EB, thats pretty dead on in my experience. If a paint airbrushes well straight from the container, or with minimal thinning, it won’t hand brush well. If a paint hand brushes well, its gonna need lots of thinner and possibly more to airbrush well…
Tamiya’s acrylic X/XF line can be applied just fine by hand, when thinned with Tamiya’s proprietary X-20A thinner. That’s my experience.
I started out with Tamiya acrylics painting it right out of the jar on my toy soldier castings (half-round figures from old German molds). It was the same way I used any other paints in that application-Testor’s enamels, Model Master enamel and acrylics, Pactra acrylic enamels back in the day. I just dipped the brush in the jar and then applied it.
But the Tamiya acrylics had a tendency not to cure properly. So a second coat or second application of a color could lift the previous coat. Also, the paint tended to dry to quickly on the brush. Some colors were worse in this than others, which I attributed to the pigment’s chemistry.
Then I read that Tamiya’s acrylics were formulated for airbrushing, and that meant to me that they probably should be thinned for use. So I tried different thinners, starting with water, and then isopropyl. Neither solved the problems I had with the X/XF paints. So I broke down and bought the X-20A. That solved the problems, and I could apply layers as thin as if I had airbrushed them.
So, they can be applied by hand and achieve results as you can get with water-based acrylics.
I do concede that others might get different results, but my own experience that once I learned to thin the paint and use Tamiya’s proprietary thinner, I could apply the paint by hand with very good results.
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I should add that I don’t advocate one brand over another; I don’t use one specific brand of paint. When I started out painting toy soldiers 30 years ago, I didn’t mix colors. I bought a jar of paint for the specific color, regardless of whether it was an acrylic, an enamel, or an oil, and regardless of the type of acrylic. Over time, I have learned to mix colors, but it means I have a paint box with around 8 or 9 different brands represented. So when I say I can paint Tamiya acrylics by hand, or give some example about some other brand, it’s just to say what my results are. Others’ mileage may vary, and everyone can buy whatever brand he likes.
With my experience I have found that the Vallejo Air line for airbrushing is thinner than the line for brush painting and easier to hand brush. Still pays to thin no matter what type of paint you use.
If I were to hand-brush the entire model, I would switch to enamel. But for small areas of detail, Tamiya and Vallejo airbrush paints seem to work fine for me.