Dave G.

This is the green environmental stuff Then this is the original. If you can see the back label, around the second paragraph is a statement, with in which it says Medium Dry:

Really my only concern about hardware store lacquer thinner being used in Testors square bottle paints, was to get the original blend lacquer thinner. Because as I said, around here there are two more blends in the same brand name. One being a fast dry thinner, really just designed for cleaning, the other the green friendly synthetic junk. The original in the brand I use is medium dry rate and works very well at a 50/50 or so ratio in Testors paints. Also to further thin decanted Rustoleum 2x paints for airbrushing.. It last I knew still came in the blue can with orange label area on the front. But the listing for medium dry used to be in the fine print, no longer there. But the fast dry says fast dry right on the front. Blue can, white label area. And if you can still find a can for $5, I envy you. I haven't seen $5 for the stuff in a decade.

I can't really help on the clear enamel because I have no reason to use clear enamel. The classic era cars and antique cars that I tend to build get straight color, no clear coat if shot in enamel.. And any other paints I use that may get cleared, aren't enamels, so I wouldn't clear those with enamel anyway. The last time I cleared something in enamel was back in the 1970's and that yellowed. So really it was clear amber hue lol !!

If you take the little square bottle Testors enamel and empty it out into a mixing cup, there will still be paint residue in the bottle. Then re-fill that with the hardware store lacquer thinner, shake it up and pour into your container of paint you just poured out and stir together. It gives you just a tad short of a true 50/50 blend when all is mixed together. And it works perfectly. There should be no rough dry finish from airbrushing it, assuming shooting it moderately wet and a full wet last coat. With gloss paint, you should see yourself in the glass smooth finish. I shoot it up near 30 psi though, with the Paasche H #3 tip, even sometimes with the #5. You can do the same for lesser jobs using a pipette .

What you have to watch for with hardware lacquer thinner is that you get the original medium dry stuff. There is now " green friendly" lacquer thinner. Also, at least around my area, fast dry lacquer thinner. I personally believe that Testors enamels thinned with LT produces a better finish when airbrushed than using the Testors reducer. The fast dry thinner though, is really too fast a dry time, and the synthetic green label stuff is just simply junk. Another good combo, I would consider second after the lacquer thinner for airbrushing, is to mix 50/50 Hardware store paint thinner ( not lacquer thinner but paint thinner), with HWS odorless mineral spirits. And thin the Testors with that combo.

Many moons ago I went the extra mile, cut in working doors, sometimes suspension too, fancy wiring and all. You get the idea. Today at 74, a nice finish, some decent shading in the grill and other chrome pieces, Molotow chrome around the windows. And with that I'm pretty happy.It takes it beyond just an out of box build too. I mean slap in the kit chrome onto a 39 Ford sedan is one thing. But to just take that few lousy minute for a dark wash between all the toothy bars in the grill is quite another. Honestly, I almost wouldn't mind dropping back to curbside builds though, and just make it a nice presentable model. I have more important things in life. Ya know, after getting to this stage, having drag raced and built the real cars up, working in the field of mechanic, as well as refinishing 1/1, really all my life, I just like some nostalgia models at this point.

I don't know hpiguy's work flow process, sequencing etc, but using Rustoleum paint and such ( IE thick enamels), straight from the can, you know it's not a one session build as viewed in the video. I'm guessing he has projects staged up, to get two out per week. They may have been started the week or even two weeks before. With enamel, you would have finger prints all over the thing if you knocked it out even in two days. Or dehydrate for 6-8 hours to be able to handle the parts. I bet his editing gets more detail than the models lol. But, I too like the unboxing footage and the final clips. From that I can tell before spending the $30 if I may even want the kit to begin with. When I saw the AMT 51 Chevy Fleetside body come out of the box, it cast my interest in the 2 door hardtop aside and onto the Fleet.

I had this screwball idea in my head that when you bought 3D parts from folks, that they were already separated. Hmmm, that looks like someone tried to cook spaghetti in the dish washer !

HPI Guy mentioned one time that he builds these so people can see the kit assembly, fitting you tube time lines and all that sort of thing. You can take your personal detailing to whatever level you want, but he's just presenting the kit literally out of the box. That's part of the reason for his naming it " What's in the box". It was just a short blip in one of his videos. that I caught. If you're an experienced builder, you know what to do in a kit that he may show.You may decide or not if it's something you want to buy. I know that I've had an interest in a kit from time to time, then look to see if he did a video on one. If inexperienced you get to see what's in the kit. I personally feel he serves a purpose.

You should be set for life with that combo ! And that fan tip should make larger scale body painting much easier. You certainly won't run out of air with that compressor.

Every airbrush that works properly that I've ever encountered will spray thinner, reducer , alcohol or even water perfectly. Try it to see. So spurting, pulsing, blobs of paint, to me has to be something else besides thin paint. Given that the brush passed the clear liquid test. Also make sure your needle is seating when you release the trigger. A needle not seating can make quite the mess each time you let off, then re engage. At this point I'll pass the torch to the Procon users here, they may know something that I'm not aware off.

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 !!

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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.