Need help quick!

[Uninen]

Hi y'all!

I'm having "some" trouble with my airbrush (i'm using boyd's acrlylics) and I don't know what to use to thin the paint with. Should I use water, alcohol or just plain old thinner? I tried thinning the paint with water but it doesn't really work looks like the paint dries instantly on the surface and doesn't really cover anything. Result was the same when U draw on glas with non-waterproof ink. Please help me, I have a little time to build models, since my job is so hectic hours! So any help is welcome!

Cheers!

[Macdaddy4738]

water should thin arcrylics out...

ive heard you can use Mr. Color thinner (i THINK this is what it was, used for lacquer thinning) on arcrylic paints as well..

[MPWR]

This is my usual disertation on spraying acrylics. Searching on 'thin' and 'acrylic' will give you lots of info on this.

Originally Posted by MPWR

I use them all- Tamiya, Gunze, and MM Acryl. For thinning, I use a mixture of 25ish% isopropyl alcohol, and 75ish% distilled water (or tap water, when I'm lazy). Mix this ratio by your preference. More alcohol, and the paint will dry faster, more water and it will dry slower. Too fast (most or all alcohol), and the finish may be grainy, as the paint will partially dry in the spray stream. Too slow, and its of course more likely to puddle- but, I've used anywhere from 1:3 to 1:6 alcohol:water and had good results- so this ratio isn't too critical. I keep this ina small plastic dropper bottle- I pour a bit of paint into the airbrush paint cup, and put a few drops of thinning solution in, test spray, and adjust, if necessary.

For cleanup, I use windex glass cleaner- don't use the cheap generic stuff, it doesn't have enough ammonia in it to be effective. Just put it into the paint cup, and spray and backpressure until it runs clear. Windex works very well as a stripper for Tamiya and Gunze acrylics (so be careful using it around painted objects!), and it's terrific for cleaning the airbrush. Windex won't dissolve dried Acryl, but it works great for cleanup after spraying. If you leave it to dry, Testor's MM Acryl cleaner will certainly do the trick. It comes in another small plastic dropper bottle, just like I use for thinning solution and windex.

Before painting a car body, or anything else that I'm super paranoid about paint contamination on, I take the airbrush apart and clean the tip, needle, paint cup and siphon with a bit of laquer cleaner, with qtips and pipe cleaner. Laquer thinner will clean just about anything that may be dried in your airbrush.

Your right that gloss acrylics do take a while to dry until they're ready to polish, but I've never had a paint job with acrylic that wan't ready to polish in about a week. I've had enamel finishes take up to six weeks to cure. Frequently when I polish, I find that I can spray a couple of thin coats of Tamiya clear (X22 I think), polish it after two days, spray some more, wait two days and polish some more(repeat as necessary). I find that it's very forgiving, and a little bit of patience will yield a blinding P-man shine.

Give it a try!

Originally Posted by pflau

so I guess you dont use the model master acrylic thinner or the tamiya thinner for spraying????

Originally Posted by MPWR

Nah, I don't bother with them. No reason not to, really, but I've been happy with just water & isopropyl. I guess I've heard a rumor that there's an additive in the Tamiya thinner that makes their gloss acrylics work better somehow, but I haven't found much difference. If you try them, let me know!

[Eric Cole]

I may be wrong but I think the Boyd's line of testors paints are enamel's. If that is the case water won't mix with the paint, which is why you have the separation problem (like ink on glass).

You will need to use either an enamel thinner or some lacquer thinners will thin enamel paint.

I hope this helps.

[Uninen]

Thanx a lot guys! U've been a great help! I tried the search but didn't find anything useful so thanx to MPWR! To mach1_2003: the boyd's line also contains acrylics and it says so on the canister label -acryl- so I'm guessing it's acryl but thanks anyway. And I solved the problem: I had too much water so it was too thin, and I didn't have any trouble when I sprayed without isoprophyl, just water as thinner.

[MPWR]

Originally Posted by Uninen

Thanx a lot guys! U've been a great help! I tried the search but didn't find anything useful so thanx to MPWR! To mach1_2003: the boyd's line also contains acrylics and it says so on the canister label -acryl- so I'm guessing it's acryl but thanks anyway. And I solved the problem: I had too much water so it was too thin, and I didn't have any trouble when I sprayed without isoprophyl, just water as thinner.

Glad it helped- now show us some pics!