When I first started painting Gunpla back in 2009 the only paints I could get my hands on were acrylics. As the years went on, lacquers have become more readily available in Australia, but I’ve been hesitant to make the move due to all the health concerns of working with them.
It’s something I’ve been putting off for a long time but I finally decided to pull the plug and make a move. For the longest of time I didn’t really have a respirator that fit my face properly and it wasn’t until last year that I shelled out for 3M one that I had absolute confidence in that I’d even considered making the jump. It took a series of botched kits that I built during Autumn, and seeing the paint scratch off the joints on my MG Astray Noir was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me.
The decision was made, but my main concerns were mainly with cleanup. How was I supposed to dispose of the thinner after using it? How do I strip the paint? After all with acrylics, I could easily dunk parts in Windex and start over if needed. What happens if the paint clogs my airbrush?
Preparing
One of the worst things about transitioning was having to re-buy most of my stock of paint. I had to drop about $100 on various Mr Color colours as well as the following:
Mr Hobby Levelling Thinner
Nitrile Gloves
Generic Automotive Lacquer Thinner (for cleanup)
Simply Green (stripping parts)
Isopropyl Alcohol (cleanup and stripping)
As a test kit I busted out a HG Zaku Amazing that I had prepped up earlier in the year, and went to work…
The Aftermath
First time spraying lacquers…after 10 years of grinding it out with acrylics I'm super impressed at just how easily it goes and stays on. pic.twitter.com/Rc9R23EODx
— YJ (@TheSaintISM) August 15, 2018
After my first session, I was immediately in awe at how well the paint sprayed on. I was afraid that I’d get spiderwebs or clogging but thankfully that never happened. The thinning ratio was different to Mr Hobby acrylics, but I soon found that even if I’d overthinned the lacquer paint, it dried so fast that you could get a really build a nice super gloss finish using light coats that would be quite hard with acrylic.
Not only that, but right after I’d finished, the paint had already dried to a nice hard finish and I was able to handle the parts without leaving any fingerprints. It felt like the paint has really been baked into the plastic rather than sitting on top of it, and the colours are so much more vibrant. It feels so weird being able to finish painting and then decal/panel line a few hours later. Enamel washes also don’t stain the paintwork as bad, and for the first time I’m also needing to use Mr Mark Setter as the surfaces are smoother.
My initial concerns about fumes and cleanup were also allayed pretty quickly. Sure it stank but luckily my respirator and booth combo was good enough that I didn’t smell anything. Cleanup wasn’t that hard either as most of the thinner ended up being sprayed out of my AB and evaporated.
Thanks to this I was able to finish the kit in 5 days, something that would normally take about 2 weeks. And I can honestly say it’s probably the smoothest paintjob I’ve ever managed:
My first lacquer painted kit!
I’m kinda kicking myself for not doing this sooner, but I had to be 100% ready and I’m glad I didn’t really have any issues during my transition. I definitely feel that that perfect paintjob within reach now! Stay tuned for the new age of Saint-ism builds!
Hello! Ive just started painting gunpla (graduated from Warhammer 40k) and airbrushing in general. Your article inspired me to invest in some Mr Color lacquer paints but I was wondering what exact clear cotes (flat and gloss) you use? I live in the UK where Gaianotes is not available. Ive come across Mr Color Super Clear III UV cut flat (GX113), Mr Color Super Smooth clear flat (GX114) and also Alclad II Lacquer Aqua Gloss Clear (ALC600). Do you have any experience with these?
Also, may I ask what metalics you use (or indeed your experiences with Mr Color lacquer/Aclad II metalics) please?
Hi there, I use both Mr Color Super Clear III UV cut flat (GX113), Mr Color Super Smooth clear flat (GX114) on all my kits. GX114 in particular is an extremely good top coat and I would take any opportunity to buy extra bottles if I could.
These days I use mostly Gaianotes for my metallics, with a hint of SMS (an Australian paint brand) for some shiny parts. I don’t have much experience with the Mr Color metallics or Alclad so I can’t comment on those.
Hi, for some of the gunpla kits I have i might need to brush pain small details with enamel paint, would using a lacquer based clear coat (Gaianotes) damage it?
This is perfectly fine, I do the same detailing with enamel paint and have used lacquer clear coats over it (both clear and flat) to no ill effect.
Hi, I’ve just started the process to transition to lacquer from acrylics. Acrylics seems too much of a hassle with all the thinning ratios that seems unreliable sometimes. Also the paints often seems to not want to stick on primers. And the airbrush clogging issues is really killing it. And the scratches are just bad after what was thought to be a cured paint. Is there anything that I should be aware of with lacquers? Do you have any tips in this transition? Thanks & great site by the way.
The only downside to lacquer paint is the extreme toxicity. As long as you have the proper safety equipment like a respirator that can filter out organic vapors and you can dispose of the used thinners properly I found it is superior to acrylics in almost every way.
As for transitioning, the other challenge I found is stripping paint, and I would make sure you find or have your solution to this ready before you start. Personally I use a hobby paint remover, but I heard there are some cheaper solutions to this like Simple Green / Purple Powder / Brake Fluid that can also remove lacquer paint without damaging plasitc.
Do you know the booth model you’re using or may I know how exactly does your setup look like?
I’m having the Master spray booth and planning to have a fan from behind blowing towards the booth to the window in front. My current biggest concern if the fumes will be too nasty as I’m spraying in my bedroom. Also planning to get a fume extractor as backup for the oversprays. What is your opinion on this?
These days I am using a Sparmax booth: http://www.sparmaxair.com/product_detail.php?id=3&r=34 . It is much quieter than my original booth design which used marine bilge blower as the fan, but the downside is that the suction is not as strong.
I paint in my garage and the room will smell for a bit after a painting session. You can place the fan behind you to help blow the air out the window as you mentioned to help clear the fumes a bit faster.
Hey, just want to thank you for being the inspiration for the shift. I decided to shift after reading your article and I did my first candy finish piece, something which I can’t dream of doing using acrylics. The booth and fan to window combo works very very well for me thankfully. There wasn’t any noticeable smell after the session. How do I send the photo to you, maybe you can comment on it. Thanks again.
You can email me at yj at saint-ism.com
Cheers
Hi!
I’m looking for cheaper alternatives for lacquer clean-up and saw you used automotive lacquer thinner – will Repco’s General purpose thinner work for this and be safe for airbrush?
my airbrushes are sparmax dh103 and procon ps289 if that makes a difference. Thanks!
Yep the Repco General Purpose thinner should work just fine for cleanup. If your airbrush is okay to spray lacquer paint then the thinner shouldn’t harm it.
Awesome. Also just wanted to add I love your style so really appreciate the shading tutorial, and that you include the highlight/shade color as well as base color on your posts. Thanks again!
How is the durability of Lacquer around articulated parts? I tried some Alclad II and found it scraped of fairly easily. Maybe I should have waited a day to let things fully dry? I don’t know. My initial experience with Lacquers is they are very beautiful but I did not find them to be as super durable/resistant to scraping and scratches as many people say they are. Just wondering if I’m doing something wrong, because in some ways the acrylic I was using seemed more scratch resistant than the lacquer’s I’ve experimented with.
There are a few things for me to comment on here. I can agree that Acrylics can be pretty tough, but the wait for them to get to maximum durability can be months. Lacquers are much preferable for efficient work, especially when masking is involved. I always like to use cars as an example. They are painted using Lacquer paint, and the paint is durable enough to resist “day-to-day” use and even a fingernail, but if you rub two cars together (or even use a key) there will 100% be scratches.
Secondly, I have not used Alclad before so it is tough for me to comment. Some very fine metallics (such as Alclad mirror finish) require some really good surface prep and also do not tend to stick well under rough handling. Other metallics such as Tamiya spraycans / Gaianotes Starbright line / any other metallic paint with larger flakes are pretty durable if sprayed straight onto bare plastic, and I have no real issues with using them on internals.
If you’re talking about armor-on-armor contact, then as a guy who’s destroyed many a kit posing painted builds, I can say this is unavoidable regardless of what paint you are using. Friction destroys everything, and as per the car example above, rubbing two parts against each other would at the very least cause some paint to be transferred some one part to another. Even then there are still other factors involved, for example, thicker paint has a higher tendency to scratch off than thin coats.
Hope that clears things up a bit (or not! :O )
Definitely cleared a few things up. Also reporting back, I read in several modeling forums that Alclad Gloss black primer is notorious for never fully drying, and that Alclad’s other primers are not considered all that great either. I’m gonna give a few other brands of paint a go and see how my results with them are.
I’m looking into switching over to lacquers as well. What is your process for stripping the paint if you make an error? With acrylics I usually just dunk it in alcohol and start over, but I understand lacquer solvents can be harsher on plastic. How can I avoid breaking the plastic?
Couple of options, but the only one which I’ve really used is a hobby branded paint remover by SMS. Other ones I’ve heard of are:
– brake fluid
– isopropyl alcohol (95%+), I believe this works but the parts need to soak for a bit
– purple power / simple green (can’t confirm since I don’t have these in Australia)
All of these “should” be safe for PS plastic, ABS plastic is where you might encounter issues with. For example, the SMS paint remover I use strips paint instantly but weakens ABS, in which case the manufacturer recommends brushing the paint remover onto the part and wiping it off ASAP, whereas I’ve heard it’s safe to dunk them in isopropyl.
As with advice on this kind of stuff please test on spare parts first!