Tamiya acrylic clear

[majel]

Has anyone used Tamiya X-22 clear through an airbrush on a body?  I have a funny car that was painted with Tru-color blue pearl and i have a bottle of X-22.  Decals have been applied, front grille and bumper are alclad chrome.  Don't really want to clear the chrome, but i don't really want to chance taping it off and lifting the chrome or leaving tape residue.  It's the acrylic a good choice or should I use TS-13 spray lacquer or Future?

 

[Plowboy]

I only use TS-13. 

[peteski]

I'm pretty sure that either of the Tamiya clears will dull your Alclad chrome paint.  Only water-based acrylic coatings should not dramatically change the Alclad chrome sheen.

[Dave G.]

X-22 gives a wet look finish if done right through an airbrush. But I have not shot it over Alclad so can't comment on that.

[Rider]

I used it all the time through and AB, thinned 2:1 with 90%+ ISO Alcohol. It will dull Alclad. Both of these were cleared with Tamiya Acrylic clear. 

[dmthamade]

Never used it over Alclad,. I have used a lot of X-22 as a gloss, thinned with Mr Color Leveler Thinner, start at 50/50 at low pressure. Excellent shine, levels off and dries fast. The fumes are like TS-13, so ventilate!! Used this on aircraft before decaling to prevent silvering decals. 

[Dave G.]

Ya for the clearest clear with X-22 I use lacquer thinner. Alcohol will drop the gloss a notch or two. Literally a wet look with lacquer thinner in my experience. I use regular old fashion Klean Strip from the hardware store or Home Depot and a couple drops of retarder. Be careful when buying lacquer thinner, the green friendly stuff is around now and so far everyone says it sucks.

Mr Leveling is good too, probably can nix the retarder with that and not quite so fussy with soaking it on really wet. Mr has retarder in it already.

[dmthamade]

A trick I've never tried but have heard and seen give excellent results is to mist a coat of straight lacquer thinner or Mr Color over the build, supposed to help level the last coat.

Don

[Dave G.]

18 hours ago, dmthamade said:

A trick I've never tried but have heard and seen give excellent results is to mist a coat of straight lacquer thinner or Mr Color over the build, supposed to help level the last coat.

Don

That can work if there are enough coats under it, if not it maybe level but lose anywhere from some to a lot of gloss. I've done this in 1/1 more successfully than on models. I find with Tamiya acrylics just thin the last coat a smidgen extra and really lay it on. And the retarder helps in general. That's my experience anyway with the Tamiya gloss line in general. Just sayin, because so much depends on how each individual actually lays on their paint.

[Bill Eh?]

In one of GeeBee's (Geoff Brown) last posts in "What did you get today?", he shows two 250 ml bottles of Tamiya Lacquer Thinner, One has Retarder. This might be the equivalent of Mr Hobby self leveling thinner.

[Mike999]

On 11/1/2019 at 6:51 PM, Bill Eh? said:

In one of GeeBee's (Geoff Brown) last posts in "What did you get today?", he shows two 250 ml bottles of Tamiya Lacquer Thinner, One has Retarder. This might be the equivalent of Mr Hobby self leveling thinner.

Interesting.  Never used Tamiya #87114 Acrylic Retarder thru an airbrush, but it is really useful for brush-painting Tamiya acrylics. They tend to dry very quickly without it, and leave brush marks.  The Retarder smooths out the acrylics and gives them a slower drying time. 

On various modelling boards, I've read that only one clear paint will not dull Alclad Chrome.  That's Alclad's own ALC-600 Aqua Gloss.  I recently got a bottle of Aqua Gloss but haven't had a chance to try it out over Chrome yet.  

One of my more successful experiments was clear-coating a black paint job with about 70% Tamiya Acrylic Gloss Clear, 20% Pledge and 10% alcohol. The clear coat went on smooth and dried quickly to a rock-hard finish.