What do you use to buff up a Tamiya clear coat?

[Denise Larsen]

I just received my Tamiya catalog and in it is a 'Tamiya Modeling Wax'
for polishing car models that have Tamiya clear coat on them.

I called ALL OVER the Denver area and none was to be found. I guess I'll
have to either mail order it, or used a substitute.

Does anybody out there know of a mail order outfit one can count on to
have a complete line of Tamiya model building/finishing materials?

Or what product do you recommend as a good wax for buffing up Tamiya
X-22 Clear coat? I just completed a Tamiya formula one car, and I've
never polished acrylic with wax. So, far all the regular waxes I've seen
in auto parts places have 'petroleum distillates' in them & I think that
using waxes with the distillates would be a BIG NO NO on Tamiya paint.
One guy recommended to me a product called 'The Treatment'. I guess this
particular wax is pure carnuba wax or whatever, but it is supposed to be
very kind to acrylic finishes. Does anyone have any info about this stuff?

Any & all info. would be greatly appreciated!

P.S. Please reply by adding your response to this thread....

Cheers,
Denise Larsen 'Woof'

[Frank Henriquez]

I just did the following experiment: I took an old model painted with
Tamiya acrylics and polished one wing with Tamiya Model Rubbing/Polishing
compound a
the other wing with "The Treatment" model wax. The Tamiya clear coat is
basically the carrier for their color paints, so the results should be the
same. I used a clean, old white sock...and BOTH compounds removed paint.
They both contain petroleum distillates, too...so I think you'll have to
look at something else.

As for using Tamiya vs "The Treatment" for polishing bare plastic, I did
the above experiment on an unassembled A/C wing a few weeks ago. Both
produced a nice, glassy finish, with "The Treatment" wax producing the
best results. It was also much easier to apply and polish and MUCH cheaper
per ounce.

--
Frank Henriquez UCLA Astronomy Department
fr...@bnkl01.astro.ucla.edu

[jjr...@vaxb.isc.rit.edu]

Im probably giving away a great secret here, but...

You can use paint swirl remover called Black Ebony, if you havent done any
sanding yet. It will not remove any orange peel mind you- youll have to
wet sand with 3600 or finer wet/dry sandpaper, and use a little white
polishing compound to eliminate the sandpaper marks. Follow it up with
BE and it should sparkle...

You can buy BE at auto parts stores for a few bucks and have 10 lifetimes
worth...

I also HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you buy an LMG polishing kit, and skip
the wax altogether. It causes way more problems than it solves...

John
RPM Braintrust: John Ragone/Rick Gortatowsky

[Don_S...@transarc.com]

John,

>I also HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you buy an LMG polishing kit, and skip
>the wax altogether. It causes way more problems than it solves...

You're the first "real" person (aside from the guys who write for SAE)
I've heard from who seems to have gotten good results using a
polishing kit. The times I've tried it, I always ended up sanding
through the paint somewhere. I've also ended up with some really
glossy parts that had splotchy color (I was using Red Devil
Polyurethane spray-can paint).

Can you give let us in on any tricks you need to know?

Thanks,

Don

[Frank Henriquez]

In article <D28y2...@wldelft.nl>, ver...@ws01wnm.wldelft.nl (Eric
Verschuur) wrote:
> 'The Treatment' wax is great stuff indeed, it contains no abrasives and also
> works fine on all acrylics. In Europe it is also repackaged by Revell and
> sold as 'Model Wax'.

Eric:
I tried "The Treatment" on an old (over 1 year old) model that had been
painted with Tamiya acrylics, including a layer of clearcoat. With
anything but the lightest and briefest of polishing, the wax DID remove
the Tamiya. Try it, and use a clean white cloth so you can see the pigment
as it's removed by the wax. If you spray a thick enough coat of clear
acrylic, you may not notice if most of it gets removed by the wax...