Getting Started

[McG]

I have just ordered my first airbrush a Sparmax Max 4 which comes as part of a kit with a Sparmax Arism Mini compressor. 

 

I have a bunch of Tamiya acrylic paints that I've gathered over the years and tried to brush paint with quite poorly, and Tamiya X20a thinner. I've seen a YouTube video where it's recommended to add thinner to the jars of Tamiya acrylic up to a small ridge on the bottle, and that this gets a good consistency for airbrushing and saves further mixing. Any thoughts on this?

 

Do I need a separate airbrush cleaner or can I use the X20a?

 

What are recommendations for a primer? 

 

 

 

 

[Stef N.]

Yes, that's how I thin Tamiya acrylics and it works rather well. It's roughly a 10ml bottle filled with 5ml of X20. There's still room to thin it further if necessary. Many have different thinning rates but this does me.

 

A seperate cleaner would be better. X20 is ok but sometimes you need something stronger. Vallejo cleaner is great on acrylics. Lacquer thinners are the best but a bit more potent.

 

I have just tried Mr Surface primers and they are really good, but again,quite potent. Tamiya spray cans are also very good but harder to control where the spray goes so you can miss some of the nooks and crannies.

 

For Tamiya acrylics a primer isn't 100% necessary, spraying straight onto the plastic works fine. But primers do add that extra protection and strength of paint and highlight any mistakes, glue spots, scratches etc..

 

Good luck with your airbrush. They seem a bit daunting at first but they turn out to be mush easier than you think.

[McG]

Thanks, I've ordered some Vallejo cleaners and thinner. 

[dogsbody]

I have only started airbrushing at the beginning of August and have only done a bit on a paint mule and some on one kit. I'm using a Badger 150 IL that I bought at least 30 years ago but never used. I have used a bit of Tamiya XF-16 so far but it's worked out good. I've been mixing about 45-50% paint to 50-55% X-20A thinner. I've also been adding some Tamiya Paint Retarder into the mix, maybe 1% of the overall total. I spray at about 15 psi. So far, it's been working great.

 

For cleanup, I've been using 99% isopropyl alcohol. That works great, too.

 

 

 

Chris

[Stef N.]

Sounds interesting. I've thinned their lacquers 1 to 1 and it has worked brilliantly but I've never thinned their acrylics that much, normally 2 to 1. I'll give it a trial on my current project.👍

[McG]

I used my airbrush for the first time today with Vallejo grey primer to paint the body of a Tamiya Porsche 911 I am building. 

 

I was getting a lot of clogging, regardless of the pressure I had the airbrush set to, combined with some spitting. I believe this was caused because I was spraying the primer neat and using a 0.4mm airbrush. 

 

 

 

 

[Stef N.]

Yeah, sounds like it was too thick. Also a top tip I learned is to check the temperature of the room you are using, If it is too warm acrylic can dry quickly on the needle/nozzle.

 

A couple of good videos for you.

 

https://youtu.be/Ee9vzSW7KD4

 

https://youtu.be/g0A9Ju61Xz4

 

[McG]

Thanks, I'll have a watch of those videos. 

 

 

 

 

[Shin]

On 9/20/2020 at 12:52 PM, McG said:

I've seen a YouTube video where it's recommended to add thinner to the jars of Tamiya acrylic up to a small ridge on the bottle, and that this gets a good consistency for airbrushing and saves further mixing. Any thoughts on this?

 

Do I need a separate airbrush cleaner or can I use the X20a?

I personally don't like this method - I know it works for some, but I would rather be sure about my mix ratios. With Tamiyas I like 40% paint to 60% thinner (I generally use Mr. Color Levelling Thinner, or X-20A). This also allows me to be more accurate and repeatable with my mixes, especially if I need other ratios (10/90 for effects painting for example).

 

I would not use X-20A for airbrush cleaning purely because of cost - isopropyl alcohol would do fine for this purpose. I see you got your Vallejo airbrush cleaner - test if that works on the Tamiya paint first outside the airbrush. Not sure if the Vallejo cleaner only works on water based acrylics. 

 

Stef is probably right regarding your primer clogging, it may need thinning. If you want to try another acrylic primer, Stynelrez is highly recommended (also repacked as Ultimate Products Primer or Ammo by Mig One-Shot), which does not need thinning and from what I have read has better adhesion and sandability than the Vallejo primer. 

 

Good luck!

 

 

[Stef N.]

When that Vallejo surface primer first came out they said "no need for thinning, straight out of the bottle" etc, but I see they have now changed their advice and suggest thinning if necessary. Must have got a bit of feedback. I've got three large bottles of it barely touched.

 

Just to add Vallejo cleaner does work on Tamiya mixed with X20a but after having looked at the price of Isopropryl, Vallejo is roughly 4-5 times more expensive. Does Iso work on other paints or is it only good at clearing acrylics?

 

 

 

 

Edited September 27, 2020 by Stef N.

[Shin]

12 hours ago, Stef N. said:

Just to add Vallejo cleaner does work on Tamiya mixed with X20a but after having looked at the price of Isopropryl, Vallejo is roughly 4-5 times more expensive. Does Iso work on other paints or is it only good at clearing acrylics?

I believe ISO only works with certain acrylics - I would certainly not try with enamels, and am doubtful about lacquers. I have heard rumors it gums up Vallejo paints though, so definitely try first outside of the airbrush.

 

John at Model Paint Solutions tried a bunch of cleaners with different acrylic paints, the results in his chart may help people with cleaning. Ironically it looks as if the Vallejo cleaner didn't even perform all that great on Vallejo paints, but was superb against Tamiya. Worth a read: https://modelpaintsol.com/guides/airbrushing-tips-v4-airbrush-cleaners 

 

I personally use ISO to clean Tamiya (and occasionally to thin it as well), Stynelrez, and Mission Model Paints. I only have a couple bottles of Vallejo and I believe I used water the single time I ran it through the airbrush. 

[dogsbody]

In my limited airbrushing experience ( almost 2 months ) I've been using 99% Iso for cleaning and cleanup of Tamiya and Gunze-Sangyo Aqueous and it works great with both. I thin with each brands proprietary thinners.

 

 

 

Chris

[Stef N.]

Thanks for that. 👍

 

Some interesting results in that article. Luckily I've never had the goo but I have had the fragmentation and insoluble stage but that was picking up the wrong bottle, absent mindedly.

[Troy Smith]

On 20/09/2020 at 20:52, McG said:

tried to brush paint with quite poorly

Tamiya can be brushed,  but needs to be thinned with water and a tiny amount of flow improver.

A good water is de-ionised water, sold in supermarkets for ironing, or batteries.  

Windsor and Newton make flow improver.

 

I use a tiny 1ml syringe, suck up 0.95ml water, and 0.05 ml flow improver, give it a shake.

Add a small amount of stirred Tamiya to a palette,  add water/FI mix a drop at a time, until it's like milk,  it's right when it brushes out really easily, dries fast,  can be recoated fast, as you are putting on very thin coats.

experiment, thinning is the key,  if you use the dedicated thinners it will be too 'hot' and lift the previous coat. 

Use a flat brush.   Practice on scrap,  it's all in getting the paint to flow smoothly and go on thinly. 

 

Even if you switch to the airbrush for main parts, still useful for small jobs.

I suggest having a look at the work of @PlaStix, who only brush paints,  and his video on brushing acrylics.

 

HTH

T

[nheather]

On 9/27/2020 at 9:13 PM, Shin said:

I believe ISO only works with certain acrylics - I would certainly not try with enamels, and am doubtful about lacquers. I have heard rumors it gums up Vallejo paints though, so definitely try first outside of the airbrush.

 

I too have heard the rumours about ISO and Vallejo - but I have a lot of Vallejo and can’t say I’ve noticed any issues.

 

Also there is a difference between cleaning and thinning - in my experience, ISO will clean up any acrylic that hasn’t dried.

 

I would add that it is always good to have some cellulose thinners (acetone or lacquer thinner) on hand for stubborn bits - prime offender is primer that has dried such as in the paint cup where it has been swirled.  I have some fancy (and expensive) aerosol called liquid reamer - really good as it has a thin long nozzle to spray just a little where you want but as far as I can tell, it’s just cellulose thinners - much cheaper to buy as cellulose thinners.
 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

[Werdna]

On 27/09/2020 at 08:39, Stef N. said:

When that Vallejo surface primer first came out they said "no need for thinning, straight out of the bottle" etc, but I see they have now changed their advice and suggest thinning if necessary. Must have got a bit of feedback. I've got three large bottles of it barely touched.

 

Mig's 'one shot' primer sounds similar.  Apparently, no thinning needed, according to the bottle.  But if you try to spray it neat, it won't even come out of the airbrush.  50/50 with tap water works pretty well, but I've now gone back to using Halfords 'plastic primer' rattle cans for the forseeable - I'd forgotten how good those actually are..

[McG]

Thanks to everyone for the tips and advice. I spent a bit of time watching the Flory models YouTube videos on airbrushing and some of the ISM car build videos to try and get a better understanding of what to do before having another go at priming the body. 

 

I've now managed to apply 4 coats of primer thinned with X-20A with only a few small issues along the way. The car body is now sitting for 24 hours to allow the paint to harden before I give it a smooth over with 1000 and 3000 grit Tamiya sand paper.