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Bare metal finish seal ?

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SmithRan - 13 Jan 2006 16:50 GMT
Being a newbie to the bare metal finishing of plastic models, I brought
a Testors Aluminium paint spray can from the hobby store and sprayed it
on. After letting it dry overnight, I still can see paint powder
sticking to my fingers when i touch it - Since ive got a lot more
handling to do to the model, is there a way to seal that paint so that
it doesnt stick to my hand?
The only idea i can come up with is to tape a paper cutout on the
painted areas so that my fingers dont mess up the finish.
Any advice would be welcome.
Thanks.
Ghostown - 13 Jan 2006 20:35 GMT
Im not sure what you mean, but it seems by your description that the paint
hasnt completely set.  I would give it a good few days to fully cure.

> Being a newbie to the bare metal finishing of plastic models, I brought
> a Testors Aluminium paint spray can from the hobby store and sprayed it
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> Any advice would be welcome.
> Thanks.
SmithRan - 14 Jan 2006 00:20 GMT
When i touch the painted surface during handling of the plane, a small
amount of silver paint/powder sticks to my finger. Also a slight
fingerprint like impression is left on the painted surface. Was just
worried about this.
Rufus - 14 Jan 2006 01:09 GMT
> When i touch the painted surface during handling of the plane, a small
> amount of silver paint/powder sticks to my finger. Also a slight
> fingerprint like impression is left on the painted surface. Was just
> worried about this.

What you are seeing - the powder - could be "overspray".  It's caused by
particles of paint drying before they contact the surface, generally
caused by holding the spray head too far from the surface.  Your fingers
(or more to the point, the oil in your fingers) can also cause the metal
particles in the paint to tarnish more rapidly.  This is a normal
reaction of a metallic surface to your body chemistry.

What you can do is lightly scrub/polish the painted surface with
Scotchbrite after it has cured.  This does two things - 1) it will level
and/or remove any overspray particulate; and 2) it's also a good way to
remove fingerprint tarnish.

It sounds like you waited long enough for the paint to cure - if it did
not seem that way, then either your coat was too heavy or there was a
significant amount of overspray to leave your fingerprint in.  Metallic
spray paints (and the Testors Metallizer line in particular) are usually
thin laquers.  They don't need to be applied very heavy to cover well.
The Scotchbrite polishing technique I mentioned works VERY well with
Testors Metallizers, providing you spray them directly onto bare plastic
- this allows the lacquer to "bite" into the plastic and pick up the
effort of your polishing once cured.

I have yet to find a sealer which does not dull the metallic sheen of
the basecoat, but some like Future.

Signature

     - Rufus

Milton Bell - 14 Jan 2006 04:31 GMT
Sounds like you either have too much paint on the model or held the paint
source too far from the model and a lot of paint fell as semi-dry dust on
the model. (The paint dried in the air.)

I would try buffing it with a piece of soft material. I use an old worn out
Tee shirt but any soft cloth would work. Most NM finishes don't take well to
masking tape. If you want a good NM finish try either SnJ or Alclad but I
doubt that either is available in a spray can. NM finishes work best with an
airbrush.

You can seal most NM finishes with Future or most other clear or flat
finishes but you will lose the metallic sheen.

Good Luck.

MB

> From: "SmithRan" <mantram@gmail.com>
> Organization: http://groups.google.com
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> Any advice would be welcome.
> Thanks.
Al Superczynski - 14 Jan 2006 04:47 GMT
>If you want a good NM finish try either SnJ or Alclad but I
>doubt that either is available in a spray can.

    The latter is available in 4 oz spray cans.
Milton Bell - 14 Jan 2006 22:30 GMT
That's good to know. Haven't seen it in rattle cans locally.

MB

> From: Al Superczynski <modeleral@deadspam.com.invalid>
> Organization: Who has time to be organized?
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> The latter is available in 4 oz spray cans.
 
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