Tamiya Clear Paints....Airbrushing????

I want to use Tamiya's Clear coloured paints through my airbrush what is the best way of applying these products i.e - thinners, ratio, what type of thinners....etc

Cheers

Tamiya clear colors airbrush great. I almost never use them any other way. To spray, use Tamiya's acrylic thinner. A thinning ratio is pretty meaningless- add a couple drops of thinner and adjust as you need. Use the lowest spray pressure that you can, and apply it slowly and patiently. With clear colors, it's even more important to use many light coats instead of one or two heavy coats.

With clear colors, it's even more important to use many light coats instead of one or two heavy coats.
:1: with everything Andy said but particularly the above.

In my experience the Tamiya clears give very good results but are somewhat temperamental to work with due to their thick consistency from the jar and - what seems to me - a propensity to dry quicker than their traditional X-range colour acrylics.

To get them to spray well you really need to thin quite extensively (I strongly recommend Tamiya own thinner for this) and this makes many light coats the watch word otherwise they can run.

The good news is that if disaster strikes, they clean off very easily in Mr Muscle window cleaner. Even from clear parts without any harm.

By comparison, in my somewhat limited experience (I don't use these colours very often) I have found the Alclad range of clear colours to give equally excellent results but to be more "user friendly" to work with. The difference for me is not huge but none the less discernible and certainly means that where I have a colour from both makers, I will reach for the Alclad version.

The good news is that if disaster strikes, they clean off very easily in Mr Muscle window cleaner. Even from clear parts without any harm.


Is there some secret to shooting these colors on clear parts? I tried once with "smoke" and it was a disaster after which I decided never again to try.

I must admit that I switched to the Alclad transparent colours instead. They spray better than the Tamiya, cover better and dry lightning fast.....

Is there some secret to shooting these colors on clear parts? I tried once with "smoke" and it was a disaster after which I decided never again to try.
Actually, I think that Tamiya smoke is the worst of their clear range. It also gave me a lot of grief on my Aston Martin DBR9. I switched to Alclad Smoke and it became a stress-free job :)

As for the rest, I don't know about any "secrets" as such other than those mentioned above. However, I would add that generally, on larger parts (headlight covers, windscreens etc.), I prefer applying the color on the inside (rather like painting lexan R/C bodies) because this lets the clear part itself take care of the smooth finish and the paint is only need for the tint ;)

For smaller parts such as rear lights, side lights etc, I usually paint on the outside.

Does that answer your question?

I airbrush Tamiya (Tamy) paints mostly. When I get the small 10 ml bottles, I fill almost to the top with the tamiya thinner (other modelers use isoprophyl alcohol) therefore, the bottle is ready for airbrushing. So far this ratio (like 1:3 thinner to color) has worked fine for me. Read it on-line once and used it and worked, why change it. I also use between 15 to 20 psi in my air compressor. Use Tamy thinner too because I find that it has some additives (the the isoprpphyl alcohol doesn't) that help the gloss in Tamy colors. But let me tell you, even the spray cans work well. Specially the clear coats out of the spray can are luster than if you airbrush. The only thing with spray cans is that you have to give several thin coats to get the final coverage. That has been my experience. :)