Hello friends, I'm a relative beginner with customizing and, though I've used Future a little bit in the past, I'm not feeling confident in the following questions. I'm working on a figure I'm really happy with so far and I don't want to mess it up... 1. How glossy is Future when dry? I seem to remember it's a kinda medium, but I've seen it called glossy elswhere. 2. If I want to do the whole figure to seal it and add a little gloss, should I dilute the Future and paint a few thin coats? If so, what should I dilute it with? Water? Alcohol? 3. How long should I wait after painting (acrylics) before doing a coat of Future? Is overnight okay or should I wait a week for it to cure? 4. I'm repainting SS38 Optimus and I've painted nearly everything except the red plastic. I was hoping that a coat of Future would add a nice finish to it. Am I being too hopeful? Will the Future look like a paint finish? Thank you kindly in advance. I'll post my custom when it's done!
1. Pretty glossy. If you've got some, though, it'd be easiest to just test it and see. Grab a scrap piece and apply a coat. If you want a less shiny finish, you can mix it with acrylic flat base. I find that a 1:1 mix gives you a nice satiny finish while more flat base obviously flattens it more and more future makes it shinier. 2. You do not need to dilute future - it's thin enough to go on smoothly as is and it is self leveling (one of its best features). I've air brushed whole figures and have been very pleased with the results. 3. A day should be sufficient. You'll want to give the whole thing a week or more to fully cure once you're done with your last coat. You can also mix future into your acrylic paints to thin them and add gloss. 4. Future will make the red plastic look like shiny red plastic. If the plastic is of such a quality that it already might be mistaken for painted, then it still will be but if it looks plastic, particularly if it has any translucence which is a pretty big giveaway, it'll still look plastic.
Was just reminded of this thread. Just wanted to add a little. This little guy is coated in future. While Blaster's tape door here is coated in 50/50 future and flat base for a semi gloss finish. Hard to see in that photo but you can see on the corner that there's a little bit of shine but not nearly as much as the little dragon (I didn't like how flat his tape door was and I was worried the paint would scratch super easily).
That's great, definitely illustrative. I'm going to go full strength, I think it will look good. I'll take some before and after pics with my figure too and add them to the thread. Just waiting for the power to come back on here in Cali...
