Sticky Paint Coat even after waiting 12 hrs

dude, enamels take yonks to fully cure....
try doing this... smell the model, if u can still smell the paint, its not cured.
once u cant smell anything, then u know its cured,,,,
thats the downside to using enamels, they take too long to dyr!!! up to a month i have heard...
soon i am going to experiment using laquer thinner to thin enamels, in the hope that it will speed up drying times, but if ur gonna do this b very careful, and apply the first few coast very lightly (or use an appropriate primer) to form a protective barrier from the paint....coz laquer thinners will dissovle plastic!

With that amount of thinner, the 1st coat was not allowed to completely cure. The application of the second coat has blocked the solvents in the base coat from escaping and effectively "drying" the paint. You will be out of commission for at least three days.

Thanks all for your quick response. I'll wait to get the painting to dry more.
And thank you for the welcome, Mark. I am discovering that this hobby is very relaxing and overall rewarding.

Welcome to the forums!

I mainly use Model Master enamels for airbrushing, and my guess is one of two things happened:

First, even though the first coat might have seemed dry, it hadn't completely cured, causing the second coat to not dry quickly; and/or

Second, you probably thinned the paint too much. 50% thinner is on the high side for me, and that will cause longer drying times.

Also, make sure you stir/mix the paint very well; otherwise, you'll be thinning thinner (ok, that's probably not the technical term, but you get my drift.

Mark

Sometimes, depending on conditions, they do take an excessive amount of time to cure. I'd leave it 24-48 hours and see if it starts to get better during that time.

BTW,

I thinned the paint down to about 50% using airbrush thinner. I am using a Paasche single-action airbrush, and I am applying testor's drab olive mat enamel paint.