How in the world do you a decent paint job with Duplicolor paint?

[Snake45]

14 minutes ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

Since abandoning Testors clear in favor of Duplicolor clear, I have had zero issues.

I will never look back.

 

Steve

I might have to try that. 

My favorite clear is Model Master Clear Top Coat enamel, cut with lacquer thinner, but I'm out of it at the moment. Will have to net-order a bunch. 

[StevenGuthmiller]

15 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

I might have to try that. 

My favorite clear is Model Master Clear Top Coat enamel, cut with lacquer thinner, but I'm out of it at the moment. Will have to net-order a bunch. 

I used to love Testors enamel clear, but the yellowing that tends to take place scares the hell out of me!

I learned years ago to never use it over light colors.

Maybe things have changed since then, but here is an old example.

The color on this '37 Chevy was originally a very pale cream color.

After clear coating with Testors clear enamel, it is now a wonderful bright yellow! 

 

Steve

 

 

[Lordmodelbuilder]

I have used Dupli-color & Plasti-Kote buzz cans to paint many of my models  for years.

I used to use their primers, but they can't seem to be found here in Cali anymore.

I now use Rustolium primer.

Only problem I had was one time after I sprayed their clear, the paint cracked. Pretty much ruined the paint job.

Now I use Testors One Coat lacquer clear straight out of the can. Never had a problem with it.

Both of these cars were sprayed this way.

 

[Tom Geiger]

10 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

I used to love Testors enamel clear, but the yellowing that tends to take place scares the hell out of me!

I learned years ago to never use it over light colors.

Maybe things have changed since then, but here is an old example.

The color on this '37 Chevy was originally a very pale cream color.

After clear coating with Testors clear enamel, it is now a wonderful bright yellow! 

Testors Clearcoat-- you may be able to see in this photo that the body and the wheels are now two different colors. I had clear coated the body, but not the wheels.  They were both plain ole white!  

[Snake45]

10 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

I used to love Testors enamel clear, but the yellowing that tends to take place scares the hell out of me!

I learned years ago to never use it over light colors.

Steve

Agree completely. I won't use it over white, silver, or pale yellows or blues, but it's still great over reds, oranges, most greens, medium or darker blues and grays, browns, and black. 

[ewetwo]

The only place I've seen Duplicolor is at Ollies. Where do you get it. 

[StevenGuthmiller]

1 hour ago, ewetwo said:

The only place I've seen Duplicolor is at Ollies. Where do you get it. 

Many auto parts stores carry it.

I buy mine at "O-Reilly Auto Parts".

 

Steve

[ewetwo]

OK. I thought most of the auto part store stopped carrying paint. I'll have to check it out.

[Snake45]

Speaking of "blushing," may I present The Paint Job from Hell:

This was supposed to be a quick, easy paint job on a Revell '69 Camaro snapper, so I chose Testor One Coat Star Spangled Blue lacquer. I've had pretty good luck with these paints, some of them required no polishing at all for an acceptable result. Not this time, though. 

The torture proceeded as follows: 

One coat Walmart Color Place gray primer. Some sanding and fixing in small areas. 2nd coat of Walmart gray primer; some sanding (#800 wet) in some areas.

First coat of One Coat Star Spangled Blue, almost wet. Some orange peel. 24 hours later, 2nd coat of SS Blue, wet. Full coverage but dried with notable orange peel. In all fairness, this can was at least 6 years old and didn't seem to be putting out full pressure (hadn't been used before).

First coat of Wet Look Clear, from a can at least 5 years old. Some blushing and orange peel. 2nd coat of WLC, from a second can, "only" about 4 years old. More blushing and orange peel. There might have been a 3rd coat, I don't remember, but things weren't getting any better. At this point I decided to procure a new can of WLC. 

Before shooting the new WLC, I gave the whole model a "rough" polish with Wright's Silver Cream, just enough to remove the present blushing. Didn't worry about smoothness. 

One coat of new WLC. Blushing and orange peel. 2nd, wet coat of WLC 24 hours later. 

After drying for 48 hours, there was still considerable blushing. Due to the wetness/thickness of the final WLC coat, orange peel was somewhat reduced. 

Wet sanded with #1000 grit to remove all orange peel and reduce the surface to smoothness.This removed most the blushing from all the previous WLC. 

Wet sanded again with #2000 grit to remove sanding scratches from the #1000 and give the surface a uniform, even, polishable sheen. 

Polished with Wright's Silver Cream. 

Final polish with Wright's Silver Cream on a damp cloth, which reduces its grit. 

So it doesn't look half bad. It's shiny and smooth, with no blushing, and looks thinner than the 8 coats of paint on it. It'll do. 

Pic taken after washing with warm water and soft toothbrush. Please ignore the water spots and Wright's still in the cracks; those will all come out in a second washing (or however many it takes). 

[Tom Geiger]

42 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

First coat of One Coat Star Spangled Blue, almost wet. Some orange peel. 24 hours later, 2nd coat of SS Blue, wet. Full coverage but dried with notable orange peel. In all fairness, this can was at least 6 years old and didn't seem to be putting out full pressure (hadn't been used before).

First coat of Wet Look Clear, from a can at least 5 years old. Some blushing and orange peel.

Many years ago I trained myself to put the purchase date on each can.  Comes in handy!   

[Snake45]

4 hours ago, Tom Geiger said:

Many years ago I trained myself to put the purchase date on each can.  Comes in handy!   

I knew the cans were old and elected to try to use them anyway. Knowing the exact date wouldn't have helped me, nor changed the result. 

[gman]

This is Duplicolor Nissan Cherry Red Pearl sprayed over Plasticote red oxide primer:

 

 

 

There are two types of Duplicolor I've come across- some require a clear coat and others spray with some gloss right out of the can. This particular color is a non-clear coat paint, and was polished with Bare Metal plastic polish rather than cleared. It has a nice in-scale pearl in the paint, and polishes up pretty well. 

https://www.amazon.com/Dupli-Color-BNS0570-Metallic-Perfect-Automotive/dp/B00407RQQA

I found there was some texture on initial coats, but tried to leave enough paint thickness to polish without burning through to the primer. 

[TarheelRick]

I use Duplicolor primers but have a devil of a time with their colors.  My issue is with the nozzles, they seem to spray too much paint which quickly overwhelms the detail of the body.  Last two times I tried I also got runs.  Maybe I am behind the learning curve on these, but I think it would be easier to decant and run through an airbrush.

[Tom Geiger]

Practice with Duplicolor, it's not like hobby paint.  You can put it on thick, right before the point where it's going to run.  It looks like it's obscuring the details, but then it pulls down tight as it dries.  

As Greg Peters said,  there are colors that dry glossy and those that require a clear coat.  They follow the paint code of the car manufacturer.  My last job was a  Duplicolor beige that dried dull.  I gave it a few coats of Tamiya clear and it's great.  I seldom polish anything out since I don't build many show cars.  The beige Model A will be a Race of Gentlemen car and those traditionally had less than mirror finishes.

I believe that a lot of models get polished way beyond what a real car would look like.  There once was a Nascar builder who put on mile deep clear coat over everything including the decals, then polished it like fine jewelry.  Never saw a Nascar car like that!

Edited October 27, 2018 by Tom Geiger