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Tamiya paints

Discussion in 'General Figure Talk' started by jim1215, May 12, 2020.

  1. jim1215 Active Member

    Country:
    United-States
    Hello all , just a curious question, does anyone use the tamiya jar paints at all ,if still.have quite a few and I know th et e watery , I love the smoke I use that for chain mail after I give coat of flat black or burnt umbet....then I dry brush silver of my choice , also the flat earth is beautiful for groundwork as in gets into the crevices. but sadly anything other they dont seem to be worth using....again just some thoughts thanks always jim
  2. housecarl Moderator

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    I use them a lot Jim.
    I thin them with cellulose thinner and airbrush them.
    Never had any joy brushing them.(y)
  3. Chris Oldfield A Fixture

    Country:
    England
    Jim,
    Tamiya acrylic paints are meant primarily for airbrushing, thinned with isopropyl alcohol or lacquer thinners as Carl says above. I have heard (never tried it myself, but some professional modellers recommend trying this) that if you want to drybrush silver, use the Tamiya paint pens which they sell mainly for car modellers - when squeezed out onto a flat surface like an old tin lid, the liquid drybrushes like a normal enamel paint.
    For general brushing painting, try the Tamiya enamel paint range as they do all the colours available in their acrylic range - these are more easily available in the US & Asia than here in the UK, so you should be able to find more or less any colour you need.
    Hope this helps,
    Chris.
  4. theBaron A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States
    I use Tamiya acrylics, too, and I second what's been said, except that I thin them only with Tamiya's proprietary acrylic thinner, X-20A, for the best results. As mentioned, they are formulated for airbrushing and meant to be thinned for use.

    Years ago, I started out using them right out of the jar, to paint my toy soldiers. For most colors, they went on well enough. But I noticed that white and black both were finicky. For example, the paint would clump as I applied it, or, when I'd apply a second coat, it'd lift the first coat off the surface-despite the usual surface prep of cleaning the work and priming.

    Over the years, I picked up bits of info about Tamiya's paints. I also started using an airbrush. That's when I read what Chris mentions in his post-they're formulated for airbrushing and meant to be thinned. That led me to a trial-and-error journey to find the right thinner. Water didn't work-the paints still clumped or lifted, and I got the same with isopropryl. When I broke down and decided to buy Tamiya's thinner, it was like waving a wand. Not only did it make them gone on beautifully when airbrushed, but when applied by hand, I could lay down coats as thin as if I had airbrushed them. I'm not saying others can use isopropyl and it won't work, just that in my experience, it didn't.

    The exception that my rule about using Tamiya's thinner, is that when thinned with lacquer thinner and airbrushed, the matte colors come out absolutely dead-flat matte. Thinning with lacquer thinner for handbrushing doesn't work, since the mix is too hot, and the action of brushing will lift off the previous layers.

    For handbrushing, I use the little 3/4 oz jar. I'll dip my brush in the paint, or pick it up from the jar lid, then dip it in the thinner, and apply it. Unorthodox, perhaps, but it works for me.

    I use other acrylics, too, water-based, with a wet palette. That's the one drawback to Tamiya's acrylics-I can't use them on the wet palette with the others. But it's not really that much of an issue.

    Hope that helps!

    Prost!
    Brad
  5. Ronaldo A Fixture

    Best I have found for airbrushing ,I always use Tamiya thinners . Its about time they done a primmer for the AB
    Limited colours for the Historic painter though .
    housecarl likes this.
  6. jim1215 Active Member

    Country:
    United-States
    As always thank you for your thoughts and knowledge and experience always helps me move forward
  7. alecs00 Member

    I only use them for scale models

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