Tamiya “Acrylics” work best with their own “Lacquer Thinner”. ( I use quotation marks because I’m not at all sure these products are true acrylics, or lacquer thinner.) Anyway, has anyone tried thinning Tamiya “Acrylics” with commercial/store brand actual lacquer thinners for airbrush work? Certainly stinky and toxic, but also a lot cheaper!
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Yes. I thin Tamiya 50/50 with Klean-Strip lacquer thinner ($20 a gallon at Home Depot) all the time. Excellent results. The same for AK Real Color.
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As I’m not native english speaking I always get a bit confused with the word “lacquer”. I know water-based modelling paints and alcohol-based paints (okay, and solvent-based ones like Humbrol or Testors).
Water based (acrylic?) for me are Vallejo and Revell Aqua, alcohol based (lacquer?) are Gunze and Tamiya. Would you agree? While Gunze and Tamiyas are a bit “smelly”, Revell and Vallejos are not, though Vallejos are a bit parfumed.
Revell and Vallejo I thin with Sidolin Window Cleaner, while Gunze and Tamiya are thinned with IPA. That always works. No matter what paint I use, I always clean my AB with methylated spirit. Cheap and effective. I don’t use any solvent stuff like White Spirit. I do the painting in my kitchen and solvent based cleaner would stink in my whole appartment for a long time ,
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Thanks, think I’ve got a better understanding of lacquer thinner. I think I might have a bottle of cellulose somewhere if indeed I need it.
I’ll see how I get on with the meths first time around. It should do a decent job of cleaning it, I know from working with the Aztek it cleans up Vallejo easily.
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Hopefully yes. I’m going to have a practice at the weekend and see if I can get something close to the finish I want.
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Hey all, there is a VERY simple, quick, and easy way to keep your guns clean…head over to Model Paint Solutions and get some advise from John. He has a blog at discussion over at Plastic Model Mojo that can shed light on this oft confusing subject. It’s the Feb 26th edition.
Unc
Can you use AK real Color thinner with tamiya paint and tamiya laquer with AK Real Color and get good results??
Honestly Greg I can’t answer that as I’ve never tried it myself.
As much as I hate to say this, knowing each chaps length and depth of his paint collection, I usually steer clear of mixing unlike brands of paint and thinners. Companies go to great lengths to mix up batches of paint and related thinner so they work together. When you DO mix them up, you “might” be asking for trouble when you go to lay the paint down. If you have a problem, as I have from many of my airbrush students, you can usually put aside any worries with the paint if it is used with the proper thinner. After that, you look for issues in the gun.
Having said all that, you CAN get decent results from mixing and matching company paints/thinners, but hey, why tempt fate…? In the nd, if it works for you with no issues…be my guest…!
Go to https://www.sunwardhobbies.ca/ and order a bottle of this.
If you have questions just PM me.
HG
Is that similar to the Vallejo cleaner? I have a bottle of that stuff and it works great with my other brushes.
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Cool, I’ll have a look in my LHS. I know they sell Migs acrylic paints so I would’ve thought they’d have the cleaner to go with it.
Might give it a try.
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@phantom_phanatic
Just be aware that the thinner bottle shown is by Mig Productions which was resurrected by and is under the ownership of AK Interactive and is not made by AMMO of MIG.
Two distinct Co’s using similar names…very confusing.
Cheers,
i always use denatured alcohol to thin tamiya and gunze acrylics. been using taniya yellow thinner a few times to clean but usually use the alcohol to clean the brush with acrylics. i usually end by spraying some lacquer thinner.
Joe