Tempted to change enamels for acrylics: pls suggest

[Yevgeniy]

Hi everybody,

I am tempted to forget about enamels (Revell and Humbrol I am now using) and replace them with acrylics:
- to eleminate odour from solvent for enamels
- easier touch-ups with brush (right?)
- easier cleaning airbrus (right?)
- no cloggning paint on PE and deck (right?)

The things with keep me from doing it at once are:
- will acrylic paint layer - after dry - be as durable as enamel one? I am very tempted to make a RC boat so my qustion is how the acrylic paint with slay in water? If it runs into a spot of petrol in the pond?
- do acrylic paint give the same even "enamel look" as my enamels do?
- what are deficiencies of acrylics vs enamels I did not mentiong?

Will be happy to hear your answers which will hopefully save me some time of disappointing experimenting.

Yevgeniy

[Pieter]

-eliminate odor from solvents: right
-easier touch-up by brush: right, as long as you remember that acrylics have to dry for 24hrs before they are fully dry and you can only safely touch up afterwards. If you don't do this with Tamiya acrylics you screw up you paint job, testors acrylic enamels are more tolerant. Revell is almost unusable when brush painting and I have not had much success with Vallejo.
- easier cleaning airbrush: can't comment on that, I don't use an airbrush
- no clogging paint on PE and deck: right as long as you use the right thinner and remember the 24 hr rule.
-Durability: I have a Musashi from 1980 painted with tamiya acrylics which is still good and which did quite some sailing in the local pond in the early 1980's. Acrylics are hardly soluble in water or petrol once they are fully dry, they will get in trouble with ethanol (alcohol) base chemicals however. So don' overdo the champaign when christening your RC boat -:)
-even enamel look: Testors yes when applied over a good lacquer basedprimer (I use Tamiya). tamiya not so good.

Hi everybody,

- to eleminate odour from solvent for enamels
- easier touch-ups with brush (right?)
- easier cleaning airbrus (right?)
- no cloggning paint on PE and deck (right?)

The things with keep me from doing it at once are:
- will acrylic paint layer - after dry - be as durable as enamel one? I am very tempted to make a RC boat so my qustion is how the acrylic paint with slay in water? If it runs into a spot of petrol in the pond?
- do acrylic paint give the same even "enamel look" as my enamels do?
- what are deficiencies of acrylics vs enamels I did not mentiong?

Will be happy to hear your answers which will hopefully save me some time of disappointing experimenting.

Yevgeniy

[Yevgeniy]

Peter,

Thank you very much for taking time to give such profound answer. I incline to paint all my static models by acrylics.

RC - may be I will tolerate odour and stick to enamels for this project to have a chance of champaign christening

But what if I cover my acrylic paintjob with Revell transparent lacque (I belive enamel one)? Will it serve as a preservation layer to keep acrylics from reacting with water and substances dissloved in it?

Also would be thankful for opinions of those who use airbrush as to a) painting by acrylics vs. enamels b) cleaning airbrush after acrylics (water ?) vs. enamels?

Peter, thank you again

Yevgeniy

[DanCinSD]

Yevgeniy, I airbrush modelmaster (testors) Acryl and Tamiya acrylic thru my airbrush, I use alcohol for my thinner and cleaner. It covers very well, and clean up is easy with little smell. I have seen others use water to thin and clean with, with no problems.

You can spray enamel over acrilics IF you put your first coat of enamel on very light and let it dry, sort of like a barrier coat, then you can apply a second coat wetter and the solvent won't react with the acyrlic. hope this helps

[Timmy C]

If the Revell Transparent Laquer is anything like Testor's Dullcote, I would strongly recommend not putting it directly on the Acrylic paint layer. I did this once without putting a barrier layer of Future floor finish (which is a more moderate and tolerant acrylic gloss that does not react to the Dullcote) and resulted in the dissolution of the acrylic paint.

[Yevgeniy]

Timmy,

Thank you for warning - otherwise I would have ruined my paintjob.

Do I understand correctly that you normally put a layer of Future floor finish on you models and then cover it by Dullcote?

[Timmy C]

On planes (where there are lots of decals and a gloss coat is necessary to prevent silvering), yes - I put a gloss coat (Future) on, put the decals, then spray Dullcote over it all.

On ships, where there are few decals and most of the paints used are already flat, I don't bother with the whole process. Most of the expert and master modellers do, however, as the final dullcoat (whichever brand they decide to use) has the effect of blending in everything and dulling down glue spots.

[Yevgeniy]

Thank you.