Paint Mixing

Buy some disposable pipettes. TPC Global sells them by the hundred load and they've got little tick marks so you can more-or-less measure. Some paints are easy to flush so you can use a pipette again and again until it fails, where others are more one-and-done.

I just use an old paintbrush, add a little at a time to the thinner until i am happy.

Straws and coffee stirrers

I use glass eyedroppers I got from Walgreens, in the eye/ears section.

I found whatever I used, I had to clean it, so finally decided to just pour from paint bottle into airbrush bottle. Okay, I have to clean the threads of the bottle, but as I say, whatever I did, I had to clean something.  Same thing with thinner.

I find thinning ratio does not need to be exact to three significant figures. If it is too thick add thinner, too thin add some more paint. I can make some adjustment for varying thinning ratios with airbrush adjustments and pressure.

I would say there is no exact correct ratio, merely a range of ratios that work.  You'll find with time that you learn to adjust your technique a bit with different thinning ratios.  Also, sometimes different thinning ratios give a slightly different finish so I sometimes alter the thinning ratio for that reason.  For example, to get a good gloss finish, the final coat should be a little thinner than the coats building up the finish.

I use a plastic eye dropper from some of my kids' Tylenol. Rinse it out and re-use until it's beyond cleaning.

I have found the pipettes to be the easiest and neatest to use.  You can usually find them hanging in a bubble pack of 5 from Testors at any hobby shop.  But buying in bulk quantities as mentioned above is a lot cheaper.  Just like clamps, you can never have too many!

Also if you are being lazy and pouring straight from the bottle, a toothpick (or piece of styrene rod or whatever)  held against the lid will keep the paint heading down instead of potentially getting into the threading.

Don Stauffer

I found whatever I used, I had to clean it,

That's the nice thing about straws and stirrers, use them and toss them. Straws in particular are way long so I take a Sharpie and mark the ends then cut them in half with scissors. I mark them first because when you cut you don't always end up with a straight edge and your finger tip may not seal it. If there's enough straw/stirrer left clean to use it again I snip the dirty end off and reuse the rest.

Biggest reason is, I don't have to worry with cleaning. Secondary reason is, if I'm doing a lot of painting with several colors it's pretty economical. Although these days you do have to buy the better brands of straws because the cheap one's are too flimsy.

If you prefer to use pipettes but don't want to order them then stop by a local gun shop and see if they have them in their cleaning supplies. You can get 10 for less than the price of 5 Testors and they're basically the same thing. At least you can around here. I do use them for adding thinner because you have more control. And you don't have to clean them...

Tony

Wingman_kz

Don Stauffer

I found whatever I used, I had to clean it,

That's the nice thing about straws and stirrers, use them and toss them. Straws in particular are way long so I take a Sharpie and mark the ends then cut them in half with scissors. I mark them first because when you cut you don't always end up with a straight edge and your finger tip may not seal it. If there's enough straw/stirrer left clean to use it again I snip the dirty end off and reuse the rest.

Biggest reason is, I don't have to worry with cleaning.

Tony

I do use the coffee stirrers that are simple hollow cylinders.  Always keep some on hand. I use them primarily for mixing paint, but if I am just adding a small amount of a different color I do use them to transfer paint.  But those are too slow for the main color- too many dips.

Thanks all for your help everyone, great ideas!