Enamel Thinners what is it made of

[Paul-H]

Hi guys

Anyone know what is in Enamel thinners

I have some Humbrol Enamel thinners as the content is listed as Naphtha

I also have White Spirit and the content is also listed as Naphtha

But they both smell very different and the white spirit also feels oily but the enamel thinner has a spirit feel to it, (it feels cold to touch) so what is the extra ingredient in enamel thinners to give it such a different smell and feel, or is it white spirit that has the extra ingredients.

I did read on another forum that enamel thinners is a 50/50 mix of white spirit and cellulose thinner, does that sound right.

Thanks for any help

Paul

Edited May 21, 2011 by Paul-H

[Richard M]

According to the 125ml tin, Humbrol enamel thinners contains;

Heavy (Petroleum) Naptha (Hydrotreated) + Benzin (Petroleum).

[Paul-H]

That’s interesting, because all it says on my tin of Humbrol thinners is

Naphtha (Petroleum) Hydrotreated heavy: Low boiling point hydrog.

How old is your tin, mine was from brand new stock fresh from Humbrol.

Also just noticed in the German bit that it also contains Benzin. Isn’t Benzene a caseinogen which should never be touched or is Benzin (Their spelling) different to Benzene.

Paul

[AdriaN (MLT)]

Whats the difference between ordinary non branded enamel thinner and white spirit?? same thing??

[Pielstick]

Isn’t Benzene a caseinogen which should never be touched or is Benzin (Their spelling) different to Benzene.

I'm pretty sure Benzin is the German word for petrol.

[Richard M]

That’s interesting, because all it says on my tin of Humbrol thinners is

Naphtha (Petroleum) Hydrotreated heavy: Low boiling point hydrog.

How old is your tin, mine was from brand new stock fresh from Humbrol.

Also just noticed in the German bit that it also contains Benzin. Isn’t Benzene a caseinogen which should never be touched or is Benzin (Their spelling) different to Benzene.

Paul

I think actually Benzin is the same as Naptha, seems it's translated into 3 languages on the tin- English Naptha, German Benzin and French (?) Contient du naphta. Got my tin from Wonderland at SMW 2years ago.

Benzin/Naptha is different from Benzene - which is carcinogenic and something I really wouldn't want to airbrush

[Paul-H]

Whats the difference between ordinary non branded enamel thinner and white spirit?? same thing??

Thats what I thought untill I had them side by side

They smell different

They also feel different

White spirit has an Oily feel to it but enamel thinners has a dry spirit feel to it.

Mind you it may just be the The Enamel thinners is made to smell and feel different to white spirit just to justify the higher charge

Paul

[AdriaN (MLT)]

Thats what I thought untill I had them side by side

They smell different

They also feel different

White spirit has an Oily feel to it but enamel thinners has a dry spirit feel to it.

Mind you it may just be the The Enamel thinners is made to smell and feel different to white spirit just to justify the higher charge

Paul

I always use whitespirit for thinning and cleaning my enamels. i have been for years actually! i was wondering if using enamel thinner is any different? do you get better results? since you tried them both.. what can you conclude?? besides that note youve made..

Edited May 22, 2011 by AdriaN (MLT)

[Paul-H]

To be honest I have not taken any notes on the results i got with different thinners, But I will do

I shall try the same paint mixed with the following thinners and report back with the results

1/ Humbrol Enamel Thinners

2/ HMG Enamel thinners

3/ White Spirit

4/ Daler Rowney Low Odour Thinner

5/ Cellulose thinner

6/ 50/50 Mix of Cellulose Thinner & White Spirit.

See you soon with the results.

Paul

[Paul-H]

Hi Guys

Just done a quick test on the various thinners that I have access to and got some interesting results.

I only tested 5 of the 6 listed above as I forgot to include the HMG Enamel thiiners.

1st the good news, all five thinners thinned the paint without any problems and the thinned paint sprayed fine with no noticable difference

2nd now some not so good news

Once sprayed I tested the paint every half hour to see how they had dried.

At the first half hour only the Humbrol Thinners thinned paint had dried to the extent that rubbing the paint left no mark

At one hour the white spirit thinned paint had dried enough not to be marked by rubbing

At one and a half hours the 50/50 white spirit mix joined the list

At 4 hours the daler-rowney low odour thinner joined the list

And finaly and for me the big surprise

At 6 hours the Cellulose thinner mixed paint finaly dried enough to resist rubbing.

This came as a big surprise to me as I expected the Cellulose mixed paint to dry the quickest not the slowest by a long margin

So I think I will stick with the proper enamel thinners for now and use white spirit for clean-ups.

Paul

[AdriaN (MLT)]

See white spirit isnt so bad! pity you didnt try household enamel thinner.

So they all dried with the same finish??

[Paul-H]

Hi

Yes finish and colour was all the same, the only difference noted was the time it took to dry, and it should also be noted that the paint I was using was a Matt, which does dry quicker than gloss.

What do you mean by Household Enamel Thinner?

Paul

[keefr22]

And finaly and for me the big surprise

At 6 hours the Cellulose thinner mixed paint finaly dried enough to resist rubbing.

This came as a big surprise to me as I expected the Cellulose mixed paint to dry the quickest not the slowest by a long margin

So I think I will stick with the proper enamel thinners for now and use white spirit for clean-ups.

Paul

That is a surprise! Cellulose thinners most certainly greatly reduce the drying time of xtracolor paint - at least in my experience. Maybe it's because apart from a few interior colours, xtracolor are all formulated with a gloss finish.....??? (although not being a paint chemist I have absolutely no idea why or if that makes any difference!!)

K

[Paul-H]

Mind you it might just have been the Cellulose thinners I was using, It was Halfords, maybe I would get different results if I used Ruskins thinners.

I might also have got defferent results using a different paint, I used Humbrol Interior green which seems to take forever to realy harded as apposed to just dry.

I suppose in reality the test was pointless as every make of paint is different (Revell Enamels dry quick and Hard in Daler-Rowney Low Odour but it was the fourth slowest with Humbrol) and there are loads of different formula for for different makes of thinner although they are all called the same.

Paul

[keefr22]

It wasn't pointless Paul, as it did at least show you which thinner gives you the fastest drying airbrushed Humbrol interior green. Not every experiment gives at least one positive result!

K

[AdriaN (MLT)]

Hi

Yes finish and colour was all the same, the only difference noted was the time it took to dry, and it should also be noted that the paint I was using was a Matt, which does dry quicker than gloss.

What do you mean by Household Enamel Thinner?

Paul

by Household Enamel Thinner I mean enamel thinner you buy from an iron monger... used for thinning/cleaning household enamel paints. not enamel thinner purposely for modelling

[Paul-H]

Thanks

I must admit I have not seen enamel thinners for sale in any of my local Iron mongers (DIY Stores) only Cellulose and then only Ruskins. They used to stock Hammerite Thinner and that was Enamel but even that has now dissapered although they still sell hammerite paint.

I have just found a gallon of 2k thinners in the back of my shed and will give that a go next time I do some painting, although it does smell like cellulose thinners though so I don't expect too much.

Paul

[AdriaN (MLT)]

Ups sorry! i thought 'HMG Enamel thinners' was a house hold thinner from its tin shape, i didnt know it was a modelling thinner

[Leadsolo]

Post on another discussion

I've just posted summat on this one which might help.

Jonathan

[Decoman]

I painted some propeller blades with the Humbrol Enamel 33 recently (matt black), but had to remove it with paper towel laced in thinner because the paint seemed to never dry and remained sticky.

As I remember it, the humbrol paint bucket had been thinned with a mix of white spirit and humbrol thinner.

[Leadsolo]

I painted some propeller blades with the Humbrol Enamel 33 recently (matt black), but had to remove it with paper towel laced in thinner because the paint seemed to never dry and remained sticky.

As I remember it, the humbrol paint bucket had been thinned with a mix of white spirit and humbrol thinner.

Now that is strange. I know of people having had Xtracolour enamels never dry, but not Humbrol. By Humbrol paint bucket, I take it you mean the tinlet?

I would have thought it unlikely that the mix of thinners would have had an adverse effect. So, it looks like you might have a rogue duff tin of paint...assuming it was properly mixed etc (Yeah, I know, grandmother, eggs, lessons in sucking). I'd be inclined to bin the tinlet and buy a new one and also not thin the paint in the tinlet itself...the unthinned paint seems to keep better than thinned.

Jonathan

[Decoman]

I guess one could call it a tinlet thought I have to admit I never heard of this term before. I should add that the matt black paint had been used alot so only 1/3 of the paint was left in my case.

I bought unused paint tinlets for the Fine Molds Tie Fighter and I am happy with the result, having painted it now with the Humbrol 33 (matt black) and Humbrol 147 (light gray), without using thinner.

Edited July 27, 2012 by Decoman

[spitfire]

Hi guys, putting on my work head White Spirit is produced on a Crude Distillation unit, normal operation sees the lighter material taken off the top of the main column, Naphtha (petrol component), Light tops (petrol component), LPG and gas, below this on the column is an off take for Kerosene (Jet A1), when we used to make White spirit we cooled off this section of the column so the Kerosene was a lot lighter (we left some of the heavier Kerosene in the Gas oil (Diesel) section) and we left a lot of naphtha in the kerosene.

Cheers

Dennis