A few questions...

What Tojo said is true.  Pretty much the "rule of thumb" is you can put enamels over acrylics and vise versa.  Now I have a bottle of the Tamiya panel line stuff.  It is a laquer based product I believe.  I have to use thinner to remove.  So you can use it over any acrylic work you do, but if you use it over any enamel stuff, you run the risk of it bleeding in and messing up you work.  When I've used it, I liked it.  It has a very fine brush in the cap like their glue does, so you can do some pretty fine detailing with it and not have to do a lot of "removel of excess stuff.  Tojo mentioned Florys washes...I agree!  I have a bottle of the stuff and really like it a lot!  It is a water based product, so if you put it over an acrylic base, you again run a risk of it effecting that.  It is super easy to use and to wipe it off, just use water.  Hope this helps.

Well I think I could help out. I paint with acrylics, and always seal my model before weathering using testors dullcote or glosscote, except I airbrush it instead of using the rattle cans. Leave the acrylic paint to dry for at least a day, then you can safely use a clear coat over it. I recently bought one of the Testors rattlecan lacquer dullcote to varnish figures and smaller parts to avoid always taking out the airbrush. After trying the testors rattlecan dullcote, I wasn't a great fan of it. Seemed like it was a little thick and left a thick layer over the pieces. On the other hand, I used one of the Tamiya clear coat (matte) rattlecans which are a few dollars more, but performed much greater (both are lacquer sprays). The Tamiya seemed to have a more consistent spray from the rattle can and provide a much more even coverage, as well as drying to a much more matt finish. So for the rattlecan varnish, I really recommend the Tamiya lacquer clear coats. 

Now for washes, over my testors lacquer dull/glosscoats (sprayed by airbrush) I use enamel washes (mig and tamiya panel line accent) as well as oils with mig odorless thinner. I used to use winsor newton turpentine with the oils but felt they attacked the top coats so I used mig odorless thinner, which works even better. So, there should be no "bleeding" that occurs with the enamel tamiya panel line wash over either tamiya or testors lacquer clear coats. With that said, make sure you put even, and relatively light coats from the rattle can on the model. Try on some spare plastic and find the right distance to use with the rattlecan, not too close to where it pools and runs, but not to far to where it lays down in specs. 

Lastly, I would recommend using AK or mig odorless thinner with enamel washes. You could try Mona Lisa mineral spirits, but I think those are more geared towards oils (many people use it with oil paints on models). With all my enamel washes I use mig odorless thinner, you can buy a pretty big bottle around 200ml for 12$, and it'll last a long time. 

Hope this helps, 

Kien

Eagle90

What Tojo said is true.  Pretty much the "rule of thumb" is you can put enamels over acrylics and vise versa.  Now I have a bottle of the Tamiya panel line stuff.  It is a laquer based product I believe.  I have to use thinner to remove.  So you can use it over any acrylic work you do, but if you use it over any enamel stuff, you run the risk of it bleeding in and messing up you work.  When I've used it, I liked it.  It has a very fine brush in the cap like their glue does, so you can do some pretty fine detailing with it and not have to do a lot of "removel of excess stuff.  Tojo mentioned Florys washes...I agree!  I have a bottle of the stuff and really like it a lot!  It is a water based product, so if you put it over an acrylic base, you again run a risk of it effecting that.  It is super easy to use and to wipe it off, just use water.  Hope this helps.

 

 

 

I have used Flory over Future with no problem.

I'm not familiar with Tamiya Panel washes but I have picked up a couple bottles of AK Interactive Camo washes - Green and Brown (for camo schemes in those colors)  and Blue and Grey (for grey aircrafts).

Wow, I'm learning some new-to-me product ideas here.

Good thread, thanks for all good contributions, fellas.

Thanks, you've all been really helpful! And I'll have to look in to that Flory Wash. I like the Winsor and Newton oil I've been using but an actual out-of-the-bottle wash would certainly come in handy. 

I've heard good things about that mig thinner so might just have to put out the extra money for that, Kien. Looking again I worded it funny but to specify, I was asking if the panel line accent will bleed out if it's sprayed over with another top coat after being applied. Have you had anything like that occur? By the way, I checked out your channel and that's a lovely Bismarck.

Baratheon

Thanks, you've all been really helpful! And I'll have to look in to that Flory Wash. I like the Winsor and Newton oil I've been using but an actual out-of-the-bottle wash would certainly come in handy. 

I've heard good things about that mig thinner so might just have to put out the extra money for that, Kien. Looking again I worded it funny but to specify, I was asking if the panel line accent will bleed out if it's sprayed over with another top coat after being applied. Have you had anything like that occur? By the way, I checked out your channel and that's a lovely Bismarck.

 

 

Oh ok, I was unsure what you meant by the bleeding. No, on many occasions I spray a topcoat over my weathering/washes and there is not bleeding, just give it the time to dry. Sometimes, when I use a wash I then put another matt coat over it so that the thinner from the oil weathering doesn't get rid of all the wash that I spent time putting on... I've never faced any problem by doing this. If you want to be safe, give it two days, but even a day should be enough. That Bismarck was a fun build, but I do like armor/planes a little more! I can have some more fun weathering on armor subjects. 

Kien

 

Oh ok, I was unsure what you meant by the bleeding. No, on many occasions I spray a topcoat over my weathering/washes and there is not bleeding, just give it the time to dry. Sometimes, when I use a wash I then put another matt coat over it so that the thinner from the oil weathering doesn't get rid of all the wash that I spent time putting on... I've never faced any problem by doing this. If you want to be safe, give it two days, but even a day should be enough. That Bismarck was a fun build, but I do like armor/planes a little more! I can have some more fun weathering on armor subjects. 

 

Awesome. Thanks again.

The best clear IMO is the tamiya spray lacquer; however, you do not want to use that over enamel. Just my 2c