Hey everyone, first time posting here,
I have just finished painting two brass engines, stripped, blasted, and painted with scalecoat 1 gloss. Now here is my issue: after decaling, what finish should I use on top of the scalecoat paint? I bought the older (but still sealed) scalecoat “flat glaze” and it has been baked but just feels “soft” and is not too resistance to nail scratching. I have heard the pros use Minwax and Deft lacquers? I thought those were for wood finishes… strange. Anyway, any type of reccomendation would be much appreciated, cheers!
1 Like
I’ve found Scalecoat formulations to take a very long time to cure, even after baking. Try giving your brass engines another week to ten days and see if the finish hasn’t cured even further. Age of the paint is certainly a factor, too. Some of my Scalecoat is ten or twelve years old and I have to use extra thinner to make it sprayable. My thinner isn’t the Scalecoat formula, either, so that probably slows down curing time, too.
Recently I began using Alclad2 clear finished and I’m very happy with those, especially the gloss finish. You have to be especially careful not to get too heavy with the flat finish or it will become too ‘chalky’ when dry. I blend it with varying degrees of flat/gloss to give me the finish I’m looking for.
NYC Baggage Alclad by Edmund, on Flickr
Regards, Ed
2 Likes
I have heard a lot about Alclad clear coat, my biggest concern is that because Scalecoat dries as a gloss finish, anything else you spray on won’t be able to stick well. I will try out Alclad though. It’s been a week now and the flat coat is the same as when I took it out of the oven. I did notice that on some areas (untouched and unseen on the bottom of the engine) are a bit chalky… could it very well be I either thinned it too much and sprayed it on too thin in some spots and too heavy in others? The entire finish job just feels soft, not tacky, so it’s definitely cured. I also can’t smell any paint on the piece.
Regarding Alclad, as you seem to have had good results with it, how much thinner/flat/gloss do you add together to make a nice semi-gloss (not a mirror finish but a couple weeks out of the paint shop type). Thanks for all the info.
1 Like