Mick Bonwick's Blog

More great work Mick, really enjoying this blog.

Steve.

Thanks, Steve. Any more suggestions for subjects?

Well done. All this brings back memories of when I worked at the Rootes Group Main Dealer in Leeds. One of the mechanics had acquired an old Sunbeam Talbot and later wanted to sell it on. However at least one of the wheel spats had rusted right through and made a hole as big as your fist, He took it up to the paintshop and, there with newspapere and filler rubbed smooth and a lovely coat of paint and it was made to look like new.

The list of subjects could be endless! ;-) Personally a faded blue 08 would do for me. Have you done rusted enginners wagons or minerals or a grubby tank wagon? Or a conflat, minimal bodywork but the planking would need weathering and ageing? 

One question, I've tried the MIG dark wash and after leaving overnight it still doesn't seem to be dry and wipes of really easy, or is it that as it's a mega shiny surface on the car it hasn't really stuck well and the coat of matt varnish will remedy that? 

Many thanks.

Steve.

Hi Steve,

 

Sorry for the rather long delay in responding. I have removed (without realising it) that part of my blog configuration that allows me to see new comments, so completely missed your question.

 

A wash is mostly carrier and some pigment. This means that the coat of pigment laid down is very thin and soft, thus taking a VERY long time to dry hard when used on a large flat surface like a roof. I use one of two methods to cope with this - the first is to treat the surface with Dullcote before starting with the wash, and the second is to wait a long time for the wash to dry. 

 

There is a queue of rolling stock waiting to be weathered, now, so some of your requests might appear on here soon.

On 09/01/2019 at 20:55, petertg said:

Well done. All this brings back memories of when I worked at the Rootes Group Main Dealer in Leeds. One of the mechanics had acquired an old Sunbeam Talbot and later wanted to sell it on. However at least one of the wheel spats had rusted right through and made a hole as big as your fist, He took it up to the paintshop and, there with newspapere and filler rubbed smooth and a lovely coat of paint and it was made to look like new.

This reminds me of when i started working at a Jaguar main dealer as a painter and those  spats but also on this particular Mk 2  3.8 with wire wheels everything else was rotten. After a lot of filler and repaint in pearlescent gold it looked a peach but didnt take long for all to come through again, shame as mechanically it was fine.

That's interesting Mick and probably answers my query on the earlier stage. I am surprised that white spirit doesn't "bloom" the glazing material.

Very interesting to see that the white spirit will shift the Dullcote, so thanks for that one.

 

But would a cotton bud (one of the thin Tamiya ones, for example) do the job, or is the Dullcote sufficiently hardened that it has to be the wooden stick?

 

I'm interested, because when I recently sprayed some vehicles with Dullcote, I either masked the windows or removed the glazing (where they manufacture of the vehicle allowed this).

 

Thanks.

 

The Tamiya cotton buds will certainly do the trick, you'll just have to be a little more patient.