I just wanted to say that I’ve recently tried this technique on a couple kits now and I’ll probably never go back to using putty the “normal” way! The results are astounding, and the lack of etching on the plastic is a major help. I’m using denatured alcohol (had to have a pharmacist friend order it for me) and Squadron white, and it works like a charm. I highly recommend trying this out!
Concerning “denatured alcohol”: This stuff is mostly ethanol, BUT the denaturing agent is a nasty chemical (usually 2-buthanone and/or pyridine) that makes you puke PDQ (not just after taking a “healthy swill”), sometimes it is methanol, this is outright toxic (if swallowed): You could easily become blind after the ingestion. The reason behind denaturing is taxation: Otherwise everybody would buy dirt-cheap DA and have a party.
You can’t get 100% pure ethanol “outside a lab”, because ethanol “happily” forms a stable mixture with 4% water. To remove the water, special methods are needed.
Rubbing alcohol (isopropanol) is also a good thinner, but it has a higher boiling temperature and thus a lesser vapor pressure, so ethanol dries quicker. Isopropanol is just slightly more toxic than ethanol, but it will give you a serious head-ache and no real “high”. The “lighter” alcohols all work as skin defatting agents, but not as agressively as mineral spirits or benzene or tolouene etc.
HTH and greetings from Germany
Jan Teipel
(far on his way to become a chemistry major)
I don’t know if anyone else has tried this but I sometimes by the large cans of primer from the auto section of the store, then take them home and using a very small punch I set a small hole at the top of the can and bleed out the propellant. After that I use a can opener and open the can and transfer the contents to a baby food jar and use it on my models as the primer reverts back to a creamy putty once it is out of the can.