Almost Want To Cry

Just strip the paint off and repaint. Don't use water based paint myself but am guessing you are applying too heavy a coat and/ or too soon after the first coat.

 

The acrylic sealer sucks.

Use Krylon Matte finish for mid coats and then a simple lacquer gloss from true value, its $4.49 a can at the local store. later when you are better at fish stil use these to see what the paint job is going to look like and then an automotive gloss.

 

Wow! If something like this bothers you so much and you thought it would be perfect from the start you might want to consider a different hobby or profession.
All you have to do is either strip the blank with some lacquer thinner or give it a couple coats of white primer and start painting again. Pretty simple.
As I think most folks on the net will tell you, nobody got it perfect on their first fish. It takes lots and lots of practice and failures. Just relax and enjoy the process.
Sounds like your gloss coat was way to heavy. The solvent vehicles used to deliver the gloss will dissolve your paint work if applied too heavy. If sealing, just apply a very light tack coat and then use a hairdryer to set it before walking away. The cloudiness is more than likely moisture and air trapped in the gloss. This is common in humid areas. Again, hit it with a hairdryer to purge the air and moisture out of the gloss before walking away.

 

Definately nothing to be pissed about, This happens to everyone. I am willing to bet a few different things happened. 1. it sounds like you certainly put on way too heavy of a coat of sealer, all you really need is a quick misting blast to seal it or lock in your powder work. 2. It sounds like you also held the spray can too close to the blank and didnt get enough of a chance for the solvents to start to evaporate before hitting the paint job. try to stay 12-18" away from the fish when spraying gloss. 3. The beauty of a reproduction blank is if you dont like it, A. either strip it and start over or B. prime it white, hit it with black umber and antique it again and start over. Just an FYI this is not going to be the last time something goes wrong with painting a fish. you gotta get used to it and learn how to handle these curve balls when they come up. That is where you are really going to learn how to paint. As Rick always told me, the difference between an amature and a professional is how you react to problems that come up.

 

Unfortunately some of the best lessons in this industry are learned the hard way. Been there done that. Eventually you will figure what works and eliminate what does not work. The idea is to learn from others mistakes, but unfortunately that isn't always the case.

Here's a few things I've learned about painting:

1. I stick to lacquer paint as I seem to have less issues with it.
2. I don't use any of the sealers or glosses sold by the supply companies or glosses in a spray can. All junk IMHO and some of this stuff has been on the shelf too long. Some of these items have a shelf life.
3. My sealer comes from Ace hardware. Mostly green colored can of clear lacquer sealer.
4. My clear coat is an automotive clear coat. No fish eyes, no runs, no fogging, no problems. (But be sure you have a spray booth if you use this stuff!)

 

Only "Artist types" could shrug off ruining 16 hours of work without being frustrated or pissed. Good thing you don't have to be an "artist type" to make it. You got some good trouble shooting. You just got to take a deep breath and start over.


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I must not be an artist type. ;D My head used to explode when something went wrong -- especially since taxidermy was my sole income.

O.K. back to painting fish. Breaks over.

 

You and me both Cecil! Spending some time at the range with above poster is great therapy in such situations!

 

Almost hard to believe this post. I have never, ever in 35 years of this had issues with….

A. Painting with both lacquer and water based paint (both dried).

B .Gloss……..Rustoleum 2X clear……never an issue.


If you choose to use slop glos that takes forever to dry and is auto based……..good luck. Envirotex Lite……worst crap on the planet. Gloss the fish, no need to turn it into glass..

 

You're only about 2/3rd done painting the fish. Another couple hours anyways.

 

Don't have much talent? Come on! That repro is coming along really well. Never, ever, ever, put yourself down. There are folks that do taxidermy for a living and couldn't even come close to that. You should see the crap people bring me begging me to repaint them. Sadly it's not usually just the paint job. And these are commercial taxidermists! They do decent gameheads but it seems you would have to actually try to do the piss poor job they do with fish.

For the life of me I don't know why they even do fish. It only pisses off their customers.

 

Hey Den what are you talking about? The automotive clear coats I have used dry fast and hard as a rock. No fogging or smudges from handling like the other stuff out there.

 

No way. 45 minutes tops!

 

30 minutes for me, but for that guy that took 16 hours to paint the body would surely take at least a couple hours to paint the fins.

 

And this thread just ended up another self gratifying measuring contest between the regular locals with no help offered to the original problem. Or wait a minute, there was no real original problem - just a complaint about something not going right for the first time and wanting to cry about it instead of figuring out how to fix it and move on and paint the darn fish.

 

Gloss coats pretty much are a pain I the rear. Get used to it. Find one you like and pray every time you use it