Changing Enamel To Lacquer?

I have those Testors enamel paints in the small bottles(10ml?) and I never use them because they take weeks just to dry. I was thinking if it was possible to say, open the lids on them and let the thinner evaporate completely so that the paint inside becomes like chalk. Then, add lacquer thinner to revitalize them and essentially turn them to lacquer paint. Has anyone tried this and if so, would this work? Would it also work for acrylic paint?

Al

I don't see how it would work, there's more to it than just the solvent which makes the paints different.

I don't think it will work. However, if you want to speed up drying, thin them with lacquer thinner. I only did that for spray painting but it worked very well. The drying time is much shorter than normal enamel (although longer than "real" lacquer) and the paint goes on much smoother and with less orange peel, specks, etc. Just use some caution if you use it over other paint as the lacquer thinner is quite "hot".

Cheers
Jens

You can't just thin any paint with lacquer thinner.

I agree that you can't paint just any paint with lacquer thinner, eg. I doubt it would work with acrylics. However, it really works with Testors/Model Master enamels. I cannot recall the thread but it was even discussed here in the forum; that's why I tried it in the first place.

You can't just thin any paint with lacquer thinner.

True, but you certainly can thin Testors enamels (and even a few Tamiya acrylics if the lacquer thinner isn't too cheap) with lacquer thinner to spray. I did it for years; it does dry a bit faster, and lacquer thinner is much cheaper than Testors thinner. Using a dehydrator is almost mandatory when using enamels, that gives you the option to handle the parts much faster. Paint one evening, work on the parts the next.

As for letting a bottle of paint dry up "until it turns into chalk", I have yet to see a dried up bottle of paint where the remaining paint was anything close to chalk. It would be incredibly difficult if not impossible to grind the dried material (basically it's a solid rock) into anything close to a powder that could be reconstituted. You'd have to use industrial equipment. Your $2 bottle of enamel would end up costing you $$$$$$ in time/labor/hassle/impossibility if you wanted to start playing workbench chemist just to avoid buying another bottle of non-enamel paint :lol:

I have airbrushed enamels using lacquer thinner with success. It will dry to more of a matte finish. But I have truly given up on all enamels except for a few jars of clear colors that I still use for parking lights, etc.

Bob