Why did my paint turn out like this?

[Inspector Exacto]

Hello all, and thank you in advance for any tips and help you all can give me. You can skip to the next paragraph if you don't feel like reading the backstory of this build, it really makes no difference.

I haven't built a model car since I was in grade school (I'm 25) and back then I never bothered painting them. Well once I did but that turned out horrible because I had no idea what I was doing. Not that I've learned much since then, but at least I know more these days. I got a small bonus from work in the form of a Visa gift card and I had no clue what to use it on. I was at my local hobby shop for my fiance when I noticed a model kit (I still browse through those aisles every time I'm there) of a 1987 Buick Grand National by Monogram. I absolutely love these cars and that gift card was burning a hole in my pocket. I thought to myself "I'm going to buy this kit and build it proper, with paint and what not and I'm going to put real effort in this and finish it and it will look awesome!" So I picked it up along with the correct color paints listed and some glue. My fiance said "eww, thats an old person car." I thought that was funny.

So I got all of the paints required accept the black for the body. I figured I would just get a can of regular spray paint for plastics to save some money. I picked up a can of "Krylon Fusion for plastics : gloss" at my local hardware store in black. Well I painted the major body parts (after washing them) with 3 coats thinking the next day it would look like the car on the box. I was very carefull not to touch any of it and I left it on a table in my garage overnight. Well, much to my surprise, it didn't. I have pictures showing how it turned out. There seems to be a lot of uneven drying and the texture seems uneven too. Also, in a few spots on the body, lines came through that were there in the plastic when I got it. I circled them. What am I missing? Will a coat of clear gloss finish fix this? Does that even exist? Do I need more coats? Should I better control the atmosphere where it dries? Should I never have used this paint? I hope I didn't completely ruin this kit. Thanks again!

Oh yeah, and I did this all a couple months ago when it was still warm outside.

[Danno]

Fusion is not a good choice for models. Fusion etches plastic. It's good for plastic outdoor furniture or other objects for which a fine finish is not the goal, but it is not a good choice for models ... as you've discovered.

I have not tried to salvage a body painted with Fusion, so I don't know what you can do with this. I tried Fusion when it first came out, before anybody started hitting the internet with posts about it. I had the same result. I just scrapped the body because it looked too damaged to salvage.

My second instinct would be to try removing the paint (soak it in Purple Power) but you may have to sand the texture out of it. Perhaps some primer-sealer will fill some of the etching, but you'll likely lose some of the desired detail of the body.

Anybody have any experience trying to rehab a Fusion (or hot lacquer) application like this?

[Ace-Garageguy]

I rebulid a lot of gluebombs and models people are tired of or giving up on because they've had something like this happen, and from my experience, I'd say you have a couple of options.

First, it probably won't work to strip it. The 'hot' ('hot' refers to the strength of the solvents in it, which bite into the plastic, hence the name "Fusion") paint you've used has etched into the plastic just as Danno explained....it's as if you sprayed the car with black-tinted liquid glue. You could conceiveably bury it in clear and sand / polish it, but you'd lose all the surface detail in the process. You could also try to primer it with something like Duplicolor High Build primer (which you can get at the auto-parts store....many guys here use it, including me) carefully sanding between coats until the crazing has been buried, but again, you'll lose all of the fine detail ( like the emblems and the nicely engraved grille) in the process.

What I would suggest is to build a custom out of it. You're going to lose the surface detail whatever you do, so this is a great opportunity to pick up some new skills and make something really cool out of a semi-disaster. With the door handles and locks shaved and filled, and the emblems, wheel-arch moldings and roof drip-rails shaved too, you can primer it with Duplicolor, sand it really really slick, and shoot some Testors black lacquer over it, then clear it and sand and polish. You CAN end up with a wicked-bad GN that looks like it was all intentional.

Not to steal your thread, but just as an illustration....the model below is basically the same idea, with all the trim shaved, and ONE reason I built it this way is that I had the exact same problem with some too-hot primer on the deckild of it. It was WORSE than your GN, by far. Don't despair, just keep moving forward. And remember, this kind of stuff has happened to most of us here. Mistakes are how you learn, so keep on building and welcome to the forum.

Edited December 1, 2012 by Ace-Garageguy

[Harry P.]

Bill... great tip on turning lemons into lemonade. Nicely done.

[Inspector Exacto]

Wow, I sure am glad I came here for help. Thanks a lot for the tips and advice guys, this is great. Now I'm kicking myself for getting this paint. Thats a good idea you had, Bill, about making a custom GN out of this blunder. I'm thinking about it. At first I was looking into Purple Power, but if that texture is actually the plastic and not just the paint, maybe I'll try sanding it with super fine paper... or if I get a real good deal on ebay, I might just get another one and then I would have 2 of everything in case I mess up!

Either way, I will definantly be comming back for more tips and tricks and hopefuly I will learn some valuable things! Thanks again guys, I'm not going to be a stranger!

[AirForceOne]

I've been using Dupli-Color's touch up sprays from Autozone/Advance Auto for years. It's a complete primer/basecoat/clear system and it sprays very easily.

[Guest]

Did you primer the body before you painted it? Kinda looks like you didn't. Primer is always the base for a good paint job. It makes all the difference.

[Inspector Exacto]

No I didn't because the paint said it was a primer+paint. Should I still primer if the paint is 2in1 like that? I didn't primer when I painted my computer case for the same reason and it turned out nice. Of course that is metal but the front faceplate is plastic and it turned out great.

[my80malibu]

I will definantly be comming back for more tips and tricks and hopefuly I will learn some valuable things!

This very Important step, will by far help you in so many ways.

[clavender17]

same here !!!

[Sixties Sam]

You could spray it with a coat of Testors gloss black enamel. It's made for plastic models. Don't put too much on, or you will lose a lot of detail.

[Inspector Exacto]

Are you saying that I could try painting over the faulty paint with that Testors enamel? I remember I didn't buy the modeling spray paint at the hobby shop because it was crazy more expensive than regular hardware store paint (it very well might have been Testors brand). But if I could save my car, then maybe I'll give it a go!

[Ace-Garageguy]

Are you saying that I could try painting over the faulty paint with that Testors enamel? I remember I didn't buy the modeling spray paint at the hobby shop because it was crazy more expensive than regular hardware store paint (it very well might have been Testors brand). But if I could save my car, then maybe I'll give it a go!

Sorry, but there's no easy, magic fix. A coat of Testors gloss black enamel sprayed over what you have will only give you a somewhat shiny version of what you have. It will look good for a moment or two, but as the solvents evaporate out it will shrink and sink into the surface crazing and show all the defects......unless you PILE it on.....enough to lose the details as Sixties Sam cautions about. The crazing now IS part of the surface detail, and putting on enough paint to fill it will obliterate the details you want to keep as well.

If you don't want to buid a shaved custom, I suggest you just consider the body a write-off, and use it to experiment on, trying different techniques on different areas. Nothing short of sanding, primering to fill the crazing, sanding slick, painting correctly and polishing the results will give you a class-A finish. Period.

A THING TO REMEMBER: The plastics that are loosely called 'styrene' that model cars are made of vary widely in composition, in reality. Some are far far more sensitive to solvents in paints and primers than others. No one here knows all the possible permutations of what paints will work on which models, so YOU have to experiment on the backside of kit parts or parts-trees BEFORE you try to paint a model with anything not specifically formulated for plastic-model use. One upside to using the 'expensive' paint is that it saves you from having to buy extra kits when one gets ruined, and it saves time in not having to do everything over and over. What's your time worth?

Edited December 2, 2012 by Ace-Garageguy

[Inspector Exacto]

You're right Ace-Garageguy. I just never imagined anything like this wold happen. The paint said it was for plastics so I thought nothing of it. But now I know. I think I will buy that Testors paint for my next car (another Grand National of course) and a quick stroll down eBay lane showed me that there are a hand full of these kits at any given time and some of them for pretty cheap!