Acrylic Questions

The ones that have the colours you need.

No.

Usual ratios are around 1:3 to 3:2 (thinner:paint)

Depends on the brand. Gunze's can be thinned with just about anything, Tamiya's airbrush best when thinned with their own stuff, Lifecolors want distilled water with a drop of isopropyl alcohol, Aircraft Colors thinned with Tamiya's stuff tend to clog the airbrush, etc... Theory says that water+10%isopropanol can be used to thin just about any water-based acrylic paint. Practice will probably sue me for that...

Wash the resin parts, rinse in alcohol or Windex, let dry. If that's not enough, airbrush some primer first.

Mr Color are lacquers, Mr Hobby Color are the water-based acrylics. The two don't mix.

in article Hafhe.83871$ snipped-for-privacy@tornado.texas.rr.com, Dale at snipped-for-privacy@austin.rr.com wrote on 5/13/05 11:31 PM:

If you liked PollyS paints, you'll really like Polly Scale, the line that replaced it some years ago. IMHO they look great when sprayed or brushed, and they have just about any color you might need. Again IMHO, their stock-mixed colors are among the most accurate around.

Many modelers swear by Gunze-Sangyo acrylics, although I don't tend to use them much. They're finely ground, and they have a gloss surface which obviates pre-decal gloss coats.

Polly Scale (may still be called Polly-S) airbrush thinner works well with Polly Scale, and I've used it for Tamiya and Gunze paints as well. It's a light blue liquid and comes in pints and maybe quarts. It's basically identical chemically to automotive windshield washing fluid, so you can save a lot of money by using that instead. Gunze makes a thinner, Mr. Color 110, for their paints. It comes in a 110 ml bottle. Can't tell what's in it because it's all in Japanese, but it's pretty hot stuff -- cuts right through even a dried coat.

Pip Moss I used to feel cheap 'cause I had no signature.

I use Tamiya, Gunze Sangyo, and Testors "Acryl". They all seem to perform about the same.

Some brands may intermix, but some combinations will coagulate into a lumpy mess. So unless you like experimenting and dumping the failures, it's best not to intermix different brands.

Either windshield washer fluid or alcohol are cheap and work well as thinners for most acrylics. I prefer windshield fluid because it comes in big jugs that last a long time. The blue tint doesn't affect the color of the paint.

The rule of thumb is to add thinner until it's the consistency of milk. This usually works out to a paint:thinner ratio of around 4:1 to 2:1.

Resin parts sometimes have some mold release on them, or other byproducts of the casting process. Clean them with glass/windshield cleaner, alcohol, or soap & water, then rinse well and dry.

To help the paint stick even better, start with a coat of primer. Some modelers use Krylon brand primer, others use automotive primers.

"Dale" wrote

It is absolute lunacy to use anything but the exact thinner recommended by the manufacturer to thin a paint. Thinning paint with these ridiculous homebrewed concoctions is just asking for trouble. The alleged "savings" will turn to ashes in your mouth with the first ruined model. However, how much thinner do you actually use for *thinner* as opposed to what you use as a *cleaner*? In my case the ratio is about 1:50 or 1:100, so for cleaning, I use Windex and tap water. When you are dispensing *thinner* at a rate of about four large drops per color cup, brand name stuff - even if expensive (*) - lasts a long time.

(*) Expensive?!? Paint is over $5 per oz and thinner is $0.62 per oz, yet no one is suggesting you make your own paint from crushed rocks and thinned white glue . . .

KL

These are not "homebrewed concoctions", they're off-the-shelf products that have been proven to work every bit as well as the thinners sold by the model paint manufacturers.

I've been using rubbing alcohol and windshield washer fluid as acrylic thinners for over 15 years, and have NEVER had a model or paint job ruined by them.

On a very few occasions, I've run into an incompatibility between the paint & thinner I was trying to use, but this never affects the model. The incompatibility shows up immediately in the paint cup; nothing is ruined except a small amount of paint. I just clean the airbrush and try again with a different thinner. If neither windshield fluid nor alcohol works, I can always get by with plain water.

I use a lot more than "4 large drops per color cup". My average usage for thinning is about 1 ounce of thinner per 2-3 ounces of paint.

I've never seen the paint companies' acrylic thinners anywhere near that cheap, even in the large bottles. In the small bottles, it costs almost as much per ounce as the paint itself -- and a lot of the time, my local hobby shops don't have the large bottles of thinner for the brand of paint I want to use. (I don't like buying consumables by mail or web; if I need a bottle of paint or thinner, I want it *today*, not next week.)

Besides, I like multi-taskers. Why buy one product for cleanup, and brand-specific thinners for each brand of paint that I use, if I can get one inexpensive product that does it all and works just as well?

"Wayne C. Morris" wrote

. . .

Incompatibility eh? For some reason I just can't jive that with "proven to work every bit as well as the thinners sold by the model paint manufacturers." Some sort of disconnect in all that. . .

Tower Hobbies has 1/2 oz PollyScale paint for $3.19, 16 oz of thinner for $7.99. That's $6.38/oz for paint, $0.50/oz for thinner.

Wouldn't it make sense, given how much thinner you use, to save money by buying large bottles in advance?

"Works well". . . Again, I can't quite get that to square with clumping in the color cup. . .

KL

No disconnect at all, unless you think I meant "proven to work with ALL brands of acrylics".

If I use a specific thinner with a specific brand of paint, and it works well every time I use them together, then I have proved to myself that they're compatible. Other modelers report that they use windshield washer fluid or alcohol to thin acrylics; presumably they get good results, or they'd be using something else.

Once in a long while, I'll pick up a brand of paint that I've never used before. THAT'S when there's a risk that I'll see an incompatibility between the new paint and my usual choice of thinners; I find out what works with that brand, and I proceed from there.

Call me a lunatic then. I use Mr. Color Leveling Thinner for all lacquers, cheap Wal-Mart lacquer thinner for enamels, and windshield washer fluid for the few acrylics that I like. Been doing it for years and haven't had a bit of trouble yet.

As you wish.

It's just a false economy, IMO, and not good advice for a mewbie - as the original poster was.

KL

I ususally stick with the paint manufactures directions........I use Acrylics with oils to to finish the painting ...with a spray of mat finish ....when its all dry ......never fails ..........I paint Figures and Armour ......1 in 35 and upwards.