Frustrated with acrylic

[Bryan71]

Only been modelling a short time.Doing 1/35 military vehicles i enjoy building but when it comes to cracking on with my airbrushing I keep getting frustrated with inconsistent results with acrylic paint and the tip dry issue.I started off using Vallejo Model air but gave up to them.

Tamiya is not bad but been using Mission Model Paint. 

Thinking would I see better results using Tamiya with Mr Color Leveling thinner.Even of thinking of switching to Mr Paint.

I’ve watched Doogs reviews.Both my airbrushes are good quality and are clean no needle or nozzle damage.

[Rogue.]

I have recently started airbrushing and first time acrylic user.

 

Even though Vallejo Air is pre thinned, I find that 50% paint, 25% thinner and 25% flow improver gives the best results for me.

 

I spray at about 15 psi and clean the tip every few minutes if I see the performance dropping off with a spare brush and some Vallejo Airbrush cleaner.

[hammett98]

I really havent been doing this long and am having frustration with lots of elements - however painting hasnt been one of them.

 

I always prime (so far) with stynylrez primer - I got grey first then got black more recently. Even as someone who has never used an airbrush before, it goes on superbly. I then either use a 50/50 mix of vallejo air thinned with their own thinner, or tamiya acrylic again thinned to about the same ration with X20A. The thinning is something to play around with but surprisingly, the basic side of it is fairly straight forward. I might not be able to pull of any fancy techniques, however I can get a really nice basic paint job down.

 

One thing I would say is I paint many very thin layers - probably allowing far less out of the airbrush than most do. It gives me a bit of control so that I dont overdo it. And the other thing to mention, almost every issue Ive had with airburshing so far has been solved by stripping the thing down and giving it a good solid clean.

 

Good luck!

[Kev The Modeller]

15 hours ago, Bryan71 said:

Only been modelling a short time.Doing 1/35 military vehicles i enjoy building but when it comes to cracking on with my airbrushing I keep getting frustrated with inconsistent results with acrylic paint and the tip dry issue.I started off using Vallejo Model air but gave up to them.

Tamiya is not bad but been using Mission Model Paint. 

Thinking would I see better results using Tamiya with Mr Color Leveling thinner.Even of thinking of switching to Mr Paint.

I’ve watched Doogs reviews.Both my airbrushes are good quality and are clean no needle or nozzle damage.

I share your pain but all is not lost   There is two basic types of acrylic, proper water based Ammo Mig, AK, Vallejo plus a few more and alcohol/water based Tamiya, Mr Hobby Auqeous are the more common ones.  Even through you can thin/clean both with water they behave/work quite differently to water base acrylic, in that they're much less prone to tip dry they also smell a lot more.  Much is said about adding Mr Hobby levelling thinner (lacquer) to both water and alcohol acrylic, yes you can but in my experience this isn't a silver bullet and they're downsides.  The paint can dry like a rice pudding in that it doesn't and any handling, masking will wreck the finish, not such an issue on armour or perhaps aircraft, but when you want high gloss finishes on cars/bike and such like it is and it will take months to dry if at all.       

 

There's a couple threads I contributed too when others were experiencing the same sort of issues as you with water based acrylic in this case Ammo Mig, if you can spare the time read the whole threads, apply the advice and most of you're issues will disappear mine did. 

 

Ammo Mig  

 

 Ammo Mig 2  

 

What I now do is select the paint for the finish and for what I need to do to obtain that finish, high gloss I use Mr Hobby Color (lacquer) or Zero Paints.  The latter smell very strongly, much stronger than Tamiya or Mr Hobby Aqueous acrylics and I'd advise you use a mask and extractor.  Anything with cammo patterns or detailing Tamiya or Mr Hobby Auqeous, anything else mainly armour/aircraft I use my Ammo Mig, but I am phasing it out reasons which are contained in the posts. 

 

        

[Julien]

I use vallehjo airbrush cleaner to thin all waterbased acrylic without any issues, note not Tamyia or Gunze.

 

The vallehjo AB cleaner is good stuff to thin acrylic paint with as it contains a small amount of ethylene glycol and it helps retard the paint a bit, stops tip drting etc.

 

Julien

[Evil_Toast_RSA]

3 hours ago, Julien said:

I use vallehjo airbrush cleaner to thin all waterbased acrylic without any issues, note not Tamyia or Gunze.

 

The vallehjo AB cleaner is good stuff to thin acrylic paint with as it contains a small amount of ethylene glycol and it helps retard the paint a bit, stops tip drting etc.

 

Julien

Can confirm, tried this with my current build, and the cleaner (71.X99) works much better than the dedicated thinner (71.X61) using the Air range. I can only assume it will work the same with the Model Color range. Using the Flow Improver (71.X62) helps too, and try using one of their Mediums if you feel so inclined. 

 

Tamiya Acrylics are a good range too, especially for beginners, being virtually idiot proof. When I started airbrushing I seriously messed up my thinning ratio, and there was no running or sagging involved. I switched back to Vallejo due to finally getting a source in my country to buy from (used it extensively in the UK for my wargamming stuff) and getting a bit frustrated with their limited range mostly. Using their own lacquer thinners works amazingly well, and one day I may get hold of Mr Colour Leveling Thinners to try, but the consensus online leads me to believe its a very good match. 

 

 

[Bryan71]

Thanks guys given up to Acrylic now moved over to Mr Color and Mr P thinned with self levelling 

Got my confidence back I now enjoy spraying 

Now just got to sell my 32 odd new bottles of Vallejo model air before I buy any more paints.