04-05-2017, 10:45 AM
It's been quite some time since I've used Scalecoat, but I'd guess at anywhere between 30%-50% thinner. I'd start at 30% but for me, it's usually more of an instinct method than any set formula. 
In about a week-or-so, I'll be using Scalecoat on Part I of my Challenge...I might have more to say on it after that.
Scalecoat offers a very tough finish, but its long drying time is ill-suited to my usual painting practice for locomotives, which is normally to work in multiple colours for various parts of the locomotive, switching back and forth as I paint. With paints such as Floquil or Pollyscale, which dry to the touch very quickly, it's easy to handle an object so that you can get coverage from the best possible angle, and it's also easy to touch-up areas of accidental overspray.
Scalecoat does dry faster (but not fast enough) when using lacquer thinner rather than their proprietary thinner, and it'll likely make painting time for that locomotive measured in days rather than hours.
I paint in my garage, about 100' behind the house, and the slow drying time will mean that I'll have to carry each painted piece (up to 14 of them, I think) separately back to the house, hoping that it hasn't become windy or started to rain or snow while I was painting. With Pollyscale, I could put all of the painted, but dry-to-the-touch stuff in a covered box, and bring it and my painting gear back in one trip, regardless of the weather.
Wayne
In about a week-or-so, I'll be using Scalecoat on Part I of my Challenge...I might have more to say on it after that.
Scalecoat offers a very tough finish, but its long drying time is ill-suited to my usual painting practice for locomotives, which is normally to work in multiple colours for various parts of the locomotive, switching back and forth as I paint. With paints such as Floquil or Pollyscale, which dry to the touch very quickly, it's easy to handle an object so that you can get coverage from the best possible angle, and it's also easy to touch-up areas of accidental overspray.
Scalecoat does dry faster (but not fast enough) when using lacquer thinner rather than their proprietary thinner, and it'll likely make painting time for that locomotive measured in days rather than hours.
I paint in my garage, about 100' behind the house, and the slow drying time will mean that I'll have to carry each painted piece (up to 14 of them, I think) separately back to the house, hoping that it hasn't become windy or started to rain or snow while I was painting. With Pollyscale, I could put all of the painted, but dry-to-the-touch stuff in a covered box, and bring it and my painting gear back in one trip, regardless of the weather.
Wayne