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I've got some Tamiya and Mr Color laquer paints and a gloss laquer varnish I want try out as I've seen the quality of the gloss finish that can be achieved and it looks really good.

I've no idea what to use to thin them down though - a google search suggests everything including acetone, denatured alcohol, mineral spirits and thinners for car paint, but doesn't seem to give a definitive answer.

Does anyone here actually use them & if so what do you use to thin them & clean brushes?

Many thanks.

You may go to a retail hobby store and obtain a bottle of Testors thinner. It will not be cheap (priced at c. 3 to 5ml quantities). Second option is to find bottle of mineral spirits (possibly at 50-100 ml, to possibly a pint). Third option is the automotive paint supply store where you can get a quart or half gallon of their spray thinner (highest price option, but pretty much a lifetime supply).

Of course, the downside of any solvent paint application is you destroy your brushes. You use up a substantial fraction of thinner in cleaning the brushes. Special other tools are required, notably for spray apparatus. Cleanup is a nightmare if you use multiple paint colors. You also deal with respiratory inhalation hazards (fumes) and flammability risk. And the perennial issue of it's incompatibility with water based acrylic paints.

You can use them together ONLY if you apply ( and dry-in) the solvent paints first. Then apply the water-based acrylic the next day. And NOT vice versa. BTW, thinner is an excellent acrylic paint stripper.

I wouldn't use lacquer paints with a regular hairy brush. They're great through an airbrush, but with a hairbrush they are difficult to work with.

As for what thinner to use, Gunze make a self levelling thinner that is pretty good, it's what I use 90% of the time.

You can get lacquer thinners from hardware stores, but they'll be harsher and typically dry a lot faster.

Tamiya also make a lacquer thinner, as do Testors (because some of Testors varnishes are also lacquers), but I like the Gunze one more.

Tamiya do a lacquer thinner with retarder that I haven't used, perhaps that works similar to the self levelling Gunze thinner.

But yeah, I would avoid using them with a hairy brush, I only use them through my airbrush or maybe touch ups with a hairy brush. They dry too fast, destroy brushes, the solvents are so strong that they will lift the previous layer off paint clean off, I once spilled some lacquer thinner on a model and it started melting the plastic, and they are just generally hard to work with.

If you do get into using lacquers more, make sure you have bloody good ventilation, the fumes are horrible and not healthy to breathe.

Lacquer requires a specific thinner. Just search for lacquer thinner and buy whichever takes your fancy.

I'd also bang it through an airbrush rather than using a normal brush. It will be smooth as silk if you do it right. I've used house of kolor lacquer for non modelling applications before but it's effort so never bothered with it again.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Lacquer requires a specific thinner. Just search for lacquer thinner and buy whichever takes your fancy.

Yes but no, there's a huge variation in how different lacquer thinners behave, and some are way stronger solvents than others. I definitely recommend trying a self levelling or retarder version first, and if it's drying too slow for your liking then consider one of the other varieties.

Hobby lacquer thinners, in my experience, are way less harsh than the stuff you'd get from a hardware store in terms of how strong they smell, how fast they dry, and how violently they'll melt plastic.