Bryan,

thanks for your comments and suggestions. I'll have to weigh my options.

I probably should have clarified in my previous post what paint I have been using. I used no Lustrekote paint or clear coat on any aspect of the finish of this model. I'll comment in line below to respond to some of your suggestions.

Yup, I can see this being the case - Rustoleum paints seem to be, in general, much heavier in "oil" content compared to Krylon. The following are the appliance epoxy's that I was able to locate from Rustoleum and Krylon:

http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=101

http://krylon.com/products/appliance_epoxy_paints

http://krylon.com/ca/eng/products/ap..._epoxy_paints/

The last two are no doubt the same product just labeled differently depending on the market (in Canada products need to be bilingual). The white epoxy I used is that shown in the last link although the label on my cans is an older version. However, they all appear to have medium dry times of hours not days.

I agree, they are not true 2 part epoxy paints such as Klass Kote and the like. They are however one stage epoxy resin based paints meaning that they contain epoxy resins in them. This can be "felt" when shooting and give the paint a smooth silky, almost elastic, feel to the touch once wet sanded. These paints contain clear coats within the can as well so this must be sanded off first if one desires to re-coat or shoot other paints over top (which is what I did).

The change in colour of the base white is more of a tinting effect than a discoloration effect. At first I thought the issue might have been due to mixing different types of paint but I was careful to get the order and type right to avoid chemical incompatibilities - every step of the way was tested. After a little further reflection this morning, I'm sure it is not an appliance epoxy issue alone as the tinting is happening to all the paint - lacquer, epoxy, enamel and, yes,... Monokote too! The clear coat gave the same tinting effect over top white MK! In short, the CC used IS NOT crystal clear as it's supposed to be.

Yup, I was aware that Lustrekote was acrylic lacquer but as mentioned above, I used no LK on this project. I did however use automotive Dupli-Color acrylic lacquer but this was for the trim colors. I wanted to test how the lacquer held up when shot directly over top both acrylic enamel (I was using a red enamel paint) as well as epoxy enamel (the appliance white). As it turns out, the lacquer does craze when shot directly over wet sanded acrylic enamel, as expected, but it doesn't over the epoxy enamel base white! But I didn't need to shoot lacquer over the red, I just wanted to see how it behaved. That was important to know as otherwise the trim color might have ended up being a mess. In any case, I shot all color trim with a base of primer underneath so all color pigment coats (white, red, blue and grey) are separated by layers of primer. In brief, the paint job turned out without issue and flattened very nicely while holding on well to the substrates. The paint job was great until the clear coat went on!

PITA is right - massive one too! The colors did change hue as mentioned in my post above but there is no issue with that as the end result is just one of deeper/richer colors - there was no attempt to color match MK to paint, I knew it wouldn't work so I painted all color I wante to match including the colors over top MK on the wings and stabs. The one thing I couldn't handle that way was the base white coat. The fuse had to be paint and the wings/stabs, well, didn't have to be MK but the idea was to cover them for lightness. The appliance white was a pretty good match (as you'll come to see from photos I'll get to post at some point) to MK Jet White which is the reason I chose to use it. I expected the white to be slightly affected by a subsequent clear coat but no more than how it is affected by the clear coat contained within the paint itself.

The problem is squarely with the tinting of the automotive DC acrylic enamel top clear coat which is not water clear as it is supposed to be but rather yellows with time. It goes on clear, stays clear for a while and then begins to yellow as the hours and days go by. It could be that I just got a bad/old batch of CC... [:'(]

You know how that goes, takes a problem and likely makes it worse. There is cream MK but it wouldn't match the tinted white either... and I'd have to rip my perfectly good covered and painted wing and stab to recover with cream MK... as you say, not that I'd want to.

I think my only tangible option to recover the base white at this point is to sand the clear coat off - probably everywhere and see where it leaves the white hue. Hopefully, no touch up paint would be needed (although unlikely) and I could re-shoot with a proper, non tinting, clear coat - probably 2 stage urethane clear. If the CC did affect the white irreversibly, I'd have to sand further to expose primer layers in the white masked area and re-shoot the white...[:@] Of course, it doesn't help that I have color striping in the white base layer as well.

A good lesson was learned though, on the next project I'll stick to single system paint! I'm curious to find out how much better DC acrylic lacquer clear coat is compared to acrylic enamel CC (it costs over twice as much). If lacquer is used throughout on the project, there will be no compatibility issues in using a lacquer top CC. Of course, nothing says so far that it doesn't have that same tinting effect, after a few days. Or, I might just go to a compressor and Klass Kote or stick to expensive 2 stage urethane CC.

If anyone has any other good ideas or suggestions, please being em on!

David.