Okay, I’m going back to that age-old topic of “airbrushing Tamiya acrylic paints” because I’d like to get some specific feedback on a specific issue I was having this past weekend. It wasn’t a terrible issue, and I feel I did just fine in terms of results, but the process was a little frustrating and I’m trying to learn.
I sprayed some XF-59 as the called-for interior color for the Tamiya 1/72 Ki-61 I’m working on. It seemed a little thicker in the bottle than I would normally just spray, so I diluted 8T:10P with X20A. I was spraying itty-bitty 1/72 parts, so I wanted to be close in and set my pressure to about 15psi. I found that I almost didn’t have to pull the trigger back to get a tiny bit of color, it was that sensitive.
So far, so good.
What got to me as I was spraying was that occasionally I wasn’t getting much flow of paint at all, so I felt I needed to pull the needle back a bit further…but I was afraid of blasting paint everywhere at close range. I wound up targeting further back into the fuselage and pulling back a bit further on the trigger in order to get flow again, then backed off a tiny bit and moved to the area to be painted.
All said and done, it was an airbrushing success per the results, but I didn’t like how it felt while doing it. What should I be looking for to avoid this issue? I feel like I’m pressure limited (as in I’m 2" from the surface, I can’t go too high a pressure), so my instinct is to thin more. But this is Tamiya acrylics, which don’t usually need much thinning. Or maybe that’s more my experience with other colors and this one needed more…?
This is exactly one of the reasons why my Ki-61 will be NMF and not have the fiddly green splotchy camo pattern, I am convinced I don’t yet have the control to do that scheme.
I’m just going to say what I do to airbrush Tamiya acrylic. I thin Tamiya acrylics, the flats with hardware store lacquer thinner, and gloss with Mr Leveling . The ratio is 1:1. Pressure as needed and also as the particular airbrush needs… Never a problem. If the paint is a little thicker color, then I may go to 1.2 parts thinner and 1 part paint.
With my Badger 200 using a side cup, I’ve gone down to 10psi at times, shooting in real close with a .25 tip. You can’t even see the mist but the paint gathers on the parts. I would only do this, if using a double action airbrush, if the airbrush has a fluid stop you can adjust on it. Then you can mechanically control how far back the throttle can be pulled lol. But my 200 is a very finely threaded internal mix single action brush. And it’s what I use for real fine painting.
The paint can take it, actually I’ve seen where folks have gone to 2 parts LT and 1 part paint even. Try it out. I’ve never even used X20a.
Now I just want to add, beyond what I stated above, if anyone is wondering why I use lacquer thinner ? It’s because in the notes and finer print at the Tamiya site, it states that LT makes their acrylics have a harder surface. Also that the gloss paints may pick up a bit more gloss to them. So the paints are compatible with LT. I use Mr Leveling Thinner on the gloss paints because the flow out and leveling, to me, very closely resembles the results of the LP lacquers.
Anyway, that’s the reasoning from my perspective. In no way am I saying it has to be done this way.
Sounds to me like a classic dry-tip clog. When faced with this on a small part with just a little more do to, I’ll just open the needle all the way and blast paint through to “clear” the clog. Aim it at my glove usually. This works, sort of, for a little while, but is a bad practice.
The better answer is that your paint probably needs more thinning, especially at such a low PSI.
I think you’re dead on here. It needs to be thinner. Different colors within the same paint range can require more or less thinning; we like to pretend it’s a repeatable science but in reality, you kind of just have to learn to go by feel.
I’ve even found specific thinning/PSI combos I’ve written down to be not useful a year later, due to maybe different ambient temp/humidity, evaporation from the paint jar, who knows?
Edit: I’ll agree with the above posts as well – generally, I’m almost 1:1 with Tamiya acrylic flat colors and their X20A thinner. If adhesion is a question, then I use their lacquer thinner instead, but a spray booth or a VOC respirator is required for that, IMO.
I thin Tamiya X and XF paints 1 to 1 with Mr Leveling Thinner.
Mr Leveling Thinner is more than just lacquer, it slows down the curing process giving the paint more time to level out. Where the name comes from.
I know regular lacquer thinner will work great, like others are using. I am just amazed at the results I am getting with MR LT
And everyone uses the thin to the consistency of skim milk reference. Does anyone really pay attention to the consistency of skim milk? I sure don’t. So what I do is thin your paint so that when you pull out your stir stick the paint runs of but leaves a residue behind.
Mr Leveling Thinner has a little retarder in it. As such, it slows that initial dry, giving time for flow out and leveling, as the name implies. Further, it can aid just a bit in curing tip dry if one is plagued with that event. I personally have not experienced tip dry with Tamiya acrylics or their LP lacquers.
LP lacquer thinned with MLT gives a phenomenal gloss finish with the gloss paints. But the acrylics are nothing to fluff off either when thinned in the same way…
Hah, all that said, more recently I’ve been using the Createx system of painting model cars. And some decanted Rustoleum 2x in some cases. IDK, I kind of blow in the wind in my airbrushing, I like various paints and can make most systems work, even craft paints…