Mr Color thinner/Testors compatibility

Kleen Strip Paint thinner alone in Testors enamel will cause craters or fish eyes. But if you blend it with Kleen Strip lacquer thinner it works well. Also Kleen Strip Minieral spirits works quite well but has a slower cure than with lacquer thinner. Those products are all I use in Testors and Testors Model Master enamels. I control flow out and leveling by adding in the mineral spirits.

I haven't used Testor thinner in decades now, I think maybe since about 1974. But I would think the Mr Leveler would work similarly to my combo above ( lacquer thinner and mineral spirits for flow out and leveling). As far as I know Mr Leveler is medium dry lacquer thinner with some retarder in it.

I used to use the Testors thinner when I could get it in half-pint cans, but those seem to be unavailable now.  I went to hardware store turpentine.  There is some stuff being sold as "paint thinner" that is a synthetic blend and really junk.  But as long as it is labeled mineral spirits or turpentine it works fine.  Been using it now for about ten years.  I also use it for cleanup, since it is pretty cheap in gallon cans.

Huh, I normally used hardware store lacquer thinner for MM paints for years, but since I got a new can, it can’t even clean the airbrush properly.  Must be all that VOC regulations that keep making paint suck more and more.

I then switched to Gunze’s Mr. Leveling Thinner and Mr. Replenishing Something-Or-Another, and used them on MM enamels with no problems. BUT!!!  I did notice the Testors Airbrush Thinner emulsified the pigment in certain MM enamels a little better.  But MM enamels keeps getting worse, and now I find airbrushing flat black takes many coats for 100% opacity.  I tried Gunze’s flat black, and bang, two thin coats made for complete coverage.

We have one source for Gunze Mr. Color, and they are going out of business before the end of the year.