What thins with what?...

The "Best" thinner for any particular paint is probably the thinner that the manufacturer recommends. That said ...

Tamiya Acrylics: 91% Isopropyl alcohol with retarder, however this causes all of them to dry flat. To prevent this from happening use Tamiya brand thinner.

Model Master acrylics: 91% Isopropyl alcohol with retarder

Poly Scale Acrylics: Distilled water when necessary (it seldom is) per the instructions on the bottle

Model Master Enamels: Mineral spirits (but I don't use much enamel at all)

Note that using alcohol for an acrylic thinner causes them to dry even faster than normal. To offset that I use an acrylic retarder with the alcohol. I prefer to use alcohol since I feel that it helps to remove any grease or oil that I may have missed when cleaning the parts.

QUOTE: Originally posted by ipms40049 Tamiya acrylics thins with what? Isopropynal alcohal Testors Enamels thin with what? mineral spirits, testors thinner Testors acrylics thin with what? water, iso alcohol Boyd enamels thin with what? mineral spirits, testors thinner, boyd thinner Gunze Sangyo (spelling)? thins with what i believe this is lacqur so lacquer thinner Aqueous hobby colors (spelling again)? Thins with what iso alcohol, gunze thinner ANd what are the best Named branned thinners for the above? name branded thinners work best with the same brand paint: ie tamiya thinner-tamiya acrylics

and thank you too

I agree with Scott; just a couple additional comments:

91% isopropyl should work well, but you should be able to get excellent thinning from plain 70% Isopropyl, which is the concentration of plain ol' rubbing alcohol that you can find in a drug store.

If you are thinning with straight water, distilled or otherwise, you might consider adding a SMALL drop of dishwashing detergent to your mix. This will help break down the surface tension of the water (the tendency water has to bead up, and not flow)--it essentially makes the water "wetter".

Mineral spirits work great as a thinner for all enamels. If you are going to airbrush your enamels, I would recommend Testor's airbrush thinner for their enamels. The stuff is a little "hotter", and seems to go on the model just a wee bit better.

Another thinner that some folks use for their acrylics is windshield washer fluid. It contains methanol instead of isopropanol, but according to the folks that use it, it works quite well.

Bottom Line: Experiment. Try different things until you find what works best for you.

Remember: Acrylics thin with water and water soluble solvents like alcohols.
Enamels thin with non-water soluble solvents, and are mostly refined petroleum based materials (petroleum hydrocarbons). Mineral spirits and lacquer thinner type materials work best.

Hope this helps a little.
Gip Winecoff