Thinning and Cleaning Ammo Lucky Varnish with Vallejo Products

Hi Everyone,
I recently bought a bottle of Ammo by Mig’s Lucky Varnish, but I do not know what to thin it with, or what to clean it with.
On the bottle it says no thinning is needed, and clean with water or A.MIG 2000 Acrylic Thinner.
Well, I do not have Ammo’s thinner, and cleaning with water is meh…
But I do have a bottle of Vallejo’s Airbrush Thinner (71.161). Can I thin Ammo’s Lucky Varnish with it?

Likewise, after spraying the varnish, can I clean my airbrush with Vallejo’s Airbrush Cleaner (71.199)?

Thank you.

Personally my experience with Lucky Varnish has been quite negative, so I do not plan to use them again. Peeling off with plain water after two days dry.
In any case I guess you can clean it also with alcohol, but no idea for thinning.

My advice, test it before going forward on a real model.

I have to echo what Carlos has said about Lucky Varnish- I used their satin version and it did not go down on the models very well.
Having said that I always use Vallejo Airbrush Cleaner and I believe I have used it to clean out my airbrush after shooting this varnish so it should work fine.
I don’t think Vallejo thinner would work though, but you never know until you try- I would say mix a bit in a paint pallet or a spare bottle and see how it goes.

Thank you @varanusk and @Karl187 for your tips.
I tested it out like you said and here’s what I found:
(I used their satin varnish)

  1. Thinning: Vallejo Airbrush Thinner does dissolve Lucky Varnish nicely, but I found thinning unnecessary. Just shoot straight from the bottle like the instruction says.

  2. Cleaning: Vallejo Airbrush Cleaner dissolves the varnish, but forms gel-like lumps. I can imagine this causing problems inside an airbrush. On the other hand, my methyl hydrate from a hardware store dissolved the varnish perfectly. I have been using methyl hydrate to cleanup my Tamiya acrylics already, so I’ll keep using it for my varnish.

Also, like both of you said, I found the Lucky Varnish to be unsatisfactory. It was completely unable to smooth out the rough surface after spraying Tamiya acrylics, which defeats the purpose of using a varnish. (I spraying in 4 thin layers like the bottle says). I’m not impressed by its 24hr drying time as well.

Maybe I should try Vallejo’s own satin varnish next. Or maybe I’ll just stick to good old Tamiya X-22.

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I would recommend the Vallejo Satin Varnish but the big issue with it is that it needs thinned as it is quite thick from the bottle, more geared toward brush painting I guess but still too thick even for that. Distilled water does the trick for me, mixed until it seems like skimmed milk.

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I use windex to clean out my airbrush. It’s cheap and seems to work better than anything else.

I do the same but flush the windex out with 91% IPA. The windex can pit and tarnish the metal and mess with some seals.

Good to know. I hadn’t noticed anything yet. But I do use “El CheapO” ebay airbrushes so I probably replace them before I ever noticed anything. Haha

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