Clear lacquer, something to think about price wise. UPDATE

[ScottsGT]

So being a former paint and bodyman from way back in time, I was very comfortable making the switch over to lacquer paints.  
Now I’m starting to look at the costs of some of the main supplies we use in the hobby due to the packaging of small quantities we use/order and how I can save on that.  
Obviously I’m not going to even think about buying colors in bulk.  
Examples:

MRP clear is $7.50 for 30ml. ( Let’s say 2/3 of this bottle is thinner too, so 10ml of actual clear in the bottle)

Mr. Color leveling thinner is $16 for 400ml

I can order a quart (946ml) of clear lacquer from TCP Global automotive supply for $100 with free shipping. Basically, we’re talking about 95 bottles of MRP clear plus thinner)

TCP sells “slow” or “hot” lacquer thinner which is what the leveling thinner is. $70 per gallon, free shipping.  Which is about 9 bottles of the Mr. Color leveling thinner at $144 + shipping. 
 

Now I just need to work out a flattening agent so I can mix up flat clears and semi-gloss before I pull the trigger and invest in bulk.   But after going through one bottle of MRP clear on two builds, and one was just small areas, my clear usage is going to get expensive at MRP or Mr. Color prices.

Oh, and you guys in CA, you can fuggetaboutit.  Can’t ship bulk lacquer to your state.  I’m surprised even modeling quantities can be shipped. 

[belugawhaleman]

10 minutes ago, ScottsGT said:

So being a former paint and bodyman from way back in time, I was very comfortable making the switch over to lacquer paints.  
Now I’m starting to look at the costs of some of the main supplies we use in the hobby due to the packaging of small quantities we use/order and how I can save on that.  
Obviously I’m not going to even think about buying colors in bulk.  
Examples:

MRP clear is $7.50 for 30ml. ( Let’s say 2/3 of this bottle is thinner too, so 10ml of actual clear in the bottle)

Mr. Color leveling thinner is $16 for 400ml

I can order a quart (946ml) of clear lacquer from TCP Global automotive supply for $100 with free shipping. Basically, we’re talking about 95 bottles of MRP clear plus thinner)

TCP sells “slow” or “hot” lacquer thinner which is what the leveling thinner is. $70 per gallon, free shipping.  Which is about 9 bottles of the Mr. Color leveling thinner at $144 + shipping. 
 

Now I just need to work out a flattening agent so I can mix up flat clears and semi-gloss before I pull the trigger and invest in bulk.   But after going through one bottle of MRP clear on two builds, and one was just small areas, my clear usage is going to get expensive at MRP or Mr. Color prices.

Oh, and you guys in CA, you can fuggetaboutit.  Can’t ship bulk lacquer to your state.  I’m surprised even modeling quantities can be shipped. 

I had a look at MRP lacquers....interesting colors available. They had the exact matches

for a project I needed but I decided they were too costly and I'm going to mix the colors

from my stock of Tamiya acrylic paints.  Anyway, interesting idea you have.

 

[CANicoll]

As much as I like the MRP paints, their clear just doesn't seem to work as well as their colors.  I had the same experience as you: I blew through a bottle trying to get a clear coat on a plane.  Forget trying to cover a 1/32 scale aircraft.  Right now my go-to clear is Vallejo.  Their matte and satin is really good.  Gloss is so so.  I also spray Future if I need an absolute glossy surface.

[GazzaS]

My experiment with MRP was short lived.  Though I do see the need for another bottle of Richthofen's Red for an upcoming project.  

[belugawhaleman]

Tamiya clear gloss Acrylic has always worked for me......now with mr leveling thinner. I also have some Tamiya semi-gloss clear lacquer....haven't used it yet.

 

[ScottsGT]

Ok, I bought the quart of pre-thinned clear lacquer the other day along with some glass bottles like MRP use to come in.  Also went with Mr. Color flattening agent that will be here tomorrow.  
Once I get to a good stopping point on the Seaview build I’ll do some experiments using the clear over dried model lacquers, wet lacquers and mixing up matt and semi-gloss clears using the Mr. Color flattening agent vs. plain old talcum powder.  

[ScottsGT]

Ok, update to this thread.  I finally had to proceed with this since I needed a flat clear for the flying sub.  Here’s what I did. 
Local auto parts store sells “ready to spray” clear lacquer for around $40.00.  Might be ready to spray for automotive use out of a paint gun, but it required about a 1:1 mix with my Mr. Color Leveling thinner to make it through an airbrush. And it could actually go a little thinner than that too.  

I bought 30 ML or 1 oz. Bottles off Amazon for about $1.35 each.  
Flattening agent was Mr. Color #30

I picked up 4 bottles at around $2.50 each.  Supposedly they come with 10 ML in each bottle, but mine arrived half dried up and apparently others have as well.  I guess these are slow sellers.  A few shots of Leveling thinner got things back to where they needed to be.  
I started out slowly with a semi-gloss by adding 2 ML of #30 and topping off the bottle with clear.

Next up, semi-flat clear by adding 5 ML of #30 and topping off the bottle with clear.

Last, for a dead flat I used all 10 ML of #30 and topped off the bottle with clear.  
 

Here’s the results sprayed on some spoons I first painted with a nice bright blue. 

 

If you do the math, it can be quite a savings over buying your clear lacquers from MRP or Mr. Color.

 It was $1.25 per oz. of auto parts store clear which will give you 2+ oz. of sprayable clear once thinned. Mr. Color Leveling thinner works out to about $1 per oz.
So that would be $3.25 for two oz./$1.62 for a thinned oz. 

MRP is $7.50 for one ounce thinned.

Mr. Color clear is $2.50 for 10 ML, add in $1 worth of thinner and you’re around $3.50 for an ounce of thinned clear, give or take a few ML.

[BlrwestSiR]

Thanks for the update Scott.

How is the auto parts clear like smell wise? I keep trading about the 2K clears but their toxicity means they're a no-go for me. 

[ScottsGT]

2k is good stuff, but highly carsogenic. Don’t mess with that stuff unless you want to paint like Walter White. 
Smell on this brand isn’t too bad.  Typical lacquer strength on the odor level, but different than all the others. 

[PanzerWomble]

If thats toluene based ( what we would call cellulose in the UK ) based , won't it risk strip of your existing paint ? Tried looking it up on line but it was vague as to the carrier .

 

+10 on Spoon painting ! 

 

[PanzerWomble]

8 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Thanks for the update Scott.

How is the auto parts clear like smell wise? I keep trading about the 2K clears but their toxicity means they're a no-go for me. 

Genuine 2K would be total overkill for a shelf model IMHO . I spray motorcycles in it because it set hard .