Hi all,

My skills and experience obviously need a lot of work...

I was about to give my Corsair a final run of panel line washing with oils when distaster struck. I'll give you the layers of paint that went on:

- Tamiya navy blue rattle can (Laquer)
- two coats of Vloerplus (some dutch equivalent of Future but not as good I believe)
- one coat of Tamiya rattle can clear (laquer)

Now when I touched the fuselage with my turpentine wash for oil paints the whole laquer layer started to dissolve leaving me with a very drabby matted mess.

I would like to try and salvage what I can and was planning on either brushing on a coat of the Future alternative or airbrushing a coat of tamiya clear (acrylics in this case from the bottle).

There are remnants of the oil wash still on the fuselage so I need to be sure that nothing goes swimming around in the clear coat.

Any advice is heartily welcomed!

Albert

Hi Albert!

It's too bad for your Corsair! I would be happy to give you an advice but it's difficult to say what you should do without photographic evidence!
Could you post a picture of the problem area?

Jean-Luc

Hi Albert,
A great pity about the Corsair paint scheme
I think that the problem is the coat of clear laquer. If you apply the wash after the two coats of Vloerplus (this is assuming that this stuff is similar in makeup to Future) then you shouldn't have a problem. The coats of future act as a barrier to the thinners in the wash, the clear laquer is the same make up as the Tamiya navy blue rattle can (Laquer) so reacts the same to the thinner in the wash. I apply my washes after the Future (Klear) coats, then apply the finishing clear laquer.
It is possible that if I am correct, and the coats of Vloerplus are sufficient in protecting the underlying paint, then you may be able to remove the top coat of clear laquer with Turpintine. This is fraut with all sorts of potential prablems but you couls try, say on the underside of one of the tailplanes, to see what happens. I fear that the only alternative is to completely strip the model of all paint etc and start again.
As Jean-Luc says, it would be helpful if you could post a picture. If you can then do nothing until members have had a chance to see the problem and you may get more specific advice, here's hoping.
Mal

Hello Jean-Luc,

I am honoured to see that you will give it a try helping me since I saw your corsair some weeks ago and found it a very beautiful rendition of this model!

Now let's see if I can get the images up and describe...



here you see all the streaking going on and the lacquer eaten away... the fuselage is very matted now.



here in this 3/4 top shot you see it also. lots of streaking on the wing root and the main body very matted (it was glossy before that!)



a total side shot .

now there is one more thing that compounds the problem... the bottom is toally sprayed with the Tamiya clear lacquer and very glossy. Luckily I have not touched it but that gives me a bottom that is coated with onlyl acquer and a top that has vloerplus (dutch future) and lacquer on top of that and that has been eaten away by the turpentine wash...

Albert

Hi Mal,

Another great honour! I have read through several of your articles on Future and washes (look what I have done with your shared knowledge )

Maybe my second message crossed yours but the compounded problem (or my bad luck) is that the underside has no future (equivalent), just the clear lacquer coat.

But luckily I haved washed the underside yet so I could do an acrylic wash there (just some light panel line work...)

As to starting over.. this is my first model in 30 years (I left of with a 1/35 Tamiya semi track model when I was 15). This one was going rather nice (some rough spots on the future coat...) until I really blew the washing yesterday. Wouldn't it be an option to try and spray an acrylic clear coat over thsi all or will the turpentine and oil residu bounce of the coat?

Albert

Not your fault Albert, I always say that it is very difficult to impart knowledge of techniques via the written word, maybe I just need to do better Seriously though, if you don't have the exact same substances that are used by one modeller, then experimentation is probably required. However I think the only mistake that you have made is using a gloss coat (could be matt coat) before applying the wash. In my original answer I was thinking that you had applied the decals, but I should have realised that you had. Having looked at the pics I don't think that you have a major problem, unless you want a pristine finish, but as you want to apply a wash I doubt that. From what I can see you won't have to start over, which is great news because your Corsair is looking really good. You may have to try a little experimenting though.
First of all can you confirm that the white streaks are confined to the wing route area only and that the white in the panel lines there is part of the effect and not light or some such? The fuselage simply looks duller. If what I'm surmising is true then the first test is to apply your equivalent of Future (Vloerplus) over the affected area. If I’m correct then this will make the white areas disappear. Give the turpentine time to completely dry first though. If the white areas do disappear then all you have to do is apply Future (Vloerplus) over the entire model then apply your wash, then apply your clear coat.

One thing to remember is that applying a wash will dull down the shiny surface, but apply it over the Future, not the clear coat (gloss semi gloss or matt), that come after the wash.

Don’t worry this looks recoverable, just try the Future on the whitish area first, just a small amount on a small brush should let you see what will happen. If this fails then a light sanding of the area and a mist coat of paint, after masking will sort it. If you do have to resort to paint remember that the masking will probably pull up any decals so use wet paper. But back to the Future first Just take it easy and see the effect before going further and remember that I could be wrong and I don't know what effect your Future will have when applied over your clear laquer.
Mal

Hi Mal,

Some of the white lines (on the tail part for instance) are actualle the grey wash that I flowed in) more to the front on the side of the fuselage you see a reflection.

The small spots are silver pencil. I fear these have been washed away a bit by the coats of Vloerplus but the marks themselves are intentional.

I did already try and carefully brush the model with Vloerplus and it has got most of the original shine back from before (never again a lacquer BEFORE a wash with turps )

Actually what I try to aim for is a model that is more or less shiny but has these grey panel lines washed in. I see a lot of pictures from obviously restored F4U-1D's from aircraft carriers that look very shiny. Since I also need to start completely over with my airbrush skills I don't trust myself with misting because I fear I'd ruin the model by blubbering it over instead of a light mist .
So would I be able to was over the vloerplus with oils and turpentine and then get my shiny sheen back again by buffing? Or should I immediately wipe away ecxess wash to prevent it eating into the gloss coat?

What I will try is some exaust stains on the lower part of the model.

I have a whole stack of Corsairs lying here in line for building and I difinitely want some heavier weathered and beaten up planes that were stationed on the islands. But first I am going to try and finish this one as good as I can.

I'll post some pics as soon as I have progressed a stage further.

Thanks for your advice and time.

Albert

Has it hidden the light coloured streaks on the starboard wing? Have you applied the Vloerplus to the entire model?




If the model now has a coat of Vloerplus, over the clear lacquer then you can apply the wash. Give it a while to dry, this can take a couple of minutes to half an hour or more, (you don't want it completely dry, just dry enough for the wash to stay in the panel lines but wet enough so that the residue can be removed). Depending on the strength of the wash. Then wipe off with a rag, in the direction of the airflow. If the residue doesn't want to be removed then dampen (dampen only) the rag with Turps and that will remove the surplus. When I apply a wash I want the surplus to streak back a little which gives a subtle weathering effect. Applying the wash will render your shiny surface matt, or it will be far matter than it was. No worries, let the wash completely dry, I would leave it at least over night, then apply the clear coat, Matt, semi gloss or gloss. So this is the time to apply you finishing gloss coat. The problem here is that if you are applying a wash then I guess that you are weathering the aircraft. If that is the case then it wouldn't be gloss, but semi gloss or even matt. If you want it gloss and still want to highlight the panel lines then you need to remove the entire residue. For this I would leave the wash until it completely dries, probably overnight. You will then definitely require Turps on you rag to wipe off the residue. As it is dry it will (should) be removed virtually completely. You may need to wipe down the model because you could end up with bits over the surface. When satisfied apply you gloss lacquer. If you can get the wash into the panel lines only, which I never manage, you won’t need to wipe off any residue.
I hope this is clear, I would experiment a little to find out what works for you.
Mal