by Ron Smith » Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:31 pm
spikesliew wrote:Hmmm... in a stroke of brilliance i tried Daler Rowley's System 3 acrylics thinned with Tamiya's thinner.
Spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the clogged airbrush...
Apparently the pigments are kinda too big for airbrushing, i suppose.
Has anyone tried this out with different results?
Be warned!

You made one of the most common mistakes with acrylics and assumed any acrylic thinner would work. Tamiya acrylics and their thinner are alcohol based, most artists' acrylics use glycol ethers as their thinners and will often turn to gooey snot when mixed with certain alcohols.
Quick and dirty:
Alcohols as thinner- Tamiya, Gunze Sangyo.
Glycol ethers as thinners- Model Master Acryl, Polly Scale, Mr. Kit, Aeromaster, Delta (and most other crafty types), Liquitex (and >ost other artists' types), Badger Flex, Minwax clears, Model Shipways.
Water and their thinner only- Vallejo and Andrea (closer to latex house paint in formulation and NOT comptaible with alcohol or glycol ethers except the alcohol based metallics).
[quote="spikesliew"]Hmmm... in a stroke of brilliance i tried Daler Rowley's System 3 acrylics thinned with Tamiya's thinner.
Spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the clogged airbrush... :lol_1:
Apparently the pigments are kinda too big for airbrushing, i suppose.
Has anyone tried this out with different results?
Be warned!
:smallsmile:[/quote]
You made one of the most common mistakes with acrylics and assumed any acrylic thinner would work. Tamiya acrylics and their thinner are alcohol based, most artists' acrylics use glycol ethers as their thinners and will often turn to gooey snot when mixed with certain alcohols.
Quick and dirty:
Alcohols as thinner- Tamiya, Gunze Sangyo.
Glycol ethers as thinners- Model Master Acryl, Polly Scale, Mr. Kit, Aeromaster, Delta (and most other crafty types), Liquitex (and >ost other artists' types), Badger Flex, Minwax clears, Model Shipways.
Water and their thinner only- Vallejo and Andrea (closer to latex house paint in formulation and NOT comptaible with alcohol or glycol ethers except the alcohol based metallics).