can anyone tell me how to finish a paint job?

[Izzy358]

Hi everyone,

so I'm working on my first big cosplay project at the moment and still learning along the way, I'm making Lady Sif's armour from Thor2,

now so far I've made pieces from fiberglass and resin then layered it with fine surface filler and sanded it then painted it. I'm more or less happy with it so far but I'm worried the paint work is going to get damaged and I've done details using silver Gutta which in hindsight is possibly not the most durable of materials, so I'm wanting to put a finish or varnish over it to sort of seal it and protect it, can anyone recommend what I should use for this?


I've tried matte yacht varnish on a test piece and it just looked really bad, it basically undid all the work I did trying to make it look metallic, but I'm worried that gloss will look too shiny, any advice?

to give you an idea this is what I am working on at the moment:


and this is what I'm aiming for:



any suggestions welcome, cheers!

 

[laxman09]

i'd suggest either just a clear coat spray paint or a matte spray paint, the problem with the clear is that it may be a little too shiny for what you prefer, where matte may be a bit too dull for your liking. i dont know what else people use that would yield a better result, but go ahead and find some scraps and paint it up with the metallic texture you've got going on there and then try each spray, better safe than sorry!

p.s. great job on the color and texture/shape of the pieces, they really do look like hand crafted metal parts!

 

[Kevin Gossett]

Unfortunately metallic paint jobs and clear coats don't mix. Just about every clear coat will dull the finish to a grey, rather than metallic silver. However I've heard people using Future Floor Wax with good results.

 

[Murdoch]

Unfortunately metallic paint jobs and clear coats don't mix. Just about every clear coat will dull the finish to a grey, rather than metallic silver. However I've heard people using Future Floor Wax with good results.

Future floor wax. Hmmm i just got to look into this...GM

 

[Izzy358]

i'd suggest either just a clear coat spray paint or a matte spray paint, the problem with the clear is that it may be a little too shiny for what you prefer, where matte may be a bit too dull for your liking. i dont know what else people use that would yield a better result, but go ahead and find some scraps and paint it up with the metallic texture you've got going on there and then try each spray, better safe than sorry!

p.s. great job on the color and texture/shape of the pieces, they really do look like hand crafted metal parts!

thanks! yeah I think some more testing is needed, by clear coat spray paint do you mean this type of thing http://www.amazon.co.uk/400ml-Cryst...sim_diy_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0NP3R0CRQM6W4T67JCZ2 ? I think maybe semi gloss might be worth a try, not too shiny but not too matte either hopefully!

 

[Izzy358]

Unfortunately metallic paint jobs and clear coats don't mix. Just about every clear coat will dull the finish to a grey, rather than metallic silver. However I've heard people using Future Floor Wax with good results.

yeah the varnish I tried just dulled the metallic paint down until it was just grey, not what I wanted at all, really glad I tested it on a scrap first!

I just had a quick look at future floor wax and it could be a good option, I've never heard of it before but one guy I've just seen uses it on model spaceships and describes it as like a clear acrylic paint so that could be worth a try, thanks for the suggestion

 

[laxman09]

are you from the uk? but yeah thats pretty much it, crystal clear. Kevin made a great point that i forgot about the dulling, what did you use to create that paint job? good thing you're doing tests on some scraps first, keep doing that (;

 

[FXpuppet]

I wanna start out by saying great work so far.
Crystal clear is a great sealer but better left for sealing sculptures. The best paint I have found for Metallica is from Alsacorp. The product line is called Killer Cans. The paint line is built on metallics an they have awesome clear coats. Here is their website. http://www.alsacorp.com/killercans.htm
I have almost every color in my shop, hope this helps.


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[Izzy358]

FXpuppet

I wanna start out by saying great work so far.
Crystal clear is a great sealer but better left for sealing sculptures. The best paint I have found for Metallica is from Alsacorp. The product line is called Killer Cans. The paint line is built on metallics an they have awesome clear coats. Here is their website. http://www.alsacorp.com/killercans.htm
I have almost every color in my shop, hope this helps.​

thanks! I've never heard of those paints before, thanks for the suggestion, they look really good but I'll have to look at how much postage is etc they might be stretching my budget a bit :/ , is it the "speed clear" one that is the finishing coat?

laxman09

are you from the uk? but yeah thats pretty much it, crystal clear. Kevin made a great point that i forgot about the dulling, what did you use to create that paint job? good thing you're doing tests on some scraps first, keep doing that (;​

yup UK I'm gonna order some of that stuff I think, its cheap enough that I figure its worth a try (on a test piece definitely!) I used black acrylic then "metallic glamorous shine finish" by crown over the top
​