Airbrush thru glassing instructions...Future Acrylic??

General Discussion
1

Hello all. I have been lurking here for a good while and finally decided that I would go for my first post. I have been shaping for awhile, and recently decided to start glassing my own shapes. Then I decided to see if I could do a simple airbrush. Anyway, I have reviewed the archive for hours but still have a few things that I need clarified. From what I have read, the process goes like this.

  1. Seal finished blank with Future

  2. Airbrush with acrylic paint thinned with Future

  3. Seal Artwork with more Future

  4. Lam

  5. Hotcoat

  6. Sand out the hotcoat

  7. Seal again with future

So here are my questions.

  1. Is anything in the process I described wrong?

  2. With a sanded hotcoat, can I actually seal it with Future? Can I buff it to look decent? Would Krylon Acrylic work better? If I am not concerned with weight, should I just gloss coat it?

  3. Does anyone have a picture of a bottle of Future, so when I go to Target I get the right stuff?

  4. What is the proper way to apply the Future? I couldn’t find much info on this topic?

I realize that I am in over my head, but I’d apprecieate any help on the subject(s). Thanks for all the info!

2

sbvfive. Welcome aboard

. I’d skip #1 and #3, thats way to much acrylic IMO, you will have a really good chance crystallization with your glass job… skip #7. finish with a gloss polish finish… If you use a good high quality artist paint you really don’t need the acrylic thinner. I use use a combo of both water and acrylic. Make sure the acrylic floor finish does not have any wax/oil or cleaners in it… I get mine at Smart and Final

good luck

Ben

3

I’d second those recommendations. Just get your paint ready, thinned with Future and some water, then spray onto the raw foam.No need to seal then reseal everything. Don’t try to completely color the foam with paint until it is 100% opaque. That will be too much paint. Also, when you inspect the paint job closely there will be some lighter colored pores that are the unsprayed bubbles of cut foam. Don’t worry about them.

After the paint drys, the Future Acrylic Floor Finish in the paint will automatically seal the paint you’ve sprayed. Laminate after that.

The only time I’ve sealed paint once it’s sprayed on the foam is when I want to tape over it so I can spray another color. A light coat of clear Krylon acrylic lacquer out of the can will do that. Doug

4

Thanks alot guys, your info really helped. One more question…if I want to do a sanded hot coat instead of gloss, should I seal it with something else, and try and finish it to a shine or something. maybe like dolphin skin or the future or similar??

5

sbvfive, I wouldn’t recommend a final seal with Future Acrylic. It has limitations. My experience has been that Future will turn milky when exposed to salt water for awhile. Krylon would fair better, but won’t be as durable as gloss resin. Moonlight Glassing does a sanded gloss finish where they don’t polish the gloss, but rather sand it with 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper. It gives the look of a sanded finish, but gives the durability of gloss. Doug