Sorry for the noob question, but I am about to start my journey into the airbrushing and I believe I’ll need your help.
Short story long: What goes with What?
As you can see I have couple of Tamiya X/XF paints, couple of Tamiya LP paints, Mr. Color 529-530-531 (IDF Colours) and Mr. Surfacer 1000 Primer as well as couple of thinners.
Could someone please be so kind to provide me with the proper combinations of my paints/primers and thinners?
I know this is a very very basic question, but I’d guess everyone was in my shoes one day…
To begin with, most paints work best with their own brand of thinner. Mr. Color paint with Mr. Color thinner, etc.
For the Tamiya paint, the X/XF paints are different than the LP paint. For the X/XF paint, use Tamiya X-20
thinner. The Mr. Color Leveling Thinner can be used with the Tamiya X/XF series of paints. The Tamiya LP paints are pretty new, so I have not used them yet. They have their own thinner, but I do not know if any other thinner will work with them. Some people have found that they can use different thinners with different paints, but you will have to try that for yourself. Practice on something other than your good model to try things out.
Ken
Thank you for your reply.
I was told that Mr. Hobby 110 is suitable for acrylic paints (namely Tamiya X/XF) and MRP Mr. Thinner is suitable for Tamiya LP series. As for the Mr. Color - I’d guess my safest bet will be the Mr. Color Leveling Thinner (the shop did not have Mr. Color Thinner at stock but as I understand Leveling Thinner is virtually the same just slower to dry)
The Leveling Thinner works wonderfully with the Tamiya XF & X paints. It gives a smoother finish than Tamiya’s own X20A . I also use Leveling Thinner with Mr Surfacer. Although I don’t have any of the LP or Mr Color paints, it might be worthwhile to experiment with Leveling Thinner with them. The Leveling Thinner is a high quality lacquer thinner with retarder and flow improver.
Exactly. When I use the Tamiya Thinner in the yellow cap, I always get good results. For mixing ratios, I’ve been using 60% paint to 40% thinner and about 18 - 20 psi when airbrushing.
That’s a very nice gift from your wife. Perhaps some flowers are in order? I’ve used Tamiya paints over the years along with their thinner and have had very good results. I’ve even had a situation or two where I sprayed a bit too much paint in one area, yet the paint leveled out and it didn’t cover up any fine details. After you’ve tried it out a bit, consider trying other brands of paints until you find your favorite.
For Tamiya paints, thinning with their lacquer thinner was game changing. Much better painting experience, bonds better with plastic (eliminating the need for primers), smoother finish, etc. I ran out of the thinner & used some hardware store lacquer thinner, & that worked well as well. I wouldn’t go back to using isopropyl alcohol for thinning ever again.
Harder & Steenbeck are nice airbrushes, it’s the brand I use. I almost always use the 0.4 needle which gives a nice even flow without too much pressure being needed. It can do fine lines and area coverage, just take some time to practice with pressures and paint mixes. You will find the right ones for you and your airbrush.
One thing to note is if you get bubbles in the paint cup then your nozzles aren’t tight enough after cleaning, that being said you don’t have to tighten them as if you’re torqueing down a cylinder head!
I have all those brands of paints and most thinners and almost exclusively now use mr color levelling thinner, others will tell you the stuff is magic. Mostly 50:50 with the paint and 15psi through the brush for me.
The aqueous thinner is closer to the alcohol based Tamiya x20a stuff, and is not really good for normal lacquer mr color paint or Tamiya lp paint. Also the 110 designation is just the size of the bottle in millimetres.
So I would say bench the other two thinners and stick with the mr color levelling, I wish I had this magic potion when I started airbrushing!
Oh, and the Tamiya lp paint is thinner than xf so either less thinning or gradual build up, which is what I do as the finish is still amazing.
What @venko says. Don’t exactly know what @anon40945561 means about our lack of knowledge, but with the paints you have shown us mr levelling thinner is just brilliant.
