I've never used Scalecoat paint before and was wondering what you guys think of it? I was pretty much a Pollyscale user, but since it's no more I'm trying to find a replacement. Trucolors seems interesting, but I'm not overly crazy about it being solvent based. But, I guess Scalecoat is solvent based since it uses a thinner :?:

Mark

Your answers will vary but,for me I never cared for the finish of ScaleCoat II(for plastic) but,I do a lot of brush painting.

I've not used Scalecoat II, but the original lacquer-based Scalecoat gives a nice glossy finish, ready for decaling. It has a fairly long drying time, though, and that and the glossy finish are marks against it in many cases for the type of modelling which I do. It does, however, provide the most durable finish of all the model paints which I've used.

Wayne

I am not a user of Scalecoat,so can't say much about it. I am just a die hard of solvent based,for Railroading. A painter of many Military figures and vehicles,,which use paints like Vellejo,Citadel and even Tamiya,which I found thin best for me using,denatured Alcohol,brush and air brush. There is a new paint on the market, made by Micro-Mark,called Microlux,it is Acrylic flat finish,with Floquil color paint names. It supposedly matches Pollyscale paint colors perfect..The Micro-Lux paint was blended by expert acrylic paint formulators from Vellejo. Have only read a few reviews,but they are good ones..
Cheers,
Frank,zstripe

I've been using Scale Coat for a long time (as well as PollyScale).

Imho, it is an excellent product. I've often used Scale Coat as my basecoat color foundation underneath the Alclad2 metalizers to achieve realistic stainless steel finishes on my plastic corrugated passenger cars. I typically thin it 60% and apply it medium wet at 25psi approximately 3" from the surface of the shell I'm spraying. Two coats. The results are usually very smooth and glossy.

Here is one of my passenger cars after having applied a Scale Coat 2 finish on it. I use a multi-LED flashlight to check for smoothness.

I used to use Scalecoat exclusively until I discovered the Tru-Color paint line. I have over fifty bottles of the Tru-Color paint and love the stuff for airbrushing. It's acetone based and thins just fine with regular hardware store brand acetone which is much cheaper than their own thinner.

Tru-Color isn't a typical pigment based paint, but more like a dye based paint similar to printer's inks. It never separates in the bottle, and the thinned paint from your airbrush can be put right back in the bottle, so a lot less waste. This paint covers extremely well. I can get a solid white or yellow OVER black in just two coats !

The downside to the fantastic abilities for spraying, it's not intended as much for brush painting. I've used it to touch up small spots and maybe some grab irons, but that's about it. It dries real quick. I can paint, mask and spray two or three colors easily the same day.

I don't think I ever fully finished a bottle of Scalecoat before it dried up. Tru-Color is good right down to the last drop no matter how old it is. It WILL thicken up after some time, but will thin right back out with the acetone.

Mark.