I've recently returned to the hobby and finally got around to brush painting some parts today. The parts had previously been washed with soapy water and completely rinsed.

But today I had some pretty poor results with the Tamiya paints. The brownish color I used had a hard time mixing - it was showing a light swirly pattern even after long stirring and shaking. And when I went to paint it on, it got instantly clumpy and as I pulled the brush around it would literally *pull* the paint I'd just put down up as I stroked over it.

I tried thinning with Tamiya thinner and it seemed to work a bit better... am I to understand that painting with Tamiya paints ALWAYS requires thinning?

DId I get a bad bottle of paint?

I tried another color (black) and it was consistent in color after the same amount of stirring/shaking, but certainly benefited from thinning too.

The other odd thing was in a pretty normal temperature room, both paint bottles formed a "skin" on top of the open bottle in a matter of minutes.

Help!

Tamiya paints are some of the thickest (richest) paints there and benefit both from thinning and stirring. If you are hand brushing you can use water, iso alcohol or windex, I find the water and iso evaporate quickly but the windex needs repeated covers after drying thoroughly. Hope this helps.

Hi Jake: There is a chance your paint may have been frozen at some point. Do you live in a very cold climate, winter area. When the store you bought them from ordered there stock, it may have been shipped in the belly of a plane, Which in flight the paint would freeze. I have some Tamiya paints that are about 25 years old and they are still fine. Just a thought.

Hi

Tamiya Paint is well known as one or the worse paints to apply with a brush, even if thinned with water it still dries far too quickly so you end up pulling off the the paint you just applied which results in the clumping effect you are seeing. Most modelers now only use Tamiya Acrylic in the airbrush.

Paul

Hi Jake,

I've had this same problem once before and I always now apply a very light undercoat to the model first, then use tamiya paints with tamiya thinner.

Hope this helps.

I only hand brush small detail parts, so I really don't have to drag a brush repeatedly over an area. All parts are primed with Tamiya Gray lacquer primer, as it gives the paint an excellent surface to bond with. I also thin the paints 2:1 for hand painting and 1:1 for air brushing. Thinning is always with Tamiya X20-A.
Joel

Joel, quick follow-up question: Does the Tamiya primer come in anything other than the spray can? My LHS doesn't seem to ever have the spray cans in stock and their jar rack doesn't seem to have a spot for a jar version.

Jake instead of buying Tamiya undercoat go to a car spares shop and get a rattle tin of acrylic automotive undercoat as it works just as well.

Plastikote T235 sandable gray primer is the best for what we do. It goes on light, dries quickly and as the title says, is sandable.

G

Hi Jake!

If you like acrylics and hand brush, try Vallejo. It is really better than Tamiya.

Cheers!

Marco

I use tamiya paints all the time for both airbrushing and brush painting and haven't experienced any problems with the paint. I live in Michigan USA and it gets cold but I still don't have any problems. I only thin with Iso alcohol, approx. 1 to 1 ratio and haven't had any problems. Hope it helps. ALL THE WAY AND THEN SOME!!!!!!

Hi Jake

Tamiya paints are known to be the worst ones for hand brushing wheras they're considered the best ones for the airbrushing...

Anyway If your problem is a too short drying time , you could use the tamiya paint retarder



A drop of it (...ONLY A DROP!) in your mixture can lengthen the paint drying time and so some better results

Otherwise...have you tried using Tamiya lacquer thinner (yellow cap)? It works FAR better than the alcohol based thinner such the x20a one