Dave G.

What was your pressure set to, Mike ? You possibly could use a couple extra lb compared to a standard tip, for the fan tip. But ya, I wouldn't be afraid to try, say, 25% more thinner as well. You gotta do what you gotta do to get a nice spray. The first thing I'd do is shoot straight thinner and watch the pattern. If that won't spray right then you have other issues. Then think, ok straight thinner shoots great, my paint mix doesn't. What do I do about that ? Maybe get my paint closer to the thinner consistency ? Maybe a bit more pressure ? Nice choice in airbrush !

In the example you quoted, the spatter is from pulsing air pressure that is insufficient to begin with. So with that off the table we move on, assuming ability to set nice even pressure setting. Paint viscosity and air pressure go together. So in other words, paint thinning and pressure. Lacquer can usually be thinned at least 1/1, often more. From there several variables can be introduced, from paint straining to airbrush model, tip size and air pressure accordingly. Some airbrushes were never intended to be super low pressure devices, though people manage to force them to work. It probably isn't the ideal. But at the head of all that is thinning lacquers enough.. Some lacquers can take two times their volume in thinner and still go on great, if not even better. To me shooting lacquer equals more thinning than expected and then shooting it with your finest atomizing tip. In fact my favorite tip is a Badger .25 ( not because it's a .25 but because it my best atomizing tip). You can even see in the mist how well atomized it is, and the over spray around the main body of paint hitting the surface of the model says it all. Super fine feathering, even, no flyer droplets etc. 18 psi. Just sayin. I'm sure others have their stories about the sweetest needle tip for lacquers combo in their brand as well.

The H with #5 tip will do the job fine. Just don't try to use it with a tankless hobby compressor, because that 1.05 tip set with the unrestricted H body flows more air than the compressor can steadily supply, without sputtering splattered paint at your car.

The Rusto 2X once decanted, ( maybe pour off what is needed from that volume for your paint job before thinning) add at first about 1/4 the volume being used, of hardware store lacquer thinner ( the medium dry Klean Strip, non green label stuff). That may well do it, as found out in a test pattern spray. But it won't be too much, so there is room for more if needed. When it swirls right in the cup, sprays right and has good coverage, well you're there. It's worth noting that it will spray, depending on nozzle size how well, right from the can in an air brush. It's generally too thick though, at least for me. And not all colors are the same viscosity out of the can. You want what looks like the original formulation Klean Strip lacquer thinner, though. It seems they have more than one iteration these days. In fact perhaps 3. The environmentally green stuff. A fast dry. And the original medium dry. I don't do a lot of this right now, I've been into the wonders of working with Createx products for plastics, with 4030 additive and their new 4021 reducer, then 4050 clear coat.. I've used it for years in T Shirt and place mat art straight up, anyway. But the 4030 cross links it to an acrylic urethane for hard surface painting. I don't use Duplicolor products, so no info on that front.

I've not decanted the 2x clear. But 2x colors decant and with a bit of lacquer thinner added, they airbrush beautifully. The extra thinner is enough to make it atomize through the airbrush to my liking. It also aids in flow out and leveling. With just a can of white and a few base colors you can make some great pastels for the 40's and 50's era factory stock builds. Anyway, guess that doesn't help your clear situation. That 2x clear has a smell all it's own is all I know. I've clear coated some art work with it from the can is all.

I agree with the bass boat analogy, or else late 60's metal flaked dune buggy.

It may not be adhesive you're dealing with, but rather tape impression in the paint film. I say that since no adhesive removers removed it.

I had a spray pattern similar to that shown in the OP with some Createx pearlized blue paint. No matter how it was thinned or treated, the result was the same just thicker or thinner layers with the same spatter. I had been in contact with Createx on it, wound up with communicating with one of the owners. In the end he concluded that someplace in this paints life it had gotten frozen. He sent me new paint, a new thinner they are just releasing, and some 4030 that within our conversation he knew I used. And the new bottle of paint sprays wonderfully. That's a company that makes you want to work with them, IMO. So your lacquer probably did not freeze as an acrylic can, but it could be just a bad batch of paint. And if it's defective for whatever reason, it isn't ever going to spray right. You end up going through all kinds of creative ways to make something work that just plain can't. Just a thought, since I just went through a similar experience myself. And I've shot my share of Createx over the last 7-8 years, as I've used it not just for models but airbrushed T Shirt art as well.

Actually your setup makes some sense. As warm air travels from the hot compressor to the water separator, the vaporized water in it condenses. So with a coil, you can get 12' of hose in a 2-3' distance. The air will condense over the 12' traveled much better than over just two feet. You can do the same thing with 12' of regular hose though, you just have to deal with extra routing. In our 1/1 shops I had and also worked in, we ran 30 ft of copper line before the first water separator. We still had little separators at the end of each hose that fed a spray gun. Massive water came out of the main separators in humid summer weather. I'm talking about 200 gal compressor systems. Anything close to the compressor was not very effective, least not till the whole system cooled down at night. We had auto ejection valves at the base of the compressors with small lines running outside. In that way tank water drained overnight.

All I can say is the Tamiya LP paints go down awesome, thinned with Mr Leveling thinner. And Stynylrez black primer/sealer as well ( Over the last 10 years or so I've probably used the Styn most as my flat black ( you can buff it with fine steel wool to get to semi gloss).. I've never used Zero paints at all, so reserve comment on that from an experiential position.. I will say that hot lacquers in general are very fussy about humidity/water. A lot of my compressed air humidity levels are limited by the fact I use an 8 gal compressor, that never runs while spraying, as it's not plugged in, thus doesn't build the heat that makes condensation in the lines an issue.. I could paint three bodies or more before thinking about cycling the motor to build air. All that aside, if all other Zero paint colors are spraying well, I kind of doubt water is causing the black to go wonky. They all should be less than optimal in some way, if water was the issue, IMO.

Mike, as far as that extra mold line, I'd use the lady's nail file stick on that personally. Then the finer pads to follow. With either those sticks or the pads you can get right up near the main ridge and not damage it. I've also scraped out mold lines by sliding an X acto along it, then sand to smooth it. Work slow and steady, be persistent, you'll get it out of there.

It sounds like you already found your paint remover, masking tape. Get the blue painters tape, plaster it all over the car and rip it off !!

👍

A lightly dampened cloth, old T Shirt etc. Hah, I did the roof of a 60T Bird with paper towel. Fully wet a corner of whatever you use and wipe off excess. Then wipe dry.

You can do as you wish but I blow past about half of those grits with the tooth paste.

Craft paints will take the hotter clear coats, like Rustoleum products. In my experience, pearlized Createx will not. In my tests they wrinkled right down to the primer or in one case the plastic. You won't think you needed X22 once you get the 4050 buffed up and polished. It will or should look like a good lacquer job. And it's UV protected. How you get there is up to you, I just present one way. There is a guy on youtube with an explanation of how he gets his 4050 to shine like a lacquer paint job too. He goes the polish pad, then Novus and finally wax routine. That said, I re did the polish on the green spoon I mentioned earlier. I wet scuffed with a fine polishing pad. Then two more applications of tooth paste and one bees wax polish. I must say it made a difference using the scuff routine and the color now as deep as the blue spoon. I never wore through the 4050, as I never saw any color in the polishing routine.

I've done wet and dry on 4050. Mostly I haven't needed to sand it though. I wouldn't want it to soak too long wet personally, but it will wet scuff and wipe dry in intervals just fine... It scuffs pretty easy dry actually for small areas. If you just have a few nubs, maybe just knock them off dry. I remember I painted a 40 Ford Sedan one time. Nice finish was building till this chunk of dirt landed smack center of that long roof. I scuffed it down when dry, shot two more good wet coats and the finish was even nicer in the end. What seemed disastrous at the time turned out for the better. That was craft paint and Tamiya X22.

That looks to be a beautiful finish, Mike ! It should polish right up. No sanding needed. Is that with my thinner formula ? 4021 will give you just a bit more gloss before polish. Either way you should get a shine on there. If you are concerned with your 4050 layer being too thin, you could put down a couple more coats. But if you have 4 progressively wetter coats on there, it's probably enough. You're not gonna burn through with tooth paste like compound would though. Control is in your hands. Speaking of control, I like to shoot a control piece before my body. Even if just a plastic spoon. Sometimes kits have a second hood, that's ideal.

Spraygunner is good and the 4021 worth trying. Maybe you need a couple more items that could buffer the shipping. HL did not have the 4021 a few days ago. They work on a big back stock, I remember it took forever for the 4011 to show up. Now they have big bottles of that. But I spoke with one of the owners of Createx a couple of weeks ago and he was saying he thinks HL is getting ready to cut Createx products down. Like Candy 2o may go and a few things that don't move. The bees wax is actually a furniture polish/wax made by a company named Howard. Sometimes I just use that. Just be sure you have plenty of 4050 on there. Both the toothpaste and the polish what ever you use, take a little off. And be careful at edges that you don't burn through. You don't have to use bees wax but it sure shines things up. Some folks like the car waxes, I use this. It's furniture polish but I we use something else on furniture here. It's a big bottle probably take care of 10 modelers for a lifetime. You only need little dabs of it. Another guy on here uses Meguiar as his final step with Createx.

Build it up with a little ridge of putty and sand to shape. Worth a shot. That's how I'd do it anyway, not saying it would be perfect but to me, better than none.

Try the Colgate toothpaste idea, assuming your finish is pretty smooth to begin with. Both the original formula and the peroxide baking soda Colgate work well, and some folks have done this for ages. You may need a drop or two of water as it wants to dry on you. Usually 2 applications. Then Find the clean part of an old T Shirt and dry buff ( my old Ts are usually spattered with artist paints lol) Then what I do is polish lightly with the bees wax polish I have. This week I experimented with some plastic spoons.I did a few, but the two contenders went this way: Both got a coat of Mr Surfacer 100. One got a color coat of Emerald green Craft Smart craft paint, I think destined for a 51 Chevy. In the craft paint I put about 15% 4030 Createx and 15-20% 4021 reducer ( it's Createx's latest reducer they sent me). It was well covered in 3 coats, I dehydrated that for 30 minutes. The next day I put down 4-5 progressively wetter coats of 4050, thinned 20% with 4021. Dehydrated that 30 minutes, then it sat 2 days. I polished it with the Colgate and then bees wax. You can see the ceiling lights in the finish and it's polished lacquer smooth. Absolutely beautiful color and finish , for anyone who likes green anyway. I did the exact same thing with the second spoon but the color is pearlized blue Createx paint. This has an even deeper shine, I think because the color itself is a deeper blue than the green is green. That color may be destined for a 58 Chevy build, not sure yet. But same thing, hand rubbed lacquer smooth with gloss that reflects the details of the ceiling lights. The key to this is not the hazy look or semi gloss but that it's a smooth finish, then the Colgate will work. If it's nubby or orange peal you need to cut the surface with actual pads of 5000 grit and higher, then polish. I always end with the bees wax polish, just a dab on a rag. Don't over thin the 4050, use a decent sized tip and raise your pressure to get nice atomization and flow. It will work with my formula thinner as I've done it many times, but might start out a bit clearer with either actual 4011 or 4021 Createx thinner. The Createx thinners that have water in them is iodized water. The closest of theirs to mine is 4013 but I use distilled water, a touch of denatured alcohol and isopropyl alcohol, then the retarder. Dennis was smart with his 4021 and that has retarder in it too, but no alcohol. If you use 4011, put a bit of retarder in it or the paint mix. For use in Createx paints and my old thinner formula you have I believe, Mike. I've since added that bit of denatured alcohol. I went by the Createx MSDS and saw there was a second alcohol in the formula, the closest I could get to that type alcohol was denatured, and I keep that here anyway. Don't displace the difference with less iso but the water. It's not much different but the paint is going to flow more on the surface it's sprayed to. If you're using 30% ISO and you want to try this, then add about 10% denatured, up to 15% at most. My new formula works in many craft paints, and we know the old does. So does Createx 4011 fwiw. Also, if you ever see the Createx 4021 out on a store shelf someplace, it's worth a try. It's just being distributed in the last couple of weeks. I like that reducer too.

I build most anything from about 1961 back to 1908. Train stuff even into the 1800's. Over 65 years modeling, I've hit on planes, trains, automobiles, a little military armor or Jeeps, trucks, ground equipment etc. Even rockets at one point. My preference is classic era cars or standard sedans of the 1930's through about 1950. Sedans are the hardest to find, like try to find a 1938 Buick sedan, or a 40 Olds sedan ! My next project may well be a 58 Chevy ( I like the chrome era too), depends what Christmas brings, but I have the paint lol. No 58 Chevy, I have projects in the works to finish. But the request is in for the Chevy. And meanwhile besides all that, I have a 57 TBird in 1/16 scale that needs paint. I already figured out the formula to mix the Enamel I intend to use for that build. I mean a 57 Ford anything, in 1/16 stirs the blood for enamel.

Just go easy adding the clear blue. Bits at a time. I think you will like the result a lot. I'm thinking I got to cranberry at someplace around 1/4 the content of color being blue. But this was three years ago, I'm 74 ? Take it from there lol ! As to Createx: Not as bad as you may think in terms of models. Their entire line is vast and they cover painting fabrics to 1/1 automobile and Motorcycles. To absorb all that can screw with your head ! In between there is us modelers though, and general artists etc. Ok, that said, to me the magic bullet folks miss with models is one additive, that crosses the acrylic paint over to poly acrylic. And that's their #4030 balancing clear ( you can use 4050 as well but it's thicker, though UV protected). Anyway, just 10-15% of BC added to the mix, converts the paint to where it not just sticks to hard surfaces but it gives a hard shell finish and loses that rubbery or tacky feel folks complain about with Createx. 4030 can be used across all ranges of Createx colors. I've made my own reducer that kind of falls between Createx 4011 and their 4013, as based off the Data sheets. But now Createx has come out with 4021, to me trumping all of them, not that the others don't work. 4021 is just hitting the shelves now as we speak. I've also had personal dealings with Dennis, one of the owners. As it turned out, after we tested, he determined my problem bottle of paint had frozen someplace in it's life chain. He didn't just replace that paint but added items he knew I use or wanted to try. I thanked him for the " care package" lol. In all I think we spoke twice, and emailed about 5 time. Issue resolved. Hah, now I need a 58 Chevy to use the paint on.

Amazon has grey or did a few minutes ago.. If not 1500 then 1200 ( not much difference). I actually use 1000. I was just at the Amazon site for something else and saw it. The price probably could be better and or shipping time.