I have a basic brand of lacquer thinner which I bought from an art shop a while age but I hear you need a decent brand for cleaning and thinning. I saw a blue tin of Testors lacquer thinner at the LHS the other day which is now gone. Is Testors good?
Secondly, what is the minimal drying time for Tamiya spray paints?
Cheers.
on average I let the spray paint sit for 2 hours. If you really wana try, spray a piece of junk plastic, then touch it after like 20 min, half hour, hour, etc untill you find it dry. Then remember how long it took.
I’m not sure about laquer thinner. Testors is a good company I use alot of their stuff (their testors paint sucks, but the model masters is fine.) As far as my thinner (I use enamel) I use plain ol’ mineral spirits. but that stuff weakens plastic fast (and destroys the little pipets and droppers I use to put it into the paint jars)
I have had good success using plain old (Crown Brand) lacquer thinner from the hardware store. I use it both for thinning as well as cleaning the AB after use. It is also less expensive in the long run to buy it in the gallon can than by the bottle sized for the modeler.
For example, my latest purchase of laquer thinner was about 14 dollars for a gallon. A search of the SMO website showed Testors thinner for airbrushing to be 5.50 USD for 1.5 oz (US). That works out to 3.67 USD per oz. There are 32 oz in a quart and 128 oz in a gallon. That makes my purchase of lacquer thinner about 10 cents (US) per oz.
Similarly, Tamiya’s Acrylic Thinner is the same stuff as EXPO white board cleaner. At SMO it is 2.80 (USD) for 23 ml (0.8 oz). EXPO white board cleaner is less than 5 dollars at the local office supply store for an 8 oz bottle.
It pays to shop around with your eyes and nose open.