Thinning paint?

I need to know how to thin down paint. I know you mix the paint with thinner. But what do you measure the paint and thinner with? What is the right mixture to do a grille?

Do a what?

Anyway, the way I measure is by syringes - I have a few 10ml syringes, and you go by marks on the syringe to measure the ration...

Hope this helps

Originally posted by ales
Do a what?

...It all depends on what paint(s) you're using, what you use as a thinning agent, and what you're painting with!

I use Tamiya Acrylics exclusively for everything but the body of my autos, and thin 50% with IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) roughly measured from a glass eyedropper.

This works for me, but if you're airbrushing, a commonly regarded rule of thumb is to thin your paint to the same consistency as *milk*

Acrylics dry quite quickly by comparison to enamels, and if you're *BRUSH* painting, you'll need to experiment to get either type thinned just enough so that you can brush over the same spot more than once without pulling off the paint you just layed down or leaving brushmarks on it.

For airbrushing, there are more factors that effect the finish. (ie. air-pressure and distance from the model).

Lots of newbies that begin with an airbrush use either too much, or too little pressure when laying down paint.

Practice (better *OFF* the model than on) is the best way to obtain results...

Regards
Mark

You posted the picture of the grille as I was typing my last post.

I'd be tempted to carefully brush black into the grill, then immediately wipe it off with a section of an old t-shirt (avoiding taking paint into any recesses that should be left chromed).

I used this method to paint the chromed badge on the front of my Peugeot 206 WRC, and was really pleased with the result.

(I'd post a pic, but I'm at my mother's on the coast for the weekend - I have my digi-cam with me, but my models are at home).

Regards
Mark

Finished the front grille. Here is a pic. I think it looks pretty good. I missed some spots so I will probably have to go over it again.

That picture is awful. Sorry.