I have now ruined four Shapeways shells.

[peteski]

I miss Floquil.

Even since I discovered Accu+paint in the early '90s (And now Tru Color), I Never looked back at Floquil for painting locos and rolling stock. The super thin coat, durable finish, and ready-to-decal surface glossiness is so much easier to work with than the dead-flat Floquil finish.  Don't get me wrong, I still use Floquil for other modeling tasks where flat finish is desired, but that;s about it.  Scalecoat II is also something I also use on some of my painting projects. Again, the glossy surface finish is a desired trait.

[C855B]

Are you able to get glossy with SC-II without thickness? I would like to either solve that issue, or get confirmation it's a battle I can't win.

I agree with you on the advantages of Tru-Color, but the inability to touch-up or brush over is infuriating.

[wazzou]

Couldn't you touch up over the Tru-Color using something like Polly Scale Acrylic with a brush?  I know it's know longer made but is still around. 
I find it brushes as well as anything I've used.

[C855B]

Yeah, been thinking along those lines too. I was testing Model Flex for this, the primary challenge there being color matching since their interpretation of UP colors is pretty far away from the others. Assuming color mixing, for grins I also tested Createx, but their "opaque" colors are anything but, and they're not formulated for thin coverage anyway.

With that thought in mind, though, I should try color matching with Acrylos Vallejo. I've been using it both spraying and brushing for scenery and weathering, and like it, although I have not tested it for handling.

[wazzou]

Don't forget Tamiya as an option.

[Chris333]

That Facebook link I posted was for a company called Archive-X paint. Apparently the original Star Wars models were painted with Floquil and this company came out with a line of matched colors in enamel for painting Star Wars models. No idea how to order them though...

[peteski]

Are you able to get glossy with SC-II without thickness? I would like to either solve that issue, or get confirmation it's a battle I can't win.

I agree with you on the advantages of Tru-Color, but the inability to touch-up or brush over is infuriating.

I don't recall having problems with SC-II having to be applied thickly to get a glossy surface. I thin it with lacquer thinner for airbrushing and it dries glossy.  But the models surface has to be smooth.

I also go through great masking pains to avoid any touch-ups on my models. I never feel comfortable hand-brushing paint onto a beautifully airbrushed model. I rather spend hours masking then have to touch it up.

[C855B]

That Facebook link I posted was for a company called Archive-X paint. Apparently the original Star Wars models were painted with Floquil and this company came out with a line of matched colors in enamel for painting Star Wars models. No idea how to order them though...

You have to contact the maker on Facebook, apparently a Star Wars modeling fan in the UK. One post on a modeling forum mentioned $16/bottle. Never was able to determine if it was the Floquil formula and not just matched colors using a different solvent base.

As to the FB contact point and all the goodness that goes along with FB, probably will have to wait for when and if a distributor picks-up the line, if it gets that far.

[C855B]

I don't recall having problems with SC-II having to be applied thickly to get a glossy surface. I thin it with lacquer thinner for airbrushing and it dries glossy.  But the models surface has to be smooth.

I also go through great masking pains to avoid any touch-ups on my models. I never feel comfortable hand-brushing paint onto a beautifully airbrushed model. I rather spend hours masking then have to touch it up.

I'll try playing with lacquer thinner and see if there's a difference; I've been using the "official" SC-II thinner for reducing and xylene for cleanup.

As to touch-up, sometimes there are the tiniest little spots of overspray, or details in another color - stuff I'm used to going after with a 10/0 brush. Even those don't work in T-C - the first touch-up on the original shell was a speck of gray on one of the lifting eyes that found its way through the mask. Got out the brush, and it just didn't cover-up with the yellow, just sort of turned murky. Should've taken that as a clue.

[peteski]

I'll try playing with lacquer thinner and see if there's a difference; I've been using the "official" SC-II thinner for reducing and xylene for cleanup.

As to touch-up, sometimes there are the tiniest little spots of overspray, or details in another color - stuff I'm used to going after with a 10/0 brush. Even those don't work in T-C - the first touch-up on the original shell was a speck of gray on one of the lifting eyes that found its way through the mask. Got out the brush, and it just didn't cover-up with the yellow, just sort of turned murky. Should've taken that as a clue.

While it is true with most paint brands, light colors (especially yellows and oranges) Accu+paint and Tru Color paints are quite translucent.  If applied over darker color they will not look right.

[C855B]

It wasn't a matter of coverage, it had dissolved and mixed with the gray and started to spread. That's what I meant by "turned murky".

An experiment is in process - Bestine as paint stripper. Tom @thomasjmdavis posted the idea above. Since it is a very strong solvent, and one of the few things FUD is immune to, I have one of the shells soaking right now. After only five minutes a section of SC-II overspray came off with a toothbrush, so let's see where it goes after a couple of hours, etc. Fingers crossed.

UPDATE: After an hour in the Bestine, the SC-II is releasing from the Tamiya primer underneath. It's peeling off in chunks. The primer is unfazed; I would have expected it to at least soften a little, but apparently not. Frankly, I think the key is the primer created a barrier to the FUD porosity. I'm now curious what will happen with the A-units, as they have a coat of Tru-Color under the SC-II.

UPDATE * 2: Bestine absolutely didn't touch the paint on the A-units, so those shells are toast. I'll press forward stripping the B. I don't know at this point if it stripped because it was SC-II over Tamiya primer OR that the SC-II was not fully bonded/cured. The As had a few days to cure.

[peteski]

Mike, I'm no chemist but from empirical evidence (like small or observing how various paints dry/harden) I believe that SC-II is an enamel which uses mostly petroleum-based thinners.  Tru Color (and Tamiya primer) OTOH appear to be some sort of a lacquer which uses alcohols and acetone as solvents. That to me seems to explain why Heptane is attacking SC-II and not Tamiya or Tru Color.

Enamels,  once they harden, cannot be redissolved in a thinner. That is why SC-II is coming off in sheets.

[GhengisKong]

That Facebook link I posted was for a company called Archive-X paint. Apparently the original Star Wars models were painted with Floquil and this company came out with a line of matched colors in enamel for painting Star Wars models. No idea how to order them though...

On his facebook page he lists on the first post a Google Doc link that has several railroad options for paint. I think Floquil hues are coming back! These are enamel by the way. Several posts on the page has the owner himself replying that they are indeed enamel.

[robert3985]

OR...you could paint everything as you first did, which looks pretty good IMHO, THEN, brush paint the walkways with an acrylic or enamel...I think the acrylic would be safest. 

Think that'd work just fine, and I wouldn't worry too much about matching colors since the walkways are gonna get beat up, dirty and faded before the vertical surfaces will.

Or mask 'em and spray with True Color.  As long as it's a thin coat and doesn't go on too wet, it should work okay sprayed don'tcha think?  Truthfully it doesn't look like to difficult a masking job to me, and if you're worried about True Color dissolving itself when sprayed, use acrylic or Scalecoat II (which is an enamel)...and don't worry again about the color match.

In any case, you have your old shells to experiment with as far as what paint (acrylic or enamel) is safe to brush OR airbrush.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[C855B]

Thanks! Yeah, I was happy with the way it was going, even the custom decals off my office laser printer were working well. It turns out the Tru-Color gray sprays great over the yellow and doesn't pull the color through, so if it was possible to mask accurately around the lifting eyes and the little half-steps I'd be set. It was the agitation of wet brushing where everything went sour.

My inclination at this point is the paint decal. I'm going to try it on the good half of the first shell and see where it get us while waiting for new Shapeways prints. It's hard to see, but there is supposed to be gray surface underneath the half-steps at the ends of the main walkways. How I thought I was going to get into that space with a brush is anybody's guess. I suppose we'll know how the decal works in a couple of days. As backup on the walkways, probably an acrylic.

I finished stripping the (second) B-unit, and for a strip job it's not entirely bad. There are some filled-in spots I am having to work with a toothpick, plus some uneven spots where I didn't have full coverage with the primer and the SC-II bonded with the shell. I will play around with it, but a new shell is on the way anyway. If I can get the stripped shell in decent enough shape to use, maybe I'll get another fret of detail parts from James and build a 61B to run 'em as a fantasy quartet. Hey, no worse than BLI's Centipede.