Dave G.

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).

That's what I recall, a trailer like these associated with about a 1960 or 61 Ford pickup. And some kind of drag car. I know I built the combo back then at any rate but 1960ish is a mighty long time ago lol ! Seems to me in the end I coupled it to the 53 Ford pickup with whatever overhead valve optional engine came with that kit. I also built the stock version of the 53 at another time. But then I built a couple Corvettes too but I think they were too early to have included the trailer. You guys tax the dimming memory cells.

It's not that you primed but what you're using for primer. If you decant the 2x and thin it some then air brush it, your problem will go away. Not only is it too thick in the can but the can puts out too much paint. Thus you bury your detail. Heating your can of paint might mitigate the issue somewhat otherwise. Ok, and while it's true that some stinky solvent paints do bond better than non stinky acrylic paints to plastic, non the less I've done the scratch tests and every paint I shot sticks all the better with even a thin primer coat first ( in fact my preference is one thin primer coat). Bar non, Tamiya acrylics, solvent lacquers, water based acrylics, craft paints and acrylics claimed to been enamels and true solvent based enamels were all tested over a year or so of random testing as the spirit led me. The bond to bare plastic is sufficient with many stinky solvent based paints and basically non existent with many acrylics shot to bare plastic, that is true. But the playing field is more level with primer added. Both solvent paints and water based acrylics gained substantial bond with primer on the surface. It's the same in 1/1 incidentally. It just is, anyone is free to assert otherwise but I've taken the time to do the tests. Both scratching tests and straight pull tests with blue painters tape, which is stronger bonding than model tapes. The primer used in all testing was Badger Stynylrez. If you scuff both the model and the primer coat the bond is stronger yet but it is still very good even not scuffed.. And there is absolutely no bonding fear when taping even craft paints for two tone paint jobs using model tapes or de-tacked painters tape if everything was clean. All tests were washed first with odorless mineral spirits. By the way one lacquer did not fare well in scratching, though did ok with tape. That was LA Colors black nail polish. So all lacquers are not created equally.

My local super Stop and Shop stopped carrying the Pledge, my bottle is better than half gone but I have a ways to go yet. Anyway, I saw it at Amazon.. I don't use the Pledge as much as I used to, tending more towards Tamiya X-22, Liquitex varnish or Rustoleum Lacquer with the black chair on the label. I wouldn't use that lacquer over enamel though, the others will all work. But ya, if you like Future and obviously you're used to it, look for the Pledge. There are several Pledge products not the same. For a while there there was one with lemon in it. You wouldn't want that.

I've always liked that #10 blade for many functions.

Don't second guess your purchase is my advice. Then roll with it when you get it. Besides that from kit to kit of the same model could be something nearly perfect and the next have a warped something or other. Model building almost always takes massaging.

If you can find a can of Testors standard yellow ( meaning not the light yellow) that will due fine. Better yet Model Master Chrome Yellow but that may be impossible to find. If you decanted and airbrushed you could use Rustoleum 2x yellow but out of the can may go on too heavy.

I just tack things together with the Testors orange tube glue. Just a tack drop here and there, it will come apart pretty easy. If I really want to glue something solidly I use the Testors black bottle liquid glue, or more liquid than the orange tube anyway.