Does anyone use lacquers? GSI offers lacquer paints and I understand these paints have good coverage and are rather thin. I don’t have any experience with laquers though. Any opinions and tips?
I’ve never heard of GSI. What company is that? I thin almost everything with lacquer thinner (including tamiya acrylics) so I basically use lacquers. Floquil is a lacquer and it is very good paint. model master metalizers are also lacquers. Testors dulcote is a lacquer. Alclad is also a … well we won’t get into that one right now [;)]
Some laquers can be mixed with some enamels but not always. For example MM metalizer aluminum mixed with flat black enamel can be sprayed out of the airbrush fine but when you brush paint a metalizer onto an enamel you sometimes get the enamel peeling away, not good. Lacquers dry faster than enamels but not quite as fast as enamels. In general they are considered to be a “hot” paint. There is probabably more to add but can’t think of anything right now.
Hello! Thanks for the reply. GSI = Gunze Sangyo Creos.
They make the Mr Color series paints. I use Mr Thinner (lacquer thinner) as the cleaning agent for my brushes.
I test-painted some Mr Metal Color 212 (Dark Iron) and 214 (Iron) yesterday. It needs to be buffed to bring out the shine. It’s really good – thin and easy to paint; I’m not sure about how long the shine lasts though, because the last time I used some Mr Metal Color Bronze on my boat screws, and buffed them shiny, but after a while the shine disappeared.
hey albert, GSI laquers are very good. i use them sometimes on my builds. i preffer the gsi acrylics though, because i have a lot more choices to mix with tamiya acrylics. GSI in general are very good products. it’s a good way to go in terms of laquer paints
This is off topic, but what do you use for acrylic thinner? Tamiya thinner and GSI acrylics DO NOT MIX. Lacquer thinner melts the bottom layers when I brush a layer on top. I don’t think GSI produces acrylic thinners either.
albert_sy2
The problem was caused by brushing it on - the origional formula Floquil RR paints could’t be brushed on styrene (it actually melted the plastic like a glue) unless you applied a coat of Floquils Barrier first (the paint was origionally designed for use on wood and metal models). It was eventually discovered that you could airbrush several thin coats without damaging the surface. (although I can speak from experience, you couldn’t strip it once in was on the plastic). Try airbrushing the mixture on. using very thin coats until you get the results you want.
Tamiya “acrylic” thinner and Gsi “acrylic” paints mix fine, just finished using the mix… (GSI acrylics are a bit thicker so i just add more thinner) Gsi also makes acrylic thinner, comes in a glass bottle as to their plastic bottle for the laquer thinner. but if you really want a custom thinner for GSI acrylics, use distilled water with a few drops Mr.Retarder.