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I have read some Great things about Mr Surfacer 1500 used with Mr Leveling Thinner, and picked some up to try it out.

If I'm going to brush it on, do I clean the brush with the Levelling Thinner, or with regular Laquer Thinner?

Will it ruin the brush?

If I pre-mix some of the two, will it eat a Citadel or Vallejo paint pot?

 Weboflies wrote:
I have read some Great things about Mr Surfacer 1500 used with Mr Leveling Thinner, and picked some up to try it out.

If I'm going to brush it on, do I clean the brush with the Levelling Thinner, or with regular Laquer Thinner?

Will it ruin the brush?

If I pre-mix some of the two, will it eat a Citadel or Vallejo paint pot?

Clean your brushes very well after using alcoholic based stuff. It will extend the life of the brush, but please note that any alcoholic base will end your hairbrush faster than acrylics.
I am using the finest grade of Mr. Hobby primers - Mr. FINISHING surfacer, which is more thin than the 1500 grade, and from experience I can confirm that even this grade does not work really well when they are brushed on.
Premixing can work with their paints thou, because when it is thinned down good you can base coat a model. I did it with Mr. Hobby Cobalt blue so I doubht you will have problems. In the past I even managed to mix it water and it worked. But I doubt it will do any good with the primer, because the primer is whole different formula. If you wanna use their products I suggest investing into airbrush.

I've had my eye on Tamiya Liquid Primer, which is also lacquer based, for some time. Comes in grey and white. It should thin beautifully with their lacquer thinner and airbrush well. The lacquer thinner should be really good for thinning acrylics as well (better than actual acrylic thinner).

Please remember that this stuff contains stuff that's bad you (science!). Proper ventilation, spray booth, respirator. But more seriously, it can actually cause physical harm to you too - ranging from blue balls to instant death - if your significant other finds out you've been using it indoors. Don't say I didn't warn you!

 DalinCriid wrote:

Clean your brushes very well after using alcoholic based stuff. It will extend the life of the brush, but please note that any alcoholic base will end your hairbrush faster than acrylics.
I am using the finest grade of Mr. Hobby primers - Mr. FINISHING surfacer, which is more thin than the 1500 grade, and from experience I can confirm that even this grade does not work really well when they are brushed on.
Premixing can work with their paints thou, because when it is thinned down good you can base coat a model. I did it with Mr. Hobby Cobalt blue so I doubht you will have problems. In the past I even managed to mix it water and it worked. But I doubt it will do any good with the primer, because the primer is whole different formula. If you wanna use their products I suggest investing into airbrush.

The Mr Finishing Surfacer stuff is what I got. When you tried brushing it, were you doing that straight, or were you thinning? and what with? just water?

I don't want to spray laquers in my place as it doesn't ventilate well, hence the hairy brush...

 Weboflies wrote:

 DalinCriid wrote:

Clean your brushes very well after using alcoholic based stuff. It will extend the life of the brush, but please note that any alcoholic base will end your hairbrush faster than acrylics.
I am using the finest grade of Mr. Hobby primers - Mr. FINISHING surfacer, which is more thin than the 1500 grade, and from experience I can confirm that even this grade does not work really well when they are brushed on.
Premixing can work with their paints thou, because when it is thinned down good you can base coat a model. I did it with Mr. Hobby Cobalt blue so I doubht you will have problems. In the past I even managed to mix it water and it worked. But I doubt it will do any good with the primer, because the primer is whole different formula. If you wanna use their products I suggest investing into airbrush.

The Mr Finishing Surfacer stuff is what I got. When you tried brushing it, were you doing that straight, or were you thinning? and what with? just water?

I don't want to spray laquers in my place as it doesn't ventilate well, hence the hairy brush...

I am only airbrushing it. You can try mixing with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner and see what will happen. I once tried to prime Space Marine with Alclad 2 using hairbrush, it did not end well

If you have poor ventilation you shouldn't be hairy brush painting it either. One of the great things about lacquers is how fast they cure, that's in part because the lacquer thinners evaporate off very quickly, so if you have poor ventilation even when hairy brushing it you'll end up inhaling a lot of fumes.

Also wear gloves.

But anywho, yeah, I clean my brushes with the same self levelling thinner I use to thin the paint. To avoid wasting it when cleaning brushes, I decant some out in to an old bottle (it has to be one designed for solvents, so I used an old airbrush cleaner bottle). I dunk the brush in the thinner, wipe it on a tissue to get most the paint off, then swish it around in the thinner again to finish the job.

I don't really know if it damages sable brushes, I only ever use it with synthetic brushes.

I use the levelling thinner for basically everything. Regular lacquer thinner you buy from a hardware store is extremely strong, I think it's pretty much purely toluene and MEK so I avoid using it.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
If you have poor ventilation you shouldn't be hairy brush painting it either. One of the great things about lacquers is how fast they cure, that's in part because the lacquer thinners evaporate off very quickly, so if you have poor ventilation even when hairy brushing it you'll end up inhaling a lot of fumes.

Also wear gloves.

But anywho, yeah, I clean my brushes with the same self levelling thinner I use to thin the paint. To avoid wasting it when cleaning brushes, I decant some out in to an old bottle (it has to be one designed for solvents, so I used an old airbrush cleaner bottle). I dunk the brush in the thinner, wipe it on a tissue to get most the paint off, then swish it around in the thinner again to finish the job.

I don't really know if it damages sable brushes, I only ever use it with synthetic brushes.

I use the levelling thinner for basically everything. Regular lacquer thinner you buy from a hardware store is extremely strong, I think it's pretty much purely toluene and MEK so I avoid using it.

Well, having a small amount of it gassing off in the room with me is one thing, spraying a mist of it into the air ia another all together, I do have a respirator, so Hopefully brushing it will be alright.

Would the Surfacer pre-mixed with the thinner eat Citadel and/ or Vajjejo paint pots then?

That's good to know that I can clean with the levelling thinner, thanks.

 Weboflies wrote:

Would the Surfacer pre-mixed with the thinner eat Citadel and/ or Vajjejo paint pots then?

I'd store it in a glass bottle to be sure.

Det Thyge wrote:

 Weboflies wrote:

Would the Surfacer pre-mixed with the thinner eat Citadel and/ or Vajjejo paint pots then?

I'd store it in a glass bottle to be sure.

That's probably the safest bet. I store some lacquer thinner in a plastic bottle that was previously used for Vallejo airbrush cleaner, I tested it by putting some lacquer thinner in and waiting a few days to see if it softened or damaged the plastic. Seems to be fine. Gunze actually sell their lacquer thinner in plastic bottles, so obviously some plastics are fine, but others will melt or soften.

But you can get small glass bottles pretty cheap if you don't mind using the medicine bottle style ones with small openings (that's what alclad use for their bottles, they're just called "boston round").