Tamiya Paint Phenomenon - Anyone Else Had This Happen?

[efrick]

Hey Folks,

 

This past weekend, I shot a coat of Tamiya XF-63 "German Grey" onto cockpit components of the ME-163. Rather surprisingly, the paint dried with a high-gloss finish (and, by high gloss, I mean shot-with-three-coats-of-Future high gloss).

 

I used Tamiya thinner, mixed to my usual ratio of 60% thinner/40% paint, shot through my trusty old Paasche single-action airbrush. In the past, this has never failed to deliver a nice, flat base coat.

 

Although, in the great scheme of things, this won't matter in the end (after the detail painting, drybrush, wash, and flat coat) I am very curious as to why this happened in the first place. It did leave a slight orange-peel effect as well, although I think that will disappear under the flat coat.

 

The pic attached doesn't quite capture just how glossy the parts are currently.

 

If anyone has any thoughts on what happened here, I would be happy to hear them!

 

[rkranias]

yikes!  perhaps a bad maunfacturing batch?

[efrick]

Hi Rick!

 

I had wondered about that, or perhaps the age of the paint. Although it had never been opened, I suspect the bottle itself was purchased 2 to 3 years ago (and, of course, I have no idea how long it had been on the shelf at my LHS before that). The paints have been stored in a "protected environement", though, so the whole thing still remains a bit of a mystery!

[NOVAModeler]

Did you stir it well? Sometimes a thick sediment settles and shaking alone won't help. I have seen some glossiness appear with Tamiya Flat which settled out over time, but never this glossy.

[efrick]

I did stir it thouroughly with one of my trusty plastic rods. Of course, I may not have stirred it enough (the bottle had been sitting for some time!).

[efrick]

Hi Doogs,

 

The primer beneath the dark grey was a coat of Tamiya "RLM Grey" (XF-22). The cockpit parts themselves are resin (washed in a gentle bath of soapy water before painting).