I need help with Polly Scale acrylics. This is the first time I’ve tried airbrushing Pollys, but I’m trying to paint US Interior green on an A.M. Dauntless and P-51, and the paint is coming out too thin, then cracking on the plastic. I’ve stripped the paint, cleaned the plastic, put down a primer coat and started again only to get the same result. Do I need to thin it differently than other acrylics? I usually use a 50/30-40 paint/thinner on Tamiya acrylics and have done the same here.
I seldom thin PolyScale acrylics at all. They are already plenty thin to spray at very low pressure. If I do thin them I use the method recommended on the bottle: 10% to 20% distilled water.
Yeah, I noticed that disclaimer on the bottle about 15-minutes after posting this. Thanks for the info on thinning it though, I thought failure to thin the paint was equivocal to a capital crime.
in case you use MM acrylics as well, unless they get old… you dont need to thin them usually a lotta people spray them straight out of the bottle too… only ones I’ve had to thin have been a few of the glosses… flats (especially their flat black) spray out like a charm…
after they’ve been opened a half hundred times they thicken up a little I guess from evaporation… I just drip srip srip a little thinner in and it’s all good to spray again!
In my opinion, thinning is more a matter of personal preference. Decide on the pressure that you want to spray at and then thin the paint enough to get it to flow properly at that pressure and give the coverage you want. If it won’t cover properly you may have to up the pressure a bit and thin the paint a little less. I like to spray at relatively low pressure so my paint is usually on the thin side. If it sprays properly right out of the bottle that’s just one thing I don’t have to deal with.