What happened to my paint?

[charlie8575]

This was one of my more frustrating paint jobs, to sat the least.

The model in question is my 1925 Model T coupe. Painted using Plasti-Kote primer and ModelMaster Classic Black, thinned with Ace lacquer thinner and airbrushed.

The paint didn't go on as well as I had hoped, and was always touch rough without the gloss I would've liked. That said, it still sanded okay and I figured with adequate polishing, I would be able to get it to the point where I'd like it to be.

After one final coat that was still a bit coarse, but had decent gloss, I decided to polish it with some Novus #2, which made it fairly smooth and to the point where I could gloss clear it and have a presentable paint job.

To make sure no polish residues affected the clear-coat, I put the parts in my cleaning tank for a couple of days to let it soak- nothing fancy. Room-temperaure water with some dish soap.

After pulling the parts, the paint was all lumpy and felt odd. Fearing the worst, I took a toothbrush to see what might happen, and this was the result!

These are the following possible causes I've isolated based on thinking about this over the last several days.

1. Some kind of reaction between the Novus and the dish soap.

2. Some kind of reaction between the Novus and the paint (note: the primer-coat was not affected, and is now the best part of the paint job!)

3. Bad paint.

4. Bad thinner (something I've suspected as that lacquer thinner never seemed to work quite right).

5. Bad application (new airbrush and still getting the hang of this one).

Thoughts?

Charlie Larkin

[LoneWolf15]

Charlie ,

Just my thoughts ....

Do not use the Novus if you intend to clear coat the paint . If you need to remove the Novus , wash it off with Top Job or Bleche white and rinse thoroughly . By allowing the body to sit in the water , it absorbed it and probably hadn't fully flashed out .

As for the paint ..... The fact that you didn't achieve a gloss could have been twofold . # 1 - a bit too much thinner in the mix will knock down MM 's gloss . Due to the rough texture , I believe #2 might be the culprit . You were spraying from too far a distance and the paint was drying as it hit the surface , leaving an orange pealed surface .

If the laquer thinner was at fault here , you'd know it as it would have etched the body .

[Draggon]

Some dish soap contains alcohol to reduce spotting on dishes. That would certainly eat up your paint.

[Nxr]

That actually looks pretty cool i would keep it

[Guest]

It's a reaction from the water/soap/paint. Water will cause acrylic lacquer paints and primers to bubble. I've had it happen to both. I sand my models in a water pan with a couple of inches of water and a few drops of dish detergent or soap in it. If I leave a model in it too long, it will begin to make tiny bubbles appear in the paint or primer. First time it happened was with a primered body. I left it in the water pan overnight and right at the water level, the primer had bubbled badly. I let it dry and most of them went away. But, I sanded the primer off just to be sure. Paint will do it also especially if it's only a few days old and left in water too long. To remove any polish/wax residue, I just spray on some glass cleaner and give it a thorough washing and rinsing.

[racefan 777]

Perhaps it is just how it would look since it is a 25 T.