I need some advise with Tamiya Acrylic paints. [8D]
I use tamiya paints for airbrushing and use the tamiya thinner… for cleaning, I use alchohol and also MM Acryllic cleaner. I’ve had problems using Vallejo paints, never used a clear coat if i used flat colors…
i use tamiya paints for both brush painting and airbrushing. i wash the brush and airbrush in water and i usually just use the paint from the bottle in the airbrush but i would suggest using tamiya thinner to conserve paint.
Like the others, I’ve used it for AB & brush. Use Tamiya thinner to thin, use MM cleaner and generic acrylic paint cleaner to clean. Have used oil, enamel, and MM acrylic with no problems. They have both a gloss & a matt finish range of colors, so depends on what you want. Have used PollyS flat, MM Dullcote, & Future with no problems. Drys fast on the AB, so I would suggest using their thinner as it has a retarder mixed in.
I use the Tamiya Acrylics for spraying all the exterior camouflage on my tanks. I use 70% isopropyl rubbing alcohol to thin the paint for airbrushing and typically use a mix of 70/30 paint to alcohol.
I use ordinary windex (with amonia) to clean the airbrush, bottles etc. Works fantastic! Very easy to use, cheap and very effective.
I prefer using the acrylics to paint the exteriors of the tanks because I can then apply and oil wash directly to the paint without affecting it in any way. With enamels, I have to coat the tank with laquer (either flat or gloss… I use flat) to protect the paint from the turpentine artist oil mix that I use for the washes.
The acrylics dry fairly quickly, and as long as it’s warm and dry you can put a second coat on everything in just a matter of hours. To play it safe I generally do one coat in a day, and let it dry until at least the following day… but that’s probably being a bit anal (just ask my wife, she’ll tell you… I am… LOL).
You can also strip the acrylic off using windex if you mess up the paint job (although I’ve only had to do that once on a small piece).
The only negative is the limited availability of colors so unless you doing some fairly standard work you’ll need to do some mixing. Fortunately if you’re doing german armor in their typical schemes, XF-60 Dark Yellow, XF-64 Red Brown and XF-61 Dark green work great!
I will be trying XF-63 German Grey on my Tiger I early soon but until then, not sure how accurate the shade is.
I hope my experiences with the Tamiya Acrylics are helpful to you. [:)]