does anyone know why i have white swirls in my camo paint job? i washed the model with soap to remove a few oil spots and now i have a whitish swirl pattern present in my nato paint job i have tried to remove these spots with my brush and they wont go away.....the model is painted in tamiya acrylics with their thinner

Hi David

Did swirls appear after your soap wash?

Perhaps you used too many detergent so white swirls are stains of cured soap...

thank you for your reply ,the swirls did appear after i washed the model and what bothers me is they have somehow embedded in with the paint and make it look faded with the swirls too ....im probably going to have to repaint all areas but i hope it wont repel the paint

If I was you, before repainting areas, I'd try to remove the stains with a brush wet in warm water. If my supposition is correct, the swirls will go away.

Good luck

I suspect that the "swirl marks" you are describing are actually tide marks left by soap residue or, depending on youe local water supply, mineral deposits from your water.

Rinse the area liberally with distilled water. Do not add any soap/detergent. Lightly scrub the affected area witha paint brush if necessary and flush again with distilled water.

try a clear coat over it that should fix it.............

Yeah try a clear coat or a matt varnish before you do anything else.

I'm not quite clear here on the sequence of events -

Did you wash the model before you painted it and the swirls appeard after that?

Or, did you wash the model after you painted it because you got some oil spots on the already painted surface?

What kind and brand of soap did you use? What kind of oil was involved?

I think trying to diagnose the problem and recommend a solution depends on exactly what has happened here, although, depending on other construction and finishing done, you might be able to wash the painted model again to remove the stains (maybe using soap again).

I would try that before applying any clear coats (either gloss or flat), since once you do that, if the problem isn't cleared up, you'll probably lock the swirls into the paint permanently.

As to the root cause, I think it depends on the answers to the earlier questions. It's possible the oil you were trying to wash away left emulsified remains behind even with the soap (affecting the later paint), or that the oil-soap combination stripped some element(s) out of the already painted surface or left behind some remains in the surface of the paint.

I have encountered situations where I've washed already painted surfaces, and after drying, the paint looked "chalky" and "whitish.". I assumed that it was because the soap removed something from the top layers of the paint. However, subsequent oil and enamel washes and Testor's Dull Coat sprays restored the original paint color intensity.

On the other hand, I almost always wash my completed models before I paint them, I use ordinary dish detergent and luke warm tap water to do this, scrubbing with a soft camel hair water color brush. I just allow the model assemblies to air dry. Nothing really special at all, and I never have any problems with later painting that I can trace back to the washing. All I can think is that the oil or the sequence of events (or both) is the cause of your problem.

You might find that nothing reverses the problem and that you either have to strip the paint, paint over the affected areas, or disguise the problems (maybe incorporating it into you weathering?).

Still, I'd like to know the details about what you actually did, what kind of oil was involved, how it got on the model, what kind and beand of soap you used, and the sequence of washing and painting.

I'd be nice to know enough to avoid your problem on one of my own projects.

Please share more of the information.

Thanks and good luck,

If you are going to repaint it, I would suggest removing the current paint with oven cleaner. Rewash the model and make sure you rinse all of the detergent off. Then, reapply your paint. Start with a primer, to make sure the swirls are gone.

Just a guess, but considering that the original post was six months ago, I suspect that the OP has:

(a) successfully washed away the offending marks
(b) repainted to his satisfaction or
(c) given up in disgust

by now...