wierd interaction of decal solvents and enamels
Posted: February 3rd, 2017, 2:09 pm
I thought that enamels were pretty much impervious to decal solvents, since the latter have been described with fair precision as "glorified alcohol" (it's a bit more complex, but who cares). However, I've had two cases in the past week of enamels being damaged this way.
The first was Humbrol gloss black, which went all crackly after a generous application of MrMarkSofter. That's one of the hotter solvents, so I shrugged it off, but a few days later, XtraColor turned matt after being exposed to Microsol. Still thinking alcohol and enamels didn't interact, I mistook the matting for residue, and tried to wipe it off with 70% ethanol, which exposed the underlying primer
To make things extra wierd, this self same bottle of Microsol had never caused trouble in the past that I'm aware of (I might have missed something, of course).
Now that I'm aware of this, the next question of course is what to do about it. Do I need to wait more than a few days for the enamels to cure? Multiple layers of paint to build up a thicker, stronger layer of paint (and no miniscule gaps in the coat for the solvent to seep under)? Is there something that can be used as a barrier coat?
Help?
The first was Humbrol gloss black, which went all crackly after a generous application of MrMarkSofter. That's one of the hotter solvents, so I shrugged it off, but a few days later, XtraColor turned matt after being exposed to Microsol. Still thinking alcohol and enamels didn't interact, I mistook the matting for residue, and tried to wipe it off with 70% ethanol, which exposed the underlying primer
To make things extra wierd, this self same bottle of Microsol had never caused trouble in the past that I'm aware of (I might have missed something, of course).
Now that I'm aware of this, the next question of course is what to do about it. Do I need to wait more than a few days for the enamels to cure? Multiple layers of paint to build up a thicker, stronger layer of paint (and no miniscule gaps in the coat for the solvent to seep under)? Is there something that can be used as a barrier coat?
Help?