After reading the various posts on the subject at Hyperscale, having tried Tamiya's house thinner, 91% and 70% alcohol, distilled water, and Windex with mixed results- I tried modeler, Tony Bell's method of thining Tamiya Acrylic with laquer thinner. In a word, WOW! Not only did it work, I was able to sustain the finest, softest atomized fine lines to date using this paint. In testing Tony Bell's method, I prepaired the paint by stiring it in-bottle slowly and thouroghly. Next, I dispensed the paint into a empty fim canister adding the laquer thinner at a ratio of roughly 1:1 and stirred the mix thouroughly. When stirring, I noticed that the laquer thinner blended the paint emmediately with no separation of of the pigment or vehicle, not did it gum-up, or dry-up in the film canister. I put the mix to the test, loading it into my Iwata HP-C airbrush with it's tiny .3mm nozzle/needle- surely if sprayed through this airbrush, I would be sold. I dropped the air pressure to approx. 12 psi and began to spray tiny fine lines, to my amazement that were extremely well atomized-compairable to MM enamels! Still suspicious, I waited to see if the mix would begin to clog, spit, separate, gum-up, or whatever else. Shockingly yet, it never did, it stayed thouroughly mixed as I continued to spray for 5-7 minutes. I then set the airbrush down with the paint sitting in the airbrush to see if it would dry up, or clog the tip. Nope!, I pulled back on the trigger and I resummed spraying!
After spraying, I checked the integrity of the paint film. I was surprised that the paint (Dark Grey, XF-24) covered very well over dark colors (flat black, dark green, gunship grey, etc.) and it was tough and dried fast. The paint film had a smooth, slightly satin appearance with no suspected graininess, dry spots, fish eyes or orange peel. I then rolled up my sleaves and grabbed the masking tape for the final test. After 10 minutes or so after spraying, I layed regular and blue painters masking tapes over the painted areas, burnishing it down with my fingers. Abruptly and quickly, I pulled the tape from the painted area and......nothing came off!, cool! Now excited and grining from ear to ear, I finished up by cleaning my airbrush with the laquer thinner as normal. I am shocked and amazed at this test using Tony's method....why didn't I try this 10 years ago???!! It works guys...man does it work. The only con, and It's a BIG one: this method negates the "clean-up with water, no harsh chemicals" notion of acrylics. I don't know if others have tried this before with any sucess, but man...do I have a new appreciation for this paint. Doing more tests...I'll report back later.
Comments and thoughts on this are encouraged, what do you guys (and gals) think?
Greg Williams
Owner/ Manager
Modern Hobbies LLC
Indianapolis, IN.
IPMS #44084