The price of Tamiya thinner got you down in the dumps? Just go to your local pharmacy & buy a bottle of 99.9% alcohol. Mix a drink..get loaded.
No! Don't ! Just kidding !!
Use the 99.9% to thin your Tamiya Acrylic paint for airbrushing. Also good for cleaning .Don't drink it , you'll go blind.
It breaks the paint up good & easy on the pocket book.
Not good with Vallejo acrylic , gum's up, use bottled water to thin.
David

PS - I love the smell of Tamiya paint!!!

Hello David,

Thanks for your hint. Anyway, the use of alcohol to thin down paint is not really a new idea. Sorry to say so but it is used for a very long time. Of course even basics could and should be repeated so that beginners can use these informations to.

On the other hand your hint is not without problems, or, shall I say, things that should be mentioned also.

If you thin down your paints with pure (okay, almost pure)alcohol it will dry much more faster than the same paint thinned with the original brand thinner. So it can happen that it dries to fast and will leave a very coarse surface. This must not happen but can very easily.

Even if many modellers are pretty happy using alcohol as a thinner I use the Original Tamiya Laquer Thinner and I am more than happy with it. Even if this generates discussion from time to time I am on the side with those who say that you can achieve much better results with the original thinner and that the performance of the original Lacquer Thinner is far superior to alcohol. I only use alcohol for cleaning or paint jobs where details don`t count. Base coating a diorama base for example. Yeah, alcohol is cheaper. Fact. Nontheless I will stick with the original.

Best regards

Dennis

Thx Dennis ,
I agree with you on the "better results" concerning using brand name thinner.

Alcohol has also been known to cause pebbling. I recently switched to Tamiya acryl thinner and have never had better results.

Or keep it even cheaper. Buy one of this bottles with alcohol for enfiring barbecue grills. Most gas stations sell them. It works perfect with Tamiya.

just me use the Tamiya acrylic paint thinner to thin the paint, use the alcohol to clean the brushes , the airbrush and all the other stuff. Tamiya formulated their thinner for their paints so it has to be 100% compatible, the others used as thinner works but we don't see what occurs at the chemical level. If you want to use alcohol add some retarded to slow down the drying time. If you want to use water add some flow enhancer but be very carefully as to how much you add.