SPA Modeler

I wanted to run something by the group to see if I can get any pointers. I just started occasionally using Tamiya paints and love the way they spray through an airbrush. Recently I sprayed the MIg-23 I'm working on and was using a light grey. When it was laying down it had a nice shine that showed the paint was wet, not flooded, but it definitely had the wet look to it. When I went back to it yesterday, I picked up the plane and there was a light dust of the grey paint over the surface of the painted area that came off on my hands. I dont have any X-20A thinner, so I used 91% ISO in one batch and UMP Thinner on another section to see if there was much difference. Both of the areas have the dusty surface. I'm thinking i can blow it off with some air pressure or use a tack cloth, I am concerned about the adhesion of the paint underneath now. Any suggestions?

Both thinners you've used vaporize real quick, especially when sprayed in low humidity. Maybe the part of the paint that was in the outer areas of the spray jet dried faster than the rest and dived into the wet layer as small lumps of pigments.
Using a retarder (glycerin, cheap and easy to get) may help in this case.

You've cleaned the parts before painting?

Mostrich, yes, I wiped down everything with plain ISO before I painted anything, including the primer coat. I coated this with Stynylrez first and then used fine grit finishing pads to smooth it down even more and removed all of the residue from that prior to laying down any other paint. It very well could have been a humidity issue, its only been about 20% here in Idaho recently. I do have some acrylic paint drying retarder that I added to some interior house paint awhile ago, says it can be used for any acrylic paint, I guess I could do some testing with it to see if it will work.

Try using a coffee filter to rub it down post-paint...it's not rough enough to mess up your paint job but it'll be enough to get that dustiness off...

Jeeves, that is a good tip, I'll have to give that a try!

Tamiya has changed their formulas in the acrylic lines a couple of times in the past 6 or 7 years. I think what you are seeing is the base coat showing through. I too use the burnishing Teck- neek with an old piece of t shirt or coffee filter. I use mostly Model Master or Vallejo for my paint needs. They allow me to change up on my methods of shooting the color with a little more flexibility.

X20-A is a grand thinner but KI think I would try to do some thinning with distilled water a couple of times just to see how that works.

I have been using Tamiya Lacquer Thinner to thin Tamiya "acrylics" and it works great,does a great job cleaning anything from my airbrush,including Vallejo.

Good idea on using Tamiya Laquer Thinner, and the coffee filter!