Dave G.

There is a guy either here or in FSM that puts his parts in a mason jar and the jar in the ultra sonic cleaning machine. Uses whatever chemical he wants but usually mek or acetone in the jar.. I just soak my parts twice a year or so in lacquer thinner. Otherwise it's a flush and back flush day to day. Me airbrushes work fine. But I don't use ultrasonic equipment for the bigger cleaning just a plain overnight soaking. a quick brush /poke at things, blow off , done.

I use Kleen Strip hardware store lacquer thinner for clean up after airbrushing enamels or lacquer paints to include the LP series paints and for Mr Hobby primers and lacquers as well.. Works great. Last I knew it was $8 and change for a quart, with inflation it's probably more now.

Thanks for getting back, puzzle solved !

Add some pipettes to your order, then you won't pour the paint over the crusty edge of the bottle. I buy them by the 100 count from Amazon, last I knew they were around$6- $8 per 100. Then transfer your paint to a mixing jar or your H jar when ready to paint. Thin,stir, spray. If your paint bottle is new you can dump it right into your spray jar. I tend not to store pre thinned paint for more than the length of the project I'm working on. If you do that though, mark the bottle in some way so you know it's pre thinned later on or has some thinner in it so you can more carefully inspect it and treat accordingly. On model cars/trucks for instance there is nothing quite like freshly mixed paint from a known clean source . Or decanted enamel. The H sprays decanted enamels imo, better than from the can. Especially if it's non hobby paint. I decant Rustoleum 2X if I find the color I want you get 12oz for $5ish. Decant, add a touch more lacquer thinner and it comes out every bit as nice as Testors bottle paints. Paasche H #3 needle set @ 35 psi. Beautiful.

OK then I have to let someone else reply to that question since I use both acrylic and lacquer but for airbrushing. So it's the bottled paint not spray cans.

No, Testors is still alive so far. Model Master was dropped. My local hobby store still has good stock of the little square bottles but they did bring in the Tamiya LP line which very good. They now have a more extensive Tamiya line between acrylics, lacquers and rattle cans than they do Testors though. I was in Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago and their Testors rack was pretty much full as well. Talking about square bottle enamels here.

Are you asking about spray cans or paints for airbrushing ?

Both the Mr Color and Tamiya acrylics to my knowledge are acrylic hybrid lacquers. Vs Mr Hobby Aqueous which is true water borne acrylic paint for instance. As such MC and Tamiya use solvent lacquer thinner or in the case of Tamiya you could use alcohol. You can also use Tamiya acrylic thinner which is an alcohol blend. The My Color thinners work well in both brands. These are fairly mild lacquer thinners. Mr Color Leveling thinner has retarder in it which slows the initial dry and allows extra flow out of the paint which induces leveling. Or you could buy their retarder and add that to the plain lacquer thinner and make a variable blend according to how much you use. So that's the "thinner" thing for those paints. It's worth noting that Tamiya too has lacquer thinner, retarder and a slow dry lacquer thinner available for use in their acrylic line or lacquers. According to Tamiya's website, to use lacquer thinner in their acrylic paints produces a harder finish than the acrylic thinner does. However either can be used. Paint reducers are generally associated with enamels but it may be that some acrylics term their thinning medium as reducer. In enamel reducers are usually associated with containing some form of spirits, be that mineral spirits or otherwise. Where thinners are lacquer/alcohol etc. They are all solvents but of different makeup. Enamel reducers / spirits won't work in lacquer based products but it's pretty common practice by quite a few folks to use lacquer thinner in enamels. Speed of thinners and reducers: They come in fast medium and slow dry formulas . This is a bit different than adding retarder. But can promote leveling too. In true water borne acrylic paints flow aid is generally offered and often retarders here as well. But the question was specific to Mr Color and to Tamiya acrylic so I will stop here. Have a blessed day !

AK's Extreme Metal Duraluminum should be good as well. I know it matches fairly well for airplane aluminum skin and it's not fussy to put on. I believe it's enamel based and more durable than Alclad. Check it out, there are a couple of you tube reviews out there testing the Extreme metal paints.

If my base color coat gets a hair or lump of dirt I scuff that, then shoot a final base coat,just a single coat to even things up. Once dry I go right to the clear, no washing. I just blow it off with the airbrush ( air only) then shoot the clear.

Clear red over silver vs over gold has two distinct looks. Back in my days of entering contests I used Testors transparent red over either one. I think the silver gave more the traditional candy red look but much depends on how many coats of red you put down. The gold brought the candy up towards more of a burgundy. Both looked great. More recently I did this with Tamiya clear red, added a touch of clear blue and shot it over metallic rose gold ( rose gold depending on the angle can't quite decide if it a light goldish red/pink or silver red/ pink. But the clear red looks awesome over it, or the blue for that matter. I've done candy green too. In either case I never found the need for clear coating. The translucent colors have enough clear already IMO. It's really not tricky at all to do, just get a nice even coat of base color first, don't go nuts with a million coats of silver or gold just make sure it's even. And the clear/translucent color, don't make sag or run but put it on pretty wet and you're home golden.

https://www.dickblick.com/products/liquitex-fluids-slow-dri-medium/?clickTracking=true&wmcp=pla&wmcid=items&wmckw=00618-3194&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImISXr-vI9gIVF8mUCR2NjwRwEAQYASABEgLMTfD_BwE Also Windsor and Newton acrylic retarder will work. I had a guy contact me from this forum who was following one of my acrylic thinner recipes and his paint turned to goo ( we were doing an AMT 39 Ford sedan build off together). He didn't use the Liquitex but rather the Goldens. Switched to Liquitex and all was well. And I know Bobby Waldron from Genesis hobbies makes his own thinners and was using Liquitex, ran out and got the W+N and it is working fine for him. I'm not saying the Goldens is no good at all but it didn't work in that particular blend.

A couple guys over in the FSM forums swear by the thinner for brushing Tamiya acrylic so give it a try. I personally tried a couple of different thinners but did not get the results I get with using retarder. So I'm hooked.

Same one with the Cessna I remember and at 12-13 yo at the time I proceeded to turn her into a topless water skier. Then never knew where to keep her since obviously my parents couldn't find her.

Retarder is suggested for brushing Tamiya. I use Liquitex slow dry medium ( retarder), course Tamiya plugs for their own but I use Liquitex retarder in all acrylic paints that I have. I put a little retarder on a paint palette next to some Tamiya acrylic and mix in a bit at a time till I get nice flowing paint off the brush. Works great. Another thing is with Tamiya, over lapping strokes isn't really the goal but touching strokes side by side, they will flow together. Uncut Tamiya acrylic is a horror show to brush. Some people do use the Tamiya thinner and say it works fine. But Tamiya's recommended method listed at their web site last I knew is retarder.

I brushed some newer generation Testors copper enamel this morning with a bit of odorless mineral spirits in it and it dried to touch surprising fast. I live in New England, we do have a low dew point today for us, 27 deg dew and 44% humidity. Dried to touch in about an hour, course it's not cured yet but I can handle it. This bottle is about two years old. I shot some lacquer a couple of weeks ago, was dry to touch in 10-20 minutes, then I baked it in the dehydrator @ 110f for 30 minutes. That was Tamiya LP-1 black gloss thinned with Mr Leveling Thinner not quite 50/50. By the way it sprayed and came out awesome.

The enamels I can see taking their time, the lacquer is a puzzle. If your house had high humidity the lacquers probably would fog but still dry. I seriously doubt a house in Arizona would have humidity or dew points that high ( dew points 60's and 70's or more unlikely. ) For brushing enamels I use a little odorless mineral spirits to get them flowing nice. Testors has a lot of oil in them,they are slow drying, the dehydrator will quicken that but think a few hours not minutes. Still better than days to weeks.

Whats wrong with plain Jane Testors square bottle flat black ? Is it not flat enough ?

I haven't had any trouble with the Testors clear parts glue in the little square bottle ( actually labeled Model Master). Let it partially set up before mounting the mirror, it should more or less just sit there. You may have to touch it periodically to keep from leaning and such but you don't need to hold it in place. I use tweezers. My biggest problem with this stuff is it's stringiness coming out of the bottle but it seems to hold well.

Blue painters tape will probably rip most of it right off.

"Bob Smith Industries (BSI) produced a ful line of CA adhesives. " That's a great price for that BSI if it's current pricing at all. BSI is a well respected name in RC aircraft. So is Zap for that matter. But Bob Smith was years on the competition circuit in Model aircraft events.

Because I have Zap super glue and accelerator that's personally what can suggest using. But there are many brands that may/probably work as well. I also like Zap because it seems to me to have better shelf life than some other brands. It could be just the fact I buy it where there is fast turn over so it's fresher from the get go ( hasn't been sitting on a shelf for 6 months already when I purchase it).

Back in the day I used to build die cast locomotives. Beyond the flash removal and such which I did mostly with the heavier Xacto blade ( the one sharpened on an angle, I don't recall the number off hand), files and sandpaper as you all are saying. I remember doing a white vinegar wash, then rinse and priming/painting with Floquil paints. I don't think the self etching primers were even out yet honestly. The paint always held up fine.

I still like the 40 Ford kit, I noticed and extra running board in the one I built as a 39 a couple years ago and wondered why. Now I know, it's sedan incidentally which somehow I always liked a tad more than the coupe. Most of my coupes got cut down into circle track cars way back when ( 1964ish).