Thinning MM Acryl for Washes

Brian,
I've been using MM Acrylics (occassionally some tamiya) for some time for my armor models. I airbrush Future floor polish onto my model before, letting it dry at least 24 hours, usually though 2-3 days. I generally use a mix ratio of 5:2:3 of distilled water:paint: dish detergent (Ajax dishwashing liquid, the kind used for washing dishes by hand in the sink). I use a bottle top from the 20 oz sodas as my mixing "bowl". I add the water first, then soap, lastly the paint, basically "eyeballing" by drop. I use a 00 brush to apply to the recesses and panel lines. You'll want to stir the mixture often as you use it. I'll wait about 10 -20 minutes the remove the excess by rubbing it with a cotton swab or one of my wife's makeup applicator (better but much more expensive). I've never had a problem with the undercoat fading even with vigorous rubbing. Do be sure to use the Future, otherwise your wash won't move to the recesses.
Hope this helps, good luck.
AF

Af,

Thank you for your response. Would this work the same way if I was doing tracks on a tank, i.e. after laying down the base coat, I would spray/brush Future on the tracks and then apply the wash you mentioned?

Also, I since you have been using MM Acryl for a while, I am wondering if you could answer another question for me. I have kind of shied away from using this paint for airbrushing sticking mostly to Tamiya. The reason being, I've found it extremely hard to clean my airbrush after using MM Acryl, especially if I don't clean it up right away. With tamiya it cleans up easily using alcohol with no problems.

Is there some other cleaner/thinner or solvent I can use (non-toxic if possible) to clean up after airbrushing with MM Acryls?

Thanks!

Brian

Brian,
I'd agree with you in principle on the tracks, however I don't use the Future on the tracks. I tend to paint my tracks with MM Gun Metal (which I believe dries as a gloss) as the base. Then I wash with rust, dry brush with steel, rub on some graphite and finally use MM clear flat acryl. I have painted tracks with a base of rust (no Future), then was with gunmetal etc. In this case I haven't had any problem with was "sticking" to the Flat rust, I guess because there's so much structural detail to the tracks themselves (also I build more 1/72 instead of 1/35). I use Azteks Airbrush cleaner regardless of the paint used. I haven't run into cleaning problems, I'll shoot water thru the gun between colors, and clean the cup. After painting I pretty much clean immediately, shooting thru water, then some cleaner. It works well for me. Let me know what you figure out.
Good luck,
AF