What do you measure thinning ratios with?

I use those little plastic syringes that you get in drug stores for giving paracetamol solution to kids with.

They are graduated in 1ml intervals (in the UK at least) and therefore allow accurate control over the paint to thinner ratio. I only use acrylics, but I can't see any reason why they wouldn't work just as well with enamels. They're certainly not expensive either.

Karl

i use 2-3ml pipettes from ebay http://search.ebay.co.uk/pipettes_W0QQfromZR40QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQsbrbinZt

u can get 50-75 for £2-3 even more if u look around.

I use the pipettes as well, and I do clean them out... with acrylics plain water or windex will work, with enamels mineral spirits or lacquer thinner will work.. just put it in a small cup, draw it up into the pipette and shake shake shake the paint free from the walls... doesn't take but a second or two, then some soapy water to get the residue from the walls of the pipette, some plain water to rinse the soapy water out and you are done!!!

I end up replacing about 3 or 4 a month as sometimes the paint has a chance to dry etc... but at 6 for a dollar at the LHS I am ok with that...

I do it by eye, we really are not talking about rocket engines, we want paint that's not so thin it requires 20 coats, but thin enough to spray.
I never had an airbrush before, but within 20 minutes of "playing" I could see if the mix was right, I stir it, then just place a drop on the inside of the mixing jar, you can see straight away if it's right by watching it run down the glass.

I use hypodermic syringes graduated in 1cc increments for large quantities or an eye dropper for small quantities.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Furm ...do you just pour and stir until the consistency looks right?

That's about the size of it. I do use the aforementioned ModelMaster pipettes to dole out thinner in a controllable fashion. I find that there is so much variation from one bottle of ModelMaster paint to the next, in terms of the correct paint/thinner ratio, that there is little value in actually trying to measure anything. I've occaisionally had a bottle of paint that airbrushed perfectly out of the bottle with no thinning, and I've had other bottles that I have probably had to thin more than 1:1 thinner to paint.

I use hypodermic syringes also ; mostly the 3cc and 5cc syringes , they only cost 30 and 75 cents each from Pharmacy Direct here in Sydney . you only need to buy the syringe not the needle .

The old Mark 1 eyeball as well. As long as it looks about the consistency of milk, you are good. Also, if it doesn't spray well and comes out too thick, add more thinner, too thin, add more paint. As stated above, it is not rocket science.

Thanks for the response gents - you guys are awesome! Sasarchiver, just won an eBay auction from your link of 125 pippettes! Appreciate the other advice as well. Just getting back into this hobby, and need all the help I can get.

I'm similar to the other guys in that I use a couple of eyedroppers from old medicine bottles, one for thinners and one for paint. They work just fine for both acrylic and enamel paints/thinners.

Darren