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Ulimate Airbrush Cleaner and Acrylic Thinners


nheather

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Has anyone tried the Ultimate Airbrush and Acrylic Thinners - I have been Youtube videos saying how good they are, and they do look it, but these videos are mostly presented by people with connections to the manufacturer/distributer so it would be nice to hear some independent thoughts.

Cheers,

Nigel

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I agree it looks to be pretty good, I have had mine for quite a while but only really used it today in earnest. Was very happy with the thinning, used it with Xrtacrylic and Vallejo (standard i.e. thick paint, not the air range). just check the airbrush after cleaning it through a few hours ago and the needle has not stuck.

All of this makes me happy as I am trying to go more and more to water based (not solvent based paint) so I can spray indoors without the house being unbearable.

Ali

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I have the UMP thinner, and it works great. I've used it with Vallejo, Model Master, Citadel, and Badger primer with no problems. I have yet to try it with Tamiya.

I haven't used the airbrush cleaner. I normally use Vallejo cleaner because I can get it locally for way cheaper than the UMP cleaner. Since the Vallejo cleaner works perfect for me, I cannot justify paying almost twice more for the UMP cleaner.

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All of this makes me happy as I am trying to go more and more to water based (not solvent based paint) so I can spray indoors without the house being unbearable.

Dunno about that with the Ultimate thinner. To me it has a pretty strong smell; it is, after all, a solution that has to work with the "acrylic lacquers" as well. These depend on a high content of alcohol, if I'm not mistaken.

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Dunno about that with the Ultimate thinner. To me it has a pretty strong smell; it is, after all, a solution that has to work with the "acrylic lacquers" as well. These depend on a high content of alcohol, if I'm not mistaken.

You mean like Tamiya acrylics. It does call that out as a specific paint that it is compatible with and the reviews I have seen confirm that. I have some in-transit so will let you know once I have had chance to test it.

I have a 5 litre bottle of 100% IPA which I mix with about 20% distilled water to imitate Tamiya thinners, but it would be nice to try something less 'hot' to make airbrush cleaning a little easier.

Cheers,

Nigel

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You mean like Tamiya acrylics. It does call that out as a specific paint that it is compatible with and the reviews I have seen confirm that. I have some in-transit so will let you know once I have had chance to test it.

I have a 5 litre bottle of 100% IPA which I mix with about 20% distilled water to imitate Tamiya thinners, but it would be nice to try something less 'hot' to make airbrush cleaning a little easier.

I've used it with Gunze, which apparently is similar to Tamiya. It works well, but is one of the hottest thinners I've used. Nothing else dries quite as fast.

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Hi Nheather,

I have no connection with the company, use both, and have no complaints over their quality or performance. They are first class products.

Best Wishes,

Will.

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Just picked up my delivery of a bottle of each from the sorting office.

Nothing more than a sniff test as yet, but my initial opinion is ....

.... that they both smell of IPA, the cleaner more stronger than the thinners.

I already have a 5 litre bottle of 99.9% IPA which I use to reproduce Tamiya Acrlyic Thinners (80% IPA and 20% distilled water).

I have a suspicion that the ultimate thinners is IPA and water, and the cleaner is IPA with less water and a blue dye.

Will have an experiment over the weekend to see if I can make mixtures that small identical to the ultimate products.

Cheers,

Nigel

Edited by nheather
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I think there may be more to it than just matching the heady aroma!

There might be and there might not.

All I can say is that it smells and looks very much like IPA - if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck ......

Cheers,

Nigel

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All I can say is that it smells and looks very much like IPA - if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck ......

IPA is an important ingredient, sure. As I understand it there's also flow enhancer and/or retarder thrown into the mix.

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Scud stuff IMH and unbiased (I hope) opinion :) I reviewed it here when it was first launched, and have been using it constantly since then. I've only used about a third of the thinners, but I'm about an inch away from the end of my airbrush cleaner, which you can probably understand when you think how much you need to clean an airbrush :shrug: I don't bother measuring out the amounts from Ultimate's Use Chart, and I still get on just fine with it.

For a modeller with more than one brand of acrylic paint in the arsenal (Lifecolor, Tamiya, Gunze, Vallejo, AKAN, AMMO, AK Interactive, and Xtracrylix for me), it's a Bodsend because instead of masses of bottles of thinners and cleaner I have two bottles, plus some Premi-Air Foaming Airbrush Cleaner for the stubborn jobs and the fun of watching the stuff expand and go all over the place! :frantic:

A hearty and honest :thumbsup: from me.

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Just tend to use the pure ipa 99% for cleaning up after using acrylics, you can pick a 5ltr container up on ebay for not too much, and the way I get through it with cleaning the airbrush works out a lot cheaper than the 120ml bottles of the other cleaners in the long run.

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Does this stuff work with LifeColor? That's notoriously sensitive to alcohol-based thinners.

J

Yep - as usual, don't overdo it, or it'll go thin & you'll get spiders :)

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