Polly Scale gone bad???

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eagleknight

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Jan 29, 2004
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Well I bought a athearn model last week and I put it together and got
out my airbrush to give it a quick weathering job this weekend, but ran into
some problems. I use the Floquil Polly Scale water based paint. I haven't had my paint
out for a couple of month and I made sure to mix it up well. I put a little
airbrush thinner (the kind for floquil paint) in a jar then put some paint
in with a dropper. Once I got my dropper cleaned out I was heading over to
start airbrushing and noticed the paint had clumped all up onced mixed with
the airbrush thinner.
After retrying because I thought I had a bad mix it happened again and I
had even taken a panty hoe and strained the paint first thinking I had dry
chunks in it. The pigment still seperated. So I proceded to do 100% straight
paint to airbrush and it got the job done, but has my paint went bad or is
it the thinner? My dullcoat I used wasn't floquil and it mixed with the
thinner alright. I use Model master dullcoat.
 
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Gary Pfeil

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May 7, 2001
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Had the same thing happen, and it's happened to others as well. The thinner sold for the paint is useless! Don't understand how it can be, but when I showed it to a friend to show I wasn't crazy, neither of us could explain it. I thin it with water now, no problem.
 
R

RailRon

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Nov 23, 2002
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Perhaps this is confusing because FLOQUIL paint thinner really can't be used with FLOQUIL Poly S colors.

Normal Floquil paint is lacquer based, and so is Floquil thinner. However Polly S colors were the first water based acrylic paints (when memory serves me right) in the '70s, produced by Floquil, too. And I promptly discovered the same no-mix-at-all problem 30 years ago! :eek: :D

Lacquer (organic solvents) and water (inorganic) based paints simply don't mix - this is a chemical problem. All that happens - you noted it - is that the pigments of one color get clogged in the thinner of the other.

The same holds true vice versa: You can't thin normal Floquil paint with water - the result will be about the same! :( :( :(

Ron
 
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Gary Pfeil

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Ron, In this case the thinner is made specifically for the Polly S paint - it just doesn't work. The Floquil thinner made for the lacquer paints is Dio-Sol, haven't bought any in years but it came in a can and is clear. The Polly S thinner comes in a plastic container just like alcohol and has a blue tinge, like window cleaner. It confounds everyone I've shown it to, but the only thought I have is that the paint reacts to alcohol, which I believe is in the thinner. Use water.
 
C

Catt

Only thing I've ever used for Poly-Scale paint thinning is distilled water.Most of the time if I'm using a fresh bottle I don't bother to thin it at all.
 
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kettlestack

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Eagle & Gary, I found that the thinner Floquil uses (the suff with the stong odour) is actually Xylene, an organic solvent.
It is also sold in bulk by auto paint stores for cleaning sprayguns and professional painters use it for cleaning brushes which have been used to apply oil based paint and varnishes.
Those of you who have inadvertantly sprayed Floquil RR paint directly onto plastic know now that it will melt or crackle most (but not all) plastics hence the need for Floquil Barrier Paint.

Polly scale paint is water based, that is self-explanetary.

Errol
 
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hudsonelectric

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Feb 14, 2004
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Hey, Crew!

Ron hit it on the head. In my 1:1 career, we spray solvent-based and water-based lacquers, use solvents such as xylene, acetone, thinners, reducers, spray enamels, etc. Some guys thin out their water-based paints, such as Poly-S, with windshield washer fluid. This probably explains why the Poly-S thinner is blue!! :p I thin my Floquil solvent-based paints with acetone myself with great results. The interesting thing about lacquer is that it's chemically 'hot'...it'll 'burn' into plastic and lift enamel-based undercoats IF APPLIED TOO HEAVILY! :eek: This is true especially if you put it on with a brush, but I haven't had any problems with plastic being eaten away by the paint. When the water-based paint is mixed with a solvent, it'll coagulate. If you're spraying out of a $400.00 spray gun, this could be a REAL problem requiring the gun to be completly disassembled and cleaned. If you swap between solvent and water based paints, you can prevent problems with your airbrush by spraying acetone or lacquer thinner thorugh the brush (to flush out any dried up solvent-based paint) followed by alcohol (to flush out the thinner or acetone), and then shoot your water based paint. When finished, spray alcohol through it to flush out the water-based paint followed by acetone or lacquer thinner to flush out the alcohol. At this point you'll be ready to use solvent-based paint again. Another way of doing it is to have one airbrush for solvent paint and another for water-based paint. This is what we do at the shop. It sure beats clogging up the sprayguns! :)
 
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Gary Pfeil

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Errol, I know the stuff you are talking about, its called DioSol, or was. I assure you it's not what I'm talking about. Here's a photo of the bottle I'm talking about. It most definately is made specifically for the Polly S paints. And, the bottle I have is totally useless for that intended purpose. When mixed with the paint, and I tries three different jars of paint, the result is severe clumping. Cleaning the airbrush wasn't fun. Perhaps Floquil had a batch which was contaminated with a solvent. I hadn't sniffed it before, it sure smells like solvent. I think that may be be the problem, wrong product put in the bottle!
 

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RailRon

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Nov 23, 2002
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Gary,

you are right. I talked about Dio-Sol, which is for lacquer based Floquil. (Still have a tin canister full of it.)

So far I have never seen that sort of Polly S thinner you show in your photo. The reason is that I have to import Floquil paints directly from the USA, since they are not available here in Switzerland.
And I didn't have any need for Polly S thinner so far, since several brands of water based paints are available here without problems.

Which perhaps also shows for how long I hadn't needed fresh Floquil paints... :eek:ops: :eek:ops: :eek:ops:

Ron
 
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