Lacquer retarder for higher humidity airbrushing?

[sbaxter]

My little boy recently decided that an area of the bedroom carpet would look better after some of his mother's nail polish was generously applied. After I advised my wife that the proper place for such things is somewhere a three-year-old cannot reach (or see, preferably), I started investigating whether lacquer thinner could be used to help remove the polish.

In my Googling, I turned up references to using lacquer retarder as a solution to the problems one encounters trying to airbrush in higher humidity. The gist of what I found said you'd want to replace some portion of the lacquer thinner normally used with some lacquer retarder. The most common recommendation was about two-thirds thinner and one third retarder as a starting point, with adjustments made from there depending on humidity levels and so forth.

I've always used lacquer thinner to thin my enamels for airbrushing. Never had any issues with the thinner attacking plastic in any visible way. Therefore, this seems something I'd like to investigate, living in Florida where humidity can be like having a sopping wet, hot blanket thrown over your head the moment you walk outdoors. And indications are, as I try to ease myself back into model work, that my wife is going to insist the airbrushing be done outdoors. I really don't want to limit my work to the maybe one-third of the year (an optimistic estimate) when humidity is low enough to ignore.

Anyone ever try using this lacquer retarder for airbrushing in such conditions? If so, what was the result?

Qapla'

SSB

[sbaxter]

No one? So I'm going to have to be the pioneer?

Great. I was hoping to avoid that. Pioneers typically make horrible mistakes from which others learn!

Oh, well …

Qapla'

SSB

[Kylwell]

I'm in 20% humidity on a damp day so I've got nothing I could add.

Jump in and let us know how it works.

[sbaxter]

I guess I will after I get my airbrush back out of storage. I'm not at all sure how it will work — none of the references I turned up so far had specifically to do with model building. One guy was trying to paint a guitar. I use lacquer thinner, but spray enamels in most cases. It may be the reason the lacquer thinner works without attacking the plastic is because it dries so quickly, and retarder would alter that. It might be a case of the cure being worse than the disease. I'll definitely have to try it on a sacrificial kit. I gather the idea is that the slower drying time gives the moisture which causes "blush" time to escape.

I also didn't turn up any reference to the level of humidity these people were dealing with, beyond it being too high to airbrush without it. But in the summer, we get some serious moisture. Might be too much even with this stuff, or maybe not.

If it doesn't work, I'll be looking at installing an air conditioner in one of my sheds. Not really wanting to do that, for a variety of reasons, but at least it is an option that would work.

Qapla'

SSB