PK-32 Sabre by Crashpilot: ***Finished!*** Yippie

[Crashpilot]

So, for now, she flies home to her shelf!



Time to move on to the next project, will be a "shelf-of-doom-SAR operation".

[JohnRatzenberger]

Looks good !

Not sure I understand the sequence of stuff that went on the canopy so I have no advice. Long ago there used to be 1 or 2 products and life was simple. Now everyone is bringing out their own of everything and who knows what is compatible anymore ?

[rob_van_riel]

Arriving late to this part of the party..

for varnish I used Humbrol´s acrylic satin varnish, and did 2 coats, after the second coat, some frosting happened, the silver looks more like light grey now!
I sprayed outside, maybe it´s still too cold to do that, today we have 10° C here in Northern Germany, which is quite warm for the season here!

Some have reported issues due to low temperature when airbrushing and/or using rattlecans, but personally, I haven't observed much difference, even when airbrushing at temperatures barely above freezing. I do not think this is your problem.
How heavy were the coats you sprayed on? With the same brand, all varnishes are essentially the same material, with more or less matting agent thrown in (a lot for matt, none for gloss, somewhere in between for satin). This serves to break up the surface structure, and is normally undetectable, but if you over do it, you can get frosting or even white areas where it builds up too thick. There's one trick you might try to correct this (see below), but with a bare metal finish, recovery is almost impossible. If the current state is good enough, leave it alone.

Well, it´s not too bad for me ( I wouldn´t call myself an over-ambitious modeller, I still have to learn sooo much!)), what frustrates me more, is that some frosting happened on the canopy, too.
Dunno why?
Vallejos liquid mask doesnt attack clear styrene?
Maybe some chemical reaction between the floor polisher I used for the canopy, AND the liquimask?
Anyone has an explanation?

Since most of the liquid masking products I've ever seen are essentially thickened latex, there may well be some ammonia in there, not necessarily good for pre-existing finishes.

You mention floor polish, so I'm guessing you use the local equivalent of Future. If so, you'll find it can be disolved in alcohol (and by implication, many varnishes, and probably the polish itself). That means you can in effect polish the frosting out with either varnish or more polish, as long as it's based on the same general carrier. Just take a brush and lightly wet it with compatible gloss varnish, and start rubbing it into the affected area. You will probably need to occasionally re-wet the brush, perhaps after cleaning it first, but the point is that after a while you will re-activate the existing coat, and blend it with the fresh varnish. The resulting mixture will have less of the matting agent, and be smoothed out due to the brush action. If the amount of paint at any time seems to get out of hand (guaranteed to happen with thicker varnishes, but your material is probably as this as water), switch to pure solvent (water or alcohol for acrylics, white spirit for enamels), and rub with that.

Yes, this sounds like a horrid mess, and if you get things too wet, it will become just that, but if you can keep things under control, you'll end up with a nice and shiny finish. I recently had to clean up a 1/12 scale horse that had turned mostly white like this. Took me about an hour of working the new varnish in, but the colour was restored.

When you think you've got it, let it sit to dry, and keep an eye on it while it does. If the problem reappears, hit it again. It might take a day (not continuous work of course), but you'll get there.

This in effect resets your finish to gloss. If you needed anything else, let it dry very thoroughly, and then recoat with light coats of whatever finish you're aiming for.

As for varnish, I use rattlecans of Motip gloss, Citadel Purity Seal for satin (closer to matt actually, but just a hint of shine in it), and Humbrol Clear for transparencies or quick re-shines.

[Crashpilot]

Thank you for the advise! Today and tomorrow, I don´t find the time to work the sheen back, but I´m gonna try to re-polish it asap. So all hope is not lost yet....:-)

[Crashpilot]

Before this GB gets locked up, I want to say "thanks" once more for all the nice comments I got from around the globe!
Now I found the trick to motivate myself to finish what I started!
It so much easier going on with a build, when you get a post like: "Hey, any progress to show?",etc, etc.
Like so many others, I have a shelf of doom, once I find the time, I´m gonna share some photos, and then you decide which kit should be salvaged first.....(before that happening, I´ll finish my old Heller P-51, cause that one is the quickest to finish)
And I already talked about my soft spot for socialist eastern block kits, rite now there are only 2 of them finished, that i can share pics of.
I like this forum a lot, a lot of German speaking modelling forums are too serious, IMO, about the hobby.....like:
"hey, peoples, now I´m gonna show you what a cracking modeller I am! Hey you there, you used the wrong cockpit colour," blahblah, and so on.
Thank yous! nice to be here

[celt]

Well tidy Sabre.