Dave G.

If you're going to spray anything automotive then put on a respirator ( not just a dust mask but an actual charcoal cartridge respirator). I'm going to spray some Tamiya acrylic clear today and see how I like it. I love their clear colors, hoping the clear clear is as good as those. For most acrylics I wear a dust mask but not for solvent based paints.

We used to go through 3661 medium dry thinner by the 5 gal can delivered by the automotive paint supply warehouse to commercial accounts only, over 35 years of painting 1/1automotive and commercial fleets, I can't begin to say how many cans. Here in southern Ma I keep mineral spirits and Kleen Strip lacquer thinner and a can of Xylene to add in when I want to slow it down a little bit and those products satisfy my needs.. Here the Kleen Strip Paint Thinner has gone green so to speak, it's garbage but for now at least the lacquer thinner is ok. And the Xylene is ok ( plus the can I have will last me the rest of my days). And the mineral spirits is ok, again thus far. I'm starting to hear rumblings about synthetic lacquer thinner. Here, thus far, Napa stores still sell automotive lacquer thinner, just at inflated prices ( Martin Senior brand).

You want a filter to catch the heavy particles before going through the fan or the fan will get coated more and more till it becomes ineffective. You don't need the fine mesh expensive filters but the more open weave , as was mentioned you can buy a roll and cut it to fit even. But they also sell the rectangular ones, like a 5 pack for $8 or something like that. I think the mesh is probably fiberglass strands, mine are green, some are blue.

But it doesn't smell or clean parts like ( the same as) 100% acetone does. Just sayin.

I could see that working really well actually. We don't have it locally, I should maybe order some in. But hardware store thinner has worked well too so far.

Alcohol will clean the airbrush and you can thin Tamiya with their acrylic thinner vs lacquer thinner. I make my own thinner actually and it works fine in Tamiya paints. Lacquer thinner in the gloss paints will dry to a bit harder surface, maybe a slight bit glossier. I personally wouldn't recommend thinning with plain water. My thinner is 60% distilled water, 40% ipa 91, then Liquitex retarder according to the season I'm painting in ( generally in a 3oz blend I use between 6 and 10 drops in this thinner blend). Most acrylics spray quite nice with this mix and next to no tip dry and good flow out.. That includes Tamiya and Model Master acrylics and Apple Barrel and FolkArt craft paints too. That said, to spray Tamiya thinned with lacquer thinner really doesn't smell all that bad and doesn't linger assuming using a booth. It's nothing like spraying lacquer paints in that regard but you get similar results. It's really nice paint thinned either way though..

Other than 2K ( I personally won't spray the stuff, having left 1/1 painting because of two part paints, danged if I'm going to drag it home for hobby use) I don't know if there is such a thing as non yellowing clear over white ( in due time) but if there is it is not Testors clear enamel. I had that yellow over white big time and the model was away in a box for ten years, so no uv factor etc. The white is the key, clear coats may never look yellowed over colors but over white can be another story. Another factor is the thinner and few coats you can get away with the better. IMO. If you're using an airbrush you could drop a minute bit of blue in the clear, that might counter the yellowing for some time.

I think you will find someplace between 60/40 and 50/50 paint to thinner to work through most airbrushes. But really you want to go by viscosity as the previous poster is basically suggesting. Also and this may be personal preference and how I shoot and the climate I shoot the stuff in, but for Tamiya Gloss and especially their clear colors, I prefer lacquer thinner to their acrylic thinner personally. I believe it makes a clearer more glossy finish and harder finish too. Acrylic thinner leaves a little bit of haze in my experience. Tamiya gloss when thinned right goes down really nice and to my eyes at least doesn't need much in the way of polishing.

A lot of that "stuff " that gets plastered on the cars is rubber picked up off the track by the cars in front of them. Drag cars too. around the rear fender wells, I used to drag race and it's just how it was lol.

Look up some videos on stippling and some on spatter techniques. In one you use the tip of the bristles of a fairly stiff brush, in and dapple or dab the paint on, in the other you flick the end of the brush at the model but don't actually make contact, the paint spatters off the brush. You might find it in weather technique vids but don't rule out artists vids. Armor modelers are good at this stuff,you could probably get more tips on this stuff in an armor forum where they build tanks and infantry equipment.

I'm not familiar with that particular Krylon product but I've used others of theirs and they had heavy solvents in them. Really strong smelling stuff too, twice as bad as their clear lacquer or Rustoleum's clear lacquer..

I sprayed the Tamiya clear red this morning, over rose gold metallic craft paint and the finish is a beautiful candy metallic with that gold undertone and fleck. I thinned it about 40% with lacquer thinner and put it down @ 25lb with the Paasche H. The craft paint I put on a couple of weeks ago and cleared with Pledge, I just lightly scuffed that to prepare it for the Tamiya red. I also have Tamiya clear blue which is a rich dark blue candy, which I think a splash of that in the red will get me close to the burgundy/maroon I'm after for the 49 Ford ( I told you I work slow, that 49 is months away from being worked on). But more than anything I'm just reporting how nice that Tamiya clear series is. It sprays like lacquer really.

I've been testing acrylic paints for 18 months now, various brands on and off, my own thinner combos etc. But I've managed to kind of hobble together a 69 Mustang Mach1 almost to where I might put the wheels on. I wish I had not glued in the glass and interior tub because I'm really not happy with the paint. I did it in plain red and I don't know why, it's just not my thing, so it is sitting. I don't know if I can get it apart without wrecking it. I've started a 1/16 scale 1911 Mercer runabout. I have a bunch of parts primed up in Stynylrez, have some of the Model Master enamel black on for where the stripes will be, just need to mask them off, shoot another light primer coat and then lay down the yellow. But as summer comes I get busy so it will probably be a fall thing. This kit has special meaning because it's been sitting in a crawl space for the last 40 years as life went on, my wife gave me that kit when we were first married, in a time where I don't know where she dug the money up from. I have a 49 Ford in the wings waiting, I've collected some extra parts for it to make it how I want it. I'm a little excited about that kit as I'm replicating from memory one I built when I was about 12yo ( 69 now). But models are not my only activity nor my only hobby, so things progress slowly.

I like airbrushing as well, it's really a hobby in itself. But as far as the primer, if you find what you have to work so be it lol ! Actually, Stynylrez and the Vallejo primers are both poly acrylic. You might want to squirt a clear coat on some of those paints, it might be just what they need.

How did your test pan out r&g ? If that Vallejo primer doesn't bond too well I can recommend Badger Stynylrez with no reservations. It's been working great for me under acrylics and even enamel paint.

Can't knock the price for sure !

Thanks, $71 and change at Amazon on prime.

What I need is a speed control for my Dremel. It's an old Dremel, good shape but it has the old variable speed box controller and it burned up something inside so now it's wide open or nothing at all ( plug straight into the wall), so I don't use it a whole lot and do most things by hand. I'm thinking maybe a pedal control would be good.

I didn't really see what I wanted in Golden High Flow at the art store so drove over to the hobby store and bought some Tamiya clear red and blue. Those should do it.

It's funny you should mention this, I've been considering GHF transparent paints to put over gold or silver base colors and top with Pledge floor care. Wondering if it might produce a candy effect. I might pick up a couple of bottles to play with. I also noticed that Vallejo makes acrylic candy colors. The difference is I have to order in the VJ paints but can go to the art supply store to get the Golden's product line. FWIW I use quite a bit of Liquitex soft body artist paints on models ( has to be thinned). It sticks to about anything but I prime with Stynylrez primer anyway.

Pledge floor care goes over regular acrylic paints nice ( craft paints, hobby acrylics of most brands). But I think of Createx as being rather proprietary which is also why I haven't tried them. I was considering the candy colors but there are other candy colors out there, Vallejo for one. You may have to break down and use what ever Createx suggests for clear coat ( it may be solvent based ).

If you do a lot of brush painting you might want to pick up a bottle of Vallejo Model Color paint ( not to be confused with Model Air which is their airbrush ready paint formula). See what you think of that compared to Model Master acryl. And to add to the theme of using primer mentioned by other posters, you almost have to prime before putting on MM acrylic. It's not just about coverage but for adhesion. Most acrylic colors don't stick to plastic so well, you need that primer coat as a base to paint onto.

I had a thin broken piece on the 1911 Mercer I'm building so I backed it up on the inside with a piece of card stock cut to the same shape and super glued it. It's held fine so far but I only have it in primer thus far. It's going to be fine though.

2 part catalyzed paints are why I got out of painting 1/1, when we had to start wearing suits and pressurized fresh air masks, actually helmets really. I decided this is really the limit, I'm done. We were warned to not even trust face respirators because if this stuff gets in your lungs it catalyzes there just as well as on the finished vehicle. And this is minus talking about just chemicals absorbed through skin. So no thanks for me, I'm not dragging that stuff home and you couldn't pay me enough to spray it. I already quit that habit. To me old fashioned enamel is the limit now and really acrylic model paints are getting better all the time so I don't shoot much enamel either.

As I understand it at this point, you painted up a second body also with enamel and are ready to clear coat it. You are asking about using Future as the clear coat. I don't have Future but it's spin off Pledge Floor Care and have put that over Model Master enamel paints with very good results. And it will be safe, Future is basically the same thing. It does take some polishing though. Two things: Make sure the enamel is well cured before clearing with any clear. Then make sure the clear is well dried before attempting to polish it. Keep clear lacquer away from enamel finishes. That 2k clear you have will probably go over lacquer color coat and probably acrylic color coat just fine. But when ever you clear anything make sure the color coat is well cured/dried or what ever other adjective fits the situation. Also you should be testing these various systems on some test subject before putting it down on a model. To me at least, the testing itself is a part of the hobby, rather fun and very revealing.