Paint nightmares

[geoff m]

It must be me but have just had a whole series of disasters.

Am currently building the Airfix 1/48 Spitfire F22/24. I bought the Mr Colour RAF sets at Cosford last weekend cos I had used their interior set previously with great success. Everything primed with alclad grey primer and cockpit interior,wheel wells etc sprayed with interior green. Perfect finish and very pleased. Sprayed sky fuselage band. Ditto. Sprayed undersides grey. Disaster. It was like I was making candyfloss. Thin wisps of plastic were coming off all leading and trailing edges on the wings and although I was able to just blow it away the finish was awful. The undersides looked like they had been pebbledashed. Incidently the paint was thinned with Mr Colour thinners.

Left everything to dry for a couple of days and then sanded the whole undersides with very fine (4000 grit) sanding pads and got a finish I could live with.

Decided not to risk it on the topsides so switched to Xtacrylics. Thinned ocean grey about 40% with IPA. Started OK but lost all paint flow after a couple of minutes. The paint had turned to jelly in the airbrush cup. I was literally able to lift a plug of paint out with a tooth pick. After cleaning everything up tried thinning with Tamiya thinners cos people here had said previously that Xtacrylics likes this. Same result.

What am I doing wrong? HELP!!!

[Mike]

The only time i've had Xtracrylix turn to jelly is when I've added cellulose thinners when there's been paint left in the cup in an attempt to clean a rather grubby paint cup. I'm just wondering whether there was some kind of residue from the Mr Color stuff (that's enamel, or synthetic lacquer, right?) causing the reaction?

A full strip, clean & rebuild of your AB might be an idea. have you tried thinning the Xtra with its own thinners? Don't forget to add a drop or two of flow enhancer if you do

[gcn]

might be of use

linky

[geoff m]

The only time i've had Xtracrylix turn to jelly is when I've added cellulose thinners when there's been paint left in the cup in an attempt to clean a rather grubby paint cup. I'm just wondering whether there was some kind of residue from the Mr Color stuff (that's enamel, or synthetic lacquer, right?) causing the reaction?

A full strip, clean & rebuild of your AB might be an idea. have you tried thinning the Xtra with its own thinners? Don't forget to add a drop or two of flow enhancer if you do

Thanks Mike. I thought that might be the answer but have just done an experiment. I mixed 3 batches of xtracrylic in a clean ceramic dish. First one thinned 50/50 with IPA. After 3 minutes had jelly! Second one thinned 50/50 with tamiya thinners. After 3 minutes still had liquid paint and didnt seem to have thickened. Third thinned 50/50 with Mr Colour thinners. Instant porridge.

What was more surprising was that as well as 3 different consistencies I had 3 quite distinct colours. The paint was RLM76. The IPA mix retained its colour. The Tamiya mix was about half a shade lighter and the third was about 2 shades darker. I have painted a strip of each plus unthinned RLM 76 onto a piece of white plasticard and it will be interesting to see how they dry.

As for my airbrush. Had to completely strip it down to clean it cos it was a mess.

[Mike]

I wonder whether your IPA has something in it that disagrees... I'll do a little test with a bottle of IPA i've got... Now.. which paint have I got the most bottles of

[Mike]

Ok - my test used Xtracrylix Desert Pink XA1032, mixed with some industrial use IPA to spraying consistency, and about 5 minutes in, the paint is still liquid, although the IPA is evaporating quickly, gradually taking it back to bottle thickness.

btw - enamel, lacquer or cellulose thinners should not be used with ANY acrylics that I know of. I'm not sure if the converse is also true, but I wouldn't risk it. Correct thinners for the correct paint is a good maxim to use

[AnonymousA667]

Somebody posted the other day saying that IPA can be too 'hot' for acrylics and to use plain water. On the few occasions I've used acrylics I thinned with water and a very tiny drop of Fairy Liquid.

Frankly I'm dreading the day the Eurocrats legislate enamel out of the frame, I find it much easier to work with.

peebeep

[entlim]

Ssssshhhh!

[geoff m]

I wonder whether your IPA has something in it that disagrees... I'll do a little test with a bottle of IPA i've got... Now.. which paint have I got the most bottles of

Its from maplins. Think you could be right though so am going to stop using it. I only used the Mr colour thinner as an experiment and wouldnt use it to thin Xtacrylics though interestingly I bought it from MDC at Cosford last weekend and they say it can be used on Gunze acrylics as well though I wont be trying it. Also have you read the "colour modulation" thread? The author of that article only uses laquer/enamel thinners with acrylics.

[lasermonkey]

My experience with Xtracrylix is that it behaves very much like Lifecolour. I'm not saying it's the same stuff, but it seems awfully similar! I wonder who makes it?

Lifecolour, certainly, will turn to jelly if you use IPA (or at least it will if you use the 99.7% stuff that I have!). I always thin it with water with a little Slo-Dry added.