I'm just getting back into the hobby after a long layoff. I used to paint with two-part epoxy paints like HobbyPoxy or K&B's epoxy paint. Well... not going to be doing that now. LHS has a couple of cans of Perfect paint, no thinner... doesn't expect to have anything anytime soon... says nobody has asked for paint in the last few years... says ARF's don't need paint.

So I decided to try a test with what I could find at Lowe's Home Improvement. Could only find spray cans. Nuts... Looked for an auto paint shop and this "metropolis" isn't big enough to have a real one. The one here is a counter at the back door of a Sherwin Williams. Nuts!!!

So, anybody that can save me the trouble of running a test with a bunch of spray cans, I'd appreciate it.

Anybody want to step up and recommend a brand and type that they know works?

For example, of all the threads I've scanned trying to get a line on a "for sure" brand, I'm seeing lots of mentions that today's Rustoleum is NOT fuelproof anymore, so don't expect anyone to recommend that one. But would expect somebody to know a brand that works for them. Least case, I'd like to find a spray clear that's bullet proof.

tia

"Glass Kote" (spelling ? ) is almost identical to the old K&B Hobbypoxy paint.

If you want fuel PROOF, you need to use an epoxy paint OR an automotive 2 part paint. The rest are fuel resistant (although to varying degrees ).

As for spray cans.......

SOME of the Rustoleum paints are fuel resistant/proof. Perhaps others can tell you which colors are "safe" to use.

DupliColor Truck and Van paints (Wal Marts auto section - about $4.00 for an 11 oz can ) PROVIDED they are labled ACRYLIC enamel or ACRYLIC lacquer are USUALLY fuel resistant/proof. I have used several different colors (Silver/aluminum [is an almost perfect match for SolarTex silver/aluminum], black and white ) and found them to be fuel resistant/proof.

MOST paints labled ACRYLIC enamel/lacquer are reasonably fuel proof. To be certain you should do a test panel though. Be careful of compatibility - you can use enamel over lacquer, but not the other way around.

You can always clear coat with LusterKote or Ultracote (preferred ) clear to make it fuel proof.

Hope this is of some help.

I don't keep links handy, just do a GOOGLE search on K&B.

Check out WarbirdColors at http://www.warbirdcolors.com

It is a line of water-based, acrylic polyurethane primer and paint, formulated specifically for the hobby

There are independent reviews on rcscalebuilder.com, under the FINISHING forum. Look at the "Latex Paint Test" thread and also on the thread entitled "Warbird Colors Paint", for user feedback. Also in the "Latex Paint Test" thread, are the results of testing performed by Dave Platt. He performed the same test scenario that he did on the Klass Kote paints, including the resistance test to glow-fuel, gasoline and 100% nitro. WarbirdColors PASSED the tests.

Check out www.klasskote.com if you liked the K&B epoxy paints. The Catalyst is compatible with most of the older K&B colors. I have been using it for a couple years and have been very happy.

One thing I've noticed is that a number of the spray-cans labeled "acrylic" or "lacquer" are methanol resistant but wipe almost straight off if you expose them to nitromethane.

Modern synthetic oils are also a problem. In fact, some paints will stand up reasonably well to low-nitro fuels but just disolve away if hot synthetic oil from the muffler sprays against them.

I guess one option is to use no nitromethane and stick to castor oil. Hey, FAI fuel could make a come-back :-)

excellent info guys... thanks

<i>One thing I've noticed is that a number of the spray-cans labeled "acrylic" or "lacquer" are methanol resistant but wipe almost straight off if you expose them to nitromethane. </i>

Some cheap lacquer's are a mix of acrylic and non acrylic lacquers. If you use glass cote acrylic lacquer you will be ok. If you are testing with pure nitromethane, then even Sig butyrate dope will fail that test, dope and acrylic lacquer are good to about 20% nitro. The control line stunt guys use a lot of automotive acrylic lacquers, fills faster, and dries quicker than dope. They do use the aluminum based silver dope for a filler. I think they spray about three coats of silver and sand most of it off then three more coats till they can sand with no pores showing and no bare spots. This is much lighter than primer as aluminum powder is very light. Then they top coat with acrylic lacquer auto paint, then acrylic lacquer clear. All of this work on top of silkspan no less.

I have used Testors enamel paints for plastic models with Top Flite Luserkote over that and it seems to be working fine even after about 5 years. with 15% glow fuel exuast. will be trying Klasskote soon.

Hi, I'm from Belgium and here everything has a slightly diffrent name but basically everything is the same.
Paint is an ongoing pain in the ass as far as I'm concerned.
1) I must conclude that paint that you buy in hobby stores is basically expensive chemical waiste in canisters, not something you spray on you're precious model I believe.
I spend fortunes on all kinds of bottles and pots to make something "fuel proof" and after the first run-up it flew faster from my model than the engine's smoke.
OK I admit that when you do not use nitro just about anything will stay, but nitro....
2) Only 1 type of paint resists to nitro and that is 2 components automotive paint. No more to say about that, it's not cheap, it has a reputation of being not so mild about our health but man it is superb quality in what it is.
3) colours... oracover we use here, but over there in the states it's called otherwise I believe.
The guy's who make the film don't bother about the paint but the guy's that make the models do because it's their mission to find fuel proof (nitro proof) paint of the (quasi) equal colour.
So what I do is to take a pallet of RALcolours and see which one matches most with the film, then I go to a decent car-things-store and they make me the wright colour in sikkens autocryl paint. Until now I have no better solution and the paint resists vertually anything, it is dry and sentless after 30 minutes at 50 °c or 24 hours at 20°c.

remark: fuel proof paint is only fuel proof when every underlying layer is done in fuel proof paint, nitro is so thin that it penetrates throught and affects possible underlying layers of less quality material.

I hope to have been of some service

remark: fuel proof paint is only fuel proof when every underlying layer is done in fuel proof paint, nitro is so thin that it penetrates throught and affects possible underlying layers of less quality material.

You know I don't thin nitro is the worst of it, its the acetone in fuel that does the worst damage to our paints. It is used as an additive to prevent detonation and smoother running on hot days. Unfortunately high nitro fuels usually have more acetone, low nitro fuels usually have none. Acetone is a common paint thinner and will disolve most paints. Nitro itself is not thin, in fact it is oily and about the same viscosity a kerosene and desiel fuel.