Hello. I'm weathering a DML Flak88. Painted with acrylics. Future coat, then washes with oils. Next a coat of Dullcote through the airbrush. Very well mixed, thinned with paint thinner. Allowed to dry 72 hours. Began doing the oil dot thing, using oils, and mineral spirits to blend. Some areas were coming out really nice. Some areas the oils would start looking not right. When wiped off the dullcote was gone, and the future was shinning through. I'm thinking that, although the entire model LOOKED dull, i didn't have enough dullcote on all areas. OR is it not good to use mineral spirits over Dullcote? Any insight, WOULD be really appreciated. RONNY.

Ronny,

Dull Coat has to be reduced for airbrushing with laquer thinner (or acetone), not ordinary mineral spirits.

I use Dull Coat on all my models (over acrylic base coats) and have never had any problems with mineral spirits washes lifting the Dull Coat. Having said that, I don't use Future as an intermediate step in finishing, so I guess there could be a compatability issue there. Your initial oil based washes could have needed a bit more drying time, but over night is usually enough, so I don't think that was the problem.

However, I'm guessing that the problem was that the Dull Coat wasn't reduced correctly. It could have been applied too thinly, but even thin coats are very durable.

You can buy the little Testor's bottles of laquer thinner, or for half the price, you can get a quart can at Walmart, Home Depot, or Lowes. Powerful stuff, and needs good ventilation, but also handy for other uses besides thinning Dull Coat.

You'll probably have to adjust your airbrush distance, paint flow, and air pressure when spraying the Dull Coat (reduced with laquer thinner). It has a tendancy, if sprayed from too far away, or with too high a pressure, to "orange peel" (creating a "frosty white" look). You can recover from that a bit if you immediately over spray the effected area with straight laquer thinner and allow it to "re-activate" the Dull Coat and smooth out the finish.

HTH,
Mike

Mike, what's up. Actually i thinned the dullcote with paint thinner. I read posts by a couple of guys saying they used it. But, being a lacquer i bought some lacquer thinner, per your suggestion. I didn't use it in the first place, because i have no spray booth, and can't properly wear a respirator. Then again i don't know it's any worse to breath than paint thinner. I'm also going to wash the model again. Maybe i got some oily fingers on it? Thank You for taking the time to reply to my question. Having a place to ask questions, and learn is nice. It May keep me from ripping out ALL my hair. RONNY.

Hey Ronny, a few things here -
Do NOT shoot anything with lacquer thinner in it without a mask and exhaust fan!
Dullcote is a lacquer, but mineral spirits will loosen it even though they're not truly the same medium.
Drop the Dullcote and use an acrylic flat coat at this stage and you won't have compatibility issues when you apply the dot filters.

Hi Matt. Thanks for the advice. I'm going to do that. Happy New Year!

Ronny,

If you want to go this route, some of the guys in my local IPMS club are getting good results with Future flattened with either Testors / Polly Scale or Tamiya flat clear acrylic. I can't offer up any mixing formulas, but a bit of experimentation should give you some usable ratios. They like the ability to vary the degree of sheen along with not having to have another different kind of paints and thinners on their benches. I mention this because you might already have the materials on-hand to give it a try.

But like I said, I don't think your original problem was with compatability of the different paints on the model. I would submit that the problem was incorrectly reducing the Dull Cote. Also, I don't think your finger prints would be any "oilier" than the oil paints you used for the washes. The linseed / sun flower seed oils in the artist paints undoubtably contribute more oil to the model's surface than your fingers at this stage.

Ventilation and safety with the Dull Cote and other laquers (like the old Floquil's or Tamiya's contemporary small bottles, etc) is relative to your work area size and its normal air circulation. These are concerns and considerations no matter what types of paint you're spraying. If your work area isn't safe for painting with laquers, then it might not be safe enough for spraying any other types of paints.

If you have worries about whether of not you can safely use laquers, then you might need to look at your whole painting set-up. On the other hand, if you're feeling good to go when you spray acrylics, then you're probably OK with the laquers (or at least no worse). But, just because you don't find the smell of the acrylics objectionable, doesn't mean that you have adequate ventilation. Tamiya X-20 thinner or drug store isopropyl alcohol are just as volatile and no better for your health than laquer thinner. The same goes for enamals reduced with mineral spirits.

Safety is also relative to the degree of risk you're willing to assume in any operation. The only absolutely "safe" painting is to not paint at all (i.e. zero risk). In the end, you have to figure out your own individual acceptable degree of residual risk when spraying and painting after all the remedial and mitigating actions you take to reduce that risk.

At any rate, Dull Cote is good stuff, but like all finishing materials, it has its own "performance envelope," and the modeler has to learn how to use it to get the effects he wants.

Hang in there and give your "learning curve" time to catch up with your hands-on experience.

Mike

Hi Mike. Really, i appreciate your taking the time and effort to help me out. You've made some valid points. Stuff to think about. THANKS RONNY. HAPPY NEW YEAR TOO!