Dave G.

Ok Mike.

You may have a wacky gauge or regulator. I've never seen a 10lb drop even shooting 1/1 with full size spray guns back in the day of shooting 60 psi. I'd be inclined to crank the pressure and run a line to a secondary regulator but I know you like to conserve money. I just happen to have a Point Zero on hand though. I use black FolkArt a lot, the color name is Licorice, I use it on running boards and stuff. But FA in general sprays nice, I make my own thinner I use in craft paints. It's good to hear the Createx thinners work in it non the less. I also use Aztek thinner in DecoArt, DA doesn't like alcohol very much so I make a blend of my own with the Aztek and that works well in DecoArt. The other day I took a metallic FA, thinned it with denatured alcohol, it sprayed awesome but it needs a bit of retarder because of tip dry if the airbrush sits for a minute. That was the multi surface stuff. So since it worked so well I mixed some up using DecoArt, no go. My way of mixing craft paints is by viscosity, I go by how a drop of paint placed on the side of my mixing cup returns to the volume of paint in the cup. IE how quick it runs down the side. It should return steady in 1-3 seconds and leave film behind. If it just sits there barely crawling back to the bottom it's too thick. If it runs back like water is one thing but if it runs back like water leaving no film is another, one is a bit too thin, the other, well it's way over thinned. From there it's a spray test. It should be easy spraying, good natured.

Mike, My Paasche H will drop the pressure about 1- 1/1/2lb fwiw.. I use an 8 gal portable compressor. The key is whatever the drop is that it holds there, you don't want to see a continual falling off. You don't want a drop from say 21lb to 20 or to19-1/2 that only holds a few seconds and starts dropping more to 14, 12, 10. You gotta be able to maintain flow once the initial drop occurs. That's expected, it's called working pressure vs static pressure. Static pressure is what you set you gauge to before flowing air. Working pressure is what you get with air flowing. You should be able to set the gauge so you compensate for the loss by cracking the pressure up that little bit ( if you need to). If you can't then your compressor is inadequate or you got air leaks someplace. I typically mix my paints to flow well at around 18-20 psi flowing. Enamel I might bump up a bit more and lacquer a bit lower, sometimes quite a bit lower. I shoot all my acrylics the same, I just thin them to flow where I like it. Thick paint obviously uses typically larger needles and higher pressure, thin paints smaller needles and lower pressures. Nuff said here, over and out.

Congrats on that hood Mike !

Craft paints make a great base color coat option, I use them a lot. Just need the right thinner/ratio/type etc. Get that right and it sprays about like any other paint in my experience. Lots of colors, mixable, decent paint over primer and cheap. Most top coats go down to it fine. If it needs a little scuffing just use steel wool. Works for me. It's not all I use but since stock more than 100 colors here at the house between my wife with her ceramics and myself it's often a good option without going shopping. The problem right now with the kids out of school in many areas around here the shelves are pretty barren. Makes a good base for clear candy paints or Tamiya clear colors too.

You'll do fine.

I have MCW lacquer that sprays pretty nice but I have not shot the enamels yet. Someplace I found a video from Mike at MCW and he stated as people order these and he mixes them, the colors they ordered become part of the supply index going forward. That's probably why Donn in the video above said the 1500 mark would become a distant memory.

I haven't shot them yet but I'll link a video to Scale Model Techniques video who has shot them as a test with both MCW thinner and lacquer thinner. Here it is:

You need to paint the plastic, especially that it's white plastic. If not then edges and corners will always give up light in a way that renders it looking like plastic, clear coat will just give it shine. So it will be more realistic looking if you paint the white even though it will still be white. Yellow plastic acts the same way. It's the nature of styrene in lighter colors.. Put your parts up to a light and you will see what I mean. It's why nearly my first step in a build is to prime most of the smaller parts trees., immediately they take on more detail and realism. Even some dark styrene parts aren't fully opaque, you can see it first in any flashing that might be there.. If you think about it the very first thing you see in even 1/1 vehicles is paint. If you want to render realism then you need paint.

Well they came out great !

Yet others like it. The way you find out for yourself is by experience. For instance I think by photos at least that Mike raisin27 did a realistic job of it in his two models above. 9/10 of making a product look convincing is gained by really getting to know it's ways, not that it possess some kind of magic on it's own.. I'll say it one more time, lots of test shooting ! I'm not mentioning other products, did that at least twice in your Createx thread already.

These are realistic finishes, assuming it's Future clear ? And how did you apply and process it. Nice job !

Well as I stated before, I use the Pledge but not on a model, only my test shoots. But I've never had an issue spraying it. Maybe if I shot it on a larger area I would have trouble. But my real problem is it's floor finish. Then ultimately since most of my models are of old classics era cars, well they were just never clear coated but shot in lacquer or enamel. Now the closest thing to that in acrylic that behaves like a lacquer is Tamiya acrylic because really it a low stink hybrid acrylic /lacquer. You can even thin it with lacquer thinner. The black unpolished 31 Ford fenders I posted in Mikes Createx thread were shot in that. My second approach is to base coat then shoot Tamiya clear or lacquer clear. If done right when polished it's hard to tell the paint is clear coated. People bury their cars in clear, that's why they look clear coated. Duh.

To thin craft paints for hand brushing just put some out on a dish or paint palette and thin with water till it flows off the brush for you. Airbrushing is another matter, water here isn't the greatest solution. Several thinners work but the best I've found is my own which is a spin off of Bobby Waldron's at Genesis Models. He has a video on making that and it's close enough, though he does mis state what alcohol is in Tamiya thinner..

My problem isn't with the application of Pledge/Future, we know it can be done most any old way. My question is will it still be on the car in ten years ? I use the stuff in my test sprays all the time complete with polish, it works and it's not an issue. I airbrush right from the bottle, it's pretty much fool proof, especially if you intend to polish anyway. But my test bottles I spray ultimately end up repainted three times or so and then in the trash lol !

I hope it works out for ya. Pearl maybe won't be as tricky as outright metallic can be.

I've shot base colors in acrylic and messed up in one way or another and went right to the kitchen sink and rinsed it off, blew dried and re-shot it.. Let it dry a day or two and it's three days in the purple pond and scrub it off. It's enough to give up hope on the purple pond lol. I did a body in a base of pearl craft paint, topped with Liquitex Soft Body artist acrylic topped with clear lacquer a couple of years ago. A few months later I decided I didn't like the color and dumped it in the purple pond, it took 5 days to get it really going and then some parts I used the back side of a butter knife to scrape it off. Went pretty easy that way. Just sayin. I hate reshooting hoods alone, especially in metallics, seems they never match the original shooting. Then you got this bozo hood sticking out like a sore thumb. So I tend to combine the hood with body and shoot down on the whole thing, let the sides blend in. Then it matches at least in a convincing way..

Dunk a Createx painted spoon under a faucet= instant answer. Any acrylic paint I've used,once it's dried, is essentially water proof. You can wash it right off in water till it dries though. I suspect Createx is no different but a simple test would tell you for sure.

Thanks Jeff.

I've never used the 2X clear but have used the Rustoleum clear lacquer. And already mentioned scuffing with steel wool that I use in my wood working anyway. What substance is 2X clear anyway ( what's it's base, lacquer, acrylic etc.)

It's always nice to walk into a store and go home with something lol. Sounds like you have a choice to make which store you go to.

Both your questions are best answered in a spoon test before applying to your model ( will Future make me happy, can I sand this stuff). With that said, in my own painting I use steel wool to smooth fuzzy areas of base color coats but I don't use Createx. And I use Future in tests to see how clear looks over a color but on models I use Tamiya X-22 or clear lacquer. There is just something about putting something on a car model that's meant to be a temporary floor finish that bugs me. But that's me, many people do it and are happy I guess. Somehow I have this vision that 5 years down the road the future starts peeling. I have no evidence of this but my imagination is vivid in this area. Createx to my knowledge isn't known for it's good sandability qualities fwiw.

Lookin good in terms of lay down from here Mike ! What are you clear coating with ? If you want to mess with airbrushing enamels try some tests on spoons using Testors enamels from the little square bottles mixed just short of 50/50 with hardware store lacquer thinner.I think you will be surprised at how well that goes down.

The compliment is well deserved Josh !

Course we know who has the exact match lol ! But this might be an option to play with .