Objections to FSM Acrylic Article

I read the article, and found it somewhat interesting, but with all the paint readily available these days, the process seemed to be more trouble that it was worth. Just my humble opinion.

thanks eric for the info. ive never really given "craft" paints a second thought. ill follow those links youve provided and give it a whirl. if nothing else , this hobby does keep a person thinking of ways to do what we want!

I'm sure many of the best modelers in the world have never given a thought to using art or craft acrylics. If you're willing to live with the big paint makers' definition of colors there is certainly no reason to stray away from familiar ground. And in some ways the solvent based Japanese paints are simply better - if Tamiya and Gunze make money they deserve it. (BTW: I have many bottles of Tamiya, Vallejo, Gunze and Floquil and have no thought of throwing them away.) If you want beautiful colors you want artist paints, but I think you could argue that aircraft, ships and tanks were not painted with beautiful colors. (Although if you were making a car and wanted a really deep color, I wonder if a top series artist acrylic with really explosive pigments couldn't give lacquers a run for their money.)

So, you don't need them. They have advantages however. Ironically, if you're a detail nut, you might not like the commercial renditions of some of the really basic military colors like US Army or Army Air Force olive drab(s), or USN Navy or Deck Blue. I'm getting interested in Fleet Air Arms colors and am not sure that Tamiya "Sky" is really a good match for the greenish light yellow used there. So you might actually want to mix your own brew. Can't beat artist acrylics for mixing - they're made to be as versatile as possible because the paint companies don't know what their customers are going to use them for. (That's why there are a blizzard of "mediums" etc to put into the base paint, any of which can change the brew drastically.) Color mixing is hard but I find it great fun. If you have a paint chip and learn the ropes you can pretty much make anything. In that realm Tamiya is second best because, artist acrylics vary so much in opacity (but tell you) which opens up doors. The other reason would be if you were doing modulation effects that revolve around building up very thin layers of paint at low psi. In my experience only Tamiya can match Golden for this kind of thing, but I wouldn't say surpass it. Also the techniques required to use artist acrylics are very valuable across the board. Want to make mud? - get some Golden Gel - they make about a dozen varieties, one with lava in it. Want to fill a seem? - get acrylic modeling paste: it won't dry as fast as putty or Mr. Surfacer, but it also doesn't attack the plastic and you can avoid a lot of rescribing. Having trouble with some of your water based acrylics like Model Master, Vallejo Model Color, Pollyscale or LIfe Color? - bet you need some Flow Aid, Retarder, GAC 200 or Airbrush Medium. And if you don't go to the art or craft store you might not run into Aleene's Tacky Glue. Aleene's is the most valuable tool I've encountered this year - if you need to put a small part anywhere and have it bond instantly, get Aleene's to get the part set and apply just a tad of CA to keep it there. And there's something to be said in favor of paints that are as benign as paint can be and will clean with ease.

Eric

excellent points worth looking into. im not "married" to any one brand of paint, i guess i look for the tool to best give me the effects i need.thanks for the info- esp. the ability to mix custom colors in the range i want.

Golden's is great paint as you said but it is pricey and the bottles are quite large for most modeling needs. One of the best airbrush mural artists I ever knew, Gina Gambidilla used to use Golden's almost exclusively and her work was awesome. Unfortunately she died of cancer in 2003. She wanted to give me a free lesson if I ever came to visit her as she thought I was that good. That was sure nice of her but I never made it to NJ to see her.

Golden sells fluid acrylics, which are about the same consistency as Vallejo Model Color or a little thicker than Model Master, in 1 ounce bottles. As professional artists use them and can go through lots of them in a large project many colors are there in 2 and 4 ounces - 16 oz for the primes. If you buy at Blick or Utrecht a one ounce bottle will be about $4 if it's series 1. Some of the pigments used are more costly and a series 3 paint could cost around $6. Those would have either extremely bright pigments or be silky colors with very low opacity for fancy work. I have a series 3 Prussian blue that almost explodes - hard to think of what you'd use it for unless you were making a car or mixing. So series 1 paints are the norm and way to go. One of the advantages or disadvantages of these things is they vary in transparency.  "Zinc White", very transparent, is really designed for mixing and only slightly lightens a more powerful color. Try to cover a surface with it alone and it's a bust. Titanium white is full opaque will covers better than any model paint white I've ever seen. In the real world, model paints vary on stuff like this too, but you only find out by trial and error. (Actually, I should have mentioned the fact that "problem" colors like white, orange or yellow are very much less a problem in the artist acrylic world because many of the colors have such powerful pigments.) The character of the paint on an artist acrylic is right on the label. I also really like their bottles - the drip bottle is simply great and because they're suspended in polymer they take almost no mixing and would last a very long time. Considering the fact that they all need some kind of thinning, 1oz Golden is actually cheaper than any model paint on the market. 4 oz is even more so.

The aibrush graphic artists are in a class of their own. The best of them make a good living at it and obviously are masters with the airbrush. We'd all be better if our hobby consisted solely of airbrushing - no building, sanding, weathering, scratch etc - just painting. I think only a handful of plastic modelers make any real money on commissions. The people that have made a living in modeling get into selling paints, pigments DVDs etc. So I bet your late friend was good. And she's was not alone in using Golden. Liquitex is okay and cheaper and may have a bigger market (I don't know) and some of the ritzy Euro brands have a following too. But Golden has the enviable reputation of being predictable, well priced and of very high quality. I certainly like them and I bet a lot of modelers would likewise if they used them. But as noted above, the learning curve is probably not worth the plus side of the equation for most hobbyists.

Eric

EBergerud

 

The aibrush graphic artists are in a class of their own. The best of them make a good living at it and obviously are masters with the airbrush.

 

True. Most use urethanes though such as House of Kolor, PPG, etc.

I tried craft paint on a Marder years ago and the stuff fell off.

I would much rather paid $2 more and get decent model paint and not have to screw with all this mixing.

If you want a straight up decent paint job you'd never need go beyond the modeling paint of your choice. But there are jobs where "take and spray" won't work. That's why good modelers spend a lot of time learning thinning ratios, best kind of thinner, best psi etc: if you do that, you're doing exactly what's needed to make an artist acrylic work - learning the paint.

As for the Marder, perhaps you didn't do it right. A craft acrylic or its superior cousin in the art department really needs a primer. And it is best thinned with airbrush medium and not the alcohol based stuff like Tamiya A-20.

BTW: the same stuff needed for artist acrylics will come in very handy  with any water based modeling paint like Vallejo Model Color, MM or Pollyscale. And the mediums like Flow Aid or Flow Retarder help prevent tip clog and smooth brush painting on anything. (Dip your brush into Flow Aid before hand brushing Tamiya - you'll see an improvement.) 

I've got way too much paint: have no idea why I collect the stuff. I use it all. For some jobs Tamiya and Gunze simply rule. For others, I like the water based brands a lot, and because I do it made sense to add some of the world's finest paints like Golden and Triart to the arsenal. I'm sure many fine modelers wouldn't see the point.

Eric

Eric,

I must say that was probobly the best post I have ever seen here! It was well thought out and very informative. I am certainly going to try your suggestions. You are right with how many artist paints simply POP in color, but I was unsure how to use them properly. If you have any more info. please pass it on, or any other recources please let us know. Thank you so much for taking the time to present this so well! I certainly do want to go beyond what Tamiya, Testors, etc. provide and color modulation is a perfect use of these paints. When I know more I will get to Hobby Lobby or more likely Blick to try some of these techniques! Thanks Again!

Tom

Both Golden and Blick have a lot of data on their website and on YouTube. Every brand should have some markings that describe the character of the paint. Golden's label is the most clear. (It even lists the individual pigment used.) It lists where a paint lies on a scale of opaque - transparent; Matte, Gloss; Thin - thick and high-low tinting. (Not really sure what the last one refers to exactly. Should write Golden a msg: they're very helpful with questions.) What you want for most purposes are the basic series 1 that are the least money and a little more predictable with mixing. Do note that one of the most commonly used artist acrylic is called "zinc white": it's excellent for mixing but very poor for covering. Something called "Warm" or "Titanium White" will cover beautifully - better than any model paint I know in that color. Carbon black - guess what the pigment is - give a black as Stalin's soul. Look at the label especially if you're going to mix the colors - something this type of paint is designed for. (The dropper caps are ideal for initial color mixing: couple drops of this, and that, see what happens.) When mixing it's very important to go from light to dark, and add new colors pretty slowly. If you know how, it's amazing how many colors you can make with the primes, black and white.  Airbrush medium is a must: but cheap. (Think of it as thinner that's hopeless as a brush cleaner: it will last a long time.) The other brew you'll want (but not need) is Flow Aid: this will help with many types of paint and is well worth the $5 for a bottle that will last you a generation. Once you've got the stuff it's easy. Put some paint into one of those cheap pallets and mix-in airbrush medium until the consistency you like is there and spray it like any other paint. (Artist acrylics, unless you know how to mess with them beforehand, don't cover plastic well straight up, especially with an airbrush. Prime the kit with whatever you like and the acrylic will go on very smoothly is quite durable. It dries quite quickly and is well suited to light coats. The  It's very easy to clean with water or any solvent you brush will tolerate. The paints vary in degree or gloss so at some time you'll want to compensate with gloss, satin or matte varnish: any will do. (They sell that stuff too: Golden Gloss Medium is about  1/4 the cost of Tamiya Clear and works the same way: it's just what which dries clear.) Doesn't matter for most kits because they'll probably get a blast of Future for decals and weathering. Artist acrylics the same way as any modeling paint once dry: put down a coat of Future and throw any weathering spirits you like. If you have a store around everything is better. In my experience art supply stores use art students and artists for sales. If they weren't busy I've found several that were glad to explain some of the fine points Everyone I've ever encountered who worked in an art supply store is an art student or is active in the arts scene locally. They all know the basics.

I can't tell you that any of this will make a better model. But if you liked art in 4th grade, you'll get a kick out of it I'd think.

Eric

Hi Eric,

Couple of questions maybe you (or any one) can help with. I'd like to migrate from lacquers, enamels and organic solvent based paints to water miscible acrylics (like someone said on another forum 'I used to use airplane dope and lacquer but now I can't remember why'). I haven't read the FSM article but have enjoyed reading your comments. 1. How do you get artists (or craft) acrylics to adhere well enough to withstand masking on our plastic models. 2. What is GAC200 and how does it help (Golden website didn't help much here) and, finally 3. have you used Liquitex' acrylic inks and are they just diluted fluid acrylics or do they have a use for us?

Bob

I appreciate all of the info you folks have provided.  But I think it's too complicated.

10 years ago, I bought a couple resin figures from an artist who sculpted the original and cast the resin models.  He suggested Ceramcoat acrylics from Wal-Mart, I got some, thinned them a bit with water, and got great results, with no further complications.

Keep it simple...

Chuck:

There are simple things you can do and you just described one. If it was that simple, I think Tamiya would be out of business and modelers swarming to Wal Mart. Try using some Creamcoat with water on a plastic model via an airbrush and you'll have a bad model. (It could be done - follow the instructions in the FSM article, and you would have a useable paint. But do note, he added GAC and detergent to the water. The absence would be obvious.) If you want to do complicated things, simple won't do. That's true no matter what type of paint you want to use. Very good modelers use standard paints, lay down a nice coat, give it a wash and have a fine model. This is doubly true if one masters either pigments or oil "dot filters." But if you want to use the painting process itself for weathering or do very fine detail you've got to learn your materials. Perhaps you already have: there are many ways to approach the hobby.

Bick:

If you want to get away from solvent based paints there are a number of modeling paints that are water based, although they all contain some kind of hardeners or conditioners that are needed to use paint on any hard surface like styrene. Vallejo and Model Master are the two most prominent. Life Color has its fans. (Some people complain about LC when thinned: my guess is that airbrush medium would fix that trouble.) If you're willing to go to eBay or buy from the UK, Revell of Germany has a wonderful line of acrylics called Aqua Color that includes almost all of the basic military colors. All of these paints can be thinned with water, but don't need much. (Vallejo Model Color is the exception. I thin MC with Airbrush Medium and it works very well.) If you're quick you can clean your airbrush with soapy water, windex, rubbing alcohol or commercial airbrush cleaner: all mild.

Artist acrylics have zero additives in them other than the emulsion agent so you have to add them. GAC is one of them. It comes in several potions - 200 is probably the most common. (Look again under "mediums" on Golden's web page. They have acres of data. Quick info can be found on the chain store Blick's very good site. YouTube has stuff from both Golden and Blick and heaven knows who else.) It hardens the paint and will make it easier to mask. It also helps adherence but Airbrush Medium will do that too. At the simplest level artist acrylics are simple. You do want to prime your model. Any model paint that sticks like Vallejo Model Air or Model Master will do fine. Vallejo is now making a special line of primers with tanker colors that are supposed to be very good once they dry. Lots of modelers use a spray can. (Tamiya surface primer is capital stuff but it's a lacquer and will foul the air in an unventilated room very quickly. Tamiya paint is perfectly good primer. If you're going to put on a layer right away, GAC 200 and Airbrush Extender makes a very good "down and dirty" primer that goes on in a second and is basically free. It's a little tacky, so you don't want to use it and leave the parts out overnight.) Then take some fluid acrylics: Golden really are the best: mix them 1:1 with Golden Airbrush Medium and you should get a very nice coat with most airbrushes at about 25psi. If you have a very small tip, like my Harder Steenbeck .2mm you might want to thin some colors a little more. Organic "earth color" pigments which you'd find in - surprise - browns might need a little extra thinning because the bits are larger than stuff from a chemical lab. If your tip is .35 or over, it won't matter. Don't worry about the discoloration of the paint - once dry, the real color will show perfectly well. So prime: mix 1:1 with airbrush medium: shoot. That's it.

Unless you want to get complex. The more I look into this stuff the more possibilities I see. One thing that's really sweet about Golden is their label. They have black streaks and the color in the bottle painted across them. You can tell at a glance how opaque or transparent the paint is. Most of the time, opaque is good. But a color that's more toward the transparent end begs to be used in the kind of shading now popular on armor. Or if you want to mix paints, look at the Golden web site and key on inorganic pigments which rarely "muddy" and make a much brighter combination.  So it can be a bottomless pit. That's good for me. I'll never have the desire to scratch build a battleship. Nor do I have the desire to super detail a 32 scale fighter. And I don't see myself doing a diorama any time soon. Learning how to properly finish and weather a model might be a different story.

Acrylic inks/dyes are very good things for washes. You can get very fine tipped marker pens that have acrylic dye in them and they are a very strong alternative to any wash for panel lines. (Actually they leave a residue which if you leave alone and brush toward the airflow creates a nice streaking effect.) Acrylic dyes are alternative to India Ink. (That's very much available. I know some people swear by it for washes.) I don't doubt a really good modeler could make a decent kit using markers. (Actually, a good acrylic dye pen is very nice for aircraft tires that have the wheels molded into them: a lot easier than masking.) I'm beginning to think that you can use almost anything for a pin wash. But I can't give you a full answer. There might well be a really neat effect that would entail inks and an airbrush. That sounds like the kind of stuff diorama builders or railroad junkies would use - making something look like rotting or discolored wood. Actually, this day or tomorrow I'm going to try to paint a submarine deck so it appears to be a light natural wood that's been covered by a very badly faded black wash. Acrylic ink might have been just the ticket.

Eric

Chuck:

There are simple things you can do and you just described one. If it was that simple, I think Tamiya would be out of business and modelers swarming to Wal Mart. Try using some Creamcoat with water on a plastic model via an airbrush and you'll have a bad model. (It could be done - follow the instructions in the FSM article, and you would have a useable paint. But do note, he didn't added GAC and detergent.) If you want to do complicated things, simple won't do. That's true no matter what type of paint you want to use. Very good modelers use standard paints, lay down a nice coat, give it a wash and have a fine model. This is doubly true if one masters either pigments or oil "dot filters." But if you want to use the painting process itself for weathering or do very fine detail you've got to learn your materials. Perhaps you already have.

Bick:

If you want to get away from solvent based paints there are a number of modeling paints that are water based, although they all contain some kind of hardeners or conditioners that are needed to use paint on any hard surface like styrene. Vallejo and Model Master are the two most prominent. Life Color has its fans. (Some people complain about LC when thinned: my guess is that airbrush medium would fix that trouble.) If you're willing to go to eBay or buy from the UK, Revell of Germany has a wonderful line of acrylics called Aqua Color that includes almost all of the basic military colors. All of these paints can be thinned with water, but don't need much. (Vallejo Model Color is the exception. I thin MC with Airbrush Medium and it works very well.) If you're quick you can clean your airbrush with soapy water, windex, rubbing alcohol or commercial airbrush cleaner: all mild.

Artist acrylics have zero additives in them other than the emulsion agent so you have to add them. GAC is one of them. It comes in several potions - 200 is probably the most common. (Look again under "mediums" on Golden's web page. They have acres of data. Quick info can be found on the chain store Blick's very good site. YouTube has stuff from both Golden and Blick and heaven knows who else.) It hardens the paint and will make it easier to mask. It also helps adherence but Airbrush Medium will do that too. At the simplest level artist acrylics are simple. You do want to prime your model. Any model paint that sticks like Vallejo Model Air or Model Master will do fine. Vallejo is now making a special line of primers with tanker colors that are supposed to be very good once they dry. Lots of modelers use a spray can. (Tamiya surface primer is capital stuff but it's a lacquer and will foul the air in an unventilated room very quickly. Tamiya paint is perfectly good primer. If you're going to put on a layer right away, GAC 200 and Airbrush Extender makes a very good "down and dirty" primer that goes on in a second and is basically free. It's a little tacky, so you don't want to use it and leave the parts out overnight.) Then take some fluid acrylics: Golden really are the best: mix them 1:1 with Golden Airbrush Medium and you should get a very nice coat with most airbrushes at about 25psi. If you have a very small tip, like my Harder Steenbeck .2mm you might want to thin some colors a little more. Organic "earth color" pigments which you'd find in - surprise - browns might need a little extra thinning because the bits are larger than stuff from a chemical lab. If your tip is .35 or over, it won't matter. Don't worry about the discoloration of the paint - once dry, the real color will show perfectly well. So prime: mix 1:1 with airbrush medium: shoot. That's it.

Unless you want to get complex. The more I look into this stuff the more possibilities I see. One thing that's really sweet about Golden is their label. They have black streaks and the color in the bottle painted across them. You can tell at a glance how opaque or transparent the paint is. Most of the time, opaque is good. But a color that's more toward the transparent end begs to be used in the kind of shading now popular on armor. Or if you want to mix paints, look at the Golden web site and key on inorganic pigments which rarely "muddy" and make a much brighter combination.  So it can be a bottomless pit. That's good for me. I'll never have the desire to scratch build a battleship. Nor do I have the desire to super detail a 32 scale fighter. And I don't see myself doing a diorama any time soon. Learning how to properly finish and weather a model might be a different story.

Acrylic inks/dyes are very good things for washes. You can get very fine tipped marker pens that have acrylic dye in them and they are a very strong alternative to any wash for panel lines. (Actually they leave a residue which if you leave alone and brush toward the airflow creates a nice streaking effect.) Acrylic dyes are alternative to India Ink. (That's very much available. I know some people swear by it for washes.) I don't doubt a really good modeler could make a decent kit using markers. (Actually, a good acrylic dye pen is very nice for aircraft tires that have the wheels molded into them: a lot easier than masking.) I'm beginning to think that you can use almost anything for a pin wash. But I can't give you a full answer. There might well be a really neat effect that would entail inks and an airbrush. That sounds like the kind of stuff diorama builders or railroad junkies would use - making something look like rotting or discolored wood. Actually, this day or tomorrow I'm going to try to paint a submarine deck so it appears to be a light natural wood that's been covered by a very badly faded black wash. Acrylic ink might have been just the ticket.

Eric

not all types of 'acrylics' benefit from airbrush medium.

 These days,acrylics is a category of many, many different compositions of paint.

each having their own unique system of suspensions, solvents,flow additives,carrier

some are solvent based, some are acrylic resin based , some are,water based , some are water bourne.

each have their good and bad points.

you almost have to be a chemist to understand each and every type  of acrylic these days.

I cringe when people will suggest ," thin acrylics with windex,or alcohol ,or some kind of concoction"

stymye

not all types of 'acrylics' benefit from airbrush medium.

 These days,acrylics is a category of many, many different compositions of paint.

each having their own unique system of suspensions, solvents,flow additives,carrier

some are solvent based, some are acrylic resin based , some are,water based , some are water bourne.

each have their good and bad points.

you almost have to be a chemist to understand each and every type  of acrylic these days.

I cringe when people will suggest ," thin acrylics with windex,or alcohol ,or some kind of concoction"

 

 

 

True to a point but the vast majority of us are using Tamiya, Model Color (Vallejo), or Model Master Acryl so the best thinner can easily be found.

3 paints of very different composition

tamiya is an acrylic lacquer( even the tamiya website suggests "for best finishes" using the yellow top Lacquer thinner)

tho most people stick with the white top acrylic thinner.

vallejo is more like an acrylic polymer base. their thinner looks almost exactly like airbrush medium.

they remind me very much of the createx line

modelmaster ..not sure, but their thinner has a sweet soapy smell with a hint of glycol and possibly some alcohol.

stymye

3 paints of very different composition

tamiya is an acrylic lacquer( even the tamiya website suggests "for best finishes" using the yellow top Lacquer thinner)

If you want to buy their overpriced thinner be my guest. I have had excellent results using 70% Ethyl alcohol which is far cheaper.

If you're really good at airbrushing, or if your painting is mostly done laying down simple coats with the occasional straight line thrown in, you can get away with a lot of things. The solvent based thinners from the companies have conditioners and usually some kind of retardant to slow tip clogging. Lacquer thinners from Tamiya or Gunze are greatly reduced in aggressiveness - I'd never let a hardware store lacquer thinner near a kit. Thinning paint takes so little product that I think it's a false economy unless you're absolutely confident of your ability to do what you want. And if you can get Tamiya to lay down as well with ethyl as a decent painter could do with Tamiya lacquer thinner you are really good with an airbrush. The superiority of Tamiya lacquer thinner over A-20 should be obvious to anyone that's used them both.

The solvent based paints will not be helped by airbrush medium, although Flow Aid is very handy if you want to use them for hand brushing. If a modeler wants to stick with Tamiya it's a perfectly safe decision and many make it. Personally I find the colors offered by both Vallejo and MM to equal or surpass Tamiyas. (Can't knock Gunze's colors, but I'd sure quibble about their accuracy.) The water based colors are also better for mixing in my experience and certainly better for hand brushing. Color fanatics I think would score Vallejo RLM colors over Tamiyas.  And, the more I use them, the more I like using paints that you can't smell at all. So no, you can't throw ethyl into anything and expect good results. But yes you could put into Tamiya and do perfectly well if you've got all of the variables down right.

Eric

EBergerud

If you're really good at airbrushing, or if your painting is mostly done laying down simple coats with the occasional straight line thrown in, you can get away with a lot of things.

Give me a break Eric. You sound like you are patronizing me and others who are not rookies to this hobby.

EBergerud

If you're really good at airbrushing, or if your painting is mostly done laying down simple coats with the occasional straight line thrown in, you can get away with a lot of things. The solvent based thinners from the companies have conditioners and usually some kind of retardant to slow tip clogging. Lacquer thinners from Tamiya or Gunze are greatly reduced in aggressiveness - I'd never let a hardware store lacquer thinner near a kit. Thinning paint takes so little product that I think it's a false economy unless you're absolutely confident of your ability to do what you want. And if you can get Tamiya to lay down as well with ethyl as a decent painter could do with Tamiya lacquer thinner you are really good with an airbrush. The superiority of Tamiya lacquer thinner over A-20 should be obvious to anyone that's used them both.

I agree with Mike, it does sound a little condescending.

I've never had a problem airbrushing Tamiya acrylics thinned with (90%+) ethyl alcohol. Under certain conditions, such as when working with gloss Tamiya acrylics, the lacquer thinner does offer certain advantages (maintaining the gloss), but I can easily get comparable results when using the flat paints.

It comes down to knowing the characteristics of the medium. Tamiya acrylics work best when well thinned (and I use up to 75-80% thinner, which you can't really do with X-20A) and airbrushing at low pressure at a close distance to the subject. Step outside those parameters and you may experience pebbling, running or other undesirable effects. I also very rarely need to use a retarding agent.

Having tried it, use of lacquer thinner may make the paint behave more like an enamel and I think this is why some people like it, particularly those who are more accustomed to using enamels and can't get their heads around how the acrylics behave.

Lacquer thinner certainly does work but it is simply another option, not a magic bullet.

Sorry if I caused any insult, that wasn't the intent. I was only pointing out that a veteran airbrusher can take liberties that a beginner would be very wise to avoid. If there were zero difference between ethyl alcohol and Tamiya lacquer thinner I'd think people like Adam Wilder would be using ethyl alcohol. (Wilder's commercial associations have always been with MIG and Vallejo, not Tamiya. I strongly support Wilder's views about using Tamiya or Gunze lacquer thinner with solvent based paints - and I use them in the manner described above - low psi, highly thinned and close in.) Tamiya A-20 acrylic thinner has far too many fans to be some kind of con. The retarder and conditioners in A-20 give an edge over simple IPA. (I'll grant that ethyl is different.)  If you have a feel for the airbrush - control of the several variables involved - you'll be compensating in a whole range of ways to make it work. This can only be learned with a lot of experience. Those that don't have it will do well to listen to the people that do, and I bet almost every introduction to modeling available recommends using the paint makers' own thinner. If nothing else it is sometimes necessary. There are some paints, like Vallejo Model Color or German Revell Aqua Color that react badly to alcohol. It would be a very poor brew if you tried it with art or craft acrylics. I think a lot depends upon what the pigment is suspended in.

Not sure that some modelers like lacquer thinner with Tamiya because it emulates enamels. I've never sprayed enamels and I bet I'm not alone in our day.  (I had an interesting exchange with the paint meister at Hobbywave, a site that specializes in miniatures and is a heavy supporter of Gunze. He said the term "acrylic" is slippery and that Mr. Color was closer to a lacquer which is why they recommend the use of lacquer thinner on it. Gunze does not make a ISP based thinner for Mr. Color.) I think it's done by experienced modelers who have picked up the news from the armor sites - both Wilder and Mig Jimenez are Tamiya/lacquer thinner boosters.  One of the reasons that I prefer lacquer with Tamiya is that it does so well at high thinning ratio - exactly the kind of stuff Wilder recommends for modulation. I admit that I've never thought of using ethyl for that purpose, but I'll give it a shot. Maybe it will work with Floquil acrylics for railroads. Their engine black has a pigment darker than Stalin's soul so it's one of my favorite primers. I'll try some ethyl in it and report back.

PS: Just stumbled on this bit on howtoairbrush.com. In an introductory article on "basics" the guy is comparing Gunze/Tamiya (which he does not include with acrylics) with enamels: I'd never heard about the reactivation stuff:

"Tamiya and Gunze Sanyo (Also marketed as Mr. Color) Both behave pretty much the same. I thin them both with Gunze's Mr. Thinner. There are a couple issues with these paints. They aren't as durable as the "oil based" stuff. They are a little healthier than the "oil based", but they are not "Non Toxic". A couple advantages. They have an ability to, what I call, "Re-Activate"....if I get a fingerprint or a little dry spray, I have found that I can spray pure Mr. Thinner over the area and get it to flow again and smooth out. This can be done even after it has dried for weeks. Also, if you really screw up, Windex takes the stuff right off. Very handy for beginners."

I think that may be worth a mini post.

Eric 

Eric