Dave G.

Look up some videos on stippling and some on spatter techniques. In one you use the tip of the bristles of a fairly stiff brush, in and dapple or dab the paint on, in the other you flick the end of the brush at the model but don't actually make contact, the paint spatters off the brush. You might find it in weather technique vids but don't rule out artists vids. Armor modelers are good at this stuff,you could probably get more tips on this stuff in an armor forum where they build tanks and infantry equipment.

I'm not familiar with that particular Krylon product but I've used others of theirs and they had heavy solvents in them. Really strong smelling stuff too, twice as bad as their clear lacquer or Rustoleum's clear lacquer..

I sprayed the Tamiya clear red this morning, over rose gold metallic craft paint and the finish is a beautiful candy metallic with that gold undertone and fleck. I thinned it about 40% with lacquer thinner and put it down @ 25lb with the Paasche H. The craft paint I put on a couple of weeks ago and cleared with Pledge, I just lightly scuffed that to prepare it for the Tamiya red. I also have Tamiya clear blue which is a rich dark blue candy, which I think a splash of that in the red will get me close to the burgundy/maroon I'm after for the 49 Ford ( I told you I work slow, that 49 is months away from being worked on). But more than anything I'm just reporting how nice that Tamiya clear series is. It sprays like lacquer really.

I've been testing acrylic paints for 18 months now, various brands on and off, my own thinner combos etc. But I've managed to kind of hobble together a 69 Mustang Mach1 almost to where I might put the wheels on. I wish I had not glued in the glass and interior tub because I'm really not happy with the paint. I did it in plain red and I don't know why, it's just not my thing, so it is sitting. I don't know if I can get it apart without wrecking it. I've started a 1/16 scale 1911 Mercer runabout. I have a bunch of parts primed up in Stynylrez, have some of the Model Master enamel black on for where the stripes will be, just need to mask them off, shoot another light primer coat and then lay down the yellow. But as summer comes I get busy so it will probably be a fall thing. This kit has special meaning because it's been sitting in a crawl space for the last 40 years as life went on, my wife gave me that kit when we were first married, in a time where I don't know where she dug the money up from. I have a 49 Ford in the wings waiting, I've collected some extra parts for it to make it how I want it. I'm a little excited about that kit as I'm replicating from memory one I built when I was about 12yo ( 69 now). But models are not my only activity nor my only hobby, so things progress slowly.

I like airbrushing as well, it's really a hobby in itself. But as far as the primer, if you find what you have to work so be it lol ! Actually, Stynylrez and the Vallejo primers are both poly acrylic. You might want to squirt a clear coat on some of those paints, it might be just what they need.

How did your test pan out r&g ? If that Vallejo primer doesn't bond too well I can recommend Badger Stynylrez with no reservations. It's been working great for me under acrylics and even enamel paint.

Can't knock the price for sure !

Thanks, $71 and change at Amazon on prime.

What I need is a speed control for my Dremel. It's an old Dremel, good shape but it has the old variable speed box controller and it burned up something inside so now it's wide open or nothing at all ( plug straight into the wall), so I don't use it a whole lot and do most things by hand. I'm thinking maybe a pedal control would be good.

I didn't really see what I wanted in Golden High Flow at the art store so drove over to the hobby store and bought some Tamiya clear red and blue. Those should do it.

It's funny you should mention this, I've been considering GHF transparent paints to put over gold or silver base colors and top with Pledge floor care. Wondering if it might produce a candy effect. I might pick up a couple of bottles to play with. I also noticed that Vallejo makes acrylic candy colors. The difference is I have to order in the VJ paints but can go to the art supply store to get the Golden's product line. FWIW I use quite a bit of Liquitex soft body artist paints on models ( has to be thinned). It sticks to about anything but I prime with Stynylrez primer anyway.

Pledge floor care goes over regular acrylic paints nice ( craft paints, hobby acrylics of most brands). But I think of Createx as being rather proprietary which is also why I haven't tried them. I was considering the candy colors but there are other candy colors out there, Vallejo for one. You may have to break down and use what ever Createx suggests for clear coat ( it may be solvent based ).

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.