On thinning paint

Cease wrote:

THanks for the help. I dont live in a mero area, so I will have to mail order for the semi-gloss and flat. Without starting another thread, do you airbrush a single piece? I am woking on a 1/48 model and the cockpit has several color variants. It seems like this would be a great deal of work (cleaning each time a new color is used) just for a cockpit that will hardly be visable. I have seen some models in FSM that were airbrushed, but I can't remember what scale they were. I think I would do it on a 1/32, but a 1/48 seems rather small for airbrushing when a paint brush would suffice.   Thanks

 

It's personal preference as to how you paint the cockpit. It is alot of work to change colors to airbrush. Alot of clean-up I don't do!. For 1/48, I just hand paint everything. After washes and dry brush, it's not at all detectable. Now, for bigger scales (1/32, 1/24), I will airbrush the cockpit. Simply because they are more detailed and more visible. Well worth the time.....

Andy 

Personally, I use almost exclusively Tamiya Acrylics and I thin it about 2 part paint for 1 part Tamiya thinner.  I use to measure it precisely but no I eyeball it.  The consistency of milk is a good reference with almost any paint.  With Tamiya Acrylics, I recommand using their Tamiya thinner cause it has a retarder in it and it's pretty usefull cause that paint dries very fast.  When I first try it, I used alcohol to thin it and the paint was drying in the air before touching the model.

Forgot to tell you about using Future floor polish as a gloss or flat clear coat.  Go here to read on ... http://www.swannysmodels.com/TheCompleteFuture.html.  A $6 bottle goes a long way, and it airbrushes nicely, and is very forgiving to use.

 

 

THanks for the help. I dont live in a mero area, so I will have to mail order for the semi-gloss and flat.

Without starting another thread, do you airbrush a single piece? I am woking on a 1/48 model and the cockpit has several color variants. It seems like this would be a great deal of work (cleaning each time a new color is used) just for a cockpit that will hardly be visable. I have seen some models in FSM that were airbrushed, but I can't remember what scale they were. I think I would do it on a 1/32, but a 1/48 seems rather small for airbrushing when a paint brush would suffice.

 

Thanks

Most paint will need to be thinned prior to use, but occaisionally I'll get a bottle that airbrushes fine without thinning.  As for the propper thinning ratio, I find that because the paint itself has so much variation, the idea of a thinning ratio is essentially meaningless.  The old rule of thumbe is to thin it so that it has the consistency of 2% milk.  At first it is a pain to get to the proper consistency, and you'll likely find that many of your early problems will be due to improperly thinned paint.  As you start using your airbrush, you'll also likely get the hang of correctly thinning the paint fairly quickly.  THe main thing is to test on a piece of plastic prior to painting your model and adjust as needed.

I've never used a strainer and have not had any problems.  On the other hand, if you did have a clump of paint, your strainer would catch it rather than clogging the airbrush.

If your local hobby shop doesn't carry flat such as the often recommende Polyscale Flat, you can make your own by mixing Future acrylic floor finish with Tamiya X-21 Flat Base at a ratio of 4 parts Future to 1 part flat base.  Its quite economical and make an excellent flat.  With any clear flat finish, be carefull to paint in light coats.  Overly heavy coats can frost up.

Andy

 

 

 

 

 

You can find some good info here in some of the chapters on painting and airbrushing.  They discuss thinning MM acrylic and enamel paints.  I downloaded and printed this entire guide and find it useful. http://testors.com/hobbyist_guides.asp

 

The paints you are using have different viscosities. You will have to thin the Tamiya for sure and it depends for the MM. Some MM is already thin and some needs thinning. I have never used Floquil. As a rule of thumb, you want the paint to be as thin as skim milk. You will have to be the judge of that.

I don't strain but I'm sure it wouldn't hurt. Never had a problem with MM or Tamiya.

I always add a drop of Liquitex brand flow-aid to the mixing jar as well. This will help the paint airbrush and lay more smoothly. You can find this at any art store.

 MM does make an airbrushable flat coat. I see it all the time at Hobby Lobby. It's works well but be careful, it's REALLY flat. You may want to mix a little semi-gloss with it to balance it out. Beware of the spray can clear coat. You can apply too much and it will haze and cloud on you. In some cases, it will actually wrinkle the paint and decals. Hope this helps...

Andy