How to have a finish like a real car: polish it like a real car

Amazing tutorial and very informative. Been looking for something so detailed for some time and this completely fits the bill. All questions are now answered!!!

You're the first one I've seen that does it right. I'm a perfectionist especially when it comes to detailing the paint. You did a very nice job. I just finished a pro street 64 Mustang (factory color) now I'm doing a 70 mach 1. It's a sort of time attack car. Only colors I have is white. Red . and orange. I'm thinking of going with orange

That finish is immaculate!

I'm a novice modeler. And want to do box stock at model show's. Wich you probably know comes down to the paint being perfect to place. So this was extremely helpful. That heavy compound is expensive. But on models probably lasts a long time I'd imagine. Thank you so much for the very informative video!!!

Wow looks absolutely amazing,

Huge difference. Looks great.

Thank you for a clear, concise and easy to follow video. Polishing shouldn't be black magic and you make it seem almost simple if we FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS.

Nice work! Gives me confidence to paint my models and have a shine that grabs the eye.

Beautiful work and you're a great teacher. Thanks. 🤗

Great tutorial. Just what I've been looking for. Thanks a million.

Woooow!!! Amazing!!! Thank you so much for the tutorial!!!

Thank you for this tutorial. I truly look up to you and how you make such amazing cars. I will be attempting my 4th and most detailed model car soon! Have a good day😄

I’m working on a revell 1/144 a380 and I’m trying to make it look really good. This tutorial really helped

That’s a great polishing work,congratulations,look’s great

Amazing technique,looks awesome

Small additions: If you can, use sanding blocks with sandpapers Instead of wool polishing pad (in high cutting phase) use sponge polishing pad. Sponge has much more cutting rather than wool.

simply the best tutorial i have ever seen, thanks for the info :)

Man this channel is already mind blowing helpful

Fantastic if only most modellers knew this. It would take their finished product from toy looking to real vehicle.

Great tutorial. Thanks!

awesome, thank you mate and thank you for sharing on the FB How To's page so we could find video!

Excellent tutorial. This will help me polish my keycaps 😎

Such a good video! Excellent content and even better production. Well thought out. I’ve been researching for my first car build, and let me tell you, there is some less than stellar content out there. 😀

Very nice and thorough tutorial. I learned some things I didn't know before

Now if I did this I'd be wearing the paint off at the edges!! Nice work!!

Awesome dude.

Looks great! With my painting skills, I need this! It certainly beats using sanding pads from 3,600 to 12,000. Thanks! I am a new subscriber.

That is very helpful, I can use the same technique on my diecast cars paint. The finished product looks awesome my friend.

Amazing work, theylook so realistic! 👌😁

Great job done, good tutorial .

Thank you very much. I will try your technique.

❤❤❤ that's amazing, thanks for the video ✌️😎

Terbaik ni. Thanks for sharing this! Going to start my first build next week.

Thanks so much for this!

Great video thanks!

WoW, well done ! I have to do again and again to have the same result. Thanks for the vidéo 💛👍👏

Excellent tutorial!!! Truthfully the amount of orange peel can be reduced greatly by using a high quality 2 part automotive clear coat and hardener, and also temperature/humidity play a big factor. I use only automotive clear coat and hardener used on real world automobiles and after spraying the clear it comes out nearly flawless every single time. I can wet sand with 6000 grit and 12000 grit, rotary polish using Meguiars ultimate polish, top with pure carnauba, and my finish is then flawless.

Must try this as just got into this hobby and built 2 cars and hate the paint job pmsl

Very nice work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great job on the paint how to my freind excellent il have to get some that compound 👍

Great Job, wow is amazing with a little patience what you can accomplish. to bad i have none. I see i will have to go out and buy me some patience . Congrats looks awesome

ive actually wondered about how to make my paint on model cars mimic the real type reflection that 1/1 cars have. thank you this helps me a lot!!

YOU are a genius!!!!

Funny your pic for this video shows before and after. But too me the before looks awesome enough :)) crazy that it gets even better through some wet sanding. Am always scared I will take off the paint. Good vid.

Wonderful video.

Very usefull..nice video too

Wow... Hello fellow msian!!!! Great work

Awesome!

Nice work!!

Wow! Your tutorials are amazing, very detailed and well explained in a simple way, keep them coming, I am learning a lot everytime I watch 👍👌 many thanks !!! One question, how do you do it when you build a racecar with a lot of decals, I am concerned to damage the decals by sanding as the clear coat is very thin.... only one chance to get it right or wrong 😉 any advise highly appreciated, thanks !

boutta do my first car and your videos help a ton! Paint looks great. Hope I can do mine good 😂😆

Very helpful. This with using a minigrinder i never been thinking of. Have to try it. Most times i use this nail polish kits woman buys , with rather good result.. But maybe not this good

First I just wanna say I'm really amazed of your work, And thiese methods do work but when wet sanded it to 2000-3000 I get a little minor scratches but meh, hahaha! And I have watched your every videos on how-to's and I almost achieved most of my 1/24 scales. One last thing can you build an Fujimi RX-7 Spirit R Type A and lowering it, Thanks keep up the great work!

The first model I painted with airbrush was the Ferrari F40. Because of the disappointing looks of the painting I quitted building modern cars sets, and focused on planes and tanks where shiny finishings is not a must. With your video, I'm ready again to give modern cars models a second try. Thanks!

Another great tutorial from you sir. Well explained and I can notice some points which I can adapt to my procedure to make it even better. I currently use Autoglym but have seen many people use Meguiars, need to try their products once mine reach the end. Once again, thank you and well done!

This came out beautifully. Can I ask a question? So im trying to paint my hard body but everytime i use the tamiya masking tape to make the lines so I can paint the other side a different color when I take the tape off it leaves a streak of residue that makes me have to start all over and sand it and paint again but all I will be doing is going is circles. My question is if I leave the residue will this clear coat cover it and make is vanish? Or do you have a suggestion to get rid of the residue? Before you suggest some products I did some researching and I tried Wd40, Water, Goo Gone and using more tape to stick it and bring it up but none of these work. Thanks for any help!

awesome tutorial, especially for a beginner like me! One question... the paint on my recent model has some small specs of dust in it (not too bad, but slightly noticeable) and I'm wondering should I be polishing or sanding the paint before adding the decals & clear coat? Or should I just add the decals & then clear coat & leave the polishing until then? I'm using Tamiya TS paint from the can & will clear coat in TS-13

Very nice

This is great, thank you for making this. What model grinder is that? I've been looking a bit online and cant find something that looks the same size. I'm also having a hard time finding a wool attachment thing

Very nice. Result is beautiful. I was wondering what color/manufacturer paint and clear coat you used. I usually decant my paints and clear. Letting them breath and let the propellant gas out before I use them in my airbrush. Thanks so much.

Only one word-MAGIC!!!

@JH Hobby I know a lot of ppl out there take time to show and explain how to videos, but I wanted to take the time to comment that you did an excellent job in the presentation and pointing out the pitfalls of what not to do , etc, very much appreciated very informative video. I have a question, if you have older plastic models( slot cars, bodies have marks, scratches from racing them) and wanted to polish, wax them to get it " close" to the original paint job, what product would you use first to " fill in or cover up the scratches before you get to the steps that you demonstrated in the video ?

Good job blue is a bugger to get right too

Hi! Great tutorial video! I need some help though. For some dumb reason i decided to skip the wet sanding to smooth out the orange peel and went right to the compound, polish, then wax. Its shiny for sure but still has heavy orange peel in certain areas. Question is, can i go back and wet sand it even though ive polished and waxed? Thanks!

Fantastic tutorial and presentation, really shows the before and after. Thanks for sharing! One question what was the paint used for the bodies?

Thank you for this video! What type of paint did you use? Also, did it have a clear coat on top of it prior to sanding? Thanks!

Really awesome for using mini grinder! Wonder if I could modified the lake country pad to use with the grinder. (I prefer using menzerna for polishing my car and I think it could be great for the model too.) thanks for the great video.

Thank you for the helpful video. Do I need to sand the base coat before putting on the gloss clear coat? Thank you

good job~~

Currently been doing some research as I've been working on a protocol droid. I'm not happy with my paint as the gloss coat eliminated all the shine the paint had. I'm actually kind of wondering if this will actually help it get more of that mirrored silver look now.

Wow!

That’s a perfect looking paint job. Did you have to wet sand the color coat before spraying the clear? I guess your orange peel is on the clear ? What kind of color paint did you use? Thanks

Wow! You simply cannot argue with those results. Thanks for the tutorial. I was just about to go buy a pile of Tamiya compounds but after watching this I will just use my automotive products. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Very nice tutorial. My question is that i recently bought a tamiya kit in which i really like the already painted body. But i want to polish it using the wet sanding method. Do you think i can wet sand it right away or i will ruin the paintjob since its not clear coated?

Love watching your videos, great job, once again! Doing my first car right now. Started with wet sandig and I am wondering why the colour comes off at some parts of the body. Do you have any idea? Same prbblem when using the tamiya glue. I painted the car with an air brush system and I'm using Tamiya Acrylic paint. I'm thankful for any hint. Greets from Germany...

Great vid man What type of paint did you use is it 2k? I'm going to be using ammo mig paint and alclad aqua cleat gloss is it the same process for them type of paints?

A very informative video and I like the finish that you obtained, it looks great. The question that I have is it a 2K Clear that you are sanding? If I try to use 2000 or 3000 grit sand parer on a 2K clear then you will get scratches that the polishing compounds won't be able to remove.

Great tutorial So is it necessary to buy both the compound and the polish or can I get away with buying one of them so my car doesn’t have orange peel but looks decent?

Awesome video. Question... I used 2K clear, how long can I wait to polish? 1-day, 1-week, 2-weeks? I tried once after 3-days and the clear just gummed up when I sanded it. Average ambient condition: 70 F and 50% rH

hey mat great vid!. Quick question. In my last build i tried mr clear uv cut lacquer one, let it dry for over a week, and when i did my first wet sand with 2k grit sponge it left scratched i couldnt get out. i reapplied clear coat again, lett it dry over a week and tried 4k grit sponge from godhand and same thing happened? do you know why this could be happening? it's getting frustrating now. thanks in advance and great videos!

Thanks

Awesome... how long do you allow the clearcoat to dry before beginning this technique?

Hello brother. First of all, nice video! I have a question. How long is the waiting time after the gloss coat. Cuz my paint burnt through on some raised edges even though i only lightly touch them. Working on some hotwheels project. They're so hard to polish as they are very tiny lol.

Looks amazing! When in the process of painting the body do you add the decals? Do you put them before the clearcoat?

Nice videos and tutorials. We should grab a drink to chat up if you ever come Singapore. 😀

Thanks for this! Can’t wait to give it a try. What clear was used on your example? I’m using a water based acrylic (Alclad Aqua Gloss) and I’m concerned it won’t take the abuse. Cheers.

Hi, i have some question to ask you, boss. Can i direct use meguiar scratch x2.0 after wet sanding? And can l appky this scratch x to to polished surface with some swirls and scratches after using tamiya compounds?

Thanks for the awesome video! I just started collecting 1:18 scale cars and im too terrified to take them apart. Can we do this without taking the car apart? Where did you get that mini grinder or can I use an electric toothbrush? I want my cars to look like this. Ive been mainly collecting autoart, some solido, GT spirit, topspeed. Do they all pretty much have the same paint? I just want to make sure im not going to ruin the car.

Hey JH, thank you for the tutorial. What's the grinder's suggested speed? I've tried a while ago with a Dremel tool but it badly burned the paint job. Thank you very much!

I've got the sanding down, what brands/production do you recommend afterwards? Do you know if Tamiya is a good choice? Thank you.

I can tell that English isn't your native language. I'm guessing that you're from Japan. I too have the mirror glaze polish. I use this only for hand polishing as it's highly refined and redundant with the polishing wheel that I normally use for much larger items. Using any type of rotary tool can burn right through your paint. I use 600 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper for everything and I can get a high gloss with that and the Meguiar's Mirror or number 9 Swirl Remover, or number 7 Show car Glaze. These are my go to polishes for hand rubbing. And use a TERRY CLOTH towel and not a microfiber cloth as it is too soft to rub the polish into the finish. Otherwise this is absolutely GORGEOUS and the type of finish that everyone loves!! Much better than using floor polish that all the numb nuts of the modeling forums use in a lame and poor attempt to get the same finish which it does not! Thank you for sharing this with us to enjoy.

Excellent results with 1K clear! Can even say its better than 2K. I'll like to share to all that if you're using machine polish. Becareful of edges of the model kit and polish towards or parallel to it. Had the buffing wheel caught on to the edges and flank it across the room one too many times.

Nice! It's exactly what I do! Right down to the Dremel wheel! (I made a video recently with my method and materials.) The only point where I diverge from your method is...(I spray Testors Enamel Clear, which is really soft even after it cured a year!) So I found that the Meguiars polish and even the wax was too abrasive leaving visible swirls and haze on my black finish. What I found much more successful for the softer finish was Tamiya Finishing Polish and for wax I used Meguiars Spray Wax which, being a liquid spray had no abrasives. Again...beautiful job and great tutorial! I'm just mentioning materials that work better if you find your clearcoat is too soft.

Mine looks dull. I am hoping that it is just because i didn't use a coarser compound first (went from 7000 wet sand to Tamiya fine polish). Will get some compound with cutting quality tomorrow and hopefully that brings up the gloss again.

Thank you - great tutorial. Are you doing this only to the clear coat, or the paint before the clear coat?

Hi JH-Hobby, what if the acrylic gloss is smooth but I want to make it shinier, should I just buy the Meguiar's Ultimate Polish?

Ok might be a stupid question, but do you do all of this after you add the clear coats or just paint? Love the video and really good information for a newbie like myself.

Great tutorial. Can you tell me, was that a clear coat that you painted over the paint? Or was that just simply a high glass paint. Thanks for your time.

Another question, I'm looking to do this for a part that is 100% matte. I want to get rid of the the orange peel, would I just need to do the wet sand process and then just spray on the flat clear coat or do you recommend I still use the compound and spray the dull coat on top of that? Many thanks in advance for you answers!!