I'm using Nelson Hobby's Flat PolyU clearcoat and it's not "flat enough" for me. I've heard of guys using talc/baby powder as a flattening agent in clearcoats before... Anyone have any experience doing this with Nelson's clear or any other waterbased/PolyU clear?

I'll probably go ahead and test this, but would like to hear of any experiences you may have had and/or how much powder to mix into the clear when shooting it through my HVLP detail gun.

Thanks,

Tom

Follow up. I tested the talc powder in my Nelson's clear but wasn't happy with it. It lightened the color a bit and the talc didn't completely dissolve. Also, I saw virtually no difference in the specularity/finish.

Next test was to use 000 Steel Wool on the exisiting Nelson's Flat coats... perfect. The ultrafine 000 grade left no visible scratch marks, but dulled the specularity down just the right amount, so I applied the technique to my SBD. Much better!

A couple added benefits of this technique...

1) The steel wool hits the higher domed rivets a little harder than the surface area, slightly lightening them and making them even more visible.

2) I had a little bit of "gritty/stipple" texture to my paint in a few areas and the wool knocked all of this down to a nice satiny smooth finish.

Just thought I'd share my results.

Tom

#0000 steel wool will remove a lot of gloss. Of course if the coat is flatter than the steel wool will produce then it may make it glossier than it was. Make a test piece and try it.