I had a frustrating painting session last evening. I just can’t get the right paint/thinner ratio for airbrushing PolyScale. It seems that I have to thin the paint considerably to get it to flow through my airbrush (a Badger 350 that I’ve had for a long time and has never given me very much trouble). But, because of the paint’s “thin-ness” two things happened: the paint “pooled” at the bottom of the model, plus it ran under my masking (well burnished, or so I thought) onto the second color.
Which thinners and at what ratios have you successfully airbrushed PolyScale without encountering the same problems I did?
Thanks,
Tom
what air pressure are you spraying at? I never thin Polyscale, just spray it out of the bottle at 35-40 psi.
Dan
Your question sent me to my (2008) Walthers’ Catalog to see what they have to say about using Polly Scale which I don’t recall ever having used myself. I have, however, used other brands of acrylics and none require very much thinning.
I did learn the hard way with a Model 1492 Badger that adhering to the recommendation that you
carries considerable weight. Your statement that you
screams to me that somewhere along the line you have had paint solidify in your brush. Some paints solidify very quickly and your idea of immediately may not have been it’s idea of immediately. The cheapest thing, I suppose, would be to invest in a new tip. Your local or perhaps an art supply house should be able to order you one of these. The alternative is going to be lengthy soaking sessions with thinners for all of the paints you have run through this particular airbrush. I would start with dihydrogen monoxide because it is easily going to be the cheapest; your post indicates that acrylic is the latest you have used. Try to remember the order in which you used this airbrush and do your soaking in reverse order.
ROTS OF RUCK!!!
Well, I’m relatively new to airbrushing but I have used PollyScale black on a couple of locomotives and a snowplow. What I have done is thin the paint as recommended in a 4:1 paint:thinner ratio with blue windshield washer fluid. Someone on this forum recommended it and it worked fine for me. Seems to be less viscous than straight water and doesn’t affect the paint. I got some cheap pipettes from an online art supply place. I mark the pipettes with 1 inch increments so getting a 4:1 ratio is pretty easy. I use 18PSI on the compressor and a medium tip. I have a Badger 150 dual action.
Again, from a suggestion in the forum, I mix the paint and thinner right in the color cup. It gives me enough paint for one coat of a loco and tender. I found out the hard way, using the color jar with more paint, that PollyScale will dry in the tip if you spend too much time spraying . Halfway through my first use of the airbrush with Polly Scale it plugged up - it seemed like less than 10 minutes. I found this stuff dries like a rock - soap and water won’t touch it. I first tried a soak in gasoline (hey, it’s all I had!) which helped but a later soak in laquer thinner cut the dried paint just fine.
George V.
I use floquil paints and thin them 75% paint to 25% airbrush thinner. You may need to take your brush apart and clean it as suggested. I use thinner and pipe cleaners to clean my paasche and badger air brushes and i always check the needle for straightness . Another thing i do is use a mesh strainer from micro mark and strain any small particles from the paint before pouring the paint in my pick up tube bottle. You won’t believe how many small particles of dried paint can come out of those bottles of paint. Also, before painting, test the paint on an old car shell and adjust your brush for the best paint spray pattern. Another good rule of thumb is to mix the paint until it is the consistancy of milk…chuck
Skim or Whole?[:D]
Seriously, thanks for the hints so far. I will say that I don’t think a clogged tip is the problem, as I replaced the whole tip/needle assembly shortly before this project, and the first thing I do when I’m finished with a color is disassemble the tip and put it in a jar of Windex to soak. I will try using less thinner on my next project and see if that helps.
If anyone has more help to offer, please speak up.
Thanks,
Tom
I’ve been spraying Pollyscale for a while now, through a Badger 250 and 350. Usually dilute it about 10-15 percent with either blue windshield washer fluid or distilled water, should be the consistency of whole milk. Usually spray around 20 psi, sometimes a little higher. One thing everyone is right about is how quick the paint can dry in the airbrush. I keep a second jar ready and waiting with window washer fluid, and as soon as I’m done with the current task I start spraying the washer fluid. If I’m only waiting a few minutes between coats that’s usually good enough, but any longer than that and I clean the airbrush. What’s nice about the 350 is it’s so easy to clean, pipe cleaners and a Q-tip work well.
Stir the paint before you use it, don’t shake the bottle.
If you had to dilute the paint that much then perhaps you had an older bottle, try new stock if you can.
What I have done to beat the paint drying in the tip is to keep two plastic tubs of water on the workbench. Once I finish with a color I remove the cup and dunk the cup and airbrush in the first tub to get most of the paint, then dunk them in the second and run the airbrush underwater with the needle pulled all the way back (dual action brush). Again, someone on this forum mentioned suggested this. Obviously only good for acrylics, but it gets the paint out of the innards pretty well. I then can dry the cup (shoot it with air!), mix up another color, or disassemble and clean the brush if the spray session is over.
George V.
Good tip George. I recall speaking to someone that did just what you described, but he used a water/ammonia mix. I guess that’s fine as long as you don’t take a deep breath right over the tub!
Use floquil oil based instead.[2c] I think Polly Scale works OK for buildings and scenery, but I prefer the Floquil for cars and locos.
I’ve found a mix of 80% water and 20% isopropyl alcohol works better as a thinner than the washer fluid. Never saw the sense in thinning paint with soap.(again…my [2c])
I agree, I did custom painting with Floquil/Scalecoat/Accu-paint for many years. But there are some advantages to water based, such as health/environment. In fact there are some pluses, like the quick drying time. I’ve masked and painted a second color after only and hour or two after the first color.
But yeah, the old solvent based paint still calls me. Like for painting delrin handrails, I used to mix in an automotive flex additive into the paint to get it to adhere. Still learning and fighting that battle with acrylics.
Thanks for all the responses I received. After reading some of your experiences, I went back to take another shot at it. When I went to clean out the bottle with the thinned paint I had used during my less-than-successful painting session, I found a lot of clumps in the bottom. That made me take another look at the thinner I had been using - Polly S airbrush thinner. I had assumed that since PolyScale and Polly S are both acrylic paints sold by Floquil, the thinner would have been compatible. Now I think not - I believe that the Polly S thinner may have “curdled” my PolyScale paint causing it to clog the airbrush. And, whatever paint did make it out of the brush was so thin it could not cover well.
So this time, I mixed a new batch of paint with a 5:1 ratio of paint to distilled water. MUCH BETTER! This is the direction I will go from now on when painting models with PolyScale.
Thanks again,
Tom
First - 5:1 Ratio is Perfect and I found if you use Distilled Water or even Better is
Badgers Acrillic Paint Air Brush thinner instead of water gives you the Best coat.
Second - Every time you prepair your Paint before spraying pore it through Cheeze
Cloth just after thinning. After thinning makes it flow through the Cheeze Cloth faster
and allows for less waist or less Paint sticking to the cloth . Allow the paint to sift
through the cloth on its own never squeez or ring out the cloth into the batch your
going to use for spraying but, don’t through out the paint left in the cloth just wring
out the cloth into a second container and seal for use with a Brush at a later time.