Acrylic Enamel paint?

It is either a mythical beast, such as the unicorn, or

an ad-wonk's misinterpretation of something it heard at the last meeting with the lab rats, or

an acrylic coating that uses a hydrocarbon solvent system. Other than the alcohol systems such as Tamiya, I don't know that these are being used in hobby paints. There's not much point in using such a binder-solvent system in this application.

You will also find those who think that Tamiya, Gunze, and other acrylics are "acrylic lacquers" because they are soluble and resoluble in alcohols and some lacquer thinners. They are not lacquers because they do cure. Acrylic, by definition, is a curing polymer. 

Well, there is Gunze's "Mr Color" range which is lacquer based and is described as a "solvent based acrylic". However, the proprietary thinner is said to be non-aggressive to styrene, compared with "generic" lacquer thinners which will reduce a model to a bubbling puddle with very little effort.

I've not used it though, so there is room for further discussion...

And yep, though Tamiya and Gunze aqueous acryics can be dissolved and removed with alcohol, they can't be reconstituted and reused as paint. Gunze in particular leaves a certain amount of sticky solid residue (latex?) which can be removed with, but is insoluble in alcohol.

Thanks for the info. It seem to be solvent based.

What brand of paint are you referring to?

I think I read somewhere that Gunze's Mr. Color primary solvent is an alcohol. Considering how many different alcohols there are…

"Solvent-based acrylic" sounds like ad-speak to me (although paint technologists can be remarkably sloppy with terminology—et mea culpa…). 

"Lacquer-based" is another curious term. Lacquers form a film by drying, not curing. They cam be redisolved in the proper solvent, then reapplied, without any harmful effect on the coating. Acrylic is a polymer that cures, i.e., becomes a larger polymer molecule.  Depolymerization generally causes a breakdown in the polymer that results in formation of different polymers (or no polymers) than were originally present in the liquid coating.

In enamels, the purpose of combining a polymeric binder with a lacquer is  usually to decrease the time to initial film formation (time to tack), and to impart desired properties to the final finish, such as gloss modification or surface hardness, or to make use of a pigment that has an affinity for that particular lacquer or that needs a property imparted by the lacquer to the final coating.

There are almost certainly synthetic lacquers that are compatible with acrylic polymers. But considering that acrylic technology has matured and acrylic paints are capable of fulfilling the needs of the hobby, I can't see why anyone would go to the trouble and undoubted additional expense of doing so.

It would be informative to see a formulation, or even an MSDS. The chance of seeing the formulation  resembles that of a multicrystalline ice compaction in the hottest part of certain undesirable spiritual regions. And frankly, I'm unwilling at the moment to go hunting for the MSDS (one of the few things I miss about my former employment.) For anyone interested, your LHS should have the MSDS on file for any product they sell.

Triarius wrote:

It would be informative to see a formulation, or even an MSDS. The chance of seeing the formulation  resembles that of a multicrystalline ice compaction in the hottest part of certain undesirable spiritual regions.

LMAO!!!

What is odder still is that Tamiya makes two ranges of identical colours, in an "aqueous" form and an "oil based" form.

Each is incompatible with the other's proprietary reducer, BUT they also have a (and I'll use the term loosely) "lacquer" thinner which is said to work with both.

Apart from their spray cans (described as "synthetic lacquers") the only other product that Tamiya makes that I can think of which requires a "lacquer thinner" is their Liquid Surface Primer. Oddly enough, this can be dissolved and reduced for airbrushing using ethyl alcohol but not isopropyl alcohol...

It might be interesting to see if their (so called) enamel line can be mixed with ethyl alcohol.

My head is spinning... must be the alcohol vapours.....

My neighbor gave me box of 33 small spray cans of paint today. They were used by his mother when she did crafts back in the 80's. They have a plain white label with Japanese letters and a small Japanese house on the front with what looks like a small bird in it. On the back, down at the bottom it says Acrylic Enamel Paint 5oz. I have never heard of Acrylic Enamel. All my neighbor could tell me about them was that he remembered that they smelled bad. I just sprayed one in the backyard and it has a strong chemical smell. But not like lacquer, maybe it's toluene or acetone based. I will try them on some plastic tomorrow. Thanks again for your help.