Tech Tip: Your FUTURE is Bright!
By Michael Benolkin
Like many of you, I use Future for a variety of modeling related purposes and still haven't figured out why they call this stuff 'Floor Finish'. Johnson's Future is essentially a gloss clear acrylic paint that applies, thins, and cleans up just like most other popular hobby acrylic paints. When mixed with Tamiya Flat Base and a little thinner, you have one of the most flexible flat or semi-gloss finishes (depending on proportions of Future to Flat Base (see Step 8. Final Coat here)). Which such a great resource at such an inexpensive price, it was no wonder that modelers were concerned when Johnson discontinued Future Floor Wax.
While my supply of Future is still doing fine (I won't tell you how many years old that bottle of Future is), I thought I'd look into the current state of Future options and here is my finding (at least for North America), Future Floor Wax is now Pledge FloorCare. After looking at the specifications of each of Johnson's line of floor care products, this one looked promising and I put it to the test. In a recent build, I used the Pledge FloorCare to lay down a gloss coat over flat paint, applied decals, then applied another coat to seal the decals before using my mixture of Pledge, Tamiya Flat Base, and thinner to blend the surfaces back with the surrounding flat paint. The Pledge goes through the airbrush just like Future, cleans with Windex w/Ammonia just like Future, and for all intents and purposes, IS Future. So relax everyone, your FUTURE is bright and still on store shelves, just under this new alias.
Now go build something!