How many of you use this stuff? I can,t stand it . Every time I try to brush it in a small area or whatever the paint lifts on the second pass of the brush . If that is what to expect with that brand I ain,t gonna use it no more ! My TESTORS -MODEL MASTER acryl , Allows me to brush an area with no problem . OH ,and the color I bought for my BETTY is way darker than all the BETTY,S I,ve seen built . I compared a part I painted with one in my LHS. Guess what ? The TAMIYA I.J.N. ARMY-NAVY green I had was almost black next to that plane . I stirred it till my hand got tired and thats what came out . I guess the TAMIYA brand is short lived in my shop .I won,t be buying any more of it ! Thank goodness for other , BETTER , brands . tankerbuilder
I have never had much luck brushing on Tamyia… but man it sure does Air Brush beautifully
Same here, Tamiya sprays very nice, but tough to brush paint. I find that I either have to
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dip my brush in their thinner (has built in retarder) first or
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Use multiple coats - giving the first coat at least 15 minutes to dry first.
Model Master Acryl brush paints much easier.
I remember reading somewhere that Tamiya’s paints are formulated for airbrushing, not for painting right out of the bottle, so I’m not surprised when someone else also reports this kind of result.
I paint them right out of the bottle, too, and I’ve noticed that some colors are worse than others, in that application. Flat Black is the worst, it dries too fast on the brush, and though it dries almost instantly, you really need to let it cure overnight… Some of the browns are almost as bad. Other colors aren’t as bad, and it think the chemical makeup of the pigments used has a big impact.
Having said that, I’ll say that I don’t use them to paint large areas by hand, certain not anything like the wing of an aircraft, or the hull surfaces of a tank, or a ship. I use rattle cans, and I’m learning to use the airbrush, for those kinds of applications. But I do use the Tamiya paints, among other brands, on my lead soldiers, and for painting figures that come with my kits. I also use Model Master, Testor’s enamels in the little square bottles, an ever-dwindling stash of Pactra enamels, oils, and cheap craftstore water-based acrylics.
I also use Tamiya’s rattlecan colors, especially the Aircraft colors line, which I’ve found to work very well.
Thanks, Tankerbuilder. I thought it was me! People on this forum have been talking almost poetically about how wonderful their latest work came out with acrylic paints. I HATE them! But I’ve been using mostly Tamiya acrylics. Unfortunately, my LHS has a large selection of the acrylics and not so much in enamel.
But I do mostly brush my acrylic, not so much air brush.
I did read somewhere that someone recommended using longer-bristle brushes than what you’d use for enamel. His reasoning was that it holds more paint, so it won’t dry as quickly. I tried this on my current project, and it did seem to work a little better, but I did experience some pull-up.
Next time I’m out to the LHS, I’ll pick up some Tamiya acrylic thinner and give that a go. Moistening the brush with water/alcohol/ammonia/magic-elixir-of-the-week didn’t seem to help much. I have discovered that lacquer thinner does a great job of really cleaning brushes after you’ve use them in acrylic paints.
Still learning.
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas
I’ve never had luck brushpainting with Tamiya. It airbrushes beautifully (especially when combined with a high quality lacquer thinner…you can reduce it way down for some wonderful filtering and shading effects), but brush painting has always tripped me up. Same goes for Gunze Mr. Color paints - in fact they seem to behave very much the same.
Best paint I’ve ever used for brush painting is Vallejo, hands down.
Yep, same story here for Tamiya’s acrylics. I decided to start switching over to acrylics for cleanup & safety (“safer”, I suppose), and the LHS carried Tamiya so I started stocking up. Love it in the airbrush, hate trying the hand-brush it though. There are supposed to be some retarders out there that will help brush flow, but I’m considering a flat-out switch to Vallejo (on the advice of several), considering I need to order my goodies in now anyway. I still prefer my trusty old MM and Humbrol enamels for hand-painting.
i have to agree with doogs here. tamiya is horrible to brush paint. in fact i only airbrush tamiya. i have yet to try vallejo but hear great things about its brushability.until i pick up some vallejo ill stay with my MM enamels.
I second or third that vallejo is great for hand brushing…doesn’t stick all that great to a non primed surface until it cures a long time…but does cover well.
Tamiya for the airbrush.
Vallejo for brush painting.
I actually really like hand brushing Tamiya paints.
I use a flow improver and a retarder when I brush paint it. I made the flow improver out of 1 part Future and 5 parts Distilled Water. The retarder is from Hobby Lobby, the Liquitex Slo-Dri Blending Gel.
I mix in a drop of flow improver and a drop of retarder on a pallet with about 5 drops of Tamiya paint. I does make it a little more translucent and I might need a second coat, but it does paints really well.
I also add these when I airbrush Tamiya and greatly improves my control and coverage.
I brush tamiya’s straight from the pot. its all ive ever know. The only colours i have issues with are the paler colours like white and yellow. But if you load your brush up well it works good.
From what im hearing if im awesome at brushing tamiya from the pot, how good would i be with vallejo?
When Tamiya acrylics first hit the market in the early 80’s, they brush painted exceptionally well. You could do a brush-paint job that very nearly looked like it was airbrushed.
Some time in the mid-late 80’s, it changed and became very nasty to brush-paint. Brushing over an area which has begun to “skin” results in the previously applied paint getting pulled up in big lumps.
For best results when brush painting, add about one part Tamiya X-20A thinner to three parts paint. Apply a single coat, avoiding the temptation to brush over if at all possible and leave it overnight to cure before recoating.
I brush Tamiya paints all the time
The key is lay them on and leave them alone. Once they start to set if you hit them with a brush they will pull up a little.
If you make a little mistake let the thing dry, then go back for another coat.
This is to all who answered this post . Thank you .I was considering trying VALLEJO next project .I do really like MODEL-MASTER ACRYLICS though .They brush nicely and I cut it %50 with isopropyl alcohol and it airbrushes really well. I don,tlike using the airbrush on all the fiddly small pieces as I share my work area with my landlord and she doesn,t like the airbrush fired up when she,s doing stained glass .The smell,or something makes her sneeze ! I will definitely try VALLEJO and will see about the other steps for the TAMIYA. There,s just to many things you have to do to hand brush it , really . I do like the color selection they have AND I have NOT had that trouble with the METALLICS , who knew ?
HEY , DOOGS , Have you tried oil paints like artists use ? It is great for dot filtering .I use GRUMBACHER oils to dot filter my ships , especially workboats and it comes out awesome.You just keep the brush loaded with turpentine and the filter works every time hands down an awesome way to shade and wash something. tankerbuilder
Tamiya paints are easy to brush paint as long as you mix in a good dose of flow improver, i use windsor & newton and now have no problems, the flow aid slows the drying time so you can get a few passes of the brush before it starts to dry.
Yes…I use oils frequently…but I use them for different purposes.
Basically…I use oils for subtle color shifts and to tie different elements together (drybrushing with base paint, make decals less stark, etc), as well as for streaking, staining and the like.
I use highly thinned Tamiya through an airbrush for dusting or fading filters, which I’ve found are difficult to pull off with oils. The effects can be achieved with other paints (Gunze does this quite well…Vallejo and MM do passable jobs…White Ensign doesn’t at all, in my experience…it doesn’t reduce and remain in suspension), but I’ve found Tamiya does it best.
Same here. I also have Model Master acrylics which seem to brush better thanTamiya, but am gradually building up my supply of Vallejo. Another reason I like the Vallejo for brushing is that I only brush small objects, and its very easy to just squirt out a small drop to use for that object.
I use Tamiya acrylics for brush painting small items and interiors. They seem to work fairly well in those instances,(when thinned properly) however my favorite is still MM enamels. I’m not too concerned about toxicity or fumes as I typically don’t notice a big problem with them. I use a lot of MM rattle cans but also agree with the other commenter who gave thumbs up to Tamiya’s aircraft color sprays.