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I had a thought, can different Tamiya clears be layered to create different effects. For example doing a light coat of blue clear, then a light coat of red clear, will that create something purple looking, or maybe something that has a bit of a colour shifting effect, or will it just come out a mess. Or do you just end up with something black because the blue clear doesn't let red wavelength light through and the red clear doesn't reflect blue wavelengths?

Anyone tried it? I'd like to give it a go but Tamiya spray cans are kind of expensive to try something that might not work, lol.

If me looking through my children's clear acrylic blocks is anything to go by, this will likely only work with some colour combinations towards the lighter end of the colour spectrum. Reds and yellows seemed to work, but blue and red didn't. I'd imagine it's to do with the wavelengths of the specific colours passing through others. Why not just get a clear in the colour you need?

Yeah, my understanding is clears work by absorbing all wavelengths other than the colour it appears to humans. So stacking different coloured clear acrylic blocks will usually stop all light passing through entirely.

But I guess my thought was if you put a clear paint on lightly, it will look pale, and looking pale is indicative of the clear not fully absorbing those other wavelengths, so maybe they could be layered assuming they're done in light layers.

Why do it? Two reasons, Firstly, Tamiya don't make purple or turquoise clears Secondly, I was curious if you'd get some cool colourshift effects... for example if you sprayed a green clear at an upward angle lightly before spraying a blue clear from above, would you end up with something interesting for an Alpha Legion scheme, or would it just be a mess?

I think if the clears were sprayed heavily, you'd just end up with something very dark nearing black, but maybe with thin coats there'd be enough light getting through to do interesting stuff?

For the effects you are describing, or colour options, look at green stuff worlds candy inks, metallic filters and colour shift paints. They might be more what you’re looking for in a ready made formula

mrFickle wrote:
For the effects you are describing, or colour options, look at green stuff worlds candy inks, metallic filters and colour shift paints. They might be more what you’re looking for in a ready made formula

I haven't seen GSW's candies, I guess they're similar to Tamiya clears? Colourshift paints are kinda what I want but I was curious if a similar effect could be had with clears because clears are a lot smoother. At least the colourshift paints I've seen are quite grainy in their texture, and they remind me of metallic car paint, lol.

The reason I mention Tamiya clears specifically is because they come in rattle cans, and I wanted to avoid something I had to airbrush.

I watched a video of the candy inks being applied by airbrush and they did blend when layered as per the CMY standard expectations. Again not sure if it’s what you want as they might not be transparent enough once layered.

Colourshifts are metallic, I think you have to have some metal pigments for colour shift as you need something to reflect the light from different directions.

mrFickle wrote:
I watched a video of the candy inks being applied by airbrush and they did blend when layered as per the CMY standard expectations. Again not sure if it’s what you want as they might not be transparent enough once layered.

Hmm, I hadn't really thought of it like that, but yeah, that's basically how printers work, yeah? They just layer cyan, magenta and yellow inks in different densities over a white page to create the colour you actually want.

Any link to the video?

Tamiya don't make cyan and magenta, but a RYB system does a similar thing as CMY just not quite as well, but still should produce most colours.