Intercoat clear.

[mimi93]

Hey guys. I have been trying my hand with painting computer cases and so far I have had some satisfactory results. I recently tried my hand at doing some designs by taping off sections since I cant do freehand art. The problem I have run into is that when peeling the tape up (3m line and painters tape) little bits of my base coat get pulled up with the tape. I have done some research and see that inter-coat clear would pretty much be the solution to my problem. The problem I ran into is that I can seem to source it. I have seen the HOK IC but it seems its formulated for urethanes while I spray water based paints (Beginner with very limited budget). So I guess here are my questions:

What kind of intercoat clear do you guys recommend? I need something I can shoot out of my iwata siphon feed or rattlecan.
Is there an alternate method to prevent this from happening?
What kind of thin line tape do you guys recommend? Is there something that can handle tighter curves without binding than what I have? Less Tack?

Additional info:
I use rattle can duplicolour Self etching primer and follow a very similar painting procedure to what autobody shops use. (wetsand, clean, prime, wetsand, color, ect...)
I am using Wicked colours and Auto air
I live in Calgary Alberta

If you need any more info lemme know. Thanks guys!

 

[ko.]

On the intercoat AA or Wicked (same thing) good for making paint more transparent It is actually called transparent base Coast Airbrush Products also good for protecting your work between stages. that being said It sounds to me like an adhesion problem also painters tape is really aggressive ,even the blue.. Frog tape yellow works for me I havnt bought fine line in so long I cant remember which kind I am using (bought in bulk) But if nobody else chimes in I can find out I do know it is orange Welcome to the forum
Regards Kurt

 

[foreveryoung001]

You can use a lot of different things for intercoat clear. All it is, is a clear coat that you use between color coats. If I'm clearing my final piece with acrylic lacquer, I'll just use that as my intercoar clear. You mentioned Duplicolor, and their acrylic lacquer is pretty decent and comes in a rattle can. If you're clearing with an automotive urethane, then I would stick to the transparent base for whatever paint you're using. The solvents in the urethane can have some adverse reactions to some of the lacquers, so better to avoid them... unless you go with the HOK intercoat. HOK is an acrylic lacquer, but it is formulated to handle the automotive urethanes. You can get the HOK intercoat in a rattle can but it is a bit pricey. I think Coast sells it for $18-$20... something like that.

Also, you might try scuffing the surface before your base coat. Wet sanding the primer will give you a silky smooth finish, so I would take some 600 grit and use it dry to scuff the primer layer, or a red scotch brite. That will give the base coat a little more bite. Also, with Duplicolor, it imperative that you let it fully cure... whether its primer, base coats, whatever.... something in their formula makes them a bit touchy until its fully cured. Their clear lacquer is decent, but I don't even use that anymore, just because I always found it to skittish to work with. I think they recommend 24 hours, but I always had to give it 48 hours or more.

 

[mimi93]

Thanks so much for the advice. I have been google searching "intercoat clear" this whole time and the only results that came up was House of Kolor and nothing else. I never realized I could use acrylic lacquer to protect my design. My understanding was that it was a protecting clear coat used only when you want a more matte finish. I had a can of the stuff the whole time.

Foreveryoung001: is there a specific primer you would recommend? I thought wetsanding primer was a great way to set up a base for a gloss finish. I will give scuffing it a try but I am sure its not a problem with curing times. Due to regular student life events I can only work on the piece once a week.

Kurt: Thank you so much for the link. All google came up with was the HOK products. serves me right for not even searching the createx catalogue.

is there a painters tape that you recommend for getting tight bends without kinks and too much tack?
and finally, how would I go about sanding/prepping the intercoat clear layer? I assume that if I wanted flatness and gloss I would apply the clear to the whole piece instead of certain areas?

Thanks guys

 

[foreveryoung001]

For primer, I generally just use a sandable primer, but I scuff every hard surface I paint... guitars, helmets, tanks, etc... I do wet sand the primer, because it does make it silky smooth, but then I just give it a scuff after that to help the base coat adhere. The only product that I know is called "Intercoat Clear" is the HOK stuff, but all it is, is a clear acrylic lacquer that serves as the carrier for their Kandy colors and is basically HOK's transparent base.

When it comes to lacquer. If You are after a matte finish, there are several products that you can use... I see them at the hobby shop all the time, but have never really tried them. I am a sucker for a glass smooth lacquer finish, so everything I paint, I always have that in mind.... the lacquer makes the water based colors pop a lot more, and its just something I've gotten used to doing. On guitars, I go with nitrocellulose lacquer, but use acrylic on just about everything else.... well, besides helmets and anything automotive... for those I take them to a local body shop and have them spray the automotive urethane. Then it just comes down to sanding and buffing the clear coat.

When I use acrylic lacquer as my intercoat, I don't do much beyond scuffing it. If I've got raised edges from any masking, I might give it a really light sanding, but ive you go through the intercoat while sanding, you'll take your artwork off too, and I'm just to paranoid to sand the intercoats much. I'll just build up the final clear in several layers, sanding each one, and I'll get a nice smooth finish in the end. All I use an intercoat for, is to protect what I've painted.

I'm working on a commissioned helmet right now, just got done with the back ground last night.... a cool marble effect with purple and green and some snow flakes. I have to add some words and a picture of Winnie the Pooh, so to protect the whole background, I put down on an intercoat. Since this will be getting the 2k urethane, I just used the transparent base from E'tac, which is the paint I mainly use. That way, if I screw something up... get some over spray, make a mistake in my masking, spill a drop of paint, etc... I've got a layer of protection and have a much better chance of removing anything, like over spray, without damaging the background layer.

 

[ko.]

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