Dave G.

Molotow is what I would use as well. The 1/1 looks more aluminum or stainless than chrome, the Molotow will be a bit brighter, just so you know. I actually have a silver craft paint that would match well, I've used it on trim like that before, brushed on. Molotow is considerably easier to do though.

Shellac based products you thin with denatured alcohol. That's what you cut shellac with in the first place.

If you go the water route just use trace amounts of dish soap, you don't need to see dish soap bubbles frothing up to get a little lube out of the mix.It should work fine but if you have a spare sticker test first. Same as with Jim's product you will want to squeegee out the excess along with any air bubbles in your sticker.

You might want to dig a bit deeper, don't assume.

I agree, plus: Really it was the paint producers and suppliers selling acrylic paints to hobbyists leading that for the most part were water borne, the modelers just picked up the conception acrylic must be mild like latex house paint lol..And nobody from the industry filled in between the lines. Meanwhile, as some of us who shot 1/1 for any amount of time knew acrylic to be generally a pretty hot product, especially acrylic lacquer and long before model paints took the plunge into mild waterborne acrylics.. Acrylic lacquers were quite hot. To which incidentally, MCW supplies hot acrylic lacquer. Their lacquer isn't just lacquer but acrylic lacquer. So it's not just the idea the term acrylic came to be known as mild in the model industry but meanwhile acrylics had already been in hot solvent paints a long time. In fact as waterborne acrylics for models came out, so too was a stab at it for base color coating in 1/1. The term base coat clear coat came out of that. Before then, (what late 1970's ish,) clear coating wasn't a standard at all in refinishing cars or trucks. Clear was around but it wasn't on production cars nor really in refinishing till base coating took hold.

I looked it up, in Dupont it was 817, then there was a suffix for what type of paint. We used it for 7 Up and Dr Pepper trucks. I'm including a drop down that should list numbers, paint brands etc. MCW can probably mix it or just go to a Napa store and get a sample in acrylic enamel. You don't have to do anything, I'm posting for fun none the less ! image [year] make model paint color name code sample GM code Chrysler code Ditzler PPG Dupont RM BASF Glasurit Autocolor Spies Hecker Martin Senour Sherwin Williams comment C X 2185 21667 Mack Truck Dupont Imron PPG Durethane Offset Listing June 1988 C X 2185 817, 00817 Mack Truck Dupont Imron PPG Durethane Offset Listing June 1988 White X WEA5111, WE5111, WA5111 DT1084 2185 21667, 378-21667, 6715, 776-21667, 817, N0006 1347 PPG/Dupont Cross-Ref 1990 Caterpillar White X WA5111, WA9225, WE5111 DT1084 2185 817 1347 GM-5111, GM5111, GM-9225, GM9225 8HM4, 8JT9, 8JT9B 17841 1208 7209 GM Corporate White Clark Lift White X WA5111, WA9225, WE5111 DT1084 2185 817 1347 GM-5111, GM5111, GM-9225, GM9225 8HM4, 8JT9, 8JT9B 17841 1208 7209 GM Corporate White Fleet 7up White X WA5111, WA9225, WE5111 DT1084 2185 817 1347 GM-5111, GM5111, GM-9225, GM9225 8HM4, 8JT9, 8JT9B 17841 1208 7209 Fleet Dr Pepper White X WA5111, WA9225, WE5111 DT1084 2185 817 1347 GM-5111, GM5111, GM-9225, GM9225 8HM4, 8JT9, 8JT9B 17841 1208 7209 Fleet Northwest Airlines White X WA5111, WA9225, WE5111 DT1084 2185 817 1347 GM-5111, GM5111, GM-9225, GM9225 8HM4, 8JT9, 8JT9B 17841 1208 7209 Chevrolet Chevrolet Corporate White X WA5111 DT1084 2185 817 1347 8HM4, 8JT9, 8JT9B 17841 1208 7209 GM White X WA9225

The thing about all white paint jobs is it's white. I mean it's not a pzazz color like pink or purple iridescent pearl or something. White isn't everyone's cup of tea without an accent color or unless it's the accent color. I don't recall the name, code or paint number but GMC had a crisp white in their fleet colors around the late 70's or so. Every time I shot it in 1/1 it made me think of freshness. I shot it over light platinum primer. If you put the paint chip ( I had a huge thick book of chips and codes by manufacturer)next to other chips of whites you could see it had just a hint of blue in it. You didn't see that till you compared. Some whites a hint of grey, others yellow etc.

I'd probably scan n print my own but that's me. Course you need a decent all in one printer to do that. There are decal companies out there, someone will answer your actual question.

The mixing stick thing works quite well actually. Drag a good batch of paint up the side of your mixing cup with the mixing stick. It should return down the side of the cup in 1-3 seconds or so and leave a film behind. If it returns instantly with nothing on the cup then its too thin. If it sits like a blob or creeps it's way back down it's too thick. You don't have to be exact and can change air pressure for the difference. Also this depends on your thinner mix in terms of any additives, the brand paint as well. Some paints just flow out a little better than others and this is something you get a feel for. Thinning this way is thinning by viscosity. But once you get a good repeat going on with this you get a sense for what ratio you hit on for that color. But that range of thickness above will get ya going. Some paints like the thinner side of that method, others will take the thicker. And if it doesn't want to spray out right it may still be a bit thick,just put in a few drops more thinner, it will probably spray fine.. I've sprayed low fat milk by the way, to entertain myself. Swirled it around in the cup, got a sense for it, put it in the airbrush and it sprays great. But so does water or alcohol or lacquer thinner if you think about it. So when your paint won't flow it's probably too thick.

Thinning with water in most any acrylic paint and then airbrushing is never optimal . Nix the water or at least water alone. In Testors I find my own mix of thinner to work best but then I have a whole system of shooting acrylic paints that I doubt anyone else follows. Here's the deal from another view though, Testors makes their own acrylic thinner, try that first. Don't forget to use a decent primer on your model as well.

The Procon 289 as it turns out has the tiny screw in tips, not my personal cup of tea.

It all comes down to personal preference, at least assuming decent quality airbrushes to begin with. And the only way you truly come to know this is by using them. I can tell you about my own personal issues, mainly little tiny screw in tips I have little use for. Give me big stuff or slip in but nix the tiny screw in tips. Regardless what brand it is.

When acrylic enamels hit the scene I had a go with solvent popping in 1/1. In that case it's thousands of almost microscopic pin holes in the surface of the paint. Coming from Alkyd enamels where this was very rare due to the slow cure, acrylic enamels skin up faster than the solvents can escape, when they do they leave this effect behind. And when I say when they do, I mean in the time it takes to continue on to the next coat, so not long in our time. The answer is two fold, a reducer that slows the actual paint dry time initially and not painting on a hose job lol !! At that point in time it was common to shoot at a suggested 65 psi and high flow rate from the siphon guns, it was too much at least with my Devillbiss. Also they came out with medium dry and slower dry reducers for acrylic enamels. I believe in the Dupont line the one I used was #8022 ( I could be wrong, this was decades ago now but I bought it in 5 gal pales, using several a year). A lot of people tried to use lacquer thinner in acrylic enamel, didn't work it was dull city and brittle finish to do that. The second phenomenon that took place with acrylic enamels was drying with a slight haze in the gloss. This wasn't about hot humid days though, it was just there. For this they came out with and I used the high gloss hardener for overall refinishing. This is where the whole suiting up thing and pressurized head piece came in that I mentioned in another thread because now you had a two part paint containing isocyanates. In my case I was all set for that because the other line we shot was Imron which has to have the hardener to cure. In fact Imron came one quart short on a gallon because you put in a quart of hardener, which was thin as water so you didn't need to reduce very much. Acrylic lacquers can do the solvent popping as well, where nitrocellulose lacquer was about impossible to get to do it. Nitro lacquer is a dream to work with but it doesn't hold up so well out in the elements compared with todays paints. Anyway, had to chime in on my experience with solvent popping. I think Ace and myself one time before are the only ones to ever bring this up in the forum ! You don't hear the term often these days.

This thread reminds me of when I ran fleet maintenance for a beverage franchise. I bought rebuilt manual transmissions from a guy up around Revere Ma. Every one of them was painted red oxide.

I'll just say that whatever you decide Test first !

🙂

How you proceed with the clear coat depends on what you're using to clear it and what's under your craft acrylic. And I'm saying that not having used that particular craft acrylic which kind of limits my response capability. So what are you clearing with and is there primer under the color coat ? If there is primer then what is it exactly ?

You'll like it, looks like a decent match as well. If it's warm and humid wait for a cooler and or dryer day for the color.

I mentioned way back in the thread ( I think it was this thread on Rustoleum) that I decant 2X and Painters Touch, thin a little extra with lacquer thinner and spray it via airbrush over Stynylrez primer. The results are equal to that of having sprayed the Old Model Master Enamels or the square bottle Testors thinned with Lacquer thinner which is kind of the old time standard. But it's all airbrush work. There isn't a thing wrong with PT or 2X if done right. It comes out great. Non the less, I see that Amazon UK sells airbrush sets. Just sayin. I know that seems daunting to some folks but some of us have been painting spray cans or airbrush for 60 years and you find ways to solve problems is best I can say. That said, I've spent now about 8-10 years to get acrylics to performs as I want them to. So I don't use many solvent paints these days. I wish you the best in your endeavors however you go ! Just keep at it.

It could be the last plastic run was yellow and some remnants are left in the lines as this one ran off. Course I have no idea if that's how it even works but if so it might explain the yellow that should be white.

I do still use limited amounts of enamel paint. Nobody can argue the finish is great ! But as someone up the thread a bit mentioned, I too use a dehydrator. I also use limited lacquer, I do that either when the asthmatic wife is out of the house or I shoot it outside. More and more I'm going acrylic though, I have them working great for me.

Oh but their models look pretty. We got all the health info when I was in the business. Main supplier was Dupont and the jobber was very good at getting us the info, seminars etc. right from the horses mouth Here is something I bet most don't know: you don't have to be spraying the stuff, the drying fumes are just as dangerous. If you can sniff it out during the curing process, that's just as dangerous as the spray. You just don't see particles. It still enters through eyes, skin, lung, eats tissue and catalyzes never to be removed. It becomes one with the damaged tissue. I'm speaking up now but had gotten tired of vocalizing the warnings just to be put down because models are small lol ! Do as they may but not me. Nope, I didn't get away from two part systems professionally just to bring smaller quantities home and use it here, kill the cats, the wife, damage myself. I got away for a reason. You don't want to be hearing about a friend who has an incurable fog looking mess in his lungs that shows up in scans. That happened to me, he eventually died from complications of it.

Yep and two part paints, especially urethanes are what eventually drove me out of the refinish business. To do it right in 1/1 you need more than a mask, really you need a suit. In my case it was a positive pressure head piece that blew air out the front so no paint or fumes got to the eyes ( another entry point for isocyanates), then a complete body suit. While I did all this I eventually deemed it too dangerous. I'd never bring this stuff into my home ! That includes any hardener, two part systems, enamel or 2K. Our models don't need it anyway, they aren't beat to death by weather. And I can get the look I want just fine by a number of other means.

Tractor supply has enamel hardener, at least locally. Hardeners in enamel do work to both produce a more mar resistant surface and increase gloss. I used a generic hardener in several brands shooting 1/1 for decades. Also a shot of this stuff: https://www.toolsource.com/body-fillers-and-spreaders-c-34_473/smoothie-fisheye-eliminator-8-oz-p-67053.html?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7czM8NbC_wIV8hetBh0WWgXrEAAYAiAAEgLje_D_BwE

Hot acrylics are an acrylic polymer in a solvent base much like acetone, could even contain some acetone in the mix. It could also be acrylic lacquer which is usually in a relatively hot solvent base as well. It should go over most lacquer primers fine, Duplicolor, Mr Primer Surfacer, Mr Surfacer etc.