Protective clear coat for enamel paints?

[Neo Fett]

Does anyone have experience with this? https://www.humbrol.com/us-en/modelcote-matt-cote-28ml-bottle.html
I placed an order for it before starting this thread, it came in a few days ago and have yet to try it.

 

[Neo Fett]

Yeah Demmoc is spot on, a lot of cheap primers really don't do much anything for actual surface adhesion, they're just a really matted color of regular paint. Rustoleum 2x primer for example has identical solvent mixtures and drying windows as the regular 2x colors.

I've been making an attempt to try a lot of different primers over the past year, and I think I've finally settled on two I really like. Rustoleum Universal Bonding Primer, and Duplicolor Sandable Primer. The Rustoleum is a high-acetone solvent mix that adheres really well to plastics and epoxies, and the Duplicolor is a laquer base primer that adheres incredibly well and goes on super super smooth (seriously feels like it was wet-sanded). Both dry super quick (handle within 2 min and top-coatable anytime) and have stood up to gorilla tape pull tests for me. Only problem is that they're quite a bit expensive.

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I'm still exploring and testing clear coats, but I have recently finally tried the Testors Dullcoat that's really popular around here and I did really like it. I agree with Fett4Real though that too much clear can be a problem, if you're experiencing a lot of weak paint issues, it might be better to explore the cause of those rather than over-clear. If you do really want to put a shell of protection on your helm though, maybe look into automotive clears, getting a non-gloss one might be a bit hard though.

I am in the process of tracking down some of that Rustoleum for my next paint job. Thanks!

 

[Neo Fett]

I had my first troop with all airbrushed painted items. I get that there is no way to keep our armor from getting dinged and scuffed but I was hoping one troop wasn't going to leave so many marks.

The biggest thing is that the paint on my collar got rubbed off by the neck seal. Also have a lot of scuffs from my helmet on my chest plates when I look down. Several dark scratches on knees and a shoulder bell. (And the back plate is already scratched like crazy from the JP and JP harness, but that's to be expected).
Is this normal? I used the universal bonding primer and even put on a few layers of Testors clear coat.