I'm actually spraying a helmet and wanting to use Dupli-Color Lacquer and for the details of the helmet use water-based airbrush paint. Is this okay to do or no?

You should be ok, but why the two different products? are you going to apply and clear coat over all this? one reason I ask is that some products don't like to stick to other products like some enamels don't stick well to lacquer.
Jay D.

badsix wrote:You should be ok, but why the two different products? are you going to apply and clear coat over all this? one reason I ask is that some products don't like to stick to other products like some enamels don't stick well to lacquer.
Jay D.

Dupli Color doesn't make very many colors (https://www.duplicolor.com/product/pain ... sh-system/) and they don't have what I want for the small stuff. Yes, I plan to apply a clear coat that Dupli Color makes.

If you would be talking something like Auto Air Colors or Wicked my experience was you could NOT use any type of lacquer based materials over them no matter how long they sat and cured. Only urethanes would work over them. That was a while back when I did that but I don't think that has changed with them. You could use a something like clear Max 2k over them if you have to have an aerosol.

Darrel is absolutely right the Duplicolor lacquer will most likely lift all the water base that you use. that was my concern with your project. you'll want to investigate using a urethane clear as Darrel said.
Jay D.

I don't know crap about auto paint - what is y'all's suggestion that is the easiest and cheapest for spraying a helmet? I don't want to put in $100 on a fairly simple paint job for a helmet. This isn't going on a 69 Ford Mustang that needs to last forever, just not look like crap and not chip super easy. Thanks!

If you don't know crap about auto paint why are you here? None of what we work with is cheap. Cheap is usually crap, good costs more, and chip proof gets downright expensive. I know several guys that do helmets as a hobby and business. Most of them work in Wicked colors and will either have a mini gun for spraying auto urethane or just get the 2k clear aerosols.

stal023 wrote:I don't know crap about auto paint - what is y'all's suggestion that is the easiest and cheapest for spraying a helmet? I don't want to put in $100 on a fairly simple paint job for a helmet.

if ya dont want to put in $100 ,like the colors rustoleum spray bombs have.
simple airbrush jobs on helmets= $450 and up.

DarrelK wrote:If you don't know crap about auto paint why are you here?

Isn't that the point of a forum, is to learn?

Sure.... first thing you learn here is there are basics to what we do.... If you go into that Info Center button at the top you will see an article called "The Basics." You learn about standards for doing single stage paints (lacquers, enamels, urethane) and base/clear systems. You'll get an understanding of what automotive style paint coatings are. NONE of them are cheap to buy or cheap to apply. We can easily get $1000 to $1500 in paint materials to do a car. I can buy a can of latex and a brush at Home Depot and I would be a painter. Hobbyists may try to bend the rules of "painting" by using Dupli Color, Rustoleum, etc., in projects just to end up here trying to figure out what went wrong or why they can't achieve pro results.
I'm not trying to bust your chops on this but....trust me look at some of the Wicked or Auto Air Colors and just get set up to spray some auto quality urethane....