Floor Polish

[DEL]

Hello all.
I've been told that coating burnished metal, plate armour, with floor polish gives a convincing sheen and prolongs the 'look'
What type is used, how is it applied and can I get it in the UK.
Any info is much apreciated.
Regards
Derek

 

[Wlas]

Hello all.
I've been told that coating burnished metal, plate armour, with floor polish gives a convincing sheen and prolongs the 'look'
What type is used, how is it applied and can I get it in the UK.
Any info is much apreciated.
Regards
Derek

Floquil Crystal Cote is far superior. You may wish to look into this product.

 

[Guy]

Floquil Crystal Cote is far superior. You may wish to look into this product.

Floquil Crystal Coat is what I use as well. I like it much better than floor wax, which I have tried.

 

[Jamie Stokes]

Why a floor wax product, and not a painted varnish, in the gloss or satin lines?

Curious, more then anything else....

cheers

 

[ralpht]

floor wax

I have a curmudgeon friend who swears by Future floor polish over any other gloss application. It is an acrylic base and he cuts it with water. The results seem to have worked well through the years. He applies it with an airbrush and generally does several coats. His specialty is mostly armor and plastic structure so can't give more info than the type of wax.

 

[gothicgeek]

klear does the job very well......

it's as thick as water, appears to be an acrylic and usually 2 coats will seal a metal surface and prevent oxidisation

i bought my 1/2 ltr from wilkinsons in scarbourough uk for about 2 quid 2 years ago.... still got most of it

Mark

Mark

 

[Brent Fordham]

As others have mentioned above, the product from the original questions is not really a floor wax or polish, but rather an acrylic gloss coat designed for making vinyl flooring shiny. It has been called Future in North America and Klear in the UK. I believe it's called "Pledge with Future" now in N.A.

I've used it successfully as a pre-decaling gloss coat on aircraft models all the time, but have never tried it on figures.

Here's a link to a good description of the product as it applies to modeling:

http://www.swannysmodels.com/TheCompleteFuture.html

Brent

 

[Einion]

I've been told that coating burnished metal, plate armour, with floor polish gives a convincing sheen and prolongs the 'look'
What type is used, how is it applied and can I get it in the UK.

I think normally this would be Johnson's Klear as already mentioned, although you can use actual wax polish on a kit of course if you wanted.

FWIW you can burnish and polish kit metal and coat it with nothing and have it remain looking great for a long time (many years, into the decades with luck). It does depend on the type of alloy the kit is made from; some dull down more, and faster, than others.

One of the things I would say, if you do coat with anything like a varnish, is keep it thin - it tends to look like a coating has been applied (rather than the natural shine) if it's not very thin.

Floquil Crystal Cote is far superior. You may wish to look into this product.

Floquil Crystal Coat is what I use as well. I like it much better than floor wax, which I have tried.

Just to clarify, this is compared to Future yes?

In what way(s) do you guys think Crystal Coat is superior? Personally I don't like that Klear/Future stays tacky for so long sometimes but the results people get with it look great and it's cheap and easy to use, the water cleanup's a nice feature too.

Einion

 

[DEL]

Thanks guys, that's what's great about this site....you ALWAYS get the help you need.
Jamie I've tried varnish and it just doesn't work for me.
Brent, thanks for the link,. This pretty much provides the definitive guide.
Regards
Derek

 

[Jamie Stokes]

Derek,
thanks for letting me know that painted varnish didn't deliver the results wanted.

May have to do some experiments in the future.

Cheers

 

[Wlas]

I think normally this would be Johnson's Klear as already mentioned, although you can use actual wax polish on a kit of course if you wanted.

FWIW you can burnish and polish kit metal and coat it with nothing and have it remain looking great for a long time (many years, into the decades with luck). It does depend on the type of alloy the kit is made from; some dull down more, and faster, than others.

One of the things I would say, if you do coat with anything like a varnish, is keep it thin - it tends to look like a coating has been applied (rather than the natural shine) if it's not very thin.




Just to clarify, this is compared to Future yes?

In what way(s) do you guys think Crystal Coat is superior? Personally I don't like that Klear/Future stays tacky for so long sometimes but the results people get with it look great and it's cheap and easy to use, the water cleanup's a nice feature too.

Einion

Crystal Cote/Coat dries quickly and is impervious to washes whether acrylic or oil. Deep shadows can be painted directly over it and it never yellows.
And of course with using floor applications you must worry about people tracking in dirt or just plain scuffing the figure when they walk on it.

 

[magister militum]

And of course with using floor applications you must worry about people tracking in dirt or just plain scuffing the figure when they walk on it.

LOL!!!

I've used future floor wax as a gloss varnish for years and I have yet to notice any yellowing. If you are the type who uses a dullcote at the end, I also highly recommend it as a acrylic paint medium for washes as well. It breaks the surface tension of your wash water and the paint will flow into the recesses of the figure.

 

[Brent Fordham]

.... I also highly recommend it as a acrylic paint medium for washes as well. It breaks the surface tension of your wash water and the paint will flow into the recesses of the figure.

Hmm... I all but gave up trying to work with acrylics for washes. I tried many mediums, but never found anything that worked well and ended up going back to my "foolproof" oils thinned with odorless thinner over a gloss clear coat.

I'll have to give Future a try in this application. Thanks for the tip, Magister!

 

[Einion]

Brent, you might like to look on CMON (and maybe a general Internet search too) for 'magic wash', should bring up a lot of info that might prove helpful.

Einion

 

[magister militum]

No problem Brent. I use a mix of 1 part floor wax to 3 parts distilled water.