What do you use to thin your paint

The situation with acrylics has one big issue- one brand’s thinner is often incompatible with another brand of paint. Some work with their own and another brand ok, but not with a third or fourth brand. You’ll get best results using each brands own thinner with their paint, but that gets expensive and takes up storage space. 

I dont airbrush Vallejo’s yet, so no comment there. Tamiya I thin with their thinner or generic lacquer thinner with fine results. I had heard that Gunze Aqueous could be thinned with Tamiya thinner-tried a test mix the other day- no go. I also tried Testors Universal Acrylic Thinner, also a no go. 

Experiment in a safe container any thinner/paint mixes before you try running them thru your airbrush.

Enamels on the other hand are pretty consistent. I prefer the Testors Universal Enamel Thinner for an airbrushing thinner.

Don't know about the Vallejo, never used it , but I normally mix tamiya with water  (75% paint to 25% water) and normally I mix enamel, like testors, with any oil base thinners, which can be found easily at any hardware store, normally  (50% paint to 50% thinner).  Easy trick that works for me is try to mix your paint to like a 2% milk consistency.

Oh and don't forget about mr. color, can't tell you how to thin that though because I haven't used it either.

Vallejo... Meh. I don't use it for airbrushing but theyre great for hand brushing. Not the most durable paint either. 

Tamiya, I use their brand thinner.

Enamels I use either the paint brand's thinner or mineral spirits or lacquer hardware store thinner

Model Master acrylics - I use Testors Universal Acrylic thinner

All other brand paints, I'll use the paint brand's thinner; LifeColor, Humbrol, Gunze/Mr. Color, Alclad, etc...

As stik already mentioned, test first before shooting them from an airbrush.

Vallejo thinner+flow improver if needed

Tamiya Lacquer thinner

Testor Universal Enamel Thinner-red can

Also Vellejo thinner+flow improver

BlackSheepTwoOneFour

 

Model Master acrylics - I use Testors Universal Acrylic thinner

Just to piggyback on this comment- you would think by this product’s name that it would work with all brands of acrylic paints. It does not. Polly Scale (not old Polly S) and Aeromaster, yes. Also Humbrol Acrylics, Yes. Gunze Aqueous, NO. Any other brands, test, test, test, you’re mileage results will vary...

For tamiya I use isopropyl alcohol (70%) thinned about 50 50.  For enamels I use lacquer thinner also 50 50.

    I also use isopropyl alcohol tamiya paints sometimes but you have to keep an eye out because it dries pretty dang fast.

Very simple, if you don’t want any unforeseen surprises in your airbrush use each manufacturers thinner. As previously mentioned, one acrylic product may not work with another brand. By using The recommended thinner you will get the best performance from them. Vallejo Air claims to be spray ready from the bottle but it still needs some of their thinner and retarder.

As for enamels the best thinner I’ve used is Testors in the red can. It’s expensive but a lower price with a 40% coupon at Hobby Lobby.

stikpusher

 

 

BlackSheepTwoOneFour

 

Model Master acrylics - I use Testors Universal Acrylic thinner

 

 

 

Just to piggyback on this comment- you would think by this product’s name that it would work with all brands of acrylic paints. It does not. Polly Scale (not old Polly S) and Aeromaster, yes. Also Humbrol Acrylics, Yes. Gunze Aqueous, NO. Any other brands, test, test, test, you’re mileage results will vary...

 

Thanks for bringing that up. I should have mentioned Aeromaster and Pollyscale as well. The reason I didn’t mention Pollyscale and Aeromaster is because they’re both getting harder to find (other than on eBay) especially  Aeromaster. 

NEVER thin Vallejo with isopropyl alcohol. That little tidbit of knowledge would have helped me immensely when I first started airbrushing. I thin VJ, when needed, just with distilled water. And a little bit of flow improver  while airbrushing.

I use mainly Testors enamels.  I used to use the Testors thinner in half pint cans.  However, I find it harder to get those cans, and the little bottles of thinner are terribly expensive, so I have learned to use turpentine/mineral spirits.  I will not use a product that is labeled paint thinner- some real crud is sold that way.  If it says either mineral spirits or turpentine it is the real stuff.

I thin it approximately 1:1 (half paint- half thinner), but it depends.  I run about 40:60 for gloss enamels for final coat or special effects.

I don't use a lot of acrylic, but when I do I thin it with isopropyl alcohol, about half and half.

The above ratios are for airbrushing.  For brush painting I use it straight out of bottle unless it is old, when I add thinner as needed to get brushing consistancy.

I use strictly Tamiya acrylics with Tamiya Thinner mixed per their instructions 2 to 1 paint to thinner which works just great for me.

i just stick with the brand thinner. it is not that expensive and one less variable, especially with airbrushing. i have heard windex will gum up vallejo, which i use almost exclusively now, so i use vallejo cleaner and flow as well. i think Tamiya airbrushes nicely but does not brush paint well. really liked PolyS until they died.

Tamiya Acrylic: Can be thinned with a wide variety of things.

• Tamiya's proprietary X-20A thinner
• Isopropyl Alcohol
• Denatured alcohol
• Generic lacquer thinner
• Tamiya Lacquer Thinner
• GSI Creos (Gunze) Mr Color Thinner
• GSI Creos (Gunze) Mr Leveling Thinner
• Water (possible, but least satisfactory of all options)

Recommended ratio depends on your airbrush setup and what you want to achieve. I note that there's a suggested ratio above of 2:1 (Paint:Thinner) Personally, I'd find this insufficient as I tend to go thin and often use 2:1 Thinner:Paint as a starting point. I've also gone as far as 80% thinner at times. 

I've found so much variation in viscosity from colour to colour with Vallejo ModelColor that it's not really possible to suggest a "standard" thinning ratio. Some colours drop nicely from the bottle nozzle but others (particularly lighter colours like pale greys) extrude like thin noodles.