I was fortunate to get some Aero Gloss butyrate dope. 4 ounce bottles of red, blue and white that were usable. Some others needed to be brought back from the solid. I had two planes that needed painting and didn't have enough Aero Gloss to do both. But I did have the same colors in Brodak butyrate dope. The Aero Gloss white was a flat. When it came time to paint I got both masked and ready for paint. I mixed the two brands together and used hardware lacquer store thinner and Brodak thinner and when I finished the gloss colors were dead flat. I expected the white to be flat but the blue and red, not so much. After spraying with 2 part urethane the gloss came back.
  Fast forward to the next plane. I used only Brodak butyrate on this one but didn't have enough Brodak thinner so I mixed in store lacquer thinner. Again the gloss turned flat. I was out of urethane and planned on using clear dope but what I had on hand was contaminated with the lacquer thinner. I went to the hobby shop and got some more Brodak clear and Brodak thinner. That worked as it should putting the shine back on.
  Using the cheap thinner works very well to apply the covering and initial coats of clear. Even when applying the colors. But using the cheap thinner in the final clear coats is not good.

Isn't aerogloss 60 years old by now?

Some place along the time line there was a change in the formula of color dope.

In the olden days I could brush paint a plane using several colors with no problem.  It was pretty-well fuel proof.  Once it was dry it was dry.

When I got back into painting planes in this century, the second color instantly dissolved the first and created a mud color.  This forced me into spray painting.  The new paint is not very fuel proof.  On the upside, modern color dope can get rock-hard and still be dissolved and used with any brand of lacquer or dope thinner. 

When I get a can or bottle of old style dope that is not hard, I still use it, but not mixed with the new stuff.

  I don't know for sure, but I think a lot of the incompatibility issues in recent decades are that the companies are playing "whack-a-mole" with the EPA and state clean air agencies (like CARB) trying to make a workable product as the regulations change on a monthly basis.   

     Brett

I think Aero gloss is a lacquer.

  Acrylic Lacquer (for at least 50 years). It is not butyrate dope. If you have automotive touch-up paint, you will know where Aero-Gloss originated.

     Brett

I was recently given a case of about twenty bottles of Aero Gloss.    I used a lot of it in my earlier years and only knew I could not mix it with Testors dope.   The treasure here is enough (barely) of the metallic maroon,  metallic blue and yes some metallic green.   These metallics were to me the most beautiful colors nobody else could duplicate.   I have a new airplane I'm going to try the metallic maroon on and hope I don't have issues since the clear above and below is Randolph.   I have wet sanded the clear below the color very well and cleaned it with Windex.   I hope that provides the tooth needed to hold the color.    I may shoot on some clear Randolph over it BEFORE trying to mask for trim colors to keep the Aero Gloss from lifting when I pull the tape up.   We will see....


Dave