Questions on Polly S

Jon:

Acrylics are great if you are working indoors or an enclosed area of painting due to the fume factor.. They have almost no odor what so ever and clean up is a snap with anyhting from Alchohol to Windex..

As for the Acrylics and Enamels coexisting. They do quite well if you let each dry and cure completely. Although I would paint with the enamel first just in case the Acrylic gets eaten by the Enamel thinner.. Just a little insurance policy on my part I do..  

As for the Poly S paint.. I love that stuff. It brushes on as good as it sprays. It has a self leveling agent in it so it goes on smooth with no brush marks. Thins well for airbrushing with any thinning agent, dries quickly to the touch, and has no odor what so ever that I am aware of..The total cure time is still about 12-24 hrs.. 

I use both Tamiya and Poly S and they seem to play togther very well.. Never had a problem with any interaction what so ever. The one limit I have with the Tamiya is I can't for the life of me brush paint with it. It always seems to skin over too fast a "fall" off the model if you have to go over the area more than once. So I just airbrush with it..

The only surface prep I do with the paint is. Shoot a coat of primer over the area to be sprayed to give the paint something to bite into. Unless there is huge ugly gouges and scratches that need more attention. I have put Poly S on bare plastic on occasion and it seems to bite into it just fine though.

My suggestion would be to maybe buy one bottle of a color you will need to both spray and brush on a model.. Try it out and play with it to see if you like it.. This way your don't end up with a product you are unhappy with and have to switch out again..

Paul

 

Oh my, this is Chevy vs. Ford! The dyed in the wool enamel guys (whom I think of as Ford guys ) will swear by enamels, and indeed there are many benefits that are not easy to argue against. But for me, enamels are difficult to clean up, require nastier thinners and plain smells bad. I have some old Testor's enamel paints that have completely separated which I haven't been able to remix, and some equally old Tamiya acrylic that I use like it was new.

I switched entirely to Tamiya acrylics when I came back to the fold. I prefer the soap and water clean up, and I (and my wife and kids) find that the smell is preferable to enamels. They still think the paint is smelly, just less so. I can attest to the ease of cleaning, the other day I dripped some Tamiya on my white shorts and washed it right out using normal soap and water. I would have hated to try that with enamel!

I tried using different brands, in my case Model Master Acryl and Tamiya, but I never attempted to mix them together. I have used both kinds of paints on the same model with no problem. I dropped the MM Acryl after having some difficulty cleaning up my AB. I've decided to use Tamiya exclusively for no other reason than uniformity. I built a paint shelf that works with the Tamiya bottle, and MM Acryl are too tall. Gunze Sangyo paints use the same kind of bottle, but are not available at my LHS. MM Acryl brushes easier than Tamiya. Well, what I mean is you can go to a second coat or change of color faster. Tamiya tends to "roll up" when it hasn't had a chance to cure. I thin my brush paint a little thicker than I do for airbrushing which helps.

Acrylics seem to require additional consideration when preparing the surface. As the paint isn't as aggressive as enamels, you must insure a very clean surface, perhaps even so far as to require a primer coat, though I typically don't use one. Acrylics tend to have a longer cure time, depending on your humidity. My building and painting habits are such that I can let the paint cure for at least a couple of days before masking and painting a second color, and have on occasion gone for longer than a week between coats. I have yet to experience any lifting, though that may be luck more than skill!

You can use both enamels and acrylics, but make darn sure that the acrylic is fully cured before painting enamels over top.

Polly Scale (is that the same as Polly S?) seems to be marketed directly at the model railroad enthusiast, though I have heard their paints are excellent. You might have trouble matching colors as aircraft and armor tend to be painted differently than the average box car! If I ever build a model that requires me to paint a large solid of white (say the Avro Arrow!) I would likely use Polly Scale Reefer White, as it comes recommended to me. Tamiya light colors require a primer coat and multiple applications, but that is not unexpected.

Thanks for the great reply!

What do you use for a primer coat?

Good suggestion on trying one out. I've got several projects on the "bench" and using some of their paints for the exterior would be a good test.

I did notice that Tamiya acrylics at Squadron are half the price of Poly S at the LHS..... wow.

The few times I've primered I've used Tamiya rattle can primer and AS-12 Aircraft Silver.

Paul and Bill have pretty much covered it—I'm a big fan of Poly Scale/PolyS.

One correction: PolyScale does cater to modelrails, but the PolyS line is for military modelers. You can see what is available at the Testors web site.

I use Tamiya Light Gray as my primary primer for acrylics.

Just to clarify why I don't typically do a "primer" coat. I tend to lay down a very thin coat of any color I paint, and come back with a second coat or even a third the next day or so. That first coat serves as a primer coat for most of what I do.

My LHS carries a large selection of paints: Humbrol and Model Master in both enamel and acrylics (and matching MM rattle can), Testor's enamel in the square bottles, Tamiya Acrylics and their TS series of rattle cans, and a handful of Polly Scale and Floquil for the railroaders.

Funny thing about the Testor's link, when you click on the Polly Scale Military you get a page that says Polly Scale, but a list showing Floquil, and when you click on a specific color you get a page that says Floquil and a pic of Polly Scale! Now I'm really confused (and I didn't need any help!).

Apparently, PollyScale is now part of the Floquil line. I sent them an e-mail about this and will post the results when I get a reply.

I noticed that stuff on the Testor's site- kinda odd wasn't it?

Sounds like the PolyS stuff is a great choice- I'm definetly going to give it a try.

I really found clean up easier now that I'm airbrushing when I was practicing. I had some bottles of pretty weird colors of Testors acryl, and used that as practice paints. Clean up was darn simple. And no fumes.

That's right. I used to buy it from Tower Hobbies because the price and selection was the best I could find, and it's listed as Floquil Polly Scale..

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0095P?FVSEARCH=Polly+Scale&FVPROFIL=++&search3=Go

Jack

I'm another die hard acrylic user.  I started with Tamiya and MM Acryl and have since moved to Vallejo acrylics almost exclusively.

I prime with plain old Krylon white primer unless it is a darker color I am shooting then I might use MM grey primer.  about 80% of the time I prime, the other 20% I start painting and then thing oh #%^$!  I forgot to prime...  but I've never suffered ill consequences because of it...

I know a few people who use the Polly S and have seen their completed kits and have to say it must work just fine! 

Good luck to ya!

I'm definetly moving to acrylics- thanks for all the good advice and tips.

It was sealed when I was cleaning up the A/B tonight, and we had to open the doors to let the fumes out. I was just cleaning it- wasn't running it. I'd been doing that outside. So acrylics will make everyone happy!

I use the polly scale line almost exclusively. Their line has a great color range from WW I to present. I do find they dry a bit quick and need to be strained first. Some of the lumps never break up and clog the A/B. I take my wifes nylons (ones she's going to throw out! VERY IMPORTANT!) and cut a piece just larger than my paint cup. I strain it as I'm loading the paint. It is a bit of extra work, but I have gotten used to it so it doesn't bother me.

I still wear a resperator though. Those paint fumes and particles may not smell bad, but are harmful. They say non-toxic, but that only refers to ingestion. Let's be safe guys.

I use Tamiya acrylics exclusively.  I tried MM and almost went back to enamel.  I found them to look limp, dull, lifeless and seemed almost like there wasnt enough pigment in them.  I started to use Tamiya and havent looked back.  The colors look to my eye almost as good as enamels.  Although I am begining to collect the Aircraft Colors line.  I should after my next Squadron order have enough to do a build out of them entirely.  I will post my findings.  Im thinking that for WWII ill use Aircraft Colors and Tamiya for modern.  The only down side to Tamiya is the you have to do alot of your own mixing.

For some reason there was a big price increase on the Poly S line and my LHS decided to stop carrying the line.

Chuck B.

Living Legend wrote:

I use Tamiya acrylics exclusively.  I tried MM and almost went back to enamel.  I found them to look limp, dull, lifeless and seemed almost like there wasnt enough pigment in them.  I started to use Tamiya and havent looked back.  The colors look to my eye almost as good as enamels.  Although I am begining to collect the Aircraft Colors line.  I should after my next Squadron order have enough to do a build out of them entirely.  I will post my findings.  Im thinking that for WWII ill use Aircraft Colors and Tamiya for modern.  The only down side to Tamiya is the you have to do alot of your own mixing.

That was the problem with the old Testors MM lince of acrylics, which was why they literally bought out the "Polly S" works to get a decent line of acrylics.

Since then, they have pretty much made the two hand-in-hand with only minor differences (the main one is that the MM tends to be a bit on the thin side) so that recently in using both, I am not drawn to using Polly S exclusively over MM.

Whenever possible, I prefer to use the acrylics.

For the lighter/harder to retain colors, such as bright yellows and reds, I actually use the Testors MM enamel as a base coat finishing it with the acrylic since it dries faster and has a harder surface.

At least that is my

  Tom T

cbreeze wrote:

For some reason there was a big price increase on the Poly S line and my LHS decided to stop carrying the line. Chuck B.

Right! Seems like not too long ago I paid $2.30 a bottle, then $2.60 recently. I don't use it anymore, but have noticed now that $2.99 to $3.06 seems to be typical online pricing.

But it's great paint for brush or airbrush.. I just needed to really cut down on the variety of brands I try to use! I believe I have settled on Vallejo Air.

Jack

I usually shoot a coat of the Citadel primer.. It comes in either Black or White.. The reason being this stuff seems to shrink aas it dries and no detail is lost what so ever no matter how small it is or much is sprayed on the model.. Very easy to control.

I have tried the Tamiya primers as well but they seem to be under so much pressure that I get a lot of overspray dust in the surrounding area. Citadel does not do that for some reason..

Hope this helps

Paul