Tamiya clear paints

[Dantay VI]

A quick question.

 

Can Tamiya clear paints be used through an airbrush?

 

If so, do they need to be thinned?

 

If so, to what ratio approximately? 

 

I want to use it to do aircraft canopies/ If Tamiya clear is not suitable, what would be a better clear paint to use?

 

 

[Marshal Loss]

Yes, they can be used through an airbrush - in fact, that's pretty much the only way I'd recommend using them. Yes they should be thinned with the Tamiya thinner, and as for ratio, just play around with it yourself, depends on your airbrush/needle/pressure. I've found them to flow well but it's better to go on the thin side and build them up slowly, more so than normal paints.

 

They'll do brilliantly on canopies - I've used clear red on all of my SoH flyers, a few thin layers and it has a great effect.

[Dantay VI]

Thats awesome. Thanks Marshall Loss.

 

Airbrush will be a 0.4mm needle.

 

Does it have to be Tamoya thinner or will vallejo thinner work okay?

[Tyberos the Red Wake]

It's always best to use a company's own thinner, because they formulate it specifically for their own paint, especially Tamiya Clears, which are different than normal acrylic paints. A lot of people use Vallejo thinner for everything, and I'm sure that's fine for normal acrylics, but Tamiya Clear is already a very tricky color that often acts up when you do something wrong, even something as simple as paintbrushing it. If you buy a bottle of Tamiya thinner (I have one for some reason even though I never use it), you'll see why. It's VERY different from Vallejo's milky thinner.

 

The best thinners most people use for Tamiya Clear is Tamiya thinner or Future Floor Polish. Tamiya's Lacquer Thinner or any sort of lacquer thinner also has a couple people saying it works well. Rubbing alcohol and normal thinners can work but they change the look slightly, alcohol makes it less glossy.

 

Since your needle is so large, you can get away with thinning less or just upping the pressure, but a lot of people thin it down quite heavily, like 4:1.

[Arkhanist]

Tamiya clear paints have alcohol in them. If you've ever mixed a tamiya clear with just water, you'll find it turns a bit gloopy and sticky, so I would expect similar with vallejo thinners as they only have water as the vehicle*. Tamiya's X20A also has alcohol in it so is suitable for thinning clears, unsurprisingly. You can make you own with a mix of IPA and water also. Lacquer thinners in theory would also work, as the organic solvents are more aggressive than water, but will change the nature of the paint drying.

 

The other factor is that you'll be airbrushing, so you'll want to be aware of the effect of aerosolizing whatever thinner you're using. Neat IPA would work as a thinner (though it would dry quicker) but I wouldn't want to airbrush it indoors - it's absorbed quickly into the bloodstream.

 

So I'd just use tamiya X20A for simplicity - official ratio is 2:1 paint to thinner for airbrushing. To save money you can mix your own; mix 99% IPA about 1:2 with distilled water and add a little flow improver and drying retarder. Tamiya's lacquer thinner is intended to also use with their acrylic paint - it makes it a bit of a hybrid that dries quicker and harder, but is harder to clean up and you definitely want to be using a suitable mask and good ventilation - preferably in a garage or the like.

 

 

* acrylics are made up of 3 things; pigment, vehicle and binder. Pigment is the colour, acrylic binder is a mix of plastic polymers that carries the pigment, and the vehicle keeps it as an emulsion - as it dries, the binder chemically bonds to the surface and the pigment. Water-based thinners have water+binder plus potentially other additives such as flow improver. You can substitute some or all of the water with alcohol, which breaks up the binder more aggressively in emulsion and dries quicker than water but has toxicity implications.

Edited October 30, 2017 by Arkhanist

[Dantay VI]

Thank you both for your advice. That was exactly what I was looking for.

 

I will be sure to get the right thinner.

 

You have saved me from potentially wrecking my models and a brand new airbrush.

[Major_Gilbear]

Before FW released their own line of paints, the painters used a variety of non-GW paints to acheive the schemes on the first 4-6 Legions. If I remember specifically, the Alpha Legion scheme was done with Tamiya clears.

 

If you email FW directly, they may be able to advise you more specifically, or even ask the painter for you. I understand they are very good about these sorts of questions. :)