Painting with Nail Polish question....

[kitbash1]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this question ( if it's not please move it to the right place ) but I need to ask about airbrushing Nail Polish. How hard or easy is it. What do you use to thin it. At what air pressure do you spray it at. Can it be clear coated with two part clear. Can you clear coat it with Future. And lastly, can you use polishing cloths on it before clear coating. I'm looking to experiment with air brushing nail polish because of the vast choice of Florescent type colours available.

Edited January 8, 2014 by kitbash1

[Art Anderson]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this question ( if it's not please move it to the right place ) but I need to ask about airbrushing Nail Polish. How hard or easy is it. What do you use to thin it. At what air pressure do you spray it at. Can it be clear coated with two part clear. Can you clear coat it with Future. And lastly, can you use polishing cloths on it before clear coating. I'm looking to experiment with air brushing nail polish because of the vast choice of Florescent type colours available.

Nail polish (fingernail polish) can most certainly be thinned for airbrushing! Virtually all fingernail polish is lacquer, regardless of what the label might say, so thin it with ordinary lacquer thinner, to approximately the consistency of 2% milk. As with all lacquers, use an automotive lacquer primer on the plastic first.

Most fingernail polish is at least somewhat translucent, and in my experience, the "fluorescent" colors are themselves translucent given that fluorescent colors (also called "dayglo") use a type of dye rather than pigment--so they need to be sprayed over a white base coat--use white automotive lacquer for this (Tamiya or Modelmaster lacquers are a non-penetrating type of lacquer--meaning that their solvents do not "attack" or penetrate/craze styrene plastic, and the "hotter" solvents in nail polish will attack the milder hobby-type "lacquers", making a mess).

As for airbrushing the nail polish (for that matter the automotive primer and white base coats), I like to add just a little bit of lacquer thinner to these as well, then use as little air pressure as I can (you can reduce the air pressure by several means, including loosening a threaded coupling to "bleed off" air pressure). I bleed off excess airpressure at my moisture trap by opening the water drain petcock on it, then closing it down just to the point where my airbrush starts to spray. I then open up the material control on the airbrush to get a spray pattern that's about 3/4 inch wide, at about 1 to 1 1/2 inches from the surface of the model. I then move the airbrush fairly quickly to give a fine coat, that with the primer may cause a bit of fine "frosting" look to the surface, but with successive passes, the primer will cover that with no noticeable crazing. When the primer coating is dry, I polish that to a satin finish with a #6000 Micro Mesh polishing cloth and water. I then follow that with the color coats.

If you wish a clear coat over your final color of nail polish, may I recommend using a lacquer clear coat rather than Future, as a lacquer clear coat will bond to the lacquer finish underneath it, and it can be polished out with the MicroMesh polishing system.

Art Anderson

[kitbash1]

​Thanks Art. You answered all my questions. Now I just have to do a few practice bodies with some of my wifes cast offs.

[Art Anderson]

​Thanks Art. You answered all my questions. Now I just have to do a few practice bodies with some of my wifes cast offs.

Or get a package of those white plastic picnic spoons--"spoon test"?

Art

[vypurr59]

Dollar stores are great places to get nail polish in very many colors. I would tend to stay away from the large flake (metalflake) colors. Tends to clog the airbrush.