Vallejo Air Model Colour - Help with Thinning/Cleaning

Chris,

As you have made very clear, the biggest problem with painting with acrylics is the need to keep multiple kinds of thinners around. For me, Vallejo is one of the easier ones. I just thin with distilled water and a couple drops of windex in the AB cup. It takes a little bit of stirring, but I've never had a problem spraying it when thinned that way. Try it for yourself. I've read conflicting accounts on just about everything on the internet.

Barrett

Chris - For me, the Vallejo Model Air has been really good to work with, sometimes I'll just thin with distilled water, other times their own thinner. For airbrush cleanup I run a couple of water rinses through, then paint store lacquer thinner. At dis-assembly I find very little color remaining anywhere, then cotton buds, interdental brush and lacquer thinner finish the job.

I think one thing to consider, a name branded product is often quite a custom mix of ingredients, not always compatible with another manufacturers product, although called by the same name. Tamiya's lacquer thinner may be something altogether different than a paint stores generic lacquer thinner, since it's intended use is for Tamiya acrylic paint. When I smell Tamiya X-20A it seems like Vodka, more than store bought alcohol.

In fairness to most of the hobby paint makers, I consider it important to stick with their products for mixing into the final blend for application. Example: Tamiya's thinners are reported to possibly contain additives for aiding in flow characteristics, and helping to prevent tip dry. I do find Tamiya works better for me with

X-20A, rather than alcohol or water for thinning. Same for Tamiya lacquer thinner, it does better for me than generic.

You've come this far in your testing, give the Vallejo thinner a try, I think you'll like using it then. But do remember, Vallejo acrylics and alcohol are NOT in a friendly relationship. (Personal experience.)

Patrick

Chris..Ok, glad I stumbled upon this thread. I too have just recently started picking up Vallejo AIR bottles. One of the principle reasons I wanted to go this way is the economy of use. I have wasted so much Tamiya Color over the years by pre-mixing, I wanted to go straight from a bottle. So, enter Vallejo AIR. Now, I will admit I am not impressed so far. I was of the thought process that this stuff was 'good to go' right from bottle.

I see from above you are still thinning before spraying? I'm scratching my head on that cuz like I said I thought it was good straight outta the bottle. Now, I've only really tried the metallics and recently (last night) Interior green. All of these, I went straigt and found it a bit thick. I have been cleaning with water to get out the bulk, then finishing off with a shot of amoniated cleaner which seems to be working. I haven't taken the AB apart to see if there is residue, but, now I'm going to.

My biggest prob is, our LHS got this big, beautiful rack of VA but that's it. I talked to the owner and told him of the problems people are having cleaning this out and he was surprised. He thought you could just use other products/alcohols/ etc. Anyway, he 'said' he'd  look into the Vallejo cleaner, but, I won't hold my breath.

Folks, the Vallejo AB Cleaner doesn't remove dried Vallejo paints.  Use lacquer thinner or denatured alcohol to remove them.  Don't clean your AB with IPA or Windex after shooting Vallejo paints.  Doing so will likely create a gooey mess.  

I will certainly start using lacquer thinner for sure. I have easy access to that. Thanks Chrisk

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

@Chris-K - i note you say not to use Windex to clean the a/b - is it just dried Vallejo with which this will cause problems? I note a few posts above BarretDuke refers to thinning with a few drops of Windex and Distilled water. Just curious if there is a different effect between dried Vallejo and fresh liquid Vallejo.

@Patrick 206 - that is a fair point about using a manufacturer's proprietary thinner. I wasn't aware that Tamiya thinner also had other advantages for use with their paint. My only issue is, as Chris-K stated, their own thinner won't remove their dried paint.

@Rob - I agree, seems a lot of stores are starting to stock Vallejo now, I'm assuming because gamers like their brush painting qualities too. Also, Gunze is becoming harder and harder to find here, so i wanted to branch out into a new range to see how i liked/disliked it. Further, Vallejo have a huge colour range, so that's always a bonus.

I didn't see any mention of Testor's Airbrush cleaner which I use with great success with Vallejo (both Model Color and Model Air).

As far as your comment about spraying from the bottle, there is another thing to keep in mind.  Air pressure is also very key.  Vallejo states that it should be sprayed at 20 to 25 psi.  If you are spraying at 1 bar (15) or less you won't have much success without thinning it down.

John

That's good to know John, thanks.

John, thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately Testors A/b cleaner is one of the harder things to find close to me. To be honest, i've never seen it. In fact, i don't even know if you can buy Testors acrylics here in Australia, only seen some of their enamels.

As for air pressure, i spray at 25-30 psi, but still thought the paint was a bit thick compared to my normal mix, but good to know too.

Chris, yeah, the colour variety is, quite simply, overwhelming when i'm looking at the rack. I'm used to good old standby Tamiya so when I'm faced with this mass of colour, I get confused by the names and how they 'equal' what I 'm used to.

@cml,

The current issue of FSM warns of mixing Vallejo paints and Windex.  

After reading a few horror stories posted at another forum, I tested Vallejo Model Color/Air with Windex. When Vallejo started to dry, I used Windex to clean it.  The mixture of Windex and Vallejo became a gooey mess.  I tried with IPA.  The same gooey mess.  Imagine a gooey mess inside your airbrush!!  I don't know how Windex/IPA would react with still wet Vallejo.  

Anyway, after seeing the gooey mess, I clean my ABs with denatured alcohol or lacquer thinner if I have to shoot Vallejo stuff.  

@Rob - hahaha, same problem. I was standing there trying to figure out what was the closest match to XF-60. I ended up buy two, one for the base and one for highlights.

@Chrisk-k - i missed didn't pick up on that in the current issue. Will have to go and re-read. Thanks for the heads up. i'm going to go and get some Methylated Spirits (aka denatured alcohol) today and just use that. i might see if i can thin with it too.

I only recently started using Vallejo paints but I've always cleaned the airbrush with Windex.  I guess the trick is to clean it immediately.  As soon as I'm done with a color, I dump the paint and pour in some Windex.  A couple of rinse/spray cycles and that's as clean as it's going to get without a teardown.  I got lazy once and had some residue on the needle but some Tamiya acrylic thinner on a Q-tip melted it right off.

I thin it with Tamiya acrylic thinner but only because it's all that I have. So far, no probs.

Regarding the "right out of the bottle" sprayability issue...  I've read that Model Air pigment is milled finer than Model Color so that it works better in an airbrush. I CAN spray it without thinning but I really have to crank up the air pressure and then it comes out grainy.  I always just assume that I'm going to need to thin everything.

CN, coincidentally I decided to try it again tonight with Tamiya acrylic thinner.

Overall I found that probably thinned it the best out of what I've got. I'll pick up some Vallejo thinner this weekend.

On a side note, denatured alcohol does clean it up as Chrisk-k stated, but its no good to thin, it curdles the paint pigment.