foxbat426

thats what i'm told - michaesl stores has 3 different spray bottles of testors clear - they are all laquer based. i was just wondering if there was a good alternative to the testors brand in an enamel.

My local Michaels stores carries a very limited amount of modeling supplies and there are no local hobby shops. My questions is what's a good brand of clearcoat that would be on par with the testors enamel based clear that I could buy a a hardware store or Wal-mart? minwax?? also is clear coat, as in testors enamel based clear coats just polyurethane?? just trying to figure all of this out. i was going to use the testors "wet look", but i would like to stick with enamel as per Donn Yosts instructions. Thx again, john

i agree with midnightprowler, i would keep it stock appearing.

Great information - all of it! I will try the pastel sticks for the tire lettering as the chaulk works nice, but it's too light. On the badge for this GTO i'm doing - This is my third build. What i did was sprayed with flat enamel right over the GTO badge on either side of the car. My intentions were to deal with it with silver paint after i clear coated, but the badges started to disappear more and more with each coat. what i did was masked the badge off and lightly sanded away the flat enamel paint over the badges. i used a very fine sandpaper and lo and behold the badges are popping through beautifully flat with the paint. The only problem is they'll be white on this build as I didn't use the BMF underneath - thats ok with me as I'm learning a ton here. the white should look fine under the clear. Next i'm going to clear coat the Goat! Thx

yes greg - these are basically scuffs - thx

is it any good?? i was going to use it as my clear over flat enamel. thx

stupid question but i sanded down some paint to expose a badge and now the badge is showing but the paint around it has some light scratches. I don't want to sand around it much more as to mess up the badge. i plan on 3 coats of clear so I was wondering if the clearcoat will cover the slight blemish around the badge.

i thought about the chalk method - one problem i see is it won't get real bright like paint. also do you seal it with future once you have it right?? I haven't tried the bare metal foil method for the badges. I have tried removing paint from badges though and letting the white plastic show through and I have to say that you can mess up your paint job pretty quick with this method with one slip up.

was just thinking of using these for the goodyear etc. lettering on tires - painting some tires is almost impossible.

I mean seriously why do the manufacturers even put this small lettering in their molds to show up on the bodys and tires. I have a pretty steady hand and can get some badges and tire lettering painted, but the lettering that comes on the tires with this Monogram 69 GTO are small. There has got to be a better way.

how did you do the badges?

I'm painting a 69 GTO and The lettering is small. i'm afraid there won't be enough to paint after applying the clearcoat. should I paint the badges before or after the clearcoat??

Thanks everyone - its amazing how your mistakes turn into huge learning experiences. here I was thinking i had to strip all of this matte finish paint off (michaels stores goofed and put matte bottles where gloss was suppose to be), to be resprayed with a gloss paint. Now I have a whole new way of doing things.

thx I will. i did decant a can of yellow testors into a bottle a few months ago and it worked great - it did blow back some paint and propellent, but for the most part it worked great. That's why i was wondering why some go to the trouble of all of these elaborate decanting systems, seems like over kill - But I will use a straw next time. Thanks

Its seems to me like it does. Also Matte finish enamel paint seems to be more forgiving i.e. less mistakes and less running. what i'm wondering is, does anyone here use just matte finish paints for these reasons and then finish off with clear when doing bodies? it also seems like matte finish is "tighter" vs gloss. I'm talking enamels here. I'm pretty new to this - this is just an observation on my part.

No Jon I didn't take it as mean - no problem buddy!. I was panicking as I've been preparing to paint this car for the past week and then Michaels had to go and put the wrong paint in their Labeled display case. I should have brought my reading glasses, but i just assumed it was gloss green instead of flat green and the lettering on those small bottles is almost impossible to read at my age. Anyway one thing I have noticed is that for some reason matte paint dries much quicker than gloss paint and that you get a more forgiving paint job with the matte paint. If this clear coat thing works and comes out shiney enough, I might do all of my models with matte enamel paint and then clearcoat vs. just using gloss enamel paint. Thanks for all the great advice! - i'm going to let this dry for a few days and then clearcoat this as you have suggested - The last thing i want to do is strip this down and restart with gloss paint - i love shiney finishes and I'm hoping this "wet look" works thx, john

2 to 1 - paint to thinner. also jon as far as decanting the "wet look" so I can airbrush it, can't i just spray it right into the bottle and collect it like that? why do people go through the hassle with the straws and such? thx again and sorry for the multiple posts

OK martinfan5, what your're saying is if I thinned the enamel paint with laquer thinner, then I can use the laquer based clearcoat i.e. "the wet look". Danno - I used future on a earlier build and it started to crack - i rather stay away from it with the fear in might happen again. thx

Ok i'm really mad right now - i painted the body of my 69 GTO today. I finally decided on a dark green, a popular color for the judge. So I went over to Michaels stores and purchased what i thought was gloss green from the their testor display, you know the little 1 oz. bottles. I'm using an airbrush and the finish came out great, but i quickly noticed the finish was dull. Turns out Michaels had Flat green were Gloss green should have been. My question is what is the best way to make the coat shiney?? Will a clear coat fix this?? Also i never used a clearcoat before and the ones they have at Michaels Stores are a laquer based clear coat by Testors. Can laquer clear go over enamel paint? Is their such a thing as enamel clear coats?? Should I be using those?? The laquer I purchased is called the "wet look" by Testors and its in a can and it's laquer based. They didn't have it in the little bottles so I can't shoot it from my airbrush. Just want to get this thing shiney! Be interested in hearing all opinions on this. Thanks so much, John

beautiful - can't wait to see the final build - i might use that white (testors) on my GTO build. The GTO on the box is Cameo White and that looks pretty close - its not too bright!

I mean that! I've been involved in a lot of different hobby's over the years and the model car builders here are by far are the best bunch of people i've met. I'm sure there are exceptions , but no secrets or tips are held back and you can never ask a stupid question - i really feel at home here amongst some very talented people - I'm a beginner and i've caught the bug - great hobby! Just saying - John

I've never used this stuff, but my local autozone has a nice selection. Just curious how builders here are using this for airbrushing, if they use it at all? Do you decant it? is it the same to spray this through an airbrush as lets say the little testor enamel bottles? up until now the little testor bottles is all I use and i use them through an airbrush. thx, john

Love it, beautiful engine work!! I love stock cars and this one is exceptional - congrats!

beautiful!

I would like to hear from people who have enough builds to have used various white paints. I was thinking of doing a GTO in cameo white, but to tell you the truth I like to use paints that are available to me locally vs. ordering them special on-line. I can get testors gloss white enamel, but what i would like to know is when all is said and done will i notice much of a difference between and "dover or cameo" white vs. just a plain gloss white enamel? Thx, john