Water or Thinner?

If you are hand brushing I would recommend using enamels. I have not had good luck brushing acrylics because they dry too fast. They are fine for airbrushing but I do not like them for hand brushing. If you decide to use Tamiya acrylics use the Tamiya thinner since it will help slow the drying time.

You can hand brush acrylics over enamels with no problem, however I do not know how well brushing enamel over acrylic will work. I'm afraid that it might cause the acrylic to dissolve. Enamel can be airbrushed over acrylic if the acrylic is allowed to cure thoroughly, so it might work fine.

I do not hand brush very much at all so hopefully some of the guys who do can help you some more.

Can a Tamiya acrilic be mixed with thinner? I though was created to work with water

QUOTE: Can a Tamiya acrilic be mixed with thinner? I though was created to work with water

Yes, but not enamel thinner. You can also use alcohol, Windex, or water. Alcohol causes Tamiya acrylics to always have a flat finish. If you are working with gloss colors I recommend using their thinner since it does not cause the finish to be flat.

So does it have to be thinned for hand brushing?

No, if you wish to hand brush, I would suggest not thinning the paint at all. Just mix it throughly with a popsicle stick or something like that, and brush away. Opposite of MusicCity, I actually do about 90% of my brushing with acrylics, and I find them great. True enough they dry very quickly. However, I paint in stages and layers, so the drying factor is not a problem for me. I just lie down one coat, generaly thin and transluscent, allow to fully dry, then follow with a second and sometimes third.

Also, if you're working with Tamiya paints and wish to airbrush, thinning with water works fine, but thinning with their own thiner works better. If you chose to go the water way, distill the water, and add a drop of soap, then thin away.

Well, I never mix my enamel paints...I use them as they come. But reading all these answers I must suppose there is not difference between hand brushing with enameil based paints and water based paints.

Isn´t?

QUOTE: Opposite of MusicCity, I actually do about 90% of my brushing with acrylics, and I find them great. True enough they dry very quickly. However, I paint in stages and layers, so the drying factor is not a problem for me. I just lie down one coat, generaly thin and transluscent, allow to fully dry, then follow with a second and sometimes third.

Interesting ... I haven't had much luck with it; subsequent coats will brush through previous coats, I get brush marks, etc. As I said, I don't brush paint very much, but it would be nice to figure out how to brush paint acrylics since I do prefer them.

What brand do you use? I've tried Tamiya, Model Master, and Citadel. Of those, the Citadel tends to work best with a brush, but still not very well for me. The only way I can get them to work is to thin them a LOT and add retarder (or use Tamiya paint with Tamiya thinner).

Tamiya Acrilic + Tamiya Thinner which is the recomended portion for each one?

For mixing acryl or acrylics you can use regular cheap 91% isopropyl alcohol!!
That's what I use and for Enamel I use Testores thinner # 1156!!!
The one big problem that I ran into was trying to keep certain bruses for the 2 main types of paint!! And if that's not possible, which it usually isn't because we all have favorite brushes!! Clean the enamel with the thinner but be sure to give is an alcohol cleansing or what I do for myself is I have a tub of brush soap!! If I need to use a brush for an acryl that had just been used with Enamel!! I wipe excess paint on paper towel, clean with thinner, clean with alcohol, then clean with brush soap which also conditions your brushs! That will help extend their shelf life!! Sometimes I do skip out on the alchohol rinse or sometimes the soap cleaner, if the alcohol works I'll go from there and just condition the brush after that painting section!!! Good Luck, my friend!! Cheers!!
Kelley

From experience, Tamiya Acrylics are great for airbrushing even straight from the bottle, though I would suggest that you thin it a little specially when doing detail work. For handbrushing, they're not the best if you spend more than 5 minutes in a brush job. Reason is the paint dries too fast causing a surface latex-like film to develop in the bottle, which tends to stick to your brush as you dip into it. This can get into your model at the worst possible time . Like Scott recommends, I add a few drops of acrylic retarder to my Tamiya Acrylics to prolong the drying time. I used to exclusively handbrush with enamels but since I discovered retarders, I'm also using acrylics now just as much.

Yes, it is okay to handbrush acrylics over enamels, and vice versa, PROVIDED that the underlying paint or paints are fully cured (24 to 48 hours, I think more if gloss paints are used). I've had success so far with this combination. Acrylic-over-acrylic is also okay. Funny thing is, handbrushing enamel over enamel can sometimes cause the dried paint to dissolve and mix with the new paint (GRRR!!!), even if sufficient curing time was given. This may be cause by various factors such as the thinners used or the paints themselves, as well as temperature and humidity which can prolong the drying time. To avoid this, nowadays I spray or brush on a barrier coat of Future to protect the underlying paints from being attacked by new coats of paint as they are being applied.

Good luck to your efforts!

QUOTE: Originally posted by onyan Like Scott recommends, I add a few drops of acrylic retarder to my Tamiya Acrylics to prolong the drying time.

Who is Scott here?

Oh, that would be MusicCity...

Scott, please take a bow...

QUOTE: Tamiya Acrilic + Tamiya Thinner which is the recomended portion for each one?

I thin them a lot when hand brushing, but as I said I've never had very good luck with it so I'd recommend you listen to the advice of those who have had good luck with them. Zokissima, lilBEAR, and onyan have given some good advice. As for me I thin them about 50% paint 50% thinner since that's the only way I can get them to work properly.

QUOTE: Scott, please take a bow...

For handpainting, I tend to want to stick to Citadel paints as much as possible, but their colour range definitely leaves something to be desired. Tamiya have worked fine, but so far I've done very little hand painting with them. Either way, I'll lay on the first coat, then leave for an hour to dry, followed by another coat. If after this coat, there are areas still left to be painted, I'll leave the paint to dry for a day before I attempt another coat. The key with acrylics is to paint in very very very thin coats. That's why generally quite a few are required to get a good result. Also, high quality sable brushes are pretty much a must. It's the abrasive action of the brush that tends to lift previous layers, so in addition to the brush being sable, thus very soft and suple, it also must be very clean as well.

That's good to know, and probably part of my problem. I use sable brushes, but try and get it to cover with only one or two coats. Thanks for the info.