Cleaning Enamel Bottles

aagranata wrote:

After an unsuccesful attempt at using acrylics (can't stop the paint from peeling), I have decided to return to enamels.  Does anyone know a quick and efficient way to clean the enamel paint out of a mixing bottle??  Even with enamel thinner, I still need to get in there and scrub this bottle clean, but I can't find a bottle brush that will fit in there!  And is there a way to clean the pipettes??  In the past, I've just thrown the bottles and pipettes out, but it's beginning to cost a bit much!!!

Sorry for the late post, but....

Mr. Clean, yes the stuff with the picture of a bald man on the bottle - Works great on getting enamels out of glass,metal, or even plastic bottles and tubes.  Use a Q-Tip and pipe cleaner to get into the tight areas.

Hans von Hammer wrote:

Doesn't make much sense to prime with enamel then avoid enamels because of "messy clean-up", lol...

When I paint with enamels, I clean the airbrush once... At the end of the session.  I can just pull the paint jar, spray the remainder of the paint's that's in the gun out, wipe down the siphon tube, switch paint jars, spray new color...  When I'm done with the session, I run some thinner through the brush, wipe it down with a thinner rag, and drop the fluid nozzle in the jar with a shoshi bit of thinner in it...  With acryllics, I seem to have to clean the brush more often because they dry in the nozzle after a bit, or at least run a shot of thinner through it now and then....

 I do the same thing with acrylics as you do with enamels. Except I use Windex and hot water. I keep a bottle (that large one that came with my old Badger, I have no other use for it) filled with 50% Windex and hot water. In between colors, I remove the paint cup, plug in the jar, run some Windex through until it comes out clean, remove the bottle, run it dry, wash out the paint cup in the kitchen sink (or just switch cups) and put in the new color. 

 While I'm painting, I wipe the nozzle off every once in a while with a Q-tip dipped in Windex, then flip it around and wipe it off with the dry side. That fixes the drying on the nozzle issue.

If you're gonna prime with enamel, you may as well use a rattle-can of primer, rather than using the airbrush...

Thooroughly wash and PRIME the surface! No reason for acrylics not to stick!

aagranata wrote:

Thanks for all the tips, guys.  I prefer to keep working with acrylics, but the paint peeling was very aggravating!  I tried washing the plastic....no luck.  I tried using only Tamiya masking tape.....no luck.  However, I did notice that the peeling only began at "border" areas, such as edges of wings or along the edge of the cockpit.  If I stuck a wad of tape, even traditional yellow masking tape, in the MIDDLE of a paint job and then peeled it off, nothing happened.  For my next experiment, I think I'll try priming with a Testors  flat gray enamel spray can and then use acrylics over that.  Would this lead to better luck, you think?????  I just don't want to have to use enamels in my airbrush because of the messy cleanup. So, I guess I haven't ruled out acrylics just yet.......

What this tells me is your surface prepartion still isn't working...try priming...try scuffing the surface slightly with a course polishing stick.

Acrylics don't have much in the way of etchants or solvents to soften the surface to promote adhesion, so you must do something to perpetuate it to do so.

Doesn't make much sense to prime with enamel then avoid enamels because of "messy clean-up", lol...

When I paint with enamels, I clean the airbrush once... At the end of the session.  I can just pull the paint jar, spray the remainder of the paint's that's in the gun out, wipe down the siphon tube, switch paint jars, spray new color...  When I'm done with the session, I run some thinner through the brush, wipe it down with a thinner rag, and drop the fluid nozzle in the jar with a shoshi bit of thinner in it...

With acryllics, I seem to have to clean the brush more often because they dry in the nozzle after a bit, or at least run a shot of thinner through it now and then...

If you're gonna prime with enamel, you may as well use a rattle-can of primer, rather than using the airbrush...

Thanks for all the tips, guys.  I prefer to keep working with acrylics, but the paint peeling was very aggravating!  I tried washing the plastic....no luck.  I tried using only Tamiya masking tape.....no luck.  However, I did notice that the peeling only began at "border" areas, such as edges of wings or along the edge of the cockpit.  If I stuck a wad of tape, even traditional yellow masking tape, in the MIDDLE of a paint job and then peeled it off, nothing happened. 

For my next experiment, I think I'll try priming with a Testors  flat gray enamel spray can and then use acrylics over that.  Would this lead to better luck, you think?????  I just don't want to have to use enamels in my airbrush because of the messy cleanup.

So, I guess I haven't ruled out acrylics just yet.......

Hans von Hammer wrote:

I'm old school... I use way more enamel tha acryllic... Maybe 15:1... They're cheaper, hold the plastic better, thin better, blend easier, plus I just have way more experience with enamel over acryllics.

ill second that, if they ever get rid of enamels i'll be out of this hobby.

I'm old school... I use way more enamel tha acryllic... Maybe 15:1... They're cheaper, hold the plastic better, thin better, blend easier, plus I just have way more experience with enamel over acryllics, and I fear change.  

Had some real problems with Tamiya's acryllics on a P-61 that had a bunch of color swirls in the plastic... The Tamiya accented them, whereas enamel covered them...   

Sounds like an ad for the use of acrylics. It is certainly one of the reasons I use mostly acrylics. If your acrylics aren't working, it's because either you are doing something wrong, or your paint is bad. A few more details on the acrylics problem would help. Many of the modellers on this website use acrylics and love them, including me. Water cleanup. Gotta love it.

Rich

I use laquer thinner too.  I got a big can of it at WalMart for a few bucks.  Not only does it strip the paint off of bottles, but its a cheap solution to cleaning enamel out of my airbrush.  A can of this goes a long way.  I do not, however, use it to thin my enamels, only used for cleaning up.  When you are picking up a can of lacquer thinner, might be a good idea to grab a respirator too...that stuff is potent! 

Laquer thinner or get a couple bottles of Testor's liquid cement.  A few drops of that stuff will fix ya right up...  I use it to rescue brushes I forgot to clean as well...

Pipettes, can't help ya... There's a lot of places to buy 'em on-line though, and they're actually a lot cheaper than if you're buying them in hobby shops... Look at on-line medical supply stores and such... I've seen boxes of 100 for around 12.00...