Satin or Matt lacquer finish?

[Scott A. Hess]

Hello, Im painting a Tamiya 1/16 RC tank, done in a german 43 dunkelgelb, with typical normandy camo colors. I usually finish off my models with a coat flat lacquer just to seal it all, but I've heard other say that a satin finish gives it a much more realistic finish and appearance, any comments/tips? Thanks in advance. The basecoat of the tan is down, must cure two days or so, then I can move on to the camo, and detailing, still so much work to do.

[Federico Perez]

It all depends on taste and how accurate you want to be, I am not a fan of "satin" finish on armor and even less in a weathered one, the reason is that tanks,armor cars and other field equipmement are magnets atracting dust....dust alone would make any painted surface look compleatly flat in reflections, then if you put in play the mud wet or dry in the lower parts, then you have a quite dirty means of transportation Also if you take in consideration the scale of the model in relation to the real thing, the amount of "shine to scale ratio" is almost zero.

We must remember that the main colors of camo, red-brown and field green where supplied in paste form blocks to the field units, these in turn where thinned down using gasoline or turpentine and depending the amount of liquid added (and if it was allready used...dirty) the final colors can be as light or dark as you can imagine. This is why WW2 German armor modelers have such an vast variations on camo patterns and color variations, it all depended on how "artistic" the crew painting them where during the application.

Glossy or Satin paint don't even looks good in real 1/1 tanks or armor softskins, in fact what would be the purpuse of having a reflective surface no matter how low the reflection would be, but again it all depends on taste by the modeler and how he enjoy his final scale model most.

I once asked a museum curator in charge of the armor collection in a famous military museum, why the tanks and other armor was painted in such glossy paints which didn't look right for a military fighting machine.....his answer..."glossy paint protect more the metal and finish on the long term and it's EASIER to CLEAN than flat paints when the machines are DRY-CLEANED OR dusted, so we sacrifice a little accuracy in our quest for preservation" and thinking about it, it make sence...if you want to save in manteinace cost and long term static or operational preservation for these uniques pieces of history.

[Scott A. Hess]

Thanks Federico! Appreciate the input, I will then stick to my matt finish! I still don't think the final product will be 1/2 as nice as your pieces, but I'm trying

[Scott-W]

An aside note,my Floquil matte additive I topcoat armour with was waterbased in years past,and I summise the humidity here in the deep southern US combines with the dried formula to occasionally cloud the finish even years down the road. I've been top sealing the matte with a hand brushed/rubbed coat of furniture wax to minimize this effect .