Am using Mr. Color for the first time #137 Tire Black and can’t seem to thin it without having it develop clumps and getting all gooey. I believe it’s an acrylic so have been using Tamiya X-20 thinner. What the heck’s going on? Is this stuff not acrylic or do I need something else?
Try some Laquer thinner…I bet you will find that will do the trick
Thanks so much, I was starting to think I was going to have to redo the darn thing!
Mr Color uses a lacquer base and is not like a conventional acrylic. Water and/or alcohol (as in Tamiya X-20A) will not work.
A lacquer thinner like Tamiya lacquer thinner or Gunze’s Mr Color thinner is recommended, though generic lacquer thinners will also work (but which may be harsher). Tamiya’s and Gunze’s lacquer thinners are formulated for styrene and will not usually dissolve the plastic.
Thanks to you as well mate. I’ll pick up the stuff you recommended as I assume it’ll work the best.
tamiya and gunze aren’t true acrylics. i know you can use gunze thinner with tam paints but tam thinner doesn’t work for gunze.
one thing i hate is the smell of gunze products. very strong.
Actually, they are true acrylics.
It’s a common misconception that “acrylic” means “water based” - it doesn’t. By definition, an acrylic paint cures by a process of plolymerisation (aka formation of long-chain molecules) of a class of chemical compounds known as acrylates to form acrylic polymers.
Tamiya and Gunze Aqueous acrylics both use an acrylic polymer binder using water and alcohol as a solvent.
Gunze’s “Mr Color” line is an acrylic which uses a lacquer thinner-like solvent.
All of the abovementioned paint lines can be thinned using Tamiya lacquer thinner (not X-20A) or Gunze’s Mr Color thinner. Though they are not available in all countries, Tamiya’s enamels can also be thinned using these thinners.
Tamiya’s acrylic and Gunze’s aqueous acrylics can be thinned using Tamiya’s X-20A acrylic thinner or Gunze’s Aqueous acrylic thinner, but Gunze’s Mr Color paints cannot.
nice. sorry for the confusion. i always hear people say they aren’t true. i never actually bothered to search for any info.
so, i can use mr.color thinner on their solvent based acrylics?
thanks!