Polyscale acrylics

I use distilled water for thinning. Pollyscale has very good self levelling characteristics when airbrushed. If you mess up and get a small run, let it dry, and most likely it'll be gone the next time you look.
David E. Young wrote:

Ok, thanks. I forgot to ask about airbrush cleaning. Just spray distilled water through it?
Cheers, David

I like using a real thinner to break down the dried acrylic. I use the Testors airbrush cleaner. It tears up the dried stuff well. Also, I would get pipe cleaners for the end of session tear down.
David E. Young wrote:

I thin the Pollyscale acrylics with the Polyscale thinner. I find that I thin it more than recommended. Again, consistency of skim milk seems about right.
I've used the generic blue windshield washer fluid as cleaner. I also spray some through between coats to keep the airbrush from gumming up while a coat dries. Ditto on the teardown afterwards- you need pipecleaners to do the job right! Tom Dougherty ( snipped-for-privacy@aol.com)

If you do decide to use the Polly Thinner, make sure you buy the right thing. There's the old PollyS, and the newer Polly Scale. Most of the paint you should see is the newer Polly Scale. If you try to use the PollyS Thinner, you will end up with a mess. It coagulates the paint into clumps if you use the wrong thing. I bought the wrong thing and was quite upset. None of the shops in my area carried the Polly Scale, so I switched to distilled water.
Ives100 wrote:

David:
I will give you a bit of advice on the use of Acrylics. For some reason they tend to dry very quickly on metal. I have a plastic 1 gallon bucket that I keep half filled by the work bench. When I'm finished spraying, I douse the airbrush in the water right away, and run the air through it to flush it out thoroughly. When I am finished for the day I will dis assemble the brush and clean it with lacquer thinner or Testor's air brush thinner/cleaner. I have also found a product that helps with Acrylics. "Liquitex Acrylic Low Viscosity Airbrush Fluid". It comes in 8 oz. bottles, I got mine atv a Michael's Crafts Store. Use this to thin the paint, seems to retard drying and improves flow through the brush. It even makes old "Poly-S" acrylics airbrush well.
Bill Shuey

I used to use distilled water, and it generally worked OK, but sometimes I'd have a problem with the paint not covering well, sorta beading up. (Even though I always wash the models before painting.)
I tried thinning with windhield washer fluid, and now I'd say I get excellent results. I find that my sessions are more consistent- I get the same great coverage everytime. I finally like to airbrush-- up until I switched thinners, airbrushing was more of a chore than a pleasure.
Cleaning is very important, 'cuz the paint does dry fast and really sticks to metal. I always flush my brush with washer fluid between colors. I also keep a small cup of airbrush cleaner handy when painting. If it is going to be more than a few minutes before I resume spraying, I let the airbrush soak in the cleaner.
I have an Iwata Eclipse, and use Pollyscale almost exclusively.
-Bill

Do you use the windshield washer fluid that is blue-tinted...it's the only kind that I've seen for sale...and doesn't that change the color of the paint?....i.e., white?

To thin the paint for a VL, ditto above, although winshield washer stuff has a similar composition and probably is fine. The blue in the windshiled washer, BTW, does not seem to alter the tint of white or any other color; the same tint is present in the proprietary thinnner.
For cleaning, I use household ammonia as a shoot-through between colors, and Diosol to clean after a session. Nothing stands up to Diosol. Because of the nature of acrylics and the VL, you must give it a very thorough cleaning at end of session, or else have your next session delayed by airbrush misbehavior and a repetition of the thorough cleaning.
Mark Schynert

I should have mentioned that I also have a Paasche VL and concur absolutely with Mark's thoughts. It pays to spend the time to clean the VL thoroughly at the end of a session. I would recommend becoming familiar with the airbrush and its' construction so you can strip it down before the first use. Remember to press the trigger down when removing or inserting the needle!!! Tom Dougherty ( snipped-for-privacy@aol.com)

Great advice from all who responded. I'm already in the habit of thoroughly cleaning my VL after each use; I can break the thing down and reassemble it with my eyes closed (well, almost). Nice warning about the Polly S thinner; I bought some today but haven't used it yet; it was the only kind the shop had. Good thing I read this first.
I'm really hoping distilled water will do a good job for thinning, as I try and keep things as "untoxic" as possible (I spray in the house). I'll stick with Testor's airbrush cleaner for cleaning.
I sure hope I'm not headed down the wrong path; I *finally* got a good system going with MM Acryl, where I know how much to thin and have a good cleaning routine. Maybe changing horses in the middle of the stream isn't a good idea; but, I've heard great things about PollyScale.
Cheers, David