Dave G.

By the way, the Liquitex retarder I mentioned is their Slow Dry Retarder Fluid, not their retarder medium. The medium is not for airbrushing.

As you know you need a really smooth primer coat, that's a must. You first color coat is just a really fine mist coat over the primer. Very little paint flow from your airbrush, you just see a hint of color on the model yet wet. Flash that off dry, you can use straight air or a bit of heat from a hair dryer. The second coat will be medium, you will find it to take to that first layer well. Flash that off. Now you can put down a wet coat with more paint flow and flash that. See what you think, that might do it or you may need one more coat. Each coat should level right off egg shell smooth once flashed ( dry). DecoArt is the most difficult to not have fuzzy or textured finish with, especially the Americana line. At least in my experience. You may need more flow aid with it, and I find it to balk at alcohol to which of coarse washer fluid has in it. Something no longer made that worked pretty well in DecoArt Americana besides what I've spoken of above, was Testors Aztek thinner, still adding a bit of flow aid and retarder. DecoArt is not my favorite paint to airbrush but they have some great colors, so I make it work. Really good for old car interiors and I build mostly old classic cars. Flow aid and retarder make a huge difference as can the 4030. You're less locked into exact distances and speed of each pass. You can mist coat and it will still flow out. Best I can tell you !

The only way I use Rustoleum on models is decanted 2X products and not their primer. Once decanted I add some lacquer thinner and airbrush it over a primer sealer. Stynylrez is a poly acrylic primer sealer, the airbrushed Rustleum does not penetrate it and get to the plastic. The finish to me is second to non, sometimes by my eyes it doesn't need polishing. And since I cure it in a dehydrator then dry times are fully acceptable ( hours vs days). But honestly these days I use more acrylics. I agree that Rustoleum is too thick if sprayed out of the can. Lets face it, it's made for lawn furniture not models.

I just answered a similar posting in another forum, so this is a copy paste of my reply there. It will be in the general ball park: I make 3 different blends of thinner, non are rocket science lol.. Also for Tamiya acrylic I use lacquer thinner. The first blend works in many acrylics actually and quite well, including many craft paints and in the Model Master Acryl. Acryl also works with the last mix I will explain. In 3oz batches. 60% distilled water 40% 91 Isopropyl 6-8 drops of Liquitex retarder ( depends on season and if it's ultra dry I've used 10. But this all kills tip dry to where basically it's a non issue). Trace amount of dish soap ( it's not even a full drop). Many paints will spray very nicely with this. They go down nice and flash off fairly quickly per coat. The next is similar except I use the Liquitex flow aid in it. And the alcohol portion of the mix is a combo of Isopropyl and denatured alcohol. This tends to flow out more and I heat set each coat with a hair dryer. More ISO than denatured. This I use in place of Createx 4011 reducer and it works as well if not better than 4011. It works in most craft paints as well, especially if you first add Createx 4030 to the paint you will mix. 4030 should be used in Createx as well. 4030 is a poly intercoat,it makes acrylic paints poly/acrylic and they dry harder with more adhesion. I have many craft paints working as well as some model paints, not to mention medium or soft body artist acrylics. Artist acrylics either get my first blend ( Artist Loft takes to this very well) or I have another for any paint that doesn't like alcohol. It's 50/50 water to Liquitex airbrush medium or you can use the US Art Supply Airbrush thinner, which is very much like the medium, in place of the medium. Still add retarder and flow aid. This method retains the most acrylic base in the paints. But if you go with more medium than water it starts to increase gloss. I just keep 3 bottles mixed up all the time. One each. I still have some 4011 but rarely use it, since the thinner is cheap to make once you have the products and it works as well. In fact when it's gone I'll just refill that with the two blended alcohols thinner I make up

Yes you can get it to level out nice and smooth but not using what you are as thinner, and certainly not that alone. Oh it might work on a brand or two of craft paint. Additionally, I've found DecoArt to need a different blend of thinner than most of the rest of the craft paints. Some of those DecoArt paints are not friends with alcohol, you need to go another route with them. Also it matters how you apply and flash off each coat. But indeed you can get a really nice base color coat to apply clear over. So your question is, Can You? My answer is yes I can.

Rustoleum primer is enamel based. Finding that out after one quick shot from the can I bought, I returned it, as I had asked before purchase for lacquer primer. As far as the paint, I used both 2x and the standard white can Rustoleum on lawn furniture this summer. The 2x dries much faster than the old formula stuff. Even out in the sunny back yard. If you have no booth with extractor it would be kind of nutty to try and spray enamel inside your dwelling place. My opinion.

Just for the record, propellant cans are 100% full of gas. Spray cans are roughly 2/3 paint mix with thinner and such and about 1/3 gas to pressurize it with.

I use an 8gal 4.5 cfm 135psi portable compressor for various things to include my airbrushing. But that doesn't mean it's for everyone. Some folks simply want reasonably quiet air for airbrushing.

Your spray pattern can pulsate without a tank and your pressure also can dropout to below your regulated setting.. The tank holds some reserve air so the airbrush doesn't starve for air on longer passes. With that said Paasche themselves sells the H with a tankless compressor but it's designed for the required flow. They also sell a tank style compressor as well. I doubt you want to pay the name brand cost though.

Nice job on that build !

The metal color line is just that, designed to simulate various metals. In this case basically aluminum plate. The model air line is more paint like, as mentioned it's likely more metallic. I seriously doubt they will match. You'll have a hard enough time getting a second bottle of model air to match, metallics are difficult like that.

$58 at Amazon. Then you need the compressor. The H at times can get a little thirsty for air so I'd get the compressor with a tank on it. This set has just the #3 tip which is the standard tip and no side mount color cup. But what it does have is the 1/8 fitting you need to mount to that compressor. And you can do pretty much everything with this anyway for model cars. Course there are other sets for a bit more money. And any of those accessory tips or the cup are available separately. Just pointing this out is all, if nothing else you have a good view of the adapter fitting lol. There are about 6 different ways you could go to get yourself into an H.

There are any number of decent compressors even at Amazon, Point Zero is a decent brand. But meanwhile you can put your compressed cans of gas in warm water so as not to ice up. It may not be ideal but it will be more consistent..

A good primer coat is always a good idea for any number of reasons. But Testors enamels goes down on plastic smooth and sticks well if the plastic is prepped at all. Also, Testors will look better on bare plastic than if shot onto a lousy primer job. The key here is not to do that.

That finish to me looks like you needed more thinner or it was fast dry thinner.. And personally for Testors enamel I use hardware store lacquer thinner to thin it with. It's almost fool proof as long as it went on reasonably wet. Testors never bottled their enamel in 1oz size bottles. If it's the little square bottles then they are 1/4oz. Take a look and confirm because in 1oz I don't know what you have there.

For two decades I built models using an X-acto with two style blades but mostly the angle blade. A razor saw, a pin vise. Some common pins and paint brushes. Testors and Pactra paint both bottles and spray. Some steel wool. And a pair of scissors. In that second decade came the airbrush. By the end of all that a Dremel that to this very day I barely used and now doesn't work. You can spend a lifetime finding the theoretical best tweezers lol. But I got mine given to me by my surgeon after a neck surgery. Very pointed but with serrated grips on them. Awesome !

The Paasche plastic bottles are white and fine with solvents. I already stated that so I'll be done now.

The only thing on my plastic Paasche bottles is a seam line.

I have both the glass for my H and plastic for my VL and soaked both with acetone without issue. I've shot enamel thinned with LT for years, I use either interchangeably. The only thing with the glass they are heavier and you can see inside them. But otherwise they perform equally. Edit: If you've seen the Onyx 100% acetone bottles the ladies use to strip lacquer nail polish off their nails, that's a similar type of plastic as the Paasche bottles. But the Paasche plastic bottles are whiter and thicker/more ridged. Solvent does nothing to them.

Createx will sit semi flexible possibly forever unless you add their 4030 intercoat into it. 4030 is made just for that purpose, so the paint hardens on hard surfaces. And it also sticks better. Createx was made for fabrics and to be heat set (pressed with a heat press to around 320F). But Createx also recognized the need people had to make the colors work for other purposes, like models. So 4030 addresses that. 4030 is also made to work with their 4011 reducer, to which their 4011 is now their standard reducer across the whole Createx line to include the Candy 2o and Wicked line up.. You can find all this in Createx videos or at the website. Just sayin.

So the general flavor of things seems to be, if you order from Hobbylink, to figure on 8 days or so to receive what you ordered. Assuming everything was in stock. Do they to hold the entire order for the out of stock items to come in before shipping ? Or will they ship what they have then catch up on the OOS items later ? I've looked at their site many times and always decide to go elsewhere.

Finish carpenters rarely work with truly squared up rooms but make it look as if they are square. Far be it from me to say you need to build it at all ! Nascar cars are about 1/4 OEM, 2/3 fabricated bodies of flimsy sheet metal and lean to the left ! What can I say, I don't have the kit in front of me so I can only make blind suggestions. AMT may have thicker plastic if that's what's concerning you.

Not on Nascar specifically but I've enjoyed building models from both companies. I think in terms of buying old stock like this you run the risk of warped parts regardless of manufacturer. 90's till now is a pretty long time. I'd probably do what I could to straighten what I had then glue and clamp in place till dry. It's not like these cars sit straight even in real. I've seen videos of box openings and builds of AMT 90's Nascar and at least through my computer screen they seemed pretty well detailed. I think Monogram has been great at effective scale and AMT at the flavor of the subject, whatever it might be . AMT nails the shape of things like engines, Monogram the size on engines, wheels, tires.. Just my take in a general way and not so in all cases... With that said I build mostly old classics from 1960 back into the 1910's or so. When I built stock cars and Nascar they were kit bashed, that I did myself in the early 1960's. A warped body was the least of my issues and maybe even the incentive to build circle track car out of the kit..

My wife and I built AMT 1960 T Birds back in Feb or so. The color coats were Createx, hers yellow as is in the bottle, mine custom mixed blue ( a dash of blue in white) and the clear is Pledge on these, just for the ease of it. But for Mike: Future and Pledge are no longer produced, so if you like the stuff either just nurse what have left or find a source of old stock someplace. Personally I bought a larger sized bottle of Createx 4050 and that's my most recent fetish in clears. Rustoleum spray lacquer, the green and white can with a black chair on the label, works quite well on many things models. Stinks to the high heavens so I'd plan on shooting outside. I have put that over craft paint color coat. Just be sure you buy the gloss. I've also sprayed my wife's acrylic paintings with that lacquer if not using Liquitex varnish. So it goes over acrylic paints fine. I've used that stuff for years, really decade.

They're looking great in the photos ! I especially like the T Bird, probably because I just went through a T Bird session with my wife last winter. Anyway, I thin X-22 with hardware store lacquer thinner 1/1, so equal parts thinner to clear. Yes it's glossy but when fully cured it might knock it back just slightly. This is not an issue, just polish with a final polishing liquid, I use formula 1 Scratch out. I put down two medium coats, flashing off each one. Then 2-3 full wet coats each one progressively wetter. And that's it. Sometimes I've gotten dirt in the finish, so when dry I scuff that out and reshoot two more wet coats. Honestly I think that comes out even nicer. Especially with the Tamiya clear colors but that's now going off topic of X-22.. Denatured alcohol works, it will flow out like crazy. With lacquer thinner you need to get in closer and slow down your passes but with DNA you back away as the flow gets crazy if in too close. The first couple of coats will flash off dull with DNA but those wet ones bring on the shine. LT is shiny from the first coat. Of course you can use Tamiya X-20 thinner if you want. Just Tamiya at the web page says if you want a harder finish to thin with lacquer thinner. DNA was my own experiment. My go to clear right now is Createx 4050 though. {Also add a bit of 4030 to craft paint and it improves it in a few ways}. This 4050 dries semigloss then just buff it up to the gloss you want, the gloss is there it just needs to be brought out.. They also sell a more wet looking clear 4053 ( harder to find) but I like buffing to the desired shine so I can replicate the old antique car lacquer look, which 4050 does well, it's why I'm using 4050. Old antiques never had the wet look. And finally, all these I'm speaking of have gone over craft paints . Or else over artist acrylic or Createx opaques. A forum member who does well with X-22 also is Zippi. Just fwiw.