Tamiya Accent Panel Liner

[nheather]

Question about oil-based panel liners or pin washes.

 

I'm aware that you can make your own with oil paint and that you can buy proprietary products, such as the one by Tamiya.

 

The Tamiya has the advantage of being pre-made, in a bottle with a built in fine brush but does it have any advantage over DIY oil paint versions - for example, does it flow better, dry faster, clean up better?

 

 

[Casey]

57 minutes ago, nheather said:

The Tamiya has the advantage of being pre-made, in a bottle with a built in fine brush but does it have any advantage over DIY oil paint versions - for example, does it flow better, dry faster, clean up better?

Not that I noticed in any difference from self made ones, but the brush and the bottle form is definitely good. I got them for laziness reasons and one bottle lasts me next to eternity

[Ray_W]

I use both methods. I like the Tamiya for convenience. Very fast drying, wicks very nicely and ease of clean-up using naphtha (lighter fluid). You need to shake the bottle regularly. Make sure the lid is screwed down, ask me how I know. They come with the  standard fine type of Tamiya bottle brush which is convenient and great for accurately applying what you need. However touch the side above the brush and you will get a huge blob that you need to clean up. Doing fine work, wick the top before application or use another fine brush. I like their black and dark brown, greys less so. 

 

8 hours ago, nheather said:

for example, does it flow better, dry faster, clean up better?

 

To the original question, I would say Tamiya yes, yes, yes. Depending of course on your own DIY formulation.

 

Note that I never smother my builds in a pin wash and use it in a very targeted manner and for this they are great. 

 

Ray 

[nheather]

Thanks for the replies so far, a supplementary question is about colours.

 

At first glance, it looks like the only choice for the Tamiya panel liner is black, in fact that is all that some shops sell, but when you delve down you find that there are about 10 different colours.

 

Buying all the colours will get pretty expensive, especially as I suspect some will be hardly used, so what colours do you recommend, just black, or a few choices or all of them?

 

Of course, if colour is important, I can see this is where DIT recipes with oils will have an advantage.

 

 

And why lighter fuel rather than enamel thinners / white spirit?

[Ray_W]

1 hour ago, nheather said:

And why lighter fuel rather than enamel thinners / white spirit?

 

Less aggressive and dries super fast. Much quicker than white spirit. Cleans off the Tamiya without reactivating it as much, if at all. Gives cleaner, easier lines. If you want working time, say using oils for OPR (Oil Paint Rendering), then use white spirit. 

 

1 hour ago, nheather said:

just black, or a few choices or all of them?

 

It depends a lot on what you build. I tend to use dark brown the most, black second and then dark grey.

 

My techniques have changed over time and I always describe it now as a 'targeted' pin wash applied just where it's needed. I find I use it less for panel details and more for special circumstances like shading around flying surfaces.  The reason for this is that  I nearly always use a black undercoat (Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500). The colour coats are lacquer or alcohol based aqueous paints all thinned with Mr Color Leveling Thinner. You do not need heavy coats to get coverage. This retains the darkness in grooves and reduces the need for an additional wash. Here are two examples with no pin wash ... just the black showing through in grooves and so forth, plus some OPR for staining: 

 

 

 

However it is definitely a case of horses for courses. When you're spraying the difficult to cover gloss colours then a pin wash may be needed. Tamiya Black here:

 

 

If I had to choose one, then it would be based on your usual subjects, dark brown for weathered aircraft and AFV's and black for pristine types. Maybe add dark grey for just in case or go DIY.

 

10 hours ago, Casey said:

one bottle lasts me next to eternity

 

And as Casey said.

 

Ray

[Giorgio N]

My personal choice of colours for washes is the same as Ray's:

- Dark brown, that can be used on most camouflaged subjects

- Dark grey, even better if a dark blue-grey. I prefer to use this on grey painted aircraft or in general lighter colours.

- Black, that I only use to accentuate moving surfaces and opening panels or doors.

With these 3 you can work on pretty much every subject.

A lighter grey may however be useful in some cases, I'd probably consider it

[Steve McArthur]

I have the full set of Tamiya Panel Liners. I rarely use black except around around jet nozzles. Dark grey at most. I stick to greys on grey planes and the browns on earthier tones.  The light grey works well on really dark planes like Gloss Sea Blue or Black camo.

[Mark Harmsworth]

On 04/11/2024 at 07:00, nheather said:

rather than enamel thinners / white spirit?

If you go the oil paint route I'd recommend steering away from white spirit because of the smell. I use Winsor & Newton oils - with similar colours as above - with their Sansodor thinner which gets its' name from a lack of smell.

 

Good luck

Mark

[nheather]

Thanks for all the replies and advice so far.  So far my research tells me that the most useful three colours are black, brown and grey.  Black is easy but when it comes to brown and grey there are options

 

Brown comes in Brown, Dark Brown and Deep Brown (it also comes in Orange Brown and Pink Brown but I have discounted those)

Grey comes in Light Grey, Grey and Dark Grey

 

So when it comes to brown and grey which would you recommend?

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel