D869Zest
Member
So finally... some results. Starting with Halfords matt lacquer.
As my experience on the slope sided mineral indicated, I found the result was not flat enough for my taste when finishing wagons. It did produce a uniform finish between the areas coated with gloss and those not.
Control wise the big Halfords rattle can is the least controllable of the bunch, hard to ensure an even coat while also avoiding flooding the surface.
There was no sign of any reaction with the Microscale fluids. It did a decent job of disguising the carrier but showed up the need for more attention with the Microsol and a pin or knife to persuade the decals into plank gaps and ensure every edge is completely down... this is not about the lacquer and the same was seen with the other products.
Surprisingly I did get a reaction with the paint finish on the parts of the van body where the gloss had been applied. Surprising because by this time I had used the Halfords stuff on three recent wagons with no such issues. I can't be sure but I am putting this down to poor adhesion between the old (really old) paint job and the plastic of the Peco body but the gloss is an essential ingredient too. If memory serves this van was bought secondhand and was not in any RTR livery so was perhaps a kit originally. Thinking about it after the event I can't even remember if it was me that painted it but quite possibly not.
After 24 hours I tried a couple of options for eroding the decals. One was to scrape with a No 15 curved scalpel blade. The other was to abrade with a fibreglass brush. My first attempt used a fine bristled fibreglass brush. This did not touch the decal at all so I think that says a lot about durability. I then deployed a coarser bristled brush which was able to abrade the decal. The black shading was first to go with the white proving more resistant. The result was a pretty heavily weathered letter. It was difficult to get in close to strapping. The scalpel was mostly 'all or nothing' so probably only useful for unlettering whole planks. None of this was controlled enough to produce light erosion.
I also attacked some of the plank gaps a bit further, trying a pin and a scalpel. The pin tended to break off flakes on either side. The scalpel produced a fine cut... which looks exactly like a fine scalpel cut. Neither of these techniques were very successful.
Next was another coat of lacquer to protect the eroded decals on one side only. After another 24 hours to dry some planks were picked out with a bare wood colour (brushed Humbrol) the model was then given a misted airbrush coat of Humbrol crud colour. None of this caused any ill effects.
After a further 8 hours some of the misted crud was cleaned off with Humbrol thinners and a flat brush, deliberately being heavy handed and continuing for a while after the crud was gone. The recoated decals were untouched by this. It did eventually pull some flakes off the eroded decals that had not been recoated but it took surprisingly long
No final picture sorry but the end result is a mess of different treatments with no serious attempt at realism.
As my experience on the slope sided mineral indicated, I found the result was not flat enough for my taste when finishing wagons. It did produce a uniform finish between the areas coated with gloss and those not.
Control wise the big Halfords rattle can is the least controllable of the bunch, hard to ensure an even coat while also avoiding flooding the surface.
There was no sign of any reaction with the Microscale fluids. It did a decent job of disguising the carrier but showed up the need for more attention with the Microsol and a pin or knife to persuade the decals into plank gaps and ensure every edge is completely down... this is not about the lacquer and the same was seen with the other products.
Surprisingly I did get a reaction with the paint finish on the parts of the van body where the gloss had been applied. Surprising because by this time I had used the Halfords stuff on three recent wagons with no such issues. I can't be sure but I am putting this down to poor adhesion between the old (really old) paint job and the plastic of the Peco body but the gloss is an essential ingredient too. If memory serves this van was bought secondhand and was not in any RTR livery so was perhaps a kit originally. Thinking about it after the event I can't even remember if it was me that painted it but quite possibly not.
After 24 hours I tried a couple of options for eroding the decals. One was to scrape with a No 15 curved scalpel blade. The other was to abrade with a fibreglass brush. My first attempt used a fine bristled fibreglass brush. This did not touch the decal at all so I think that says a lot about durability. I then deployed a coarser bristled brush which was able to abrade the decal. The black shading was first to go with the white proving more resistant. The result was a pretty heavily weathered letter. It was difficult to get in close to strapping. The scalpel was mostly 'all or nothing' so probably only useful for unlettering whole planks. None of this was controlled enough to produce light erosion.
I also attacked some of the plank gaps a bit further, trying a pin and a scalpel. The pin tended to break off flakes on either side. The scalpel produced a fine cut... which looks exactly like a fine scalpel cut. Neither of these techniques were very successful.
Next was another coat of lacquer to protect the eroded decals on one side only. After another 24 hours to dry some planks were picked out with a bare wood colour (brushed Humbrol) the model was then given a misted airbrush coat of Humbrol crud colour. None of this caused any ill effects.
After a further 8 hours some of the misted crud was cleaned off with Humbrol thinners and a flat brush, deliberately being heavy handed and continuing for a while after the crud was gone. The recoated decals were untouched by this. It did eventually pull some flakes off the eroded decals that had not been recoated but it took surprisingly long
No final picture sorry but the end result is a mess of different treatments with no serious attempt at realism.