Umm, I thought you just said that 50% of your models painted with Tamiya paints pebbled????



They're pebbling because you're using too much alcohol and it's drying too fast. If you don't want to use lacquer thinner, drop your pressures, and add a little bit of regular water to the mix and it won't dry as fast.

I have to agree with Jesse here that that is not really what shines through in your posts. You say your self that from 6 builts you had 3 pebbled finishes. Which is pretty much the definition of inconsistent paintmixes. I haven't had a rough paintcoat on my models since I started using X22 clear in the mix. And that must be somewhere around 10 years back. Tamiya paints can be mixed very thin... Again this totally depends on your airbrush. With my Revell Flex Masterclass you can almost spray truckbed liner. But with my sotar I have to mix it to the consistency of ink. Change in pressure also makes a big difference. But again it is a matter of knowing your equipment and knowing how to work with them. I have airbrushed so much with my Flex Masterclass I think I can even do it in the dark

I only airbrush Tamiya paints and I always thin them with Tamiya's own acrylic thinner. Expensive as hell yes but it works best. Few drops of X22 in the mix and really you are off to go. Still don't spray from too far away our the paint dries before it hits the model and it will look like you painted with sand.

I have varied the amount of thinner to paint used. I find that my ratio yields the most consistent results. It is when I try to apply the last layer that it pebbles. I have to rule out inconsistent paint mix, because of this. Although, I do notice a somewhat smoother coat, when applying filters. Also, I do not have this problem with Tamiya's gloss acryls. These, unfortunately are not stocked at my lhs.

Hmmmmmm weird problem you have there mate.
How much time do you leave between the last 2 layers?
Is the last layer a completely different color or is it the same color? Do you spray the last layer from the same distance?
To me it sounds like it is a matter of your paint not being thin enough in combination with spraying from a too high distance to your model. That is as far as I know one of the most common reasons why you would get pebbling or orangepeel structure in your paint. Another reason could be that the layer that gets covered is not fully dry yet. Which effectively makes your last sprayed layer way to wet. That said I have found that Tamiya Acrylics are very forgiving in that aspect.

I think I may have discovered the answer. I have to spray outside and am not accounting for the difference in humidity. We recently went for 16% to 85% humidity, from one day to the next. I need to mix appropriately and not stick to one ratio. Even the difference between the heat of the day and that morning or evening may account for some of the problem. I will be testing this theory, as soon as I have fair weather.

i have used tamiya acrls and thinned it with windshield washer fluid at about 12 psi. thinned to the consistintcy of milk. my first shot always splatters, and i end up throwing my work against the wall...what gives?

Ola Chris

Could very well be the PSI you spray at is too low for your thinned paint. Either thin it a bit more or raise the PSI to around 2 bar (20 to 25 PSI I believe) and maybe the nozzle of your Airbrush is a bit clogged. Which also causes splatter. I heard other people about thinning with windshieldwiper fluid but I never tried that so I can't tell you if that is a factor or not.

You've got plenty of replies but I'll add mine anyway. I hate enamels. Everything about them. The drying time. The smell. The texture. The drying time. Oh, and the drying time. I'm impatient. I always airbush tamiya. I add some future to thin it which smooths it out and prolongs the drying time enough to keep it from dying in the air (which causes the pebbling). I use Testors MM acrylics for brush painting since tamiya sucks for brush painting. I use enamels only if I have to and I rarely do. I do weather with oils though (not enamels).

Well what about valleo model air paints? i heard they are already pre-mixed and ready to shoot. I have been looking to get some. Worth it?

Pre-mixed? How does that work? What type of paint and what is it mixed with?



~ Jeff

Vallejo Air are Acrylic paints and they come already thinned,much thinner then their Model Color line,so you can't hand brush them.they can be thinned further with regular tap water if needed,but in theory they can be shot directly from the bottle.You still should experiment for best results

If it's splattering when the paint hits the surface, it sounds like you're shooting too much volume and/or it's not drying enough.

For you, trying using iso alcohol instead of wishshield washer fluid... OR, turn down how much the needle opens upon spraying.

Lots of great ideas. It looks like I won't be able to try anything, until next week. We are just finishing up with the storms, on the Atlantic side and moving into the storms on the Gulf side.

Faust: That may be correct. I usually load my ab for three coats of painting. The pigment may be settling, in the bottom of the color cup.

I really want to get this straightened out, as I have nearly the full range of Tamiya acryls and they are cheaper than the MM enamels.

Hi, All! I've been using TESTORS MODEL MASTER II ENAMELS and their regular MODEL MASTER line of paints ever since they first hit the market way back when... I use TESTORS Air Brushing Enamel Thinners AND their Lacquer Thinners for use with their METALIZER LACQUERS, getting great results. I use my 2 PAASCHE H1 Fine Tip Single Action Airbrushes and my BADGER 200 Single Action for regular spraying and my BADGER 200G Gravity-Feed Single Action for some really great dust, smoke, streaking effects and spot-work as well. Why do I like single-action airbrushes? Because I can get the same results with them as with dual-action brushes, for half the expense. It takes a lot of practice and patience, but it's worth it in the end... I don't stick to the same air-pressure and/or paint flow adjustments- That's what all those great little weegies and whatcha-callits on the airbrushes and compressors are for. ALL of my air-lines have water-traps; You can save yourself A LOT of headaches by installing those things. I don't quite get the reasoning behind using "Safe, Non-Toxic" Water-Based Acrylics and then mixing them with "VERY TOXIC" Petroleum-Based Lacquer Thinners- You know, like "Oil & Water don't mix." That kind of defeats the whole purpose of using the water-based stuff, doesn't it? If one reads the chemical compositions of these "safe, non-toxic" paints and then does some serious diving into a chemistry book to find out what all those chemicals really are, one finds that they're really not that safe after all. I've been airbrushing for just over 50 years now. I'm 61, and I ALWAYS wear a 3-M mask with filters, I use a spray booth and my shop is well-ventilated when I'm airbrushing... I've tried just about every paint product on the market today. And you know what? I STILL come back to my old-fashioned TESTORS Enamels. But hey, that doesn't mean that I'm saying that all the other products out there are junk, I'm just saying that the MODEL MASTER ENAMELS work for me. MICRO-SCALE used to make petroleum-based Clear Flat, Clear Semi-Gloss, and Clear High-Gloss that I used to thin with their petroleum-based thinners. They worked great with their decals. For some REALLY GREAT high-gloss finishes, I used to add a few drops of the MICRO-SCALE Gloss into TESTORS Gloss Enamels, (Some of you may remember the little 1/4 Ounce TESTORS paints?) to shoot my custom-mixed colors on my 1/24 Classic Cars. Yes, there was a long drying time, but WHAT A FINISH! I'd place a plastic cake cover over the model after I sprayed the clear finish on it to keep the dust off, and the3n leave it alone for about a week or so... I didn't even have to hand rub a car or one of my 1/48 Late-WWII US NAVY aircraft for hours to get that "mirror-finish"... Tough as nails, too... That was my own version of "Wet-Look" paint. Then, all of a sudden, MICRO-SCALE switched their "Finishing Products" line to "safe" water-based stuff. It's good stuff, but I can't mix water-soluable clears into oil-based enamels... Oh well, c'est la vie... My whole point in all of this rambling is that modellers SHOULD try different products to find out what works best for THEM. There are SO MANY factors that one should take into consideration when we have trouble with painting, especially with airbrushes. How NEW are the paints and/or thinners? Are they properly stirred and thinned? Test your Airbrush AND Compressor Settings... Different settings for different paints DO matter... What is the weather like? A hot, humid day will have a different effect on paint than a cold, dry day. You can shoot paint made by manufacturer "A" with great results, and then you can get lousy results with manufacturer "B" even though you're using the same settings and mixtures as you did with manufacturer "A"!!! Check your moisture traps- DRY air flow is KEY for a smooth paint-job. Your airbrush will "spit" if you've got moisture in your lines. Make sure that all of your paint and air connections are tightened properly. Has the airbrush been properly cleaned? Personally, I will break down my airbrush and clean it thoroughly before I go to the next color. I like to dis-connect my color cup from the airbrush and then shoot air through it to evacuate any paint. Then, I shoot a few blasts of raw thinners through it 2 or 3 times, just to get any accumulated paint out of it. Then, I'll break the airbrush down completely to clean all of the separate parts. I then let the parts soak in a small jar of airbrush thinner. After 10-15 minutes, I'll swab all the different parts out with a Q-tip, a soft rag, and some pipe cleaners. To prevent any gumming up of thinner residues inside the airbrush, I'll let the parts soak for a little while in a small jar of 92-95% Isopropyl Alcohol. The alcohol dissipates the thinner residues, and it air-dries in nothing flat. Make sure that all of your cleaning agents have been COMPLETELY removed from your airbrush. That's KEY to preventing unpleasant surprises down the road. While all this cleaning/soaking is going on, I've already got one of my other airbrushes ready to go on to the next color- That's why I use multiple airbrushes and compressors... I also keep several jars of airbrush thinners on hand for cleaning up light, medium and dark paints. That helps to keep cross-contamination down to a minimum between colors. Yeah, I'm lucky in that I have a good-sized workshop, with 4 different work benches- sort of like an "assembly line" arrangement. I can honestly say that it took me a lifetime to accumulate all of this stuff and experience. Sorry that I got carried away with this "lecture", but paying attention to all of these things will definitely keep your quality at a high level. It's not necessarily the PAINT'S FAULT- It could be the state of your equipment. Hope this helps in just a little way- ENJOY!!!

Hi! Try buying your paints on eBay- I can get my MM paints cheaper than the TAMIYA paints- better pricing than some of the hobby shops, anyway...

You can go down the route of Vallejo Modelair which is premixed and pressumably ready to use with no extra thinning needed. I never had that luck. I always had to thin more. It dries ridiculously fast. Often inside the nozzle and what eventually lands on the model is extremely fragile and damages really easy.

And you can do it easily yourself if you airbrush with Tamiya Acrylics. Simply take a glass jar that you can close with a screw-on lid. Drop in some paint. Drop in a few drops of X22 clear. And put some thinner in the mix to your preffered ratio's. This keeps for years and years without it drying up. When it stays for a while the paint sinks to the bottom and the thinner stays on top effectively creating an Airtight seal. Before you use the paint simply shake it really good and load up the AB. Always keep your empty jars of Tamiya paint as well for future mixes. I have done this with all the colors I use a lot of... Buff, various greens, various browns, various yellows. Works really good.

Hi! The only drawback that I've EVER had with MODEL MASTER or TESTORS Enamels is that once I've added thinners into my paint mix, it's a 50-50 chance that the paint will gel-up if I don't use it all up within a couple of days. I always mix my paints in a separate jar, whether they're acrylics or enamels. After a while, you can gauge how much paint/thinners you'll need to use on any given project without having a bunch of it left over. Personally, I like to have just a little bit of mixed paint/thinners left over in case I need to do any touch-up work on my project. I don't mind losing a little bit of left over paint once I've accomplished my objectives... Other than that, I have had NO PROBLEMS with using TESTORS MODEL MASTER ENAMELS. I achieve a nice, smooth matte finish by adding a drop or two of TESTORS Clear Gloss or Clear Semi-Gloss Enamels to my paint mix. That's something that I've been doing for ages; I've also had great luck with TESTORS Enamels by adding a drop or two of the WINSOR-NEWTON Matte Clear Varnish into my paint mix. Either way, I don't want the finish to be TOO smooth, otherwise there isn't enough "bite" on my painted surfaces for my various weathering powders to adhere properly. I NEVER SHAKE my paints, unless it's a spray can. I very much prefer to STIR my paints. Shaking paints in jars is just another way to waste paint by allowing it to seep into the threaded portions of your paint jar and cap. Another IMPORTANT little task that I do with ALL of my paints is to make sure that there is NO PAINT on the inside of the bottle cap and/or the lip and threads of the paint jar itself. That helps to prevent my paint from drying out or gelling up inside the jar. Making sure that there is a tight seal between the bottle cap and the jar itself also helps a lot by keeping the paints' exposure to air to a minimum. It's just like keeping your car properly maintained; Just common sense stuff, really...

Hi Guys
Just thought I would add my comments.
I use mainly Tamiya acrylics, I only use enamels now on large scale figs, along with oils. I have vallejo air......c**p really, they are too expensive and only a small bottle, you can thin it more but it is thinned already. Their normal paint has too much pigment to go through an airgun, hence they did the 'air' range. Tamiya fantastic paints, I use window cleaner (wife goes mad) to thin my paint, and a milky consistancy works fine. PSI really needs to be adjusted accordingly, days differ when spraying, so I tweek it as I go along. One thing that doesn't work is mixing Future with Tamiya acrylic. The window cleaner I use is just standard stuff from the supermarket for cleaning windows in the house (not the stuff with vinegar tho), and I use it to clean my brushes too, especially to remove paint from a brush I have used for dry brushing. The only other paint I use is Gamesworkshop for hand painting.

Pete

Thanks Robert and Anthony for the replies. I have yet to pull the trigger yet on my AB, but I am making progress on getting it all set up so I am just asking questions to get an idea of what to expect and which avenue to take.



~ Jeff

Fr those of you using Tamiya acrylics my advise as Robert said above is to increase the psi. I have been using Tamiya for years (literally like 30+) and love the colour range but find that the paint is thick. I thin with windex and shoot from about 12 inches in most cases. Increasing the pressure to about 20-25 psi helps with the splatter issues as does testing your first shot on a card or scrap piece, even the underside of your kit if it will not be seen. Keeping your tip clean with a bit of windex, a Dixie cup in a holder loaded with car windscreen wash fluid to dip the tip in works well and will save you frustration, trust me on this. Thinning with ISO is relatively cheap but the results are less than ideal, ammonia is the way to go and can bring back older paints too.good luck.

The difference, I'm noticing, between MM/Testors enamels and Tamiya's acryls is the difference in shade of certain paints. For instance, Tamiya field grey is quite a bit more green than MM enamel offering. I dislike have to mix paints to achieve the exact color I am looking for. I rarely come out with the same color, twice. Now, I know this is negligible as modulation and weathering will change the shades of the finished paints. But, I am a little ocd and mildly autistic. At least, this is what my doctor says. I find I stress too much over color matching. I really want to be able to use both types of paint. I have already mastered enamels. I would like to master Tamiya acryls.

I actually never spray with the Tamiya colors as they come in the bottle. Every single color I premixed is a mix of several colors that I kinda guestimated by eye. No ratio's just mixing till it looks right. If it looks close it is good enough for me. Most of the colormixes have a bit of buff mixed into it which makes the colors appear more "old" and it ties the camo colors together. Funnily the only color I usually have a thinned version of that is not modified in any way with other colors is Buff

I never considered mixing Buff into the paint. I always sprayed a very light coat over different parts of the model.

I double what Robert just said. I mix all my own and have little labels that I affix to old 35mm film canisters with the contents. I do not worry about ratios, but rather what goes into the canister and what the end result "should" look like. Very rarely do I get a perfect match so I usually make larger batches and add lots of thinner to keep it fluid over time. Besides, paint fades in different ways over time so if there is a slight variation in tone. then call it "weathering". cheers.

Tamiya Buff is a pretty good color to use to "age" paints or alter the color intensity.

As far as color matching, not to dredge up a usual contentious issue of scale color effect...White and Buff additives are decent to "lighten" paint in accordance with that. I've known people who match models to a piece of fender or jerry can etc, contrary to how a model should (IMO) be painted. Your art is your own, paint how you want! No one is going to take samples of your painted kit for color analysis vs RLM paint chips from 1952.

RE color mixing - Since you said this is hard for you to keep track of - Make recipes so the color is repeatable. My OD is a mix of 5 paints. Far too complicated to eyeball. Also overly complicated.

-> Get yourself some oral dose syringes from the local pharmacy. They will sell these for pocket change if not just given you some. Measure your paint for mixes. Write it in a small notebook. You can tweak and note as you go. Do NOT take this too far with an Excel spreadsheet and measuring to 0.1ml precision. (One of our club used to be that precise). No one will be able to tell. I recommend about 5 of the 5ml ones and maybe one of the 1ml ones for the usual measurement of concentrated paint. Washout with water/soap. Use old jars and label 'em up. I have more mixes than stock paints!

Good luck.