Brush painting and detailing...

[Damo]

...I really suck at it. I use acrylics, and find that I can't seem to get the paint thinned properly. Can anyone give me a ballpark thinning ratio?

[Spartan_207]

I thin the tamiya acrylic paints with the tamiya thinner for use in an airbrush, i do it 2 parts paint to 1 part thinner and when i airbrush it it comes out perfect. I mix it in a mixing jar first then put it into the airbrush with a syringe.

hope that helps

[Matt Gilks]

Damo,

I gave away using acrylics for detail painting, could never get a result I was happy with, and now use enamels instead. For this, I generally thin just enough to improve the flow of the paint. Likewise, I also use enamels exclusively for dry brushing. Afterwards, I clean the brushes in low odour turps which, depending on the colours you are painting, can (but not always!) result in a reasonable shade to use as a panel line wash!

Hope this helps.

Matt

[Damo]

Thanks Matt..Do you generally do the base colour in enamels as well? For example, if you were doing a cockpit, would you use enamels for the overall cockpit colour?

Cheers
Damien

[Matt Gilks]

I normally airbrush the base colour in acrylic, thinned with lacquer thinners. This makes it a lot tougher to withstand the washes and the enamel dry brushing. I generally use Tamiya enamels as I usually spray Tamiya acrylic and can therefore match and then adjust the dry brushing shades to the base colour with minimal hassle.

Cheers

Matt

[slinkymalinky]

Hi all,

I know this is an old thread but since I'm new to the forum thought I'd share something I've found.

When I brush paint with acrylics (Gunze & Tamiya mostly), I've been using flow medium and gel retarder from Jo Sonya (available at art and craft shops like Riot). The flow medium seems to make the paint easier to brush without it losing its 'body' and pigment density... I guess it adjust the surface tension or something but maybe has resins or something in the medium to stop it going watery (sorry, I'm not technical and don't know how else to describe it... just how it feels to use).

The retarder is great. It stops the acrylics from drying so fast which makes them much easier to blend and helps stop the stuff ups I used to get when one area would dry before I could finish and I'd get 'join marks'. It almost makes painting with acrylics like painting with oils (at least to a small extent)

Cheers, Slinky