Dave G.

If you do a lot of brush painting you might want to pick up a bottle of Vallejo Model Color paint ( not to be confused with Model Air which is their airbrush ready paint formula). See what you think of that compared to Model Master acryl. And to add to the theme of using primer mentioned by other posters, you almost have to prime before putting on MM acrylic. It's not just about coverage but for adhesion. Most acrylic colors don't stick to plastic so well, you need that primer coat as a base to paint onto.

I had a thin broken piece on the 1911 Mercer I'm building so I backed it up on the inside with a piece of card stock cut to the same shape and super glued it. It's held fine so far but I only have it in primer thus far. It's going to be fine though.

2 part catalyzed paints are why I got out of painting 1/1, when we had to start wearing suits and pressurized fresh air masks, actually helmets really. I decided this is really the limit, I'm done. We were warned to not even trust face respirators because if this stuff gets in your lungs it catalyzes there just as well as on the finished vehicle. And this is minus talking about just chemicals absorbed through skin. So no thanks for me, I'm not dragging that stuff home and you couldn't pay me enough to spray it. I already quit that habit. To me old fashioned enamel is the limit now and really acrylic model paints are getting better all the time so I don't shoot much enamel either.

As I understand it at this point, you painted up a second body also with enamel and are ready to clear coat it. You are asking about using Future as the clear coat. I don't have Future but it's spin off Pledge Floor Care and have put that over Model Master enamel paints with very good results. And it will be safe, Future is basically the same thing. It does take some polishing though. Two things: Make sure the enamel is well cured before clearing with any clear. Then make sure the clear is well dried before attempting to polish it. Keep clear lacquer away from enamel finishes. That 2k clear you have will probably go over lacquer color coat and probably acrylic color coat just fine. But when ever you clear anything make sure the color coat is well cured/dried or what ever other adjective fits the situation. Also you should be testing these various systems on some test subject before putting it down on a model. To me at least, the testing itself is a part of the hobby, rather fun and very revealing.

She's pretty special indeed.

I don't know, it works great though . I'd agree with you if I used it as a spray booth but there is no residue left behind. The pizza was good last night by the way !

You can dry pretty much to a cured finish Testors or MM enamels in 6 hours in a dehydrator. I don't do that, I go 3 hours @ 109 deg, then let it sit till I'm ready for it. I just want it so I can handle it and not do damage, 3 hours is more than enough for that.. Since the body is more or less the first thing I get painted ( at least the base color coat) it's going to be days till I get back to it anyway. Acrylics will not dry in a single day, not by air drying, it's more like two to three days depending on the weather. You can reduce that to an hour in a dehydrator. I agree that lacquer to cure takes a couple of days at least, two hours in the dehydrator will do lacquer quite well. When a paint is cured there is no more odor in a good old fashioned sniff test ( even acrylics have some out gassing). Place item up to your nostrils and take a short whiff, there should be basically no odor. Find a little corner to push your finger nail into, it should leave no dent in the paint. By the way one thing some folks rush and it's the foundation to the whole paint job is the primer coat. Give that the same times as above. My dehydrator is my wife's air fryer lol. It has all these modes to which one is dehydrate, it's thermostatic controlled. It has bake modes, air fry modes, toaster oven modes, you name it. Last night I cooked pizza in it, last week my wife did a roast in it. A few days ago I dehydrated acrylic paint, a few weeks ago enamel.

Ya you need to cut alcohol in use with acrylic paints anyway, if you use straight 91% ipa you could very well end up lining the inside of your airbrush with basically a latex membrane. Or worse, clog it solid. That will happen with DecoArt craft paints but if the alcohol is kept at reasonable levels the same paint will go down like silk. Vallejo too.

Interesting. A guy over in the Fine Scale Modeler forum uses a plastic storage bin with a light bulb in it. I think it's a 60w bulb. He drilled a few air holes and says it works well. But I think circulating air is key personally.

It should be fine. I've gone to 110f and typically do 108 or 109 in an air fryer set on dehydrate. Not sure about the rig posted on but others seem good with 105. The air fryer is very accurate so even if your rig is off a bit I doubt it's going over 110....

I use the regular Testors in the orange/red tube for plastic to plastic.I used to use the liquid cement at one point in time but I got a tube of the Testor right now. I use various ca glues for just certain things, like I might use metal for a shift lever ( just an example), drill a hole drip in some ca and stick the rod in there.

There is a decent argument to using straight isopropyl rubbing alcohol ( not the methyl, and I haven't tested denatured alcohol in general for craft paints) and a drop of retarder in craft paint, it comes fairly close to what I mix for thinner but I put the retarder in the thinner. I think "true" rubbing alcohol is something like 50/50 water/ ipa alcohol. I don't use that much alcohol in mine. In the health and beauty isle at my local stop and shop store I find 91% and 70% are isopropyl alcohol but not really rubbing alcohol. Actually I have Pledge Floor Care, I don't have any original Future so that's a consideration when stating my claims ( or viewing them) lol. If you're going to put Future in craft paint think small amounts. Too much thins the color saturation. As a top coat/clear coat you don't really need any thinner in Future, you need correct air pressure. If you do thin it a little then the more alcohol you use the more hazy the result will be to your dried gloss coat. Here is my finding on washer fluid in craft paint and acrylics in general. It's not the best solution for the surface tension of the paint going on. Especially the first couple of coats. The same for flow aids like glycerin. This is why I say retarder not flow aid. By the same token ipa will get you tip dry at the air brush ( actually so will washer fluid in the right conditions), again enters the retarder, this greatly reduces tip dry and aids to a certain degree, flow out. But obviously you can use too much, again think less, just enough to stop the tip dry..

Snake I tried three time to send you a message then realized in red print ( tiny) that you can't receive messages lol. Maybe you hit a limit and have to clean things out or something.

All is pretty inclusive, I have no idea if it works in all. But it has worked so far in all the acrylics that I have tried it in which is fairly considerable ( about 12 brands of paint) and of those paints 5 are craft paints.

My own thinner blend and if I put clear in the paint it's generally Liquitex satin varnish.

I don't use either Future or washer fluid in craft paints or acrylics anymore. I used to.

Why not print to water slide decal paper, then the edges are clear and the white paper goes in the trash ?

I think even nail polishes marked enamel are actually lacquer. You can tell by a simple sniff test, there is a distinct difference in odor between enamel and lacquer based products. Some of the nail art lines now are acrylic but that's different than every day nail polish. I would think actual enamel would be too slow curing for use as nail polishes.

With hardware store Kleen Strip if it's going on dry, thus rough, there are some things you can do. 1 Reduce your working air pressure till the nail polish goes on wetter. Too much air pressure dries it before it hits the surface. 2 move the airbrush in closer to the model surface ( same reason as above, the distance can cause drying too). 3 Mix the thinner 50/50 with xylene then thin as usual with that blend ( depending on the weather I sometimes use straight xylene or a blend rich in xylene). 4 Increase the fluid flow . Model Master enamel isn't a good idea as a base under lacquer products. You will find out why in due time.

Sometimes it's enough to cut away the inner fender wells back to the frame rails and even narrow the thickness of the rails a little bit. Trim up the inner wells and mount them on top of the frame. That might work on your 53.............. I'm putting slicks on my 49 build, so the tire diameter is also off to fit in the existing wells, so I will make new ones. In your case I doubt diameter will be an issue. Just some thoughts to look into though.

I have a similar thing happening with an AMT 49 Ford. Just not quite enough room for the two tire options I have. I'm moving the frame rails and taking a little section out of each axle tube as well and moving the springs in on the tubes. Hey it's only plastic it cuts and sands easy enough ! I also think I'm going to lengthen each wheel well opening a little bit. Good luck with your 53 what ever you do !

Hmmm. I also have Liquitex varnishes in matte, satin and gloss. I would test it on a scap piece as well.

Next time I flock something I'm going to try Pledge floor care, basically Future. I used to use enamel but I've been on an 18 month quest of switching mostly to acrylics. After 60 years of stink paints I'm coming to embrace the low toxic approach..

Most any white, the key is white primer to which I use Stynlrez from an airbrush. My favorite white though is Model Master enamel or even plain old Testors enamel from the little square bottles. Tough to beat MM though. I haven't shot white in a long time but if I did that's what I would use MM enamel... Talking about bodies here, for small parts I'd use acrylic over white primer. I heat set it though in a dehydrator, not that you have to. But I like to give enamels at least a head start with 1-1/2 to 2 hours at 109 degrees. Then you can handle the parts and not screw anything up ( no finger prints or rub off etc).. 4-6 hours will fully cure it. Acrylics are pretty good in 40 minutes.

It sounds like your extractor fan is not strong enough to handle both the spray bombs and then that 30' extension. You could cut that 30' piece and fit a strong fan in there that would boost the extraction performance. Harbor Freight might have something.