Thinning Tamiya Acrylics?

I cheat and use the Tamiya thinner. I would love to find a cheaper alternative.

91% isopropyl aly is all I use for thinning Tamiya acrylics. Admittedly I do occasionally have problems with it drying as soon as it hits the surface, but I recently started putting a couple of drops of acrylic retarder in the bottle and it helped that a lot. I haven't tried it with water, however that should slow the drying time as well.

I don't strain my paint, and I haven't had any problems with lumps or anything like that. I use some little stirrers that I make from music wire. They look like this:


I just dunk them in the bottle and spin with my fingers. They will break up lumps on the bottom and mix it all up very well.

QUOTE: I cheat and use the Tamiya thinner. I would love to find a cheaper alternative.

If you look at the contents of the Tamiya thinner it says something like "Contains alcohol components" I don't remember the exact wording. I think it may have some retarder in it as well since it does seem to slow drying time down a little.

I make a mixture of 50% Iso and 50% distilled water.
Works really well for the Tamiya paints.

i dont want to bust anybodys bubble hear, but i think we are getting a little impractical about trying to save a dime!! i mean, i bought a 250ml of tamiya thinner for $8 bucks 7 or 8 months ago. ive sprayed a butt load of tamiya paint thinned with tamiya thinner in the last 8 months and still have over a half a container full. at the rate im going, the jug should last well over a year. thats only 67 cents a month!! why not just go buy the reccomended thinner? i dont get it unless you live in the back side of nowhere and dont have access to the tamiya thinner. i just thin with it, i clean my brush with mikeV's love potion and straight windex. anyway, thats my 2 cents. later.

I used same misture like Tweety1. 50% Iso alcohol + distilled water 50%

Anyway you can dilute tamiya acrylics with 100% water, 100% alcohol or even 100% acetone... any misture gives a different application and drying time. Almost everything works well with Tamiya acrylics actually.

Hole this help.

Enjoy painting!
Lu

dont use water... tamiyas are alcohol based acrylics, water will make it like a wash

Thanks for the input you guys! Salty, I love to save money, wife cuts coupons and everything. Hey maybe I can start selling "Riff Raff's Acrylic Thinner" on the internet - (91% alky and a couple drops of retarder)(but we won't tell anyone) only $7 for a 300ml bottle! "For Medicinal Purposes Only," of course Just Kidding! I was actually thinking of buying the Tamiya. Cheers -Spencer

I agree with you there Salty. Lets face it, how much thinner does it take to thin enough paint to cover a 1/48 aircraft for instance?...Not much, even at 50/50. That 250ml bottle is going to last for a very long time if it is used just for thinning paint. I read a post on the forum here where someone was shooting half a cup of Tamiya thinner through thier brush to clean it after painting, now that is going to get expensive real quick. I believe some of the common problems different modellers have with Tamiya paint wouldn't even occur if they had just used the correct thinner and not tried to use some suspected equivalent of what they "think" Tamiya thinner is. Just my $0.02 worth.

Cheers....Snowy.

Whenit comes down to it, don't we just want a great paint job on our models? Save yourselves all the fuss and use the manufacturers thinner. Your paint will thin and spray as it should and there's no quess work. If you just use the MST (manufacturers suggested thinner) for thinning, a can, jar, container of the stuff should last you a good long time. Use Windex and Alcohols to flush between colors and clean things up.

O.K. folks, I painted my road wheels last night. I'm not even too sure of the ratio. I used the 91% alcohol. I got kinda tired of counting straw loads so I added a few strawfulls, then alcohol and stirred w/toothpick to what looked like the 2% lowfat milk consistency. They came out pretty decent in my opinion. Hey you guys, I also have another question please, I would like to know the width of the widest line you can spray with your airbrushes? Thanks, Spencer

I'm with MusicCity here. I use 91% isopropyl alcohol and liquitex flow aid when needed for Tamiya. For Polly Scale use Windex, don't use Windex with Tamiya as it will react badly.

aside from iso, what can you use for thinning tam. acryls?

Hey Swanny, Why the Windex withPolly Scale. Why not alcohol?

I agree with saltydog. It doesn't usually take much thinner with Tamiya paint so the big bottle should last a long time. (use the rubbing alcohol for clean-up) I've used water in Tamiya flat paints when I was in a pinch and it seemed to work OK but in their gloss paint I made a horrible mess one time. It sure wasn't worth the few cents I saved.
Steven

It's not a matter of saving money.
It's what works for each person.

In my case, the climate I live in, Tamiya thinners evaporate in a stupid amount of time, causing 'pebbling' on my models surfaces.

The best solution was the Iso and water mix, even then you have to get it spot on or your in trouble.
Summer aint so bad, but when Winter comes around it's so dry your skin actually cracks on your fingers.
Because of this I have to adjust my mix to contain more water, less Iso, and more retarder.

I really gotta move.

My tamiyas evaperate faster than i can build a model (42 last year) but i live in a "mild climate" (vancouver canada) so its probubly the alcohol in it

you can use alcohol to thin polyscales, but windex also works

QUOTE: Summer aint so bad, but when Winter comes around it's so dry your skin actually cracks on your fingers. I really gotta move.

Don't move to Tennessee! Not that we don't want you, just that we have the same problem here. My hands stay split all winter because it's so dry and then in the summer it's so humid you can't even cool off in the shade.

Tell me about it Music
Last winter wasn't so bad, which really helped with the model part of things, but usually it hits -5 or -7 overnight, then during the day rockets up to 40 odd degrees celcius.

Soend most of the time fighting off the flu!

I haven't used an airbrush for any of my kits yet but I thin my Tamiya paints down with water and have had no problems whatsoever.

ya lucky.... i never do that, its good to use for washes tho