Polishing, With or Without Clear coat

[kymdlr]

Ive been painting models for years now and am usually satisfied with simply clearing after my final coat and calling it done. Now I want to try a polishing kit, (the various sandpaper grits followed by rubbing compound / polish) . My question is, are yall seeing better results as far as quality / gloss of the finish when you polish with a clear coat applied over your color coat or should I just polish the color coat without applying clear?

[Ace-Garageguy]

To vastly oversimplify, many colors and types of paint will polish up beautifully with no clearcoat, if they're sufficiently dry. Enamels generally take longer to accept a polish.

There are SOME paints that WON'T look good polished without clear. In my experience, it's the metallics and pearls (the ones with little flakes of sparklies in them) that usually cause problems. Some of these colors will become blotchy and uneven as you try to wetsand and polish them, because the little flakes are uncovered unevenly during the process. The only way to be certain you avoid this problem is to spray a test section of other plastic as you paint your model, and test the effects of sanding / polishing on the particular paint...BEFORE you go on to sand and polish the model.

Once you've buggered the surface of a metallic paint, the ONLY way to correct it is to shoot more paint to even out the flake again, and then to clearcoat BEFORE you attempt to sand and polish.

There are also some paints like Testors basecoat-clearcoat formulations that, just like in real life, are DESIGNED to be clearcoated. The basecoats alone will produce a flat or semi-gloss surface (sometimes useful for interior or other parts) and will polish up a little, but are intended to be cleared to get the full depth of color and gloss.

Edited July 2, 2014 by Ace-Garageguy

[jwrass]

Ron,

I know nothing about the Testors products.

I know much about the products and processes of which Bill speaks of, he is absolutely 100% correct

[kymdlr]

Thanks gents. My rule is to never sand metallics period so a sufficent amount of clear on them before polish is understandable. I only use the testors /model master lacquers, duplicolor lacquers and tamiya lacquers.

[ZTony8]

I've been succeesful in polishing uncleared metallic on more than one occasion.Maybe I've just been lucky.