I did a wash last night and the plastic actually cracked!
The model is one of the sci-fi Nitto SF3D Jerrys- excellent quality, and I assume good quality plastic. It was painted with Tamiya acrylic paints and then sealed with 2 or 3 coats of Future. The model cured for about a week.
The wash consisted of odorless mineral spirits and Windsor and Newton oil paint- lamp black.
The wash went on the main body ok, but a few cracks appeared on the legs about 20 minutes or so after the wash. The cracks appeared in spots that might be under a little bit of stress.
Anyone know why a wash would cause cracks in plastic?

Peter

I made a few Nitto armor models about 15 years ago and never ran in to this problem. Actually, I thought the Nitto were pretty high quality for the time.

All the techniques you described should not have caused any cracking to the plastic. Is it possible that you ether mechanically or thermally stressed the plastic before they were painted? Perhaps they were micro cracked before painting? May be they were inherently stressed during the production.

In my poor opinion, the plastic is more likely the culprit than the paint or thinner. You may consider trying to get your $ back from the place you bought the kit.

One man's opinion, anyway. Sorry you had the problem. This would really bum me out if it happened to me.

Ahh man.... thats a bummer

Like JPeiper said "try and get your money back"

As for a reason for the cracking... maby you aplied the coat when It was cold and the weather got hot all of a sudden casuing the liquid to expand or shrink??? (or vice versa)