Hi gent's , i have read and taken in and valued all of your comment's , i have now painted the main wing and have some observations but first i thought i should quantify my origional question re. thinners .

I am an engineer by trade - a toolmaker - i like to make things like guitars and building and flying radio controlled model aircraft , i enjoy buiding model's as opposed to purchasing artf's (but thats a whole nother topic !) , i also paint my model's although i am no painter !

In the good old day's i used nitrocellulose car paint's , these were a delight to use , quite cheap , any colour could be easily mixed and thinning was very forgiving , if a mistake or run was experienced only half an hour or so drying time was needed before i could wet and dry back and then re spray - fantastic .

As cellulose was slowly fazed out i try'ed Klass Kote on a few models with satisfying results , i enjoyed the fact that the entire paint job was fuel proof and not just the clear coat as in other methods.

What i found difficult / frustrating was working with such small volumes of paint due to cost and waste (only mixing what was estimated volume for job) , i even bought a couple of different sized gravity fed spay guns to use the available paint efficiently .

I like Klass Kote as a product and appreciate the fact that my UK supplier has to put his money up front to carry stock , thinners however i look upon as a consumable as opposed to paint and catallist that i feel are matched .

I appreciate that the thinner used must be compatable with the paint product but here's my point (forgive my honesty here) -
somewhere in the industrial world the very same "liquid"/ thinner is used in bulk , be it for paint , carpet / shoe production processes , who knows ! but you can bet you can buy a oil drum sized tin of it for a tenth of the price of anything pint sized with "RC model use " written on it , RC jet double it again ! , in the UK due to health and safety issues dangerous liquid's can only be sent by courier - not posted thus the shipping is more than the product .

Again forgive me - the wing - i mixed same amount's of dark blue Klass Kote and satin catalist , left for half an hour and thinned with nitrocellulose thinner, i sprayed outside as i dont like like overspray in my work shop , the paint and thinner mixed very well and after spraying a short time elected to thin the mixture further .

Thr finish was not as good from the gun as with previous model's using Klass Kote reducer , however good adhesion and colour were achieved but slightly rough to the touch (after thirty minuite or so )

My conclusion was the paint mixture was reaching the wing too dry , i feel that the nitrocellulose thinner i was using was possibly a particularly quick drying type and although the outside enviroment was not unsympathetic to spraying it possibly further encouraged the evaporation of the thinner content of the paint mix on leaving the gun .

I lightly wet and dry'ed the paint job after a day or so as on previous models to achieve a very good finish , slightly weathered look and have to say i am am pleased with the overall effect , i must admit that if i had intended a gloss finish with apprpriate catalist i would want a superior finish from the gun but also believe with a better quality / slower drying cellulose thinner the paint would indeed have time to "lay" and settle on the component to give a better quality of gun finish .

I now have the fuselage to paint and will try further modifications to my process to see if an improvement can be achieved ,

I have to thank you all for your words of wisdom and i appreciate some of you will be offended by what would seem my mean'ness over the thinners but it's a component that i find variable during a paint exersise and when the shipping is more than the material i find it best to source an alternative .

Very many thank's , Dave