Will enamels eat lacquer?

Usually enamel can go over lacquer but not vis versa.  However, not all lacquers are equal these days, nor are all enamels the same.  So there may be general rules but they are not perfect.  Best to experiment with scrap for specific paints.

However, I have specifically used Testors enamels for washes over both Dullcoat and Glosscoat without a problem.

As a Rule-Of-Thumb it's best to use acrylic washes over enamels & lacquers & enamel washes over Acrylics.  For a wash, never use laquer thinner to thin enamels or oils.  I use Mineral Spirits or Turpenoid.

Regards,  Rick

You might want to try picking up some Mona Lisa Odorless Thinner from Hobby Lobby. I've used it for artist oil washes over Future, clear lacquer and cured enamel with absolutely no problems (though I probably wouldn't recommend making a habit of the last). It's a very gentle thinner that, in my experience, thinned the oil paint and didn't do squat with anything beneath it. I'd guess it can probably thin enamels for wash purposes but I haven't tried that yet.

Thanks for responses.

Given i have a huge array of acrylics (as these are my normal paints i airbrush with) i think i'll have a go at doing a wash using them, rather than enamels.

I've never tried acrylics before for this - so hopefully they'll perform the same as enamels.  If that fails though, i'll have to do some experimentation and use enamels over the lacquer.

Thanks for the tips and suggestions on the types of thinners too.

Chris.