hey all...
well im venturing into the world of acrylics for the first time. (beside the point but i love the tamiya bottles....such a difference when youve just been using humbrol tins for awhile). Anyway i want to use a technique used in alot of magazines where you paint the undercoat....cover it with a protective coat of "futures floor polish" and the apply your third coat and weather it back. In theory the middle coat is to protect the first coat when weathering the top coat. (im getting dizzy!!!) :-)

anyway hopefully someone will understand me. What id like to know is if the futures floor polish is available in australia and where to find it??? Or what is an equivilant to this product that can be applied to acrylic painted objects in order to protect them???

any help as always muchly apreciated...
powerlogik

I'm not quite sure of the spelling but, Krystal is the one you could look for. I know this product is what our friends in the UK use. Maybe it's down under too.

One of the things I like so much about acrylics is how tough they are when dry. I would check with others on the board before you try new things, but I have found that once the acrylic is cure I can put enamel or oil paints on it without it being damaged. Like I said, some things may ruin it but for the most part acrylics are very tough when dry so you may be taking an extra step thats not needed. I would use the future when I put decals on, but thats about it as far as I know. The future is actually an acrylic paint by the way, that shows you how tough it really is.

Hi PL ! - If your wanting to weather over your acrylic finish with a
oil or enamel solvent wash, you really can apply it without the
use of a protective clear coat, alongs you let it dry & cure for a full 24hrs
The acrylic is strong enough to hold-up against a solvent wash by itself.

However, if your acrylic was solvent based such as Polly-Scale ( which some
modelers aren't aware of ) then you would consider the clear coat.
OR THE FOLLOWING:

The other alternative is - ( and I do this with my enamels base finishes ) - that
I use only oil & enamel solvent washes, but I don't use clear protective coats, simply
because I find that the less surface build up you have, the better for your raised detail
to stand out and all the better when drybrushing it. - So what I do is let the enamel finish dry & cure for 72hrs, then I apply my solvent based wash. Using this method for the past 2 year's, I don't need to worry about the undercoat lifting.

The key is the 72hrs dry time and letting the wash
" FLOW - SETTLE - REMOVE EXCESS " ( if need be ).
My point is if it can be done with enamels, it certainly can be done with acrylics !

I do like matte & gloss clear coats, however i only use them for their true purpose - " to give paint a DEAD FLAT finish and to gloss a finish, especially when going to apply decals.
Remember, if you decide to try this, the dry & cure time's are essential to good results:
*** 24 Hours for any water based paints
*** 72 Hours for any solvent based paints
Some modelers just feel more secure with a protective clear coat , and that's
quite alright, but I just thought you might be interested in this method also.

- ralph

great ideas....thanks all for your ideas and advise. Gives me something good to go on with


cheers
powerlogik

I agree with drewgimpy, I almost use Tamiya acrylic's exclusiely (especially on German armor), and I have never used future floor wax or the like on any of my models. I use Winsor Newton Oils for my wash and it has never had any adverse reactions to the acrylic base coat. I do add some Tamiya Clear to my base coat. When I use enamels (usually on American and British armor), I use local washes of Vallejo Acrylic paints dilluted with distilled water. :-)