im not trying to open a can of worms here my fellow modellers, but how can anybody enjoy spraying polly scale or model master acryl paints through their airbrush? since ive tried tamiya im hooked! minimal clogging, tip dry, and all around frustration. i have a few bottles of polly and mm acryl hanging around the hobby room with thiers heads hung low, wondering if they’ll ever get used. so, i look at them, open them up, stir them thouroughly, thin them with the witches brew i found on this forum ( you know the ones, 50% distilled water 50% denatured alchohol, add a touch of flowaid and a dab of kodak flo film…or thin it with 90% iso alchohol…or put some acrylic retarder in there man …or…well, you get the picture) and i get essentially the same results; instead of stopping 12 times in 5 minutes to clear tip dry or clogging, (oh yeah, i strain my paints fellows) i have to stop only 11 times. i open a bottle of tamiya acrylics, smell it as if i just opened a can of foldgers coffee (ok, i might be a little wierd), stir it, thin it, and im off and painting and have to stop and clean the tip of tip dry 1 time in 5 minutes maybe. my airbrush is kinda like morrison the cat, it wont just spray any kind of paint, only the best… TAMIYA ACRYLIC!!! maybe the pigment is ground finer in tamiya.
call me what you will fellows, but i would like to here some feed back. i read quite a bit on this forum about successful users of these brands. they are easy to aquire in my area, but oh the aggrevation of use man! i could have bought the whole line of tamiya acrylics with the money ive thrown away buying additives for polly and mm acryl. thanks fellows
I’ve never had those problems with any paint that I’ve sprayed (MM, Floquil - which is similar to PollyScale, and Aeromaster) however, I have yet to experience Tamiya’s.
Gotta Love Tamiya, and if you think those are good just go ahead and give Vallejo a try!!!
I have to agree with you on the MM Acryl, just recently sprayed them for the first time the other day…Testors can have them back or keep them. I’ll stick with what works with minimal conjuring…
i own 3 airbrushes, the one i use 99% of the time is the omni 5000 gravity feed. it has a “one needle/tip” capability but im thinking its more suited for thinner materials. ive never been able to paint straight out of the bottle with it (even mm acryl has to be thinned). i even get a gritty look with tamiya thinned at 50:50 spraying at anywhere from 12 to 25 psi. at about 11/2" from the subject. to get the desired effect, i my thinning ratio is usually minimum 60% thinner to 40% paint. it takes more coats and time, but i enjoy using my omni so its no bother.
I would like to try the Tamiya acrylics sometime also but how do you find paints for FS numbers? Do you have to mix colors to get Gunship Grey or do they have that?
Hi Mike,
A limited range of colours is the one negative feature of the Tamiya paints. You really have to do some research and keep some notes about your favourite mixes. They usually have several basic colours of each hue such as Neutral Grey, Dark Grey, German Grey, RLM Grey, and the same for the greens, blues etc. Some people see this as a hassle but I actually enjoy getting a colour just right. The instructions with their kits have colour matches or mixes from their range, so if your into say Luftwaffe aircraft you soon build up a little “library” of mixes for RLM 74, 75, 76 etc. If you like to just use "off the rack"colours then sometimes you may have to just buy another brand. They spray on smooth as silk, smell good and when washed out with Windex the empty jars are great to keep for your mixes.
or do like i do, i have bought the primary (flat blue, yellow, red) and secondary(flat green, purple{only comes in gloss}, orange{gloss as well}, black, white, and flat base from tamiya. also, i purchased a color wheel from a LHS. i practiced mixing with cheap tempra paints until i felt comfortable with mixing. i find a few pictures of actual aircraft that im building or actual walkarounds and mix the paint until i get fairly close to the color im looking for. plus, weather and wear and tear kinda gives you a little relief from getting the color just so. im like snowy, its enjoyable for me to mix the right color. you get to learn another useful bit of information. colors are interesting if studied.
There are some acrylics that just don’t spray well at pressures that low and what needs to be done in order to get them to spray well is to push the pressure up higher. Many people painting in the automotive airbrushing industry are spraying at 40 psi with paints that are thinner than our acrylics.
I spray my acrylic T-shirt paints at 60 psi to get good atomization and reliable feeding through the airbrush.
I pretty much just use enamels and have no problems with them. I have a couple of Tamaya’s clear smoke and red and yellow and such, and will be airbrushing the smoke, but the others are just for lenses and nav lights, so I end up just brushing them on by hand. I have yet to use MM acryl or any other brand really. I’m kind of interested to try, just so I can see how different they are.
Hey mike, A note on your pressure comment. Im not by any means trying to argue with you and you should know that. I gave MM Acryl another try last night…[banghead][banghead][banghead][censored][censored][censored]
This time I opened the pressure up a bit went from the original 20PSI I was spraying up to 25, no luck…make a long story short I quit at 40 PSI emptied my VL Jar and threw out the jar of MM Acryl…thats right trashed it…Wont be trying to AB that junk again! For those of you who get good results with this paint line, Im glad I just cant get it to work for me, I’ve played with all the pressure settings, mixing ratios Im going to do…I give up it wins. I admit defeat…too much trouble when there are much easier better paints out there.[xx(][xx(][xx(][:I][V][%-)]
i have quite a few mm enamels that i tried to use but had to many fumes circulating through the house. my hobby room is adjacent to the living room and the exhaust fan isnt strong enough to sniff it all up. i had no choice but to switch to acrylic. im so glad i did, the lacquer thinner fumes are notious. i have to sniff enough of my own fumes (lol) if you know what i mean.
Only 40 psi? You should have pumped it up to 80 psi and got some good atomization. [:o)][:D]
I have a jar of MM acrylic in Gunship Gray that I bought to try out and see how it works for me. I will post my results when I get around to trying it. I have shot acrylics for years through my airbrushes for T-shirt airbrushing but on models it may be quite different. [;)]
Wow its good to know I’m not alone in this ( I really thought I was). I started spraying Tamiya and had great luck then tried to switch to MM because of the great color selection. Its been so frustrating that I was just about to give up on airbrushing period. I have been reading these posts and no one else seemed to be having the tip clogging problems. I’m glad to find out its not just me! LOL
no, no, no dont give up airbrushing my friend. just make the switch to tamiya. hey, open a bottle of model master acryl or poly scale and drop a stir stick into it. you have to stir vigorously for atleast 45 seconds to wake the stuff up. open a jar of tamiya, stir maybe 15 seconds and your ready to do what you gotta do. it just looks, smells, (i hadnt tasted the stuff yet) and sprays phenominally better than the other brands ive tried.
I just went out and tried the MM acrylic in Gunship Gray for the first time a while ago and I hate to say it but it worked fine. [:p]
I don’t know how it will stand up to any masking or anything as that is yet to be seen. I used an old Revell 1/32 F4U Corsair model that I have had since I was a kid and sprayed the paint on one half of the fuselage after wiping it down with Poly S Plastic Prep and air drying it with the airbrush.
HistoryInScale,
I mixed the MM acrylic 2:1 using straight water as my thinning agent and shot it through my Omni 4000 at about 2-3" away from the model and 14 psi pressure. It sprayed very smooth and did not clog or give me any problems. I also turned the pressure up to 20 psi and it reacted the same way. The temperature in the garage was 60 degrees by the way.
I am wondering if that humid FL weather is causing your problems?
Is it even humid there right now? I’m not sure.
I will have to spend some more time doing tests with other thinning agents such as Isopropyl alcohol and see what the results are with that.
the only two colors ive ever had good luck with in polyscale were interior green, and intermediate blue. i thinned the paints with straight distilled water. i dont think ill go back though.
