The Energon Pub

I am working on my first custom in over 8 years.....a Universe style Cliffjumper. I am done painting him and I want to give him a clearcoat to make it look like another members shine on his custom Cliffjumper. His is a movie version and I wish I could find the link to the thread so I could show you. Any tips on making a clearcoat job look tops???

Depends. Do you want gloss, semi gloss, satin, or flat?

Also when you see this post, I'll be moving this thread to Transtopia.

robofreak wrote:Depends. Do you want gloss, semi gloss, satin, or flat?

Also when you see this post, I'll be moving this thread to Transtopia.

I bought a semi gloss clearcoat. I still wanted to retain some of the flat look as i think full gloss looks wet and I don't like that. I have tested it on the waverunner he has as an accessory and it looks ok, but there are some streak lines. How can I resolve that? Thanks!

What brand of clearcoat?

This is such an involved thing that it's hard to really pinpoint what will fir your needs.

I personally would recommend a flat coat. I myself am a big fan of Testor's Dull Cote as it gives you a really nice durable flat coat that blends everything in together real well.

If you want to get more advance, then you can go to the cleaning aisle and grab a bottle of Pledge with Future shine. (It's a gloss coat for florrs you can use on models as well) This stuff will dry gloss, but varying amounts of Tamoya flat base will give you different sheens.

With all projects though, I would heavily recommend a high gloss coating first as it will add extra strength to the paint.

robofreak wrote:What brand of clearcoat?

This is such an involved thing that it's hard to really pinpoint what will fir your needs.

I personally would recommend a flat coat. I myself am a big fan of Testor's Dull Cote as it gives you a really nice durable flat coat that blends everything in together real well.

If you want to get more advance, then you can go to the cleaning aisle and grab a bottle of Pledge with Future shine. (It's a gloss coat for florrs you can use on models as well) This stuff will dry gloss, but varying amounts of Tamoya flat base will give you different sheens.

With all projects though, I would heavily recommend a high gloss coating first as it will add extra strength to the paint.

I can't layer too much though on a transformer, unless you never want to transform him again. Thy have many moving parts and low tolerance on clearance. I bought a bottle of the Model Master Semi-Gloss. They did not have a flat gloss. Honestly I want mine to look the same as one of Hasbro, or at least as close as possible. I am a completist but a cheapsake too, so I won't pay $80 for a retail one. I have a few others I want to do, like Skywarp and maybe Mirage. I probably won't do any more than that. Just the really pricy ones, over $50+.

Do I need to sand the clearcoat to buff out the lines of the paint brush? If so what kind of sandpaper?

gambit020480 wrote:I can't layer too much though on a transformer, unless you never want to transform him again. Thy have many moving parts and low tolerance on clearance. I bought a bottle of the Model Master Semi-Gloss. They did not have a flat gloss. Honestly I want mine to look the same as one of Hasbro, or at least as close as possible. I am a completist but a cheapsake too, so I won't pay $80 for a retail one. I have a few others I want to do, like Skywarp and maybe Mirage. I probably won't do any more than that. Just the really pricy ones, over $50+.

Do I need to sand the clearcoat to buff out the lines of the paint brush? If so what kind of sandpaper?

Check out this article on ehow, it's pretty good. BTW, I usually sand down moving parts a bit before I paint, just for clearance purposes.