Oils over lacquer/enamel?

[Ovidius Incertus]

I am painting pistons on a Knight (or 3) with Alclad II Chrome.  Primed with Duplicolor black primer, wet sanded, re-primed, wet sanded and coated with a base of Alclad II Gloss Black.  Gloss black didn't go down as smoothly as I would like on my first run Knight, but I'm plowing on ahead.

 

I want to do oils on top of the chrome to simulate lubes and grime.  Is this kosher?  From what I've read, putting another coat (i.e. gloss varnish) on top of the Chrome will mess up the effect.

 

Firstly, is it safe/viable practice to put oils on top of a lacquer or enamel?  Secondly, what should I use to protect the Alclad before oils, if anything?  I think there is an Alclad clear coat, and I have seen mention of using the magical Future.

 

Putting chrome on just these few bits has been an extraordinary pain in the posterior already as far as adding extra steps, so I don't want to mess it up in the finishing.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

You will always want to put some sort of protective coat over the paint before using oils so the turpentine doesn't harm the finish beneath. I've never used Alclad paints before so I don't know how to advise you on that part, but yeah, a gloss coat before oils is standard.

[Imren]

I have done similar thing, This is what  I do:

 

 

1. base coat in metallics (enamel or acrylics) on top of black undercoat

2. gloss varnish

3. do the grime and weathering effect with diluted oil paint (van dyke brown and ivory black), I prefer to dilute in ethanol or IPA

4. let dry

5. lock it in with varnish of your choice

 

the gloss varnish protects the acrylics or enamel metallic underneath against the dissolved oil paint. The dilution of the oil paint on top of gloss coat also gives a great runny effect and good flow on the surface. Since dried oil paint have much less rub resistance compared to enamels and acrylics, you ought to do another coat of varnish on top, this coat better be sprayed/airbrushed on otherwise brush stroking is going to mess up the dried in runny effects of grime and runny rust streaks. dried oil paint behavfes somewhat similar to pigments and need to be locked in behind a transparent coat of some kind.

 

The thing with varnished metallics is that the varnish somewhat dulls and darkens down the metallic paint, so I use a bit brighter metallic if I'm going to varnish on top of it, so If I want silver colour I use chrome, if I want gunmetal colour I use 50/50 mix of gunmetal and silver or perhaps chrome.

 

Cheers

 

Cheers