Dave G.

Pete, within one of my first posts I said if to use 2x from the can to heat the can in hot water and I've seen it take two minutes of shaking to free the rattler, then shake for 4 minutes. This it seems to me indicates that I've shot it straight from the can ( I mentioned a 40 Ford hood in fact). But that was successful, the finish was indeed very nice. Now this was early on in the thread, I have no idea if he ever saw it before leaving the thread. You have no need to go back to my early posts but if you want to see my more exact words, I've changed nothing within them as I recall. But I also stated the best results are decanting and airbrushing, adding a little LT.. Krylon I mentioned being very hard to find in my area. And I believe others said the same about their areas. I agree that the thread has followed the nature of man, starting civil to wax worse and worse ! My comment on the OP seems to have gone was an observation that I posted is all. I mean he just doesn't seem to be here for whatever reason, and I too looked at his profile before posting that message.

I like to think there was at least observation to the thread by the OP but if not we all kind of wasted our time here it seems. Though someone else might stumble on the thread and gain something from it.

The OP seems to be through with the thread.

I've gone 110 with my food dehydrator on some acrylic paints and enamel with no issues. I've heard of some guys going to 120 for enamel for short blasts. I've done test paint jobs on scrap plastic at 115. 105-107 is my standard though. I don't have a Foodie but an air fryer with dehydrator mode, been using that for 4-5 years or so now. Dry paint by day bake pizza by night lol !

Well the application of 1/1 hot lacquer surely is different from hobby lacquers. Indeed it's worth a few passes on something besides your prized model to get a feel for any new paint or paint system. I'm hoping OP gets back with some good news personally !

Maybe do some test passes on a scrap part before laying it down on your project body. An old hood or side of an old body etc. Get pressure, speed of passes and distance worked out for yourself.

You definitely can even up the metallic pattern so it's not streaking by backing away. However my way of doing that is to up pressure a bit and use a slower thinner in 1/1 paints. The problem with MCW is it's already thinned with fast thinner. Steve's idea may be be the one, as he said, put more distance between the brush and model but open things up, that meaning more pressure and more paint flow both. I mentioned yesterday getting in closer but that may not work with metallic.

You can easily scuff that finish and add a couple more color coats before clearing. That's how I would handle your situation with that paint. But don't apply the new coats the same way, get them on there wetter. It's about impossible to run this stuff unless you just stall out on a pass and keep blasting. And now you have a base to lay it on to.

James they use a fast thinner in the acrylic lacquer car colors, for what reason I have 0 clue. But you gotta stay in pretty close and try to shoot it wet, yet in thin multiple coats because it's hot. FWIW I'm not a fan of MCW lacquer either for several reasons I've mentioned in other threads and about hot lacquers in general actually, I'm sure would offend the fans of it to run through it yet again.. There is a lot to be said on this topic actually but I'll stop here.

Ya, you just use water, less is more.

The Krylon Platinum gray used to be a great model primer I thought. It has or had a thinner film than some of the other colors. But that was 30 years ago, who know about todays formulation. I can't even find Krylon around this area where I live these days. And at Micheals where short cuts are supposed to be stocked most of the slots are empty.

Same here ! I really shouldn't post anything till after my second mug of coffee.

It is good primer. If you get into it though, I suggest right up front to get yourself some sort of power mixer if you don't have one ( I use the Badger hand held mixer, they're about $12 these days). Here's why, especially for colors you don't use often. In due time the solids settle and no amount of shaking or stick stirring puts it back together again, least no amount I have patience for . The power mixer does it in about 2 minutes. But worse than that you can't always see the sediment through the bottle sides, it can look fine and not be. There is nothing wrong with the primer and I think several bottles of the stuff has been tossed out by people not understanding that it does settle and not exactly easy to get back together without the mixer. I salvaged a bottle of black I was ready to toss, still using it, almost gone now. Once it's remixed it seems to stay suspended better too. Just passing on my experience with it and it's my primary primer now for about 7 years or so. I use that or Mr Primer Surfacer. Notice I didn't say Mr Surfacer but Mr Primer Surfacer. According to their website there is a difference in these products.

Too much !!!?

? That's a thought.

It's not an argument just a thought. I don't come here to argue.

Ya, I only have one left here myself and that's nearly 20 miles from me. I do order online especially if to find the right deal with Amazon prime with primes free shipping. Craft paints and much of what I've mentioned can be a Hobby Lobby/Micheals thing and shop sales and coupons. Stynylrez is an online item for me, nobody has that locally. Same for Mr Primer Surfacer. Those are the only two lines of primers I use.

Something to consider before calling someone cheap or even yourself cheap is it's getting very expensive to live. And a lot of folks in retirement and in other situations have a fixed income. It gets very legit to look for less expensive options in all areas of life and even depart from certain activities. In some cases it could make the difference in persuing the hobby at all. We don't want to lose fellow hobbyists.

Now finally: Acrylics have metallics to use, most will be too coarse. In my case if I'm shooting for metallic I'd rather do a silver base coat which can be found in very fine metallic and a clear color over that ( Tamiyas clear colors are very good and you can mix them to get other tones). But if I'm doing this sort of thing I'm not generally going for a factory stock finish. Another thing I do is use Liquitex iridescent medium in acrylic colors. I did up a pink like this for my wife, it's rather pearl looking and she wants to use that on a Cadillac, she wants to build a pink Cadillac lol ! So I did up a blue as well. If we land a pair of Cadillacs , hers will be pearl pink, mine pearl blue. As to a 60's or 70's real true factory metallic finish ? This is where I digress, I'd use MCW, probably enamel. But in any case, as I stated earlier on, all this requires an airbrush. I know I'm way off topic but people asked questions I feel compelled to reply too. Sorry about that ! I'll stop now. Actual hobby paints I buy from my local dealer or order from MCW but that's really rare since I mostly do some custom paint on the 60's cars if to build one, or my main stay is more solid colors on 50's all the way back to single digit 1900's completely stock builds. If I use hobby paint, it's these: MCW, Tamiya LP lacquer, Tamiya X series acrylics. Now the only thing I'll say that really complies to cheap alternatives for purchasing actual hobby paints and the topic of this thread, is before you rule out your local shop, maybe help keep him stay in business and before you do order online consider shipping costs. Remember that he pays those too.

Until James gets on board and answers for himself I'll offer this much. Good primer is your friend. Craft paints stick to plastic horribly on their own. But stick great to primer and primer to plastic. So if you don't do anything else I will mention here, at least prime ! Additionally, Createx makes an intercoat #4030 you put into acrylic paint. This turns the paint into poly acrylic and is specifically designed to make their own acrylic line go down and level well and stick to hard surfaces like plastic ( remember Createx is a professional paint company, not just geared to hobbies, they also cater to fabrics companies and automotive industry). Combine that with the paint and shoot the paint over primer, adhesion is a non issue. I've taken blue painters tape to properly dried craft paint and yanked it off intentionally and nothing moved. Same for soft body or fluid body artist acrylics and of course Cteatex which you would expect to work fine. People have complained of Createx staying kind of rubber like after dry, 4030 cures that. 4030 is a converter, createx was designed for fabrics, as such needs to be flexible and 4030 changes its application to be used on hard things. All you need is about 15% of your blend to be 4030. For me 20-25% in craft paints. To get even closer to the catered hard surface market they introduced the Wicked line of paints. All the same additives apply. Some artist paints will stick to plastic, in fact I've taken Liquitex soft body as a test and put it down on aluminum foil, waited a few days and crumpled the foil up into a ball and leveled it back out and the paint stuck fine, no primer fwiw. It will also stick to plastic but all the better with a touch of 4030 and over primed plastic. Tamiya and any of the alcohol solvent acrylics work fine as is. Still best to prime. Tamiya states at their web site that Lacquer thinner as the thinner increases hardness in their acrylic paints. I thin Tamiya with Denatured alcohol or LT. Tamiya's acrylic is acrylic indeed but I personally view it as a hybrid lacquer, it sprays as such to me. I've been extensively working with acrylics for 7-8 years now conducting more home brewed tests than painting cars. They're here to stay, I took the bull by the horns after 50 some odd years of enamels in both hobby and 1/1. Low and behold mid stream in my testing Model Master went away. Meanwhile I use acrylics freely, I'm not sitting around wondering when the paint will fall off my models because it's not going to. And as far as clear coat, I use whatever I want, no restrictions as yet. Also for craft paints I pretty much use my own thinner formula, which turns out to be very similar to Bobby Waldrons mix over at Genessis Models ( pro painter and builder,he has a video out on making the thinner). He just uses different name brands of ingredients. I've also switched my flow aid to a trace element of Dawn dish soap for every 3 oz of the blend I mix up. I've found that to work best for me even over Liquitex's professional commercial flow aid. But just for the record Createx 4011 reducer can be used interchangeably, I do it all the time. So I'll leave it all here, you guys can do as you wish and meanwhile maybe James will get back.

An airbrush is the game changer. And it doesn't have to be HP- CS something or other. Even simple single action brushes will work. Ya you'll need a little holiday time to get used to it . Other than that I can't discuss cheap options or even MCW for that matter, as they all require the airbrush in my world, that includes decanting Rustoleum and thinning it out some more. I can go on and on but I'm tired of the topic today.

Yes Joe, looking good !

I use Stynylrez and have been for about 7 years now. It's smooth right from the bottle and thinning as you've mention all work. Here's one for you though, baby bottom smooth, egg shell sheen finishes thinning with Lacquer thinner. I know, I know, I didn't believe it either. A guy in the FSM forums put me on that idea a couple of years ago. I will say I generally only thin it when using finer needles though. It's great primer ! I use it for both acrylics and enamels. I will say I got a little sand scratch swell when using it with hot lacquers but then I'm not much of a fan of hot lacquers anyway. And a quick scuffing and one or two more light coats and the scratches were gone so it wasn't very severe.

That's true but the airbrush goes a long ways to level the playing field with 2X as well. Decant ( now you can mix colors), a bit of lacquer thinner and the stuff flows great. I'd say as good as Model Master enamels did. You can't do everything with them but great for pastels and solid colors. Get into 60's metallics and that's another story. These days I shoot more acrylic base coats though.

I decant the 2X paints, add a bit of lacquer thinner and airbrush them. And cook them for a couple of hours. That makes it handl-able but full cure takes longer ( 6-8 hours in the dehydrator,or a few days room air dried). Works for me, super smooth gloss. But that's if to use enamel, I've gone more and more to acrylics. Cincinnati tends to run humid so that will further the dry times of most paints, I'm sure. As to Rustoleum from the can, it helps to heat the can up in hot water just so after shaking it's still warm to the touch but not hot, you get more pressure,better atomization and thinner coats that flow out more evenly. Thinner coats make for a little faster flash time to the touch. I did a 40 Ford hood that way and it came out like glass in one coat. If it goes on unheated it's too thick, you get the blochiness, thick here, thinner there, orange peel over there, smooth in that spot etc.. Just heat the can up you don't get that or less of it. But that's why I decant and physically thin it a bit extra, plus the airbrush has better control and I do about 4 coats. Out of the can you get one shot at it in my experience. I used to use Krylon years ago, it's harder to find here these days and when you do find it there are a bunch of missing slots. I mostly used the primer colors in model railroading though. The only gloss I stocked was at work, red, white and black and semigloss black. It was used on the old metal heater boxes and such things in 1/1 heavy trucks.