Dave G.

I get it. I think my point was more use what you can or have available. That's how it came to pass with craft paints for me. And the real point is I'm comfortable with that, enamel or Tamiya which are accumulated items over years not weeks.

I use Tamiya acrylic too, worth trying out if they have the color you need. I've mentioned it before but I went from MM Classic Black to Tamiya X-1 thinned with DNA and got a danged nice paint job from it, by my standards at least. My 1/16 Mercer has Tamiya on the seat and MM yellow on the body. Do what you gotta do is all. Most of my interiors are craft paints or Vallejo acrylic with a little Liquitex varnish mixed in.

It's not a must have and additionally the use of LT does quicken up enamels cure time quite a bit. Course curing paint by day then cooking pizza at night in the same device probably would turn off some but I've never noticed any difference. But then that's me. People today kill me, a little paint smell is like super taboo then they light themselves up and even legalize pot or drink a half pint of whiskey ( I'm not insinuating or accusing, just seen it in action is all). Hey as kids all we had was enamel basically, not all these choices at least. And we sort of waited for enamel to dry, I know that I got in the pattern of shooting the body and setting it aside for 4-5 days.

Zip,you probably missed this part of my other post since it was an edit: Edit: here's one, think Walmart has something similar: https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjM95KF6JD0AhWnbW8EHbXTDFQYABASGgJqZg&sig=AOD64_2y05Us7P9th2XYx8rK971ZuEnUpw&ctype=5&q=&ved=2ahUKEwjf4IaF6JD0AhX7mWoFHRO-BVoQ9aACegQIARBE&adurl=

To me dehydrating is just part and parcel to the fun lol ! And I grew up in the 1950's and into the 60's with Testors and Pactra enamels so it's just a standard to me, the stink the cure time etc. I shot model parts in my bedroom back then which probably explains a little bit of my different nature shall we say lol.

Not too bad for a dedicated food dehydrator, cut the racks to fit parts. Just make sure it has temp control. One guy over in FSM forums made one from a box, put a computer fan in it and a light bulb. All he shoots is enamels. I shoot everything, poly acryl, acrylic, lacquer, enamel, acrylic craft paint. I just use the kitchen air fryer that has a setting for dehydrate. I give enamels a 2-3 hour bump in the cure time, that way in a couple days can move on to building but you can handle without finger prints the same day.. Full cure is more like 6-10 hours but certainly by overnight, 108- 110f. Edit: here's one, think Walmart has something similar: https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjM95KF6JD0AhWnbW8EHbXTDFQYABASGgJqZg&sig=AOD64_2y05Us7P9th2XYx8rK971ZuEnUpw&ctype=5&q=&ved=2ahUKEwjf4IaF6JD0AhX7mWoFHRO-BVoQ9aACegQIARBE&adurl=

If need be I polish enamel, often to my eyes it doesn't need that.. I've only ever clear coated if over decals. I have used the candy clears over gold or silver metallic. But people do sand and polish it, most notable among them is Donn Yost. He's a long term contest builder and winner using enamels.

Ah, the hitch in the works lol ! Think days to weeks unless you have a dehydrator to push that up to hours.

Ya, busy day yesterday. I should have clarified that you're catching on to the almost effortless magic of enamel. The harder we work at it the more we screw it up, when it's actually a simple system.

You're catching on.

4030 vs 4050:

That parts up to you Mike, can't help you there lol !

Maybe you've seen this one but maybe not but note in the video the products he mentions, 2050 not being among them in his list at the beginning:

JB Weld now has a 5 minute cure formula. I've used that in fly rod building. It holds well and they really mean 5 minutes, in fact if you haven't positioned your reel seat where you want it in about 4 minutes you may not get it there.

David, about 2/3 of the time on my siphon brushes I use the metal side cup. Now you have no bottle to screw on there. Just trying to help here, not saying any of this is your answer but I do find the metal cups to be convenient. I only use the bottles on high volume jobs ( 1/16-1/8 scale, ship hulls, my now passed on wife's ceramics jobs for clear coat, though I won't be doing those any longer).

What I do is a final blow off with the airbrush before laying down paint, so just air first then shoot it. But sometimes tiny specks or even a hunk of what I call dirt can land in the wet paint too.

All you need is a thin but evenly covered base color coat if you're clearing it anyway. Course you need enough paint so the color is right too but Createx probably does that part pretty well. I bet Liquitex varnish would do well over Createx . I keep that stuff here and use it here and there but no Createx so I can't really conduct an experiment for ya. And I have no real desire to go down the Createx road, if I did it would be AutoAir not the fabric paint ( as I understand it that's what the Createx line was designed for, fabrics, which is why it stays flexible). AutoAir, again as I understand it, is for hard surfaces like plastics and metal, thus the name Auto. Then more specific to models is the Createx Wicked line. Here is a video ( hopefully it loads):

Thats a good start. If you stuck with enamel all this time you might have it nailed down by now lol. 22 models later with enamel you're bound to get decent at it. Yes I know you don't like the smell. And yes I also use acrylics but also enamel. Just not much of a fan of hot lacquer color coat for modeling. But listen, I been spray painting for over 60 years, 1/1 fleet and automotive for 35, airbrushing for nearly 50 and I still can throw a wrench in the works !

In spraying Pledge/Future I don't recall ever getting bubbles. So guess I'm not much help either. With lacquer and with X-22 if there is dust I scuff it out and add another coat or two.

My experience with Future/Pledge is stop short of that full 5th coat or so that gives the gloss without buffing. So 3-4 then buff up the shine when fully dried and you should/may get closer to a factory looking shine and away from that dipped look. I'd try that in a test shoot and see what you think. And that's not wet sanded just tooth paste and scratch out polishing, so I don't burn through that way. Or haven't yet. Some guys brush it and get great results. It's never floated my boat personally though, they must have better brushing skills than me, which is probably quite true. Once again though I can't give a real authoritative answer because I've never shot Createx as base color. So test ! If I wanted a high gloss factory black finish in 2021 I'd use Tamiya X-1 thinned 1-1 with DNA. 5-6 coats then heat set in the dehydrator. Very little polishing, no clear coat. And it's not too much paint, though the first 2-3 coats look rather dismal in the gloss department, they are smooth as silk. The 4th and especially 5th bring up the shine and heat setting for 30 minutes or so at 110f kicks it off nicely. Yep, that's my story in my black search since MM Classic Black went off the shelves. Prior to that MM for me was the no brainer route. Truth be known I still haven't found a true mach to that Classic black for the old era cars I like to build, the X-1 is close with DNA, too jet black with lacquer thinner.

With a decent booth I don't see how over spray would ever reach the first bay never mind the second bay in a garage. If that were the case spray booths would be useless inside a house.

No comment as to the question directly for now, too many variables from paint type to clear or no clear coat ( I don't get the propensity or urge to have to clear coat everything personally) .

Have you tried just changing your gripping position and trigger finger ? I've seen where various types of hand and finger pain has been avoided in using a conventional airbrush by changing how it is gripped and using the thumb on the trigger button. I believe I've seen Will Patterson do that in his videos.

When I was an apartment dweller I just put a fan ion the window, shrouded each side with cardboard and shot near the fan. Everything went outside basically. In that time frame I was shooting Pactra and Testors enamels for cars and ships and Floquil paint for model trains.

I'll have to try the Anita, it's one I haven't shot. Ceramcoat is fine with my thinner blend I mentioned above. I shot DecoArt with Windex today. Not thrilled with how that layed down but it dried decent. Just a bit of texture that some 3500 will take out easy. I force dried it between coats with hot air. Actually I was thinking as it is it would be good for mohair or fabric interior. For a body it would need the fuzzies scuffed off is all. The color and evenness is fine.