The Little World

Well, after all the paint mule  spraying, I took a second bite at the vegetables next day and discovered that the taste was not as bad as first feared:

a. Mr. Hobby matte acrylic paint can be sprayed with the Supercheap Auto clear car acrylic if you cut it with Mr. Hobby Levelling Thinner 400 instead of the Supercheap generic lacquer thinner. The Mr. Hobby stuff is not as “hot” as the generic and will not lift and craze as much. The Supercheap Auto clear car acrylic is very thick material, and you need to cut it far more than any other type – I was getting to 1:4 there at the end. It’ll go out through a 0.5 nozzle at that strength and make a wet coat, but it needs to be sprayed very close and you are bordering on running territory as you do.

b. Matte Mr. Hobby paint first and then Mr. Hobby Super Clear UV Cut makes good sense right up to the decal stage. It’ll take any decal very well and settle under any of the setting solutions. But woe to you if you then try to seal with that same rattle can of Mr. Hobby Super Clear UV Cut – it’ll stress even the sturdiest decals and either wrinkle them or put micro grooves in them.

This makes me wonder exactly what the Creos people imagine that you are going to do with the stuff? Nearly every model has some form of decal on it, but if it’s going to stuff them up, why go this route in the first place? Why not just use aqueous acrylic spray and do the two layers safely?

c. Mr. Hobby gloss paint and that same Super Clear UV Cut are fine together—and then you can decal and overspray with flatting covers like Tamiya Semigloss or Matte. As long as you mix thoroughly, shoot from a good distance, and shoot lightly, there’s no white spotting and no flooding. Actually there is not a lot of difference between the two bottles in the final appearance of the coating – both are a fine satin finish. The decal clear edge disappears under these as well.

d. The Cabot acrylic floor polish when sprayed on a cool surface – and kept cool – seems to work. It goes over matte Tamiya paint with no evidence of that crazing or surface disturbance seen when the mule was cured in a warm box. There is some sort of material in it, though, and I need to see if a microstrainer plus use of a tack rag on the model surface will lead to a smooth coat. This is promising, but here we go further down the rabbit hole…