Natural Metal Finish using Vallejo Metal Colors (Part 2)

In Part 2, I go over weathering and sealing your natural metal finish.

[@norbertknockaert4589]

With respect to the issues of de-laminating primer and tackyness of varnish. I may have an explanation for that, please consider following: Gauzy is fantastic, it dries fast and does not remain tacky as some other clear cotes do. But... there are 2 drawbacks to this: 1>>It is dry to the touch, but it is not fully cured, if you paint a glossy layer (=not too thin layer) you will see that after about 10 hours or so, the previously "visible Thickness" layer has shrunk down to not noticeable thickness. So, it may be dry to the touch, but it is still not fully cured, so be carefull with "agressive stuf on top of it", and DON'T seal it in with another layer on top it! Give it time to cure. 2>>Because it is so quick at drying, modelers are tempted to just seal in their work with Gauzy and move on because the model can be handled. Now this is likely where the issues originated. It was very likely NOT the Vallejo Metal Varnish (VMV) that caused the problem of de-lamination and tackyness. I think that all was fine up to the moment you started weathering with the MIG products. Those are ENAMEL based products and you wiped (=soaked) the model with an ENAMEL thinner to cleanup. Until that moment, there is nothing wrong. But.. then the model was sealed with Vallejo Metal Varnish (VMV) and VMV is also a fast drying acrylic clear cote. And this is where likely things went bad, because ENAMEL products and thinners need a loooooong time to cure and even though they may appear dry to the touch it takes hours and hours and sometimes days before they are fully cured/evaporated. You likely sealed in the weathered and wiped surfaces that had not fully released all enamel traces. So the next thing that lickely happened is that the acrylic VMV closed the surface, dry to the touch, and then underneat, the ENAMEL vapours could not escape and had a very long time to agressively attack the toplayer=VMV and also destroy what was below, straight through the GAUZY, metal paint, and even the primer. As Will Pattison once commented in one of his videos; even the best clear cote on top of a bad adhesive coat will not save you. My interpretation of this is: If you spray a rock hard drying layer on a layer of pudding, it will still wipe of like there is no tomorrow. By sealing in our work with these fast drying clear cotes, we frequently create pudding underneath. Sometimes you can even see vapour bubbles forming in the top clear cote. That is not from the clear cote, it is from the stuff underneath! Now youwill also hear people say that they think it is because of the VMV on top, that one gets tacky... Yes it does because it is being killed from underneath. You are very lucky if it ever gets fully cured.... and even then you may see problems underneath with decals and stuf. So.... why does this not happen with Flat cotes of VMV? Well there may be 2 reasons to that: 1>>Flat cotes are seldom used over ENAMEL weathering products, as the final coat is mostly a satin or gloss cote. 2>>Flat cotes are often very thin (otherwise very unnatural) and by nature more porous (that is why they appear more flat) and the vapour underneath may escape better through the porous layer. Now all this is not my this is it answer, but it is very likely that this does give you some insight into why this sometimes happens "out of the blue" Knowing this may demystify the apparent randomness of this kind of problems. As Will says: Much love!

[@arewethereyetmodeling2196]

Wow, this was very through, I appreciate it. I will definitely take this knowledge into my next build. Thanks!

[@soureel]

Great explanation. Makes perfect sense. Before I got wise to the situation, I had Future gloss coats which looked great for a couple of days but would then develop tiny fracture lines all over- because the paint underneath had not fully cured.

[@mzaite]

For decal flash, you want to throw a full gloss on it then Decal set and solvent. Then to seal in use a satin or semi-matte finish to bring the metal look back.

[@larrydelaruelle5778]

Impressive build. Thanks for the video.

[@anthonycallan7964]

Absolutely came at the right time as I am in the process of buying some Vallejo metal colors. Very good instructional video for me.

[@arewethereyetmodeling2196]

Glad you like it. Let me know if there are any other tutorials you would like to see.

[@umutdestan4678]

It turned out very nice at the end. I've also had similar effects after using vallejo satin and gloss spray varnishes on two different models. Both times I shaked the newly bought cans and used warm water as suggested for a good spray. It's been almost 5 days since I spray an F-84 with revell aqua silver paint and the vallejo gloss varnish. Still tacky and sticky to handle. Very frustrating to wait this long for it to dry. I know it still has a few days because the last tank model dried in almost a week! Anyway good tutorial as always, thanks for sharing!

[@arewethereyetmodeling2196]

Umut, I had the same problem with their satin and gloss varnish. However I never had any problems with their flat varnish…it’s so strange. Glad you like the video and thanks for the kind words.

[@paintnamer6403]

I do not hear much talk about scale color, that is relevant to an awesome job like you did.

[@arewethereyetmodeling2196]

Hey Paintnamer, I’m not aware of scale color on Natural Metal Finish. I am aware of paint regular paints. Can you expand? I would love to learn about that for NMF.

[@DarthRust]

Is there an opportunity for a deep dive on the primer and varnish failures mentioned early on? That sounded eerily similar to some of the losing battles I've had recently.

[@arewethereyetmodeling2196]

Sure, I can do a deep dive into that.

[@robertmunoz7543]

If decals were eduard i hear they about as crappy as tamiyagawa decals!😳 2K clear coat will give a super shiney finish too. Jman

[@arewethereyetmodeling2196]

Robert, they were Cartograf decals. Which tend to be really good...but in this case they were horrendous. Not sure if I just got a bad batch or something.

[@stuarthanna2417]

I like Vallejo metal colors, but their metal varnish ruined a model I used it on. It would never dry, just stayed tacky weeks after. It could have been a bad batch, but I won't use it again.

[@arewethereyetmodeling2196]

Agreed. I only use Ak Gauzy agent with Vallejo Metal colors. And it is awesome! Doesn’t reduce the shine plus it so sting you can put enamel washes on it.