I recently ran into a major problem when I sprayed a coat of Vallejo polyurethane varnish over gloss future on my 1/48 Eduard Camel. The Vallejo varnish gives a beautiful finish but it has its limitations.
When working on the Camel, I accidentally got some CA glue on the base of my thumb and put a very light thumb print onto the fuselage side of the model. No problem, I thought, I'll just sand it off with a 3000 grit sanding sponge and repair the spot with my airbrush. As it turned out, it became a nightmare. Even though the Future was well cured before applying the Vallejo polyurethane varnish, and the Vallejo topcoat was cured for several weeks before sanding, the Vallejo coat only had a very weak adhesion with the Future undercoat.
As I sanded, it was impossible to bring the Vallejo product to a nice featheredge in order to make a smooth repair. In fact the Vallejo varnish just peeled off the gloss undercoat. My only poor solution was to take a hobby knife and lightly cut the varnish surface vertically at the joint between the Camel cockpit wood area and the adjacent linen area to act a stop point for the peeling. I subsequently sanded off the remaining Vallejo on the fuselage side, however I ended up removing some surface detail.
I set the Camel kit aside since I lost my mojo for it, and started a 1/48 Tamiya Swordfish.
I have been modeling for over 30 years, but whenever I build something there is always something that goes annoyingly wrong - I guess it just part of the hobby!
Bob W
