Revell 1:72 Spad XIII C-1

[Guest]

I’m desperate and in dire need of help. Some of the colours, on the upper wing, are littered with cracks. They are all Tamiya acrylics allowed to cure for more than a week before the first mist coat of Johnson’s Klear (Swedish version labelled “Klar Polish”). The second mist coat came on ½hour after the first and 2 days later a wet coat to prep. for decals. All went dandy, as seen in some of the previous pictures, but suddenly a week ago, I started noticing very fine lines and cracks in the DarkGreen reviling the desert-yellow underneath it. After yet a few more days the black started cracking up but too a much larger extent (see the pictures).

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Any ideas on how to fix this without having to strip the entire paint job (including the decals)?



Secondly; is there something wrong with the variation of Johnson product that I use, or does the paint need to cure more than a week, or is it the effect of sunlight on the darker colours with subsequent expansion and contraction that causes this?



/Daniel

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[Ian M]

Sorry cant help you there, but I will be keeping an eye on mine now! I to have used a "new" version of Klear. I have experianced it once on a self printed decal but I think that was a reaction with the carrier or the printer ink- or both!

I dont know if you can eliminate the cracks by giving it some more, Clear dissolves clear, so it MIGHT work. Unfortunatly it might make it worse. Looks like you will need to try and recreate it on a bit of plastic card and se what happens.

Ian M

[stona]

I gather that the cracks go right through the paint rather than just the surface of the Klear. It looks like some kind of reaction but I've never heard of that between paint and Klear. I'm sure your paint was cured, I sometimes leave only 24 hrs before the next stage.

It's very weird,if noone gets back to you here I'll ask a couple of colleagues if they've seen anything like it.

I'm off to my loft to look at some old models (painted in enamel and acrylic paints) to see if I can see any sign of something similar.

Sorry I can't be any more helpful.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Thanks for your comments fellows. I haven't been able to find anything that could explain what has happened or whether there is an easy fix to it.

I thought about Ian's idea of adding more Klear to have it dissolve the cracked layer. But I was afraid that enough klear to dissolve the cured Klear, would also be enough to dissolve the Klear under the decals. Also I had flattened the top Klear with a coat of Tamiya flat base and I would risk different, unexpected reaction.

Ian's remark on the same thing happening to him on a set of decals, made me inspect the wing even further. And yes; there are cracks covering the decals and other areas too. These are very, very fine and can't be seen with the naked eye.

I've started sanding the top layer, with a small piece of fine Micro-mesh and a pair of tweezers. It'll take some time and I might rub through the paint here and there, but I should be able to respray these patches and still get a consistent result.

Steve: Did you find cracks on your old models? If so, do you remember the chronology in regards to the paint job? Did you learn anything of interest from your colleagues?

/Daniel