I had an “ole timer” at a hobby shop tell me he uses plain distilled water, with nothing added, to thin all brands of acrylic paints and has been doing it for nearly 15 years with no problem. Just curious, but i would really appreciate some feedback from on your opinion. Thanks Doc Bailey
Yes. However some acrylics are not purely H20 based and perform better with their own proprietary thinners. I’m a fan of Isopropol Alcohol myself. Speeds drying time.
All acrylics are not the same, humbrol recommend thinning with water, whereas most other recommend thinning with their own proprietary thinner, which is usually alcohol based with additives, Tamiya being a prime example.
Thinning these paints with water MAY work to a fashion, but you will get far from optimum results.
seems eagle eye got there first
I thin Vallejo & Citadel Acrylics with distilled water. For Tamiya & Polly Scale I use their proprietarty thinners. Alchol is definitelly not compatable with Vallejo. Haven’t tried it with Citadel.
Regards, Rick
You can use water (I would recommend distilled water) to thin Tamiya, but it will seriously lengthen the drying time, and that invites fingerprints, dust and hair to contaminate the paint job. Isopropyl alcohol “flashes” off very quickly and is a much better choice. If you are having issues with the paint drying before it gets onto the surface a bit of water can help out.
I am waiting for Ross’ input on this. I do agree that water alone will lengthen the drying time.
Personally I use Ethyl alcohol to thin Tamiya acrylics but I am ready to do some experimenting with other things like 91% Iso alcohol with some distilled water as a thinner.
Tamiya: proprietary thinner for painting, or 91% isopropyl alcohol with a small amount of retarder. You can use a small amount of distilled water as a cosolvent (don’t take the easy way of using 70% isopropyl—it’s not necessarily thinned with distilled water!) Using a cosolvent depends on understanding painting conditions: temperature and humidity, and how they affect your particular paint.
Gunze Sanyo: same as Tamiya.
Polly Scale: distilled water as thinner. Usually does not need a retarder.
Mister Kit: distilled water. Also does not seem to need a retarder. NOTE: fully cured Mister Kit is attacked by mineral spirits, but they are incompatible with the liquid paint. Go figure. Clean airbrush immediately with Windex, or solution of half Windex, half 50% Simple Green.
Vallejo: distilled water if needed. Retarder as needed.
Citadel: haven’t tried it. My understanding it that it is intended mainly for brushing on figures.
Xtracrylics: haven’t tried it yet. According to Aaron Skinner’s article, distilled water or their proprietary thinner.
Model Master Acryl: again, according to Aaron’s article, can be sprayed from the bottle, but benefits from a few drops of water or 91% isopropyl. I don’t like this paint for several reasons, and don’t use it at all after testing it.
That’s what I use most of the time for Tamiya acrylics too. I like my paint very thin and find that Tamiya thinner will start to bead/run/lose adhesion when you thin it past about 66% thinner/33% paint. Ethyl seems “wetter” and will work beyond 80% thinner.
I do recommend Tamiya’s proprietary thinner for “general” use though, and for use with their gloss line, as thinning their gloss paints with ethyl alcohol dulls the finish.
I use Mineral Spirits on Gunze and Iso alc on Tamiya with no ill effects and fast dry times. I have used Iso with Tamiya gloss red and certainly did not flatten the shine in any way. Now I know after reading this thread I can slow the drying time a bit with water, that is good!! Thanks for the info and hope my [2cnts] helps some.[t$t]
Wow! That is thin! I never go past a 1:1 paint to thinner ratio.
Hey Mike,
I generally thin around 2:1 - 3:1 thinner:paint with Tamiya acrylics. That’s about the “sweet spot” with my AB (0.35mm Sparmax SP-35C)
I have come to believe that many of the problems people encounter when shooting Tamiya acrylics come about from insufficient thinning. Tamiya’s pigments are quite dense and the paint can handle quite a lot of thinning .
I think there’s a tendency to want to thin as little as possible and cover as much as possible, as quickly as possible. Perhaps there’s a certain amount of “airbrush intimidation” at work there and people want to get it over and done with as quickly as possible. I’m sure you’ll agree we’ve seen those paint jobs where it looked like the paint was applied with an industrial spraygun. I prefer to lay down thin coats in multiple passes. Sure, there are times when you want better initial coverage, like multi-colour camo work, but you just have to vary the technique.
Think he was blowin’ smoke up yer six… Don’t care what ya say, water (only)-thinned paints are going to bead up on a glossy surface like unpainted/unprimed styrene all the time, every time… You need a wetting agent of some sort to break the surface tension of the water droplets, like soap or alcohol…
Ditto… That’s when Tamiya cause a LOT of headaches for folks… Two or three thin coats is always better that one heavy coat… On the other hand, Tamiya that’s too thick (about 65-70% paint to thinner) makes excellent 'non-skid" paint in 1/48th with my Iwata… That said, I use alcohol for everything acrylic except Valejo… Haven’t used that stuff for anything but flesh-tones though… Don’t really like it anyway… Wish I’d bought just ONE bottle of it instead of a set and tried it first… I went back to the Old-school of enamels & oils for figure-faces… Never should have left come to think of it… [bnghead]
Never again…
That’s interesting, Hans. You’re the first one I’ve heard who dislikes Vallejo. Care to elaborate?
I need to experiment more with this paint as my local HobbyTown USA has a huge selection of Vallejo Model Color paints.
There must be over 100 different colors in the display case. I do have a bottle of 70950 Black that I tried a long time ago and it sprayed well. It seems to me it didn’t have as good of adhesion as the Tamiya paints but I am relying on memory which may be wrong. I need to play with these colors a little more as they are convenient with the squeeze top on them.
That’s true Mike, Vallejo’s adhesion on bare styrene leaves much to be desired. Hand-brushed or airbrushed, I’ll use a primer coat of Tamiya acrylivs under Vallejo. It also picks up a sheen from handling very quickly, moreso than Tamiya.
Sure… They’re too “labor intensive” for my figure painting techniques… Having to apply it in numerous thinned layers drags out the figure painting painting process too long, and un-thinned, they have too many brush marks, and don’t adhere any better than Tamiya… I haven’t used them on any kits, to be fair, but given their price, I’d just as soon stick with the old school enamels & acrylics… Plus, I don’t like not being able to use alcohol to thin them… Overall, they have me “unlearning” and I see that as a step backwards… After 45 years or so, I think I’ve peaked, lol…