Guys I may have found a replacement for Future/Klear

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Hi gang - while I have 2 bottles of Klear "stashed" I have been looking around for a potential replacement. And, while idly leafing through a Lakeland plastics catalogue, I stumbled on this:

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/quick-shine!...s/product/20286

A recent holiday to Cornwall, found me in Truro ( where Millers model shop had vanished - much to my surprise), however, I spotted a Lakeland shop, and bought a bottle of the said floor finish. Returning home today, I've done a quick test with said stuff and here are the initial results:

The liquid was applied over acrylic paint which had been dry for at least 48 hours

colour : milky white

viscosity: like water

smell: bottle says ammonia free, but it smells ammonia-esque to me. Not the sweet smell of Klear we know and are hooked on!

Brushability: very good

clean up: water

glossiness: 1 thin brushed coat was very glossy - better than 1 coat of klear

drying time: a little slower than klear, but was touch dry in 10 minutes. Dries clear - I applied over paint and some yellow and black decal chequered decals - and they show no colour change.

I shall try some decal and decal solvent tests tomorrow, but so far this looks to be good. Its not as cheap as Klear, but as it seems like it really, really, glosses up after one coat then this may balance itself out.

I'll keep you posted

Jonners

Edited August 31, 2009 by Jon Kunac-Tabinor

[AnonymousAA74]

Is it the same viscosity as Klear? Does it airbrush?

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Is it the same viscosity as Klear? Does it airbrush?

Hi James, the viscosity seems the same. I havent had a chance to get the Aztec out yet. Only got home at 5 pm today!!

Cheers

jonners

[Doug Rogers]

Wow! Good find Jonners, could be quite a discovery, be interesting to see how it behaves with laying fresh decals.

[Bobs_Buckles]

I've got a lifetime of klear in my stash. But good find all the same

[Seahawk]

A recent holiday to Cornwall, found me in Truro ( where Millers model shop had vanished - much to my surprise), however, I spotted a Lakeland shop, and bought a bottle of the said floor finish.

Jonners

I can understand your pain at another closed model shop but visiting Lakeland in consolation is a bit of a desperate measure, isn't it? Hope you feel better now.

[PS Interested in your discovery though!]

Nick

[chaoslord]

good find Jonners!

is it possible to dip a clear part in it and see what happens? a slightly scratched one preferably, to see

whether it has Klear's magic abilities!

[PDH]

How big is the bottle? At £9-78 a bottle its not cheap. My local hardware store still has about a dozen bottles of original Klear at £3-66 each (and they reckon they can still order more) and I though that was a tad pricey. Better go and buy some!!

Edited August 23, 2009 by Peter Harrison

[T-Tango]

Nice find Jonners, let us know when you get some more test results, especially if you a/b it whats the best cleaner to get it out of the a/b.

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

To answer a few questions. The new varnish is in an 800ml bottle, vs Klear which comes in a 500 ml bottle, so there's 60% more in a bottle of Quick Shine, whihc at least makes the higher price tag more bearable

This morning I did some tests. First I took a canopy and gave one side a sand with some 2000 grit abrasive - giving a hazy finish:

This was then dipped in Quick Shine, the excess wicked off on a piece of kitchen towel, and allowed to dry. (the exact same method I use with Klear on canopies) After 10 minutes it was dry:

The results look to be on a par with Klear. The unscuffed side is nicely glossy, while the scuffed side has regained much of its clarity. This was a severe test, as normally you would polish out a canopy using much finer grades than 2000 grit.

Next I took some spare Spit fuselage halves and brush painted 1 half with 2 coats of thinned Tamiya acylic Medium Blue; the other half received 2 brushed coats of Aeromaster acrylic PRU Blue. I left this to dry for 30 minutes:

NB Tamiya paint at top, Aeromaster at bottom

Then I applied to the tail and fin areas on both halves a single coat of Quick Shine, while the areas by the cockpits received single coats of fresh Klear. 10 minutes later I applied second coats of each varnish to approx 1/2 the original area, so a comparison could be made between 1 and 2 coats of each:

NB as before, Tamiya paint at top, Aeromaster at bottom. I have also applied some Tamiya paint thinned with Quick Shine to the area ahead of the 'Kleared' cockpit section of the fuselage

In general the quick shine was just as brushable as the klear. both the paint dried to matt finish, and both varnishes give patchy finish after only 1 coat, though the quick shine, I think, gave a good gloss finish after the second, whereas the Klear looks like it would need a 3rd cost to achieve this. Both the Quick Shine and the Klear significantly darkened the Tamiya paint, but not the Aeromaster paint as much.

For brush painting, the quick shine cleans up with water just like klear.

I have since applied aeromaster decals to the quick shined areas, using the Microset and sol on one fuselage, and the Gunze Mr Marksetter and Softer fluids on the other. Both work with no apparent adverse effects on the varnish.

My initial conclusions are therefore, that Quick Shine is a very acceptable alternative to Klear. The higher price per bottle being balanced by the larger bottle size, and the potential to not need as many coats to achieve a high gloss finish.

Airbrush tests to follow.

Hope this is of some use.

Jonners

[AnonymousDFB1]

Looking very good Jonners

[chaoslord]

great report man! thanks a whole bunch!

[PDH]

Looks very good then, I'll see if I can get it off the shelf in my local Lakeland store. Will still stock up on Klear as well!!

[nicholas mayhew]

wow

Jon thanks ever so much for your report!

do you have any news on airbrushed experiments yet?

many thanks,

Nick

[AnonymousFO98]

If my aprroximate calculations are correct then

Jonner's stuff (rounded up to £10 for a 800 ml bottle) = 80p per ml

Klear (averaged to £3 for a 250ml bottle) = 83p per ml

so even at a cheaper price i was getting Klear at the increased cost is not prohibitive!

I did some tests with some acrylic floor polish from a sample given to me by Green Kleens in Penistone, but the results were not good.

it worked well with decals but didn't brush well as a varnish, leaving some bits on the surface- i tried again ensuring a clean surface and drying conditions but the bits were still present

same on the canopy after two attempts gave up

pity cos it would have been a lot cheaper

nice one Jonners good spot

[T-Tango]

Great report Jonners, well done mate.

Oh by the way is it any good for polishing the floor???

Edited August 29, 2009 by T-Tango

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Great report Jonners, well done mate.

Oh by the way is it any good for polishing the floor???

No its crap for that! way too glossy - you slip everywhere!

will try airbrushing it this weekend (on models not floors that is...)

Jonners

[T-Tango]

No its crap for that! way too glossy - you slip everywhere!

will try airbrushing it this weekend (on models not floors that is...)

Jonners

Ah, thats no good then mate.

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Airbrushing tests!!

right today I have tested Quick Shine ( QS from now on - saves typing!) as a thinner for the following paints: Tamiya, Pollyscale and Xtracylix. All thin perfectly with this stuff.

Using a PCM 1/48 MC200 as a test model I brushed painted the undersurface with Pollyscale acylic thinned with QS - no problems, then I brush painted the top colour with Xtracrylix thinned with QS - no problem, and finely I brushed on the blitched with pollyscale for the green, and tamiya for the brown again both thinned with QS. Perfect in all cases.

The QS gives the Tamiya and Xtracrylix paints added "wet time" so they are easier to brush for longer. The pollyscale which normally dries quite matt has a nice sheen to it. Not glossy but a satin sheen. Morevoe I think by using the QS as a thinner with this paint it will take a top coat of the varnish without absorbing it - so i should get a high gloss for decals with just 1 coat, with luck.

I also used the QS to thin Tamiya yellow to airbrush the engine cowling. This time I mixed it with Isoprop alcohol too - again - no problems, and the tamiya paint went on smoothly and dried quickly.

Finally I poured neat QS into my Aztec and sprayed 1 wet coat of varnish over the top surface of the model:

The QS sprayed easily without any thinning, and a wet coat could be built up easily thats self levelled as it dried. Clean up was with Isoprop alcohol - fine. In my opinion it actually sprays better than Klear, being easier to lay down in light coats first, then to get a wet coat down pretty much straight away.

All in all this QS seems to be a brilliant product - as far as i can see it has no downsides so far.

Once I have finished glossing the model , I will see how QS works as a decal setting agent - the other use for Klear. report to follow.

Jonners

[goon]

Great find Jon. I'll get Sarah to add a bottle to her next Lakeland order. (She's obsessed with the place!)

[nicholas mayhew]

thank you Jon - look forward to further news!

cheers,

Nick

[cruiserguy]

Hi Jon,

Nice find. Can you mix the Lakeland floor polish with Tamiya matt medium to give a matt varnish?

Best Wishes,

Richard.

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Hi Jon,

Nice find. Can you mix the Lakeland floor polish with Tamiya matt medium to give a matt varnish?

Best Wishes,

Richard.

Hi Richard - yes it seems to behave exactly like Klear in this respect.

I have also tried using it as a decal setting agent now - and while this use for Klear was never my favourite use, so i'm not terribly experienced in how well it worked anyway, the QS seems to do the same type of job.

I've also added 1 more acrylic paint range to the thinning test - namely Games Workshop Citadel colours - again it thins paint easily with no apparent problems.

Hope this has been of use.

Jonners

[Grant]

Hope this has been of use.

Jonners

Very useful Jon. What a great set of posts. The effort you have put in is much appreciated.

Grant

[nicholas mayhew]

silly question:

i saw on the original link you posted someone said when hubby walked in with his wet boots it dissolved the varnish / made it "lift" from the floor...

so...

what happens when you get parts of the model wet when applying decals??

if the same thing happens as in the testimonial, it's pretty catastrophic no?

hope you can clarify

cheers

Nick