Floquil Airbrush Thinner

IIRC, Floquil is a lacquer and would require a lacquer reducer. Hint: You can buy it by the gallon at an automotive paint supplier and get a higher quality than at the local hardware store... probably less expensive too.

fl@liner

I don't want to answer with a simple answer because I am not completely sure whether you are talking about water-soluble paint or solvent (oil-base) paint.

Briefly put, for merely cleaning out the brush after painting with solvent-based paint, lacquer thinner works perfectly well. For cleaning up after spraying acrylics, water works just fine.

For thinning the paint for spraying, neither of these should be used. Floquil solvent-based paint can be thinned with xylene or a substance called Penetrol, manufactured by the Flood Company.

Acrylic, water-soluble paints should be thinned with a substance called airbrush medium, available from many sources, my favorite of which is Liquitex. Flood Corp. also manufactures a product called Flo-Trol that can be used with acrylic paints; however, airbrush medium is superior to any other thinner or additive that I have ever discovered. Flo-Trol would be a second choice. Neither water nor alcohol is even on the list of choices for thinner.

If you elect to use xylene, toluene, naphtha, acetone or lacquer thinner to thin Floquil solvent-based paints, be careful not to add more than 15% thinner to the paint. More than that can (and probably will) cause the pigment to precipitate out of the vehicle. Once this happens it is irreversible and the paint is ruined. Additionally, many thinners, such as lacquer thinner, can significantly shorten the shelf life of Floquil paint. The best bet is to use the Flo-trol. It is engineered to be used as a paint thinner in this way

The same thing can happen when using water or alcohol to thin acrylic paints. Here again, the safe bet is to use airbrush medium for the same reason.

Froggy,

I've done weathering with Floquil paints and haven't fournd any precipitation issues with the stuff in high concetrations (95%+) of the thinner. Then again, I don't store such thin mixtures but rather just put the remainder back into the bottle if there is any.

-- Bob May Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less. Works every time it is tried!

I just did some airbrushing with Floquil solvent paint and I used Diosol as the thinner and it seemed to work quite well. I've ordered the real stuff but it's on backorder at Walthers. Does the real thing make that much difference?

Norm

Dio-sol is basically a xylene-toluene mix. It may have some other things in there, but I haven't done a spectrochromatograph to analyze it. I used Dio-sol for many years with not much problem, except that I did experience precipitation of the pigment when the ratio got too high. It wasn't until I studied paints that I figured out why, and how that was different from normal settling.

Froggy,

Froggy,

I'm not a chemist but there are several versions of the Solvent based Floquil Railroad Colors paints.

Original (no longer produced) was xylene-toluene based. It would attack and craze polystyrene unless a barrier coat was first applied. It had a red ink label on it.

Next came the REV. 1 Floquil. It was styrene compatible so I assume that it used milder solvents. It had a red ink label with REV.1 written on it.

Current Floquil is Similar to REV. 1 but it has a slightly different odor. So, I again assume that they have changed the formula. And it is no longer called REV.1. This one has a black/red label.

I'm not sure why anybody would not recommend the thinner specifically produced by the manufacturer (Dio-Sol)? Why would Floquil sell a thinner which is not optimal for their line of paints?

BTW, there were also multiple reincarnations of Dio-Sol. Original and REV. 1 and I assume the "currernt REV. 1".

I've used all 3 versions and I thinned them for airbrushing using the appropriate Dio-Sol. Never had any issues. I have also thinned them with a plain Lacquer Thinner. Never had any issues either. But there are many different "generic" lacquer Thinner formulas out there. I checked that by reading the data sheets for several brands of Lacquer Thinner. So, some of them might not be compatible with all Floquil paints.

Once I thin paint for airbrushing I never return it to the unthinned bottle.

And as far as the pigment precipitation goes, all my unthinned Floquil paints do that if they sit for a while. The longer they sit the harder it is to remix it back to usable state.

Peteski

My relationship to paint is not as a paint chemist, but rather as an end user in industrial applications. My paint knowledge is a combination of experience, study and painting seminars conducted by various companies from which the paint was purchased. Regarding the choice of thinners, It depends on whether you are going to use the paint immediately or keep it stored. Almost any thinner that will thin the paint will work OK if you spray it immediately. It is the waiting that causes the problems. Some poorly formulated paints- especially some acrylic hobby paints- will self-destruct without ever being opened.

This is a good policy to use with any paint, any time

There is a difference between normal settling and breakdown of the vehicle. I was not referring to the normal settling of the pigment, but rather destruction of the vehicle, and the loss of its ability to carry the pigment and bond to the substrate.

Froggy,

Thanks for the clarification.

Peteski