrush nozzle and lots of air pressure, or you can reduce it to work with smaller airbrushes and lower air pressure. Don't thin them with water-- only use the Wicked or Auto-Air reducers. They go on either satin-like or matte ("detail" colors), and should be top-coated with a clear if you are painting a body. Just about any clearcoat will work over them.

The Auto-Borne colors use some solvent so that they flow better - I find they make nice paints for interiors because they generally turn out flat or satin. I have tried airbrushing Wicked colors, but the concept of reducing with a specific amount of reducer is so foreign to me, I stopped trying. I have no problem reducing my lacquers with just about any amount of thinner I want... in fact, it seems the thinner a lacquer is, the farther it goes. However, that doesn't apply to all lacquers. Alclad Polished Aluminum is very thin, but does not go very far. So, it may actually be thinned too much so that the company makes a better profit.