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Help with Tamiya acrylic paint

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  • Member since
    November 2008
  • From: CA.
Help with Tamiya acrylic paint
Posted by plumline on Saturday, March 21, 2009 10:16 AM
        Hello fellow modelers I having trouble with Tamiya paints acrylics. The first time I open the bottle I stir it and it paints good. When I go to use it the next time I stir it but I can't get it to mix. I use a tooth pick to mix the paint it seems to be thiner on the top and thicker on the bottom.  So I use the paint on the tooth pick I shake but I hear it's better to stir the paint. Thanks for the help
A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.
  • Member since
    January 2003
  • From: Peoples Socialist Democratic Republic of Illinois
Posted by Triarius on Saturday, March 21, 2009 10:37 AM

The care and feeding of acrylic paint (regardless of brand):

Stirred, not shaken. Hobby paint bottles don't have sufficient volume for shaking to be effective. There are exceptions, such as Hawkeye's Talon metallic acrylics, which should be shaken. Shaking also entrains air into paint, and air is not good for liquid paint.

Whenever you are done with a bottle of paint, thoroughly clean the rim, inside of the neck (throat) of the bottle, and the sealing material inside the lid. That mean no paint anywhere on the sealing surfaces. Cleaning the throat keeps dried and partially dried paint from falling into the liquid, where it will promote polymerization.

Never thin the paint in the bottle. Decant some and thin that for airbrushing. Never paint directly from the bottle, either, especially with Tamiya or Gunze.

When brush painting Tamiya, dip the tip of the brush in 90% isopropyl or Tamiya acrylic thinner before loading it with paint. Keep the brush well loaded with paint, paint with a wet edge—you flow the paint on, more than spread it. Don't worry, it will snuggle down to the surface as it cures. Never go over a painted area until the paint has fully cured (overnight as an absolute minimum.) 

Finally, what you use to stir the paint is important. A toothpick won't do the job. You need something paddle shaped. I flattened the end of a steel wire, filed and sanded it smooth. This spatula has served for years, is easy to clean, and disperses the paint quite well. 

Ross Martinek A little strangeness, now and then, is a good thing… Wink

  • Member since
    November 2008
  • From: CA.
Posted by plumline on Saturday, March 21, 2009 6:09 PM
     Thanks for the advice one thing why you dip the brush in isopropyl before painting.
A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.
  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: Sydney, Australia
Posted by Phil_H on Saturday, March 21, 2009 6:23 PM

 plumline wrote:
     Thanks for the advice one thing why you dip the brush in isopropyl before painting.

Having the brush moist (not dripping wet) with thinner before "loading" helps the paint to flow more smoothly off the brush when you paint. It also reduces the tendency of the paint to dry on the brush and degrading the brush's performance.

 

  • Member since
    November 2008
  • From: CA.
Posted by plumline on Saturday, March 21, 2009 6:44 PM
     I hear that,the paint looks like a 3year did it all blotchy and uneven. Now I know why thanks.
A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.
  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: Sydney, Australia
Posted by Phil_H on Saturday, March 21, 2009 7:08 PM

I'll reiterate a point that Ross made above.

 Triarius wrote:
Never go over a painted area until the paint has fully cured (overnight as an absolute minimum.) 

Tamiya paints skin over very quickly and gives the appearance of being dry.

However there are two stages to "drying" of Tamiya paints (and many other paints)

(1) evaporation of the reducer - because the reducer used in Tamiya paints is primarily alcohol, this happens very rapidly. The paint may be "touch dry" but is, in fact quite fragile. When airbrushing, this can take a few seconds, when brush painting, depending on the thickness of the coat, anywhere froma few seconds to a few minutes., after which it appears "dry".

(2) Curing - In the case of Tamiya paints curing is a process of polymerisarion of the acrylic binders in the paint. This can take up to 24 hours or more for "flat" paints or a week or more for gloss paints (not sure why there is such a great difference, but it happens) 

So when painting, though the surface may appear to be dry, it's not fully bonded to the styrene underneath. Painting over an apparently dry section will pull up the partially dry paint underneath in big ugly lumps. So it's important to let the paint fully cure before overcoating.

  • Member since
    November 2008
  • From: CA.
Posted by plumline on Saturday, March 21, 2009 10:10 PM
       Gone are the days of dipping the brush in the paint bottle and just painting the part. The paints these days are so high tech I have so much to learn. 
A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.
  • Member since
    January 2003
  • From: Peoples Socialist Democratic Republic of Illinois
Posted by Triarius on Sunday, March 22, 2009 10:39 AM

'Fraid so, and it will get worse as VOC rules are tightened.

The reason gloss paints take longer to cure is twofold: the binder is different, and to produce a gloss surface, it has to polymerize more slowly; and they are less permeable than flat paints, which are relatively porous, especially during the evaporative and curing phases.

Solvent loss doesn't stop when the paint is touch dry. It actually continues until curing is complete, but at a much slower rate. For some coatings, solvent loss may continue even after cure is complete, especially if the film thickness is great. 

Ross Martinek A little strangeness, now and then, is a good thing… Wink

  • Member since
    November 2008
  • From: CA.
Posted by plumline on Sunday, March 22, 2009 6:48 PM
      Thanks for the feed back it has been a tremendous help.
A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.
  • Member since
    December 2007
  • From: Bridgeview, Illinois
Posted by mg.mikael on Sunday, March 22, 2009 9:24 PM
 Phil_H wrote:

I'll reiterate a point that Ross made above.

 Triarius wrote:
Never go over a painted area until the paint has fully cured (overnight as an absolute minimum.) 

Tamiya paints skin over very quickly and gives the appearance of being dry.

However there are two stages to "drying" of Tamiya paints (and many other paints)

(1) evaporation of the reducer - because the reducer used in Tamiya paints is primarily alcohol, this happens very rapidly. The paint may be "touch dry" but is, in fact quite fragile. When airbrushing, this can take a few seconds, when brush painting, depending on the thickness of the coat, anywhere froma few seconds to a few minutes., after which it appears "dry".

(2) Curing - In the case of Tamiya paints curing is a process of polymerisarion of the acrylic binders in the paint. This can take up to 24 hours or more for "flat" paints or a week or more for gloss paints (not sure why there is such a great difference, but it happens) 

So when painting, though the surface may appear to be dry, it's not fully bonded to the styrene underneath. Painting over an apparently dry section will pull up the partially dry paint underneath in big ugly lumps. So it's important to let the paint fully cure before overcoating.

Overall just don't use Tamiya Acrylics when brush painting. If your brush painting, use ModelMaster Acrylics, they don't have the curing problem and spread real nicely with a brush. I never get brush strokes when using ModelMaster Acrylics, that was however a pesistent problem with Tamiya Acrylics. That's why I pretty much only use Tamiya Acrylics as a last resort.

"A good plan executed now is better than a perfect plan next week." - George S. Patton

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  • Member since
    March 2005
Posted by philo426 on Wednesday, April 1, 2009 8:22 AM
I use Tamiya acrylics all of the time.Make sure that you stir it for about a minute and thin it with alcohol(I use 70% isopropyl alcohol) .You should not have a problem after that.
  • Member since
    November 2008
  • From: CA.
Posted by plumline on Wednesday, April 1, 2009 7:29 PM
    Thanks for the help the Tamiya acrylic paint if anything is to thin I try to mix it from the bottom to get the right consistency. I will keep working at it sooner or later the paint will come around. thanks
A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.
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