Will adding clear lighten House Of Kolor Kandys?

[crowe-t]

I'm trying to do a mix of House Of Kolor Kandy Root Beer, Tangerine and Copper.  I'm keeping it more on the brown side but it looks very dark.

If I add clear to the mix will it lighten the color?  

[Muncie]

 I can't answer your question with any confidence but here are a couple of thoughts.

- best to do a spray out on test part to see if the color comes out the way you want.

 -  Candy paint is somewhat transparent.  The color of the base coat will have more affect than adding clear.  If you can get a look at a copy of the House of Color paint chip book at the paint store - it will show the Kandy colors over different base coats - the difference in color is amazing - some are much lighter over the white base coat.

Not sure if this is an approved application but the only experience I've had adding clear to a color is for the final color coat before the clear.  Adding a bit of clear brings out a bit of depth to the final finish - the clear has to be the same type of paint

hope this helps

 

 

Edited March 2, 2018 by Muncie

[Ace-Garageguy]

My experience with mixing colors is that adding clear to a metallic only serves to make it more transparent, taking more coats to get full coverage.

If your spray technique is good enough so you don't get stripes from overlapping passes, it will in effect be "lighter" if you use fewer coats over a light base or primer...but the propensity to get streaks and blotches is higher.

If you have a very fine neutral silver or pearl white tinting base, you might try a drop or two in a thimble full of color to see what that will do.

[Exotics_Builder]

6 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

My experience with mixing colors is that adding clear to a metallic only serves to make it more transparent, taking more coats to get full coverage.

If your spray technique is good enough so you don't get stripes from overlapping passes, it will in effect be "lighter" if you use fewer coats over a light base or primer...but the propensity to get streaks and blotches is higher.

If you have a very fine neutral silver or pearl white tinting base, you might try a drop or two in a thimble full of color to see what that will do.

As Bill said, clear will make it more transparent.  I don't quite know what mean by dark.  It sounds like you need to to change the color mix to reduce the Root Beer color.  If the color is on to to your taste, then you'll need to work the base coat to address your desired effect

[Can-Con]

The other guys have given you some excellent advice. I'll just add these thoughts,, 

. 

Putting more clear will dilute the color. That means that you will need to put more coats on to achieve the same shade of color as you would with a full-strength mix.

This also means that it will be easier to get uniform shade as not as much pigment is being applied on each coat.

If you are using a lighter color as a base, then indeed it will result in a lighter color than the same number of coats with the full strength mix. 

I usually do this when I do a candy paint job. It helps me get an even color without light and dark areas ,, but it doesn't work every time.

Another trick I like to use is to tint my base coat with some of the candy that I will be putting over it. "Tempering it" if you will. This also helps to achieve an even color. It also helps me reach the effect I want using less candy coats.

Now, the problem with putting clear in the color is that it build up extra thickness to get the shade you want. So, instead of just putting more clear in and getting overly thick color coats, I add some clear and double or triple up on the thinner. That gives me the same effect as using just clear but the thinner evaporates out and leaves a thinner color coat.

[crowe-t]

Thanks guys for the help with this.  This is the 1st time I'm using HOK Kandy paint.

Gerry,  I'm trying to achieve a medium reddish-brown color.  I can't really reduce the Root Beer too much or it will turn red.  The Root Beer really makes the color dark.  I think it's just the scale of the model.  Root Beer on a 1:1 car outside in daylight will look lighter than a 1/25 scale model indoors.  I did try a mix today using Goldmine Pearl instead of Copper Pearl and it's right in the ballpark of where I want the color.  I have to look at it again tomorrow.  If only the sun would come out I could get a better looks at the color. 

Steve, I like your idea of using more thinner.  The extra clear will just make more work.

Edited March 3, 2018 by crowe-t