hello,
I made a mess of my first attempt at airbrushing valejo paint on to my typhoon.I used distilled water about 25% but it was inconsistent and started runing.In valejo's catalogue they mention "add a few drops" of their diluent ,i have only gunze acrylic thinner.What should the proportion be for a wide surface application, "airframe ,wings"?

i see in previous posts that some use isopropol alcohol 90%
diluted 80% as thinner to 20% paint,is this correct? it used to be the other way round when i used to spray enamel.

Are you useing Vallejo model color or model air? Model Air sprays right out of the bottle. My personal experience with airbrushing with model color was useing distilled water and then i tried alcohol. I didnt get the results i wanted with either one. I dont use Vallejo model color for anything but brush painting now. All i airbrush with is Tamiya. My 2 cent!

Gary

its the model color medium sea grey for the bottom part of the typhoon.the problem is finding the right colors and tamiya has a very limited range of colors.gunze has a much wider range.Do you recommend gunze acrylic range for airbrush?

I've never had luck using distilled water with the model color range.

Vallejo Airbrush Thinner (71.361) is what you need...this stuff is great. I have a feeling it is their airbrush cleaner mixed with other ingredients, but works perfectly with all the Vallejo range.

ok ill order it,i tried using gunze thinner with different ratios but they all run,wont stick.the valejo thinner bottle is so small.

Hi

Another thumbs up for Vallejo airbrush cleaner for the model Color range.

Also dont be tempted to try alcohol, most but strangley not all vallejo model color paints turn to jelly when alcohol is added.

Paul

you mean 71.061 32ml thinner?

Hmmm...perhaps it didn't hit the market yet, I was fortunate enough to obtain a sample and thought it would be available by now. It's the one in the middle...excellent thinner for their primers, Model Air & Color. As I said, smells very similar to the airbrush cleaner which some have already used (diluted with water) as an excellent thinner. The 061 thinner on the right, personally I haven't had perfect results with that through the airbrush either although I use it for brush painting.

great pics,what is the percentage you recommend thinner to model paint? and how much water to add to the cleaner to use as thinner?i'll order both in switzerland were i live now from my supplier of valejo paints.

I wonder what the one in the middle is? It did just come out, so may not be out to most shops yet. All of the thinners was at one time the same, like the one in the far right. Whether you bought the 17ml, 32ml, or 200ml....was the same thing in the bottle, just a larger size. When I saw it on my supplier's site, I just thought it was a label change, but I see the product itself was actually changed, as it isn't the murky white color anymore. Very interesting.

Reason Vallejo Model color didn't work well with alcohol, is that it isn't an isopropyl based paint, and actually a water based resin paint, so alcohol isn't going to do much to it.

Being a Vallejo dealer, I have heard all kinds of concoctions, from the Vallejo AB cleaner, to Windex, one of my customer makes a solution 50/50 Future and Vallejo Thinner, and then mixes that solution 50/50 with the Model Color paints and has great success with it....but I have found that nothing really works any better than Vallejo's own thinner. However with this new one being different, I will have to try it out once I get my hands on it.

I'm not one to really keep track of ratios since some colors need more thinning. Roughly, for 1 ml of paint I used 5-7 drops of thinner. I usually add thinner, mix, spray and adjust from there

Scott, I think you'll be very happy with this product in your store and it will be a winner with the Vallejo users. As I said, it smells very much like the cleaner so I'd imagine that is a major component of the formula.

I add a drop or 2 to the primers, the same for Model Air and finally have something that works with the Model Color range, which is where I always had issues spraying.

so using their thinners the ratio is still quite high,over 5 thinner to 1 paint.while gunze and revell are at 1 thinner to 3 paint.i think tamiya is the same in principle.

No, not 5:1. I'd guess about 20-25 drops equals 1 ml so 1:3 to 1:4 thinner to paint for most colors as a start. 5:1 would be much too thin. I'll pay better attention next time I spray

To then your valajo use distilled water with a touch of Windex or Fantastic added to it. Works great.

i will call johnsons monday to find out what would be the equivalent in switzerland since its not on their product list.Does anyone know the "equivalent formula" from a competitor sold in switzerland or europe in general?

Hi

I always use the one on the left in the picture above and when thinning model color paints I still use about a 50/50 mix.

Obviously don't know anything about the middle one but the one on the right includes an acrylic carrier which is supposed to be better for thinning as you are adding a thin clear acrylic rather than just a thinner, although personaly I found it altered the colour of the paint to much, although others have said that it dose not have any effect on the final colour, so its a try it see situation, just find one you are happy with and stick to it, if only for the sake of consistancey.

Paul

are you using the valejo airbrush cleaner on the basis of 50/50 for all brands of acrylic paints or only valejo?

Hi

I only use two types of Model grade Acrylic and they are Vallejo Model Color and Tamiya, so with those I only use it with the Vallejo as I use IPA with the Tamiya, it might work but I have never tried it.

I also use a lot of art shop acrylics as well, both from the tube and in bottles, like Apple Barrel and I use the Vallejo thinner with them without any issues.

Paul

Vallejo dries too quickly for the airbrush, but is great for hand painting. Tamiya is trouble free in the AB diluted with their thinner, but sucks for hand painting.

Sorry but what tosh, model color is a great paint for airbrushing, as long as you know what you are doing

Cutting the paint 1:1 with future was recommended to me and I've had some success with that. Big asterix is I've only used that ratio on small paint jobs like jerry cans or drums. Haven't tried it on a larger paint job.

Cheers


Jeff

from previous posts ,while waitting for the valejo thinners to arrive "10days",i tried today the recommended solution of alcohol90%,so i found at the drug store 96% and diluted my valejo medium sea grey and found that to get to the right
consistency i had to dilute maybe over 50% so 1.5 to paint and it worked perfectly well.the difference of a couple of drops can make a difference so its better to try against a paper towel or sprue till you see the spiders disappear, by adding a couple of drops at a time.

Hi

Be careful thinning model Color with alcohol some and bizarrely not all Vallejo Model Color paints turn to jelly when alcohol is used as a thinner. do a google search on the subject and you will see its a well known issue.
Paul

I've had excellent results using the Vallejo airbrush thinner (ref. 71.361) coupled with the thinner (ref. 061) to thin Model Colors for spraying.

I mix these two together at about 4:1 airbrush thinner to regular thinner, and then use that mixture to actually thin the Model Colors to what ever my required viscosity is.

I feel that the regular thinner (as mentioned by another poster) adds some additional acrylic resins (binders) back into the reduced paint mixture making it adhere and dry better.

(And FWIW, I thin the Model Colors for hand brushing using a thinner mixture of water, ref. 061 thinner, an acrylic flow aide and an acrylic retarder. My ratio for this hand-brushing thinner is 1:1 water and #061 with an additional 10% added by volumn of equal parts acrylic flow aide and retarder. I then use this mixture to thin the Model Color to my desired consistancy for hand brushing, normally about 1:1.)

Anyways, for airbrushing, I do much the same with the Tamiya paints when I reduce them in the extreme (as when, for example, I'm making a glaze). For the Tamiya paints, I add a little Tamiya Clear Gloss, X-22 to the X-20A airbrush thinner because at extreme paint reduction ratios (in say the 0.5:9.5 range, paint to thinner) there isn't enough of the binders left to make the reduced paint perform well. The X-22 Clear adds some "body" back to the reduced paint without adding any additional pigments. I add the X-22 Clear back into the paint reduced for a glaze at about 5% by volumn.

At any rate, the Vallejo Model Color paints can be reduced and sprayed quite nicely in my experience when using their thinners.

My .02...