Just tried airbrushing some Polly Scale Dust and was wondering if I may have a bad bottle. The paint is super thin, not like normal Polly Scale. It also smelled surprisingly like rubbing alcohol. Since it was so thin I didn’t thin it any more for airbrushing.
During airbrushing it came out super thin like water and would not adhere well at all. I brush painted some Polly Scale CSX blue (form the same place I purchased the Dust) and that worked just fine. It also had the normal consistency of Polly Scale Paint.
Is Polly Scale Dust more of a weathering paint and is thinner than normal? I was hoping it would be a nice light white color, but essentially all I got was very light weathering, not paint.
Years ago the same thing happened to me with some AccuFlex Sand paint. Too thin for much of anything but light weathering.
Funny, I bought a bottle of Polly Scale dust and it too was very thing and whenever I tried to use it on anything you could never see it after it dried.
I thought the same thing the first time I tried it. It’s formulated for just as the name says … dust. It’s not an opaque color like you would use as a base color, but rather a very transparent dust color used for repeated applications to build up the appearance of dust build-up.
Try spraying a band along the lower edge of a dark color boxcar. Initially there doesn’t appear to be much of anything happening, then all of a sudden you begin to notice that light dust build-up along the edge.
Once you get the hang of the stuff, it’s very effective. I’ve even used it on entire cars to give them a slightly faded appearance.
I agree with Mark. And don’t make my mistake of thinning it down before you try and use it for weathering. Color me embarrassed. If you leave it as is out of the bottle and brish on repeated light coats it works very well.
I agree with the comments above. Floquil / PolyScale weathering colors like dust and grime are not meant to cover, but be translucent. An example is MEC 253 in this photo. It has a heavy coat of Grime to look like a prototype photo. 251 has a lighter coat of grime as well
I thin the grime as I would with any standard paint
