Experimenting With Adhering Liquid

Hello plamo otakus! I found something interesting at a local bookstore called Adhering Liquid. The label says its a "Premium Grade Lacquer Thinner" intended for Silk Screen printing. The stuff smells a lot like Mr. Color thinner, and is about the same consistency and clarity. My brain was telling me that if this stuff was mild enough for textile, then it may not be as harsh as industrial lacquer thinner, so it might be a viable alternative for hobby grade lacquer thinner. At less than a dollar for the 120ml bottle, I just had to give it a try.

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I didn't have any lacquer paint, but I still have the bottle of nail polish I used for the last experiment. I started with a 40:60 nail polish to adhering liquid ratio.

Mixing the solution with a toothpick, the adhering liquid was able to thin the paint nicely into a milky consistency, which is about right for airbrushing. The mixture was left to stand for a few minutes.

At the 5 minute mark I noticed the solution was already starting to thicken, so I added more adhering liquid before loading it up into the airbrush. Spraying at 15psi, the mixture went on ok, but the paint was drying much too fast. I dropped the pressure to 10psi and was able to do thin layers with no pooling or runs.

I did a full coat, and compared it with the test spoon from the last experiment where I used Mr. Color thinner. The adhering liquid spoon had a dull finish compared to the Mr. Color spoon.  After 10 minutes the test spoon still wasn't dry to the touch.

At the 15 minute mark, I took a toothpick and gave the test spoon a good scratching to reveal the spoon surface. The paint was not drying as quickly as it did when I used Mr. Color thinner.

After 1 day, the paint had fully cured. The surface was just as tough and scratch resistant as the Mr. Color spoon, but it retained the dull finish. The roughness of the exposed area on the spoon shows how the paint had "eaten" into the surface a little bit. This means paint adhesion is good, but there is risk of making the plastic brittle especially if it is thin and you didn't prime.

Conclusion 

The results show that Adhering liquid *might* be a viable alternative for hobby grade lacquer thinner, if you don't mind the drop in glossiness (like when you plan on flat-coating anyway). It evaporates much faster than hobby grade lacquer thinner, so you could run into airbrush clogs and/or tip-dry if you leave your paint cup exposed for extended periods.

I have no idea what other chemicals are in the Adhering liquid (google isn't helping much), so take the necessary precautions (wear appropriate breathing gear and work in a well ventilated area away from open flames or things that spark)  if you want to test this out yourself. Try at your own risk. I won't be held responsible if you set your house on fire.

I still want to do more testing with actual lacquer paint instead of nail polish, and I'm also thinking about doing a mix of Adhering liquid and Mr. Color thinner just to see if it improves flow, paint leveling, drying time or finish - so be on the lookout for an update to this post.


Until the next experiment, keep building plamo!