Paint thinners and such...

[MareNostrum]

Please excuse a rather fundamental confusion, but I'd appreciate if someone could steer me clear on this issue: what is the difference between lacquer thinner, enamel thinner, mineral spirits, white spirits, "paint thinner," airbrush thinner, brush cleaner, and probably a few other terms? I mostly use enamel paints on my ship and aircraft models (Model Master paints with Testor's airbrush thinner, the latter for both thinning the paint and cleanup), but I may want to venture into other types and brands of paint. With formulations getting more sophisticated (remember the old days of those tiny bottles of Testor's paint that sold for 29 cents?) and yielding better results, one's knowledge of the entire "paint system" seems to be in order, not only to get good results, but also to avoid potential disaster to model and equipment. So could someone give me a brief tutorial? Thanks.

[Bigdaddy Mark]

I have the same questions, so I'm putting a watch on your post.

[EJFoeth]

All are refined petroleum distillates but googling is most confusing. As far as I understand it:

White spirit and mineral spirit is the same liquid (white spirit is actually a brand name), mainly naphta, also called an artificial turpentine. Note that turpentine is a tree resin extract, while terpentine is a refined petrol. The refined petrol with a higher fraction of the refinement process has a lower flash point, is used as a ligher fluid and is less greasy; I use it to dilute my enamels. When the flash point is a bit higher, it's called terpentine. It's a bit confusing as in Dutch we translate white spirit as wasbezine and terpentine thus clearly being separate categories, so I suppose that is Low/High flash white spirit in the US? I'd like to have that confirmed.

Lacquer thinner is the most aggressive containing toluene and may attack plastics, existing paint layers, superglue and resins and is generally unhealthy on your skin (all are unhealthy to breathe). It's a good decreaser and cleaner, and you can feel that when it touches the skin. I wouldn't try it as an enamel thinner and use it only when I need to remove very stubborn materials.

A lacquer thinner, airrbush thinner or brush cleaner for modeling paints could be all of the above I suppose, but probably rebottled to make it more expensive?

[Cliffy B]

All the more reason to use acrylics Isoprophyl Alcohol or good old water is all you need. All of those distillates are rather nasty but when I did use enamels, Mineral Spirits in a metal tin from Home Depot and Testor's own "enamel thinner" in the big glass bottle were my choice thinners. Only complaint I ever had was the smell. Got pets and had to lose the enamels.

[MM2CVS9]

Complicating things further, the thinners, reducers, cleaners - used for acrylics paints are different than those for so called "oil base paints" or enamels. Even the term enamel can be confused as there are oil based and acrylic enamels. Different companies use different terms. AS A RULE, acrylics use water and sometimes alcohols as the liquid vehicle. What we often refer to as enamels or oil based paints, use much stronger liquid chemical compounds, usually hydrocarbon based, as the vehicle. The vehicle is the liquid material that is used to suspend the finely ground particles of color or "pigment", and as the vehicle dries/evaporates, it leaves a film of colored pigment.

The following is a list of the various thinners/solvents I use. The first part of the list are Testors/ModelMaster products and what they contain. The second part is a list of chemicals used by painters and finishers in their products. Many of the second part chemistry will be found in the formulation of specific model brand products listed in the first part. Lots of different combinations are used by different modelers. Make sure you test thinners with the brand of paint you are using for compatability.

Acrylics

Testors acrylic cleaner - 50497 - Water / propoxy propanol - Acrylic paints brush and airbrush cleaner
Testors acrylic dried paint solvent - 50495 - methyl pyrrolidone / dipropelene glycol n-butyl ether, d-limonene - softens dried acrylic paints
1- Testors acrylic thinner - 50496 - distilled water - thins acrylic paints
2- Windex glass cleaner - water / isopropanol / ethyleneglycol monohexylether - some use it as an acrylic thinner, cleaner. It may etch the parts in an airbrush so should be thoroghly flushed with alcohol or water.
3- Alcohol - rubbing, ethel, methyl etc. Quick drying thinner for acrylics.

Enamels - oil based

1 -Testors thinner - 1148 - xylol/ethyl benzene/n-propoxy propanol - paint thinner
2- Testors brush cleaner - 1156 - mineral spirits/xylol (xylene)/ethyl benzene, stronger than thinner 1148.
3- Testors air brush thinner - 1789 - naptha/mineral spirits/n-propoxy propanol/ aliphatic hydrocarbon - thins paint for airbrushing, does not dry too quickly.
4- Testors enamel thinner - 8824 - same as 1789 - thins oil based enamels, cleans brushes.
5- Testors air brush thinner - 8825 - same as 1789 -
6- Testors Flo-quil thinner and brush cleaner - naptha/xylol/ethyl benzene/hydrocarbon solvent/ aromatic hydrocarbon - thins oil based paints

Lacquer based paints

1- Testors lacquer thinner - 28016 - toluol (toluene)/methyl alcohol/propylene glycol n-butyl ether/ethyl avetate/ethyl alcohol - thins lacquer based paints. will also soften oil based and sometimes acrylic paints.
2- Testors lacquer brush cleaner - naptha/isobutyl alcohol/amyl alcohol/ethyl alcohol/isopropyl alcohol/ethyl acetate - cleans lacquer brushes and airbrush.

General chemicals, can be purchased in quantities much cheaper that model supplies from a home center, hardware store, painters supply. If you rebottle it for convenience in your modeling area, be sure to label them clearly as they all look the same in a glass jar.

1- Turpentine - oil base paint thinner/cleaner. Natural solvent derived from tree sap. may have additives in it. The best for modeling is turpenol or similar from art supplies.
2- MEK - methyl ethyl keytone - evaporates quickly, a good cleaner but disolves some plastics. The base ingrediant in many styrene cements. for instance - Testors plastic cement is Ethyl acetate/MEK/polyproplene glycol methyl ether acetate. I use it instead of testors, Tenax 7R, Same stuff from MicroMark Supply or Ambroid Pro weld. I get mine in quart cans from the plastic fabricator for about $8.00 US instead of $4.00 for 1 or 2 ounces.
3- Mineral spirits - a medium reactive hydrocarbon solvent. Excellent oil base paint thinner/brush cleaner. Several grades available depending on purity, odor etc. Also goes by white spirits, Paint thinner and other generic names.
4- Naptha - Light alphitic solvent - Petrolium hydrocarbon. Thins oil based paints, evaporates quicker than mineral spirits.
5- Acetone - a keytone solvent. disolves and thins oil based paints. The main ingredient in nail polish remover.
6- Xylene / (Xylol) - a stronger solvent than most of the above solvents.
7- Laquer thinner - The one I have is a Sherwin Williams product. Formulations from other companies can differ in composition somewhat. - alphitic hydrocarbon solvent/naptha/toluene/ethylbenzene/xylene/methanol/2-propanol/2-methyl- 1-propanol/butoxyethanol/acetone/methyl amyl ketone/isobutyl acetate
8- Denatured alcohol - can also use methyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol and others. The home center stuff I get is - ethyl alcohol/ethyl acetate/ naptha/methyl isobutyl keytone/methyl alcohol. Works for acrylic thinner for a fast drying paint, can slow it down with distilled water, makes a good brush and airbrush cleaner.

This was probably more than you wanted to know about it, but I did the research on it and got all the Material safety data sheets when I did a newsletter article for the model club. Much of the stuff, especially for adhesives and oil base paints should be used with caution and in well ventilated areas. Even some of the chemicals used in the so-called environmentally friendly water based acrylics can be quite toxic as well. Be careful.

[MareNostrum]

Many thanks for all the responses, quite a lesson there. One thing, I'm going to be careful what I use when, especially with the lacquer thinner.

[EJFoeth]

Indeed. An instead of painting your model, spend a few evenings playing with types of paints, thinners, thinning ratios and airbrush pressure.

[MareNostrum]

Yes, advice well taken, in addition to different materials (styrene, resin, wood, paper...) and adhesives ("tube" glue, CA, white glue...) it pays to broaden one's skills knowing how different paints behave and which is most appropriate for a given circumstance. Seems as if there's always some learning to do...