EC182

If it won't have any unusual effect, it doesn't bother me. I'm just trying to make sure that it won't.

Howdy I've just applied a mix of Humbrol 85 and Humbrol 147 to the underside of a model. They are both matt, but it has dried to a high gloss finish. From looking around, it seems I mightn't have stirred well enough, although I thought I had. I stirred them both individually before mixing, and obviously again while thinning and mixing. It's getting a bit hot where I am, maybe that was a factor. Humbrol gives the following explanation: 'When Humbrol Matt or Satin paint dries glossy this is due to the matting agent not mixing properly with the paint, usually caused by the paint not being stirred thoroughly or regularly enough. However, this can easily be rectified by applying a coat of gloss varnish, which will dissolve the matting agent.' I'm a bit confused about what this means in practice. How does a coat of gloss varnish dissolve the matting agent, when the paint has dried? What I'm basically wondering is, what effect will gloss varnish have on matt pain that has dried to a gloss finish.

It's the Italeri MiG 23 in 1/48. The racks and couple of nondescript panels could be for some other version, but the cannon is a multi-barrelled type not fitted to any version of the Flogger to my knowledge. Weird, eh.

I've started a new kit and have noticed a number of parts on one of the sprues which are marked in the instructions as 'Not For Use'. They include a multi-barrelled cannon and a couple of bomb/missile racks. Appropriately enough, they don't fit anywhere. The cannon is different to what is fitted to the real-life aircraft. If they're not for use, what are they for? Why include them? Doesn't really matter, I'm just curious and wondering whether anybody has seen this before.

Update - it worked. I put a coat of Gloss Cote (thinned about 1:1) on the clear part of the canopy and it seems to have restored the transparency very nicely. It looks like glass now. Good tip, thanks.

Humbrol Gloss Cote? Interesting. I'll give it a go and see how it works. Yep, I should've masked the canopy - especially given my lack of skill with a brush. Taking shortcuts always costs more time than doing it right in the first place would have.

Hello I've just finished a model and have ended up with a slight canopy issue. In the course of painting the frame I allowed some paint to get onto the canopy itself, and I cleaned this off using cotton buds and toothpicks dipped in emamel cleaner. This got the errant bits of paint off, but it has left the front half of the canopy with a sort of milky-white opaque tint. Applying more enamel cleaner takes this off and makes the plastic fully clear again, but only temporarily. Once dry the opaque effect comes back. Any suggestions for cleaning the canopy, preferably without removing it?

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Thanks for the replies and advice. The decals went on no problem. I can't believe I wasted so much Decalfix last time around by using it to soak the decals before taking them off the sheet. Completely unnecessary - plain warm water actually works much better for this, for anyone who didn't know. Decalfix only needs to be painted on beforehand to assist with placement, and afterwards to bed down. Weathering has also been done, lightly on the top side and somewhat more on the undersides. Raised panel lines made it a bit more difficult than it otherwise would have been. Hard to know how much is too much - it's actually difficult to find a good photo of the undersides of a Belgian Mirage V, the only one I managed to find looks pretty grimy but it's hard to see it very clearly due to the lighting. Most photos of Mirage IIIs show pretty clean undersides. I'll post a photo later on and see what youse think.

Thanks for the replies - I think they have nudged me towards putting down that base coat of gloss before the decals. The point about indiluted Decalfix is an interesting one, it didn't occur to me that it might eat the paint underneath if there wasn't a barrier of varnish there. I have used pure Decalfix before and didn't have any problems with the decals coming apart, but I suppose that's something to be aware of too. As for the weathering - come to think of it, many of the panel lines are raised, so obscuring them probably isn't going to be as much of an issue as with the previous build. The build is an Italeri Mirage V in Belgian colours - most of them look pretty clean in the photos available online, so I won't be going to town on the weathering in any case.

Hello All, I've almost finished painting my latest build and my thoughts are turning to decals and varnish. For my last build I tried weathering for the first time, and it didn't work the way I'd hoped; by the time the varnish went on, much of the panel lining and other detailing had too much cover (between layers of paint and varnish) to allow the washes to run into them properly, or at all in some places. This time, I'm trying to take a bit of a minimalist approach where possible, and have used just a single coat of enamel paint in an effort to avoid this problem with the washes. Having done some looking around, the general consensus seems to be that you need a layer of gloss varnish underneath your decals, and another layer over them. I'm wondering whether that first layer of gloss is really necessary for the decals to come out all right - I'll be using Decal Fix. If I try to apply them directly to the painted surface, and just gloss over that, is it likely to go wrong? Thoughts appreciated.