floquil paint

[lonewolf]

picked up a bottle of floquil engine black how do you guys thin this out? no matter how much i thin this out it still plugs up the airbrush.
comes out like hot road tar soft and gooey.

[spud7378]

lone wolf, i find if you use lacquer thinner, and mix it to the consistincy of milk, aprox 3:1 thinner to paint, it seems to work for me

good luck hope this helps

[Smoke]

Like spud7378, I use lacquer thinner to thin floquil. I have found that some of the colors are thinner straight out of the bottle and need less thinning. I can usually shoot engine black without thinning, using my Badger 150 (I think I have a 150)? What airbrush and PSI are you using?

[lonewolf]

i have a paashe single action i dont know how much pressure but got to be about 30 psi. i tried 1/1 or 5cc of each not right so started adding thinner up to 4 oz. still thick as road tar. the thinner im using is automotive lacquer thinner.sorry for the wrong placement didn't see any tips or tricks section

[spud7378]

it almost sounds like you have a bad bottle of paint or an old bottle, i use a sigle action as well and dont have to add that much thinner, and i also use automotive thinner, is the paint really thick in the bottle? and not to insult you but i have to ask the stupid question ! it is enamel paint your using right and to water based? the only reason i ask is i made the mistake of mixing thinner with waterbased paint and it doesnt thinn it gets thicker! sorry i had to ask LOL

[fire5506]

Are you using the enamel paint or acrylic paint?
Acrylics thin with water. Some people use window washer fluid to thin it. I imagine it would make a mess if mixed with lacquer thinner.
Enamels Floquil recommended Diosol to thin, but most people used lacquer thinner.
30 psi should push almost any kind of paint through the airbrush.

[lonewolf]

now i feel like an idiot.didn't realize that floquil made acyrlic and thinner paint just went buy the other bottles i had bought they use thinner. thanks everyone for your time now it works

[spud7378]

hey no problem, been there done that! LOL thats why i asked! your not the first im sure you wont be the last

[icghogger]

I once bought a bottle of what I thought was a Floquil acrylic, put a few drops in the color cup, thinned it with distilled water and........(not very pretty when it comes out of the air brush like "Silly String"!).

[DRLOCO]

Hey--I did that too!
I've found that you can thin water-based paints with rubbing alcohol...just be sure to airbrush outside or in an well ventilated area...that'll get'cha high quick!

[cbq2bn]

I've not done this out of an airbrush, But when I first started with polly scale, I was trying to clean brushes I used in Polly Scale paint with thinner, only because the few bottles of Floquil needed thinner.. "DOH"

[Kevin Johnson]

I thought the old Floquil was a acrylic lacquer. I still have a few quarts of the old dio-sol but use Dupont slow auto lacquer thinner.
Fast thinner flashes fast, slow allows the paint to level out.


For Scale coat I use Dupont 3812 auto enamel thinner.
If you use lacquer thinned paint over enamel it will crinkle the finish,
that's why for me a test shot is so important.

I was never a fan of Polly S acrylic polymers because they tend to foul or clog the tip unless thinned right. A bottle of 50/50 water alcohol kept handy to blow out the brush for extended sessions or color changes helps keep the tip clean. Liquidtex makes a retarder for artist acrylics, available at most art stores. Some of the airbrush fabric paint suppliers for t shirts sell the same thing with their brand. Never tried them in Polly S but I'd like to give it a try.

You might want to cut your psi back to 20-25. High psi will dry the paint on the tip and spray regulator plus create a dusty over spray.
What I like about solvent based paint is after drying, over spray can
be melted in with a coat of thinner.

Getting the right combination isn't always easy. Your mix, temperature and humidity can work fine one day or turn out like crap another. I test shoot on a similar scrap piece that's prepped along with the work piece. Only when the test piece drys to satisfaction am I comfortable shooting the work piece.

We can thanks the EPA for "PROTECTING" us, lowly peasants from
VOC's and the evil manufacturers. BTW, a good mask is mandatory.

With all the experienced painters here it would be interesting to compare notes on paint types, mixes and other variables.
Maybe some demos for everyone's benefit. Myself included.
Some how I don't think baking a piece in the oven would work well on plastic.

Just my 2 bits, for what it's worth. B)

[Kevin Johnson]

Mar 11, 2010 22:39:59 GMT -5 @modelmaker51 said:

I assume when you said "Poly S" you meant Polyscale, however Floquil's Poly S paint (long since discontinued) was quite different from today's Polyscale and the two names shouldn't be interchanged or confused with the other.

Thanks for the clarification! I did try Polly S back when and didn't like the results, guess that's why I still like solvent based paint. Nothing against acrylics but at this point I'm fully invested in solvent based Floquil but think it's time to change.

It seems paint changes more than the weather. I had a case of sticker shock last time I bought Floquil. Thankfully I hoarded doubles & triples of most colors. $5 for a 1 oz. a bottle!
At $640 a gallon, I'm likely to try anything else, even house paint!
BTW interior latex works well with liquidtex tube acrylics for backdrops.
I think I'm going to experiment more with latex paint. Many paint stores can color match from a chip. $10 a quart sounds better than $160, especially black. Is Polly scale really any different than top grade interior latex paint? What ever works! Satin or semi gloss sir?
Just a thought.

[alcors1]

I prefer Pollyscale, it goes not smooth, I don't thin mine down, dries fast. I only use acrylic, I have had mixed results with modelflex.

[diesel]

I'm one of the guys who likes chemicals better than the water based acrils when airbrushing. I'd like to be able to paint with either as we at our club were given an entire rack of pollyscale when a LHS got out of trains and now deals in other things.

Aside from the nozzle clogging, it seems the paint needs to be thinned just so (and with distilled water); too little and it sprays badly if it doesn't clog the brush. Too much and I'm spraying a wash. I know that's the case with any paint, but there seems to be much less of a margin of forgiveness with the waterbased paints. I also find it's best to strain acrylic paint before using it, -is that something you guys do or is that an overly cautious step?

[icghogger]

Mar 25, 2010 23:50:39 GMT -5 @modelmaker51 said:

I use nylon stockings....

I would too, if I had the legs for 'em

For straining paint, I use a piece of the stocking stretched over a metal funnel, and I strain paint into a clean empty bottle. If I plan to re-use the original paint bottle, I rinse it out, give it a good cleaning (including the bottle cap) and let it dry completely.