According to my LHS, the largest container of thinner available from Testors/Floquil is now only a halfpint can, at (of course) a not-exactly-halfpint price. The stuff’s been expensive all along, but now with only small containers available, the problem has increased, and I’m ready to entertain a good substitute.
Is there a garden-variety product on the market that serves as a good mixer with Floquil solvent-based paints?
Thanks in advance for any informaton.
Paint Thinner from your local paint store. Gallon price about 4 bucks.
This subject was tackled in an NMRA bulletin many, many years ago; there is/was a product available at auto supply houses which worked just great. you might try the all-time index and see what you can find.
I would not use paint thinner or mineral spirits except to clean your brushes. Enamel reducer from an auto paint store works. I think I heard some folks use acetone too.
Since the DioSol is now almost imposible to find, I use what I still have on hand to thin for airbrushing only. Any regular quality paint thinner works of clean up and brush painting. The new version of the Floequil thinner is not the same. I used to paint one shot over bare plastic using Diosol as thinner and never had any problems. The new thinner will craize the plastic on many models if you don’t prime or barrier first.
I had a chemist do a quick analysis of the DioSol and it came back about 80% toululene 10- 15% Xylene plus other. I have tried straight toululene and it works, but will dry very, very fast. It is hard to not get a rough, gravel finish when this happens. You need to apply more paint and shoot much closer to the model than I’m comfortable with.
If anyone has found a better substitute I would like to know also.
I’ve always used lacquer thinner to clean my airbrushes and paint brushes. While I still have some Diosol (2 pint cans), I’ll probably use the lacquer thinner when I run out. It will dissolve/thin almost anything. I use it to clean my airbrush after using acrylic paint that always hardens around the inside of the color cup.
Floquil’s Diosol is a mixture of two common thinners, Xylol, and Toluol (tolulene). These can be had by the gallon at any hardware/paint store for not much more than the price of the pint/half pint.
Either one on its own also will thin floquil, scalecoat I & II, any enamel based paint so you do not have to buy them both and mix your own.
Scalecoat’s thinner is also a mixture of the same two main ingredients, although in different ratios.
For the last few years, I found that lacquer thinner works great for thinning Floquil.
Years ago, Floquil colors could be mixed with each other, thinned with their own thinner, and kept, ready to spraying, for years. (Quite a few years ago. I still have some paint in their square bottles.)
In recent years the formulation must have changed as a spray mixture often becomes gummy in just a few weeks or months. I assume they are trying to make the fumes less toxic.
So now I use lacquer thinner and mix only what I will use in a couple days. After spraying, lacquer thinner does a very good job of cleaning the airbrush, followed by spraying a quarter ounce of a 50/50 ammonia - distilled water mix ,then a quarter ounce of straight distilled water.
Didn’t Floqquil get bought out by Testors a few years back? That may have been when the thinners changed. I have a lot of the old Floquil but not the new stuff and still have a little Dio-sol left.
Floquil was bought out by Testors several years ago, but the formula starting changing long before that. First the EPA, (and I think the FDA both), dictated that all lead had to be removed from all paints. This effected every paint maker in the country/world that sold paint in the US. Some things this caused was loss of shelf life, as lead also served to keep the pigments from coagulating in the bottles over long periods, as well as surface durability. Some older paints such as Scalecoat, lost much of their well touted ability to take damage without chipping or flaking. The next change in Floquil came when they started converting their lacquer based formula over to enamel. This is when the “black” label Floquil became the “red” label paint we have today.
Add me to the lacquer crowd. I use it for spraying & cleaning. It does dry Quickly, so you may have to adjust your technique somewhat. MUCH cheaper…Just remember the fumes are very harmful.
Have any of you ever painted a real car with enamel paint? Did you thin your enamel paint with lacquer thinner? (I seriously doubt it) Why would you do this on a model? Enamel paint should be used with enamel reducer.(or the tolulene/xylene)
You can thin enamel with lacquer thinner, but you can’t thin lacquer paints with enamel thinner or regular paint thinner…
I don’t paint real cars, so it doesn’t matter to me. I doubt if they even use enamel these days, more modern fast drying high techpaints are used.
I use lacquer thinner because it works.
I would use Xylene found in Home Depot or Lowes. Toluene is a suspected carcinogen and I would stay clear of it. Even with Xylene, use a spray box and wear a respirator. These hydrocarbons are not good for you if inhaled. I would be surprised if there will be any organic solvent based paint on the market a few years from now. There are just too many liability issues associated with them.
Steve B.
Now, I am referring to the red label stuff:
I did not use a chemist, I used my nose. The Floquil paint smells like mineral spirits. I thin Floquil with mineral spirits for spraying and use mineral spirits for clean up.
Not being a chemist and reading this thread, I am surprised at my success. Makes me want to try alcohol to see what happens….
…gathering Floquil paint, alcohol, pipette…
Sorry it took so long, but now that the firefighters have left… Just kidding, but no joy. I’m back to ($1.89 a quart) mineral spirits.
Crews
Funny you should mention it…I did that all the time. [:-^]
My full size race cars are all painted with single stage enamel. My short track car got banged up pretty often, I spray the straightened panels with the same enamel thinned with laquer thinner. Turned out fine, and it sure dried fast! [:D]
On the other hand, one time I painted my road race car with industrial enamel. The label on the paint can said use mineral spirits. Well, we had no mineral spirits, so we used enamel reducer. We missed 2 races, because the paint would not dry! It was 3 weeks before we could put the car back together! [:O]
Painted the trailer using the same paint, using the mineral spirits, and it dried in about a half hour.
Moral of the story, be careful using thinners not recommended for the paint.
Rotor
lacquer thinner - I stopped buy that expensive stuff years ago!
Jim
I use PPG Shop Line JR505. $17.00 a gallon at your local auto paint supplier.
Wow, your nose is out of whack. Dio-Sol smells nothing like mineral spirits, but a lot more like lacquer thinner, which is a combination of xylene and toluline.
According to the MSDS on Dio-Sol it’s 40-45% VM&P Naphtha, 5-10% Xylene, 1-5% Ethyl Benzene, 5-10% Aromatic Hydrocarbon Solvent, and 40-45% Light Aromatic Hydrocarbon.
Since I’m not painting huge areas with Floquil, a 16 oz can of Dio-Sol lasts me several years. I use it only for thinning the paint to spray, and clean up with lacquer thinner.
All these components come under the warnings of “good ventilation” and “air purifying or air supplying respirator.” These can be dangerous chemicals if not used with the proper caution.