I just screwed up a paint job by airbrushing Tamiya acrylics, thinned with their acrylic thinner, waiting for that to dry (overnight), then spraying a lacquer-based clear coat (thinned with Tamiya’s lacquer thinner.)
The lacquer coat stripped off portions of the acrylic. I was under the impression it would be safe to mix paint types so long as they were dry. Did I not wait long enough for the acrylic to dry? Or is lacquer on acrylic a no-no? (I also have some oil paints and odorless thinner for washes, which I’m now second-guessing may be a bad idea if applied to acrylic as well…)
Also, in case it’s important, both were sprayed around 16 PSI and properly thinned.
I’ve AB Mr. Paint on a recent build, left it for several weeks, then spray Mr. Paint Clear Coat prior to decal and it bubbled the paint! The same brand caused this, I will test and try Tamiya X-22 cut with laquer thinners to see if I get a better result.
I have been amazed at how well Testors lacquer clearcoats in the rattle cans work over many different kinds of paint. By many rules of thumb, they shouldn’t, but they seem to anyway.
Actually, something else comes to mind: does anyone know if using lacquer vs. acrylic thinner with, say, Tamiya “acrylics” makes a difference in terms of what can be sprayed on top? i.e. if you thin an acrylic with lacquer thinner, and let it try completely, is spraying a coat of actual lacquer paint (and thinner) on top going to have the same disasterous effect?
