Niko_

I have sprayed with Tamiya's Lacquer thinner before and seemed to get a rough surface. I never had issues with the AB but I thin heavily and some suggested that the paint dries in midair and fails to dry on the model, leaving an orange peel effect.

Today I got my first bottle of Mr. Hobby Leveling Thinner. Supposedly its the best thinner for Tamiya acrylics as its like their lacquer thinner but with retarder. As soon as I open the bottle and get a whiff I realize that it smells exactly like a household item I have, denatured alcohol. Now I raise the question, can I just use ordinary denatured alcohol instead of this expensive "Leveling Thinner"? The denatured alcohol that I have is the Klean Strip Green Denatured Alcohol and is composed of: Ethyl Alcohol, Methanol, 4-methyl-2-Pentanone, Acetic Acid, and Heptane. The composition of Mr. Leveling Thinner is: 2-Pentanone, 4-methyl-2-Pentanone, and 4-hydroxy-4-mehyl. I wish I paid more attention in Chemistry class because both of these products have the same ingredients but different additives. I also think this is a very interesting topic as I haven't seen it discussed before on any forums. Please share your thoughts, I will experiment airbrushing both of these products this weekend and will respond to the post with the results.

Thank you for the advice Longbow and Stuart! I was spraying far and in humidity which could be reasons why the finish was poor. I find the idea of compatibility a little strange though as I was using Tamiya gloss and Tamiya enamel thinner for the oil paint. I would think that Tamiya products would work together in harmony but I would have to try to replicate this on plastic spoons to be sure. I am aware of it and do use Future, or used to. I was not quite happy with the gloss coats I got with future as they seemed sticky or rough. That's why I decided to use this gloss varnish on this model. I also am wary of future as turpenoid will shred through it and all the way to the plastic. Again I plan on testing all of this out on some spoons. I will try out as many gloss coats as I can before I get what I need. Its a rather frustrating experience though. I will be sure to post my findings.

I decided that an old Tamiya KV-1 would be a good way to warm up. Nothing crazy, no stowage, no scratch building today... Assembly went alright and I even made some armor texture with Surfacer 500. I preshaded, and did some "distressing" that I saw in a YouTube video. I airbrushed Tamiya paints thinned in Tamiya's lacquer thinner which went nicely. I used some hairspray between 2 green layers for the effect and the model looked pretty good. I then wanted to seal what I've done so far with a varnish. I used the Tamiya spray can for gloss varnish and did several light coats. I ended up using the entire can and the model still was not fully glossy and the surface seemed rough. This already seemed strange to me and I knew I made a mistake somewhere down the line but I was not sure where. I shared the photo to a couple of friends and one suspected that I thinned down the paint way too much and it dried mid-air leaving a rough "orange-peel" effect. He suggested I use Mr. Color Leveling thinner because it has retarder in it. On top of that he claimed that Tamiya gloss coat is "garbage" and the Mr.Color gloss varnish is much superior. Instead of buying new thinner I will experiment adding Liquitex flow-aid (retarder) into my thinner when I paint. Leveling thinner is expensive and hard to get here in Florida while my local shop has Tamiya thinner. I was a little frustrated with how the gloss went and I began wondering how people even get to automobile gloss. What are the best products for getting gloss coats? I then wanted to unify the greens a little and wanted to tint the model yellowish to get closer to the "4BO" Soviet color. I mixed some yellow ochre oil paint into Tamiya enamel thinner to make a "filter". I then brush painted it on the model and suddenly the paint in specific areas seemed to melt to gray. I was bewildered because I have never used gray on those areas of the model and the plastic is green to start with! I preshaded black and white but not gray. The filter seemed to work alright but that grey stuff was just growing out of a couple areas of the tank and I really wonder how that happened. I always thought that enamel thinner did not activate acrylics. I even applied a varnish and it still ate through it to a color of unknown origin. I am just confused on where I really went wrong and how I can prevent this from happening again. I plan on painting and experimenting on plastic spoons from now on and not on my models. Ultimately what is the best gloss varnish that one would use on the models? Also, this is my first time posting on this forum so I hope I did it right!