I use Tamiya's proprietary acrylic thinner, when I apply Tamiya acrylics by hand. They're meant to be airbrushed, so they're meant to be thinned for use.
I can't speak to using a retarder, since I don't use one. I find it sufficient to dip my brush in the thinner, and then into the paint, and apply it. Or, I'll put a couple of drops of the thinner in a well on my ceramic palette, load up the brush with paint from the jar, then use that to get the paint into the thinner and make a little batch of thinned paint. I can apply Tamiya paints in coats as thin as if I had airbrushed them.