I recently purchased several bottles of Vallejo paint(not Modelair). When attempting to use ivory, the paint is very thin and pulls away from plastic primed with Floquil grey primer. I shook the bottle, for at least three minutes with no effect. I have also tried thinning it with water, before attempting to spray it through my airbrush. It came out pebbly. So, I tried spraying it close to the plastic and it didn't stick. I'm running my compressor at 20psi and spraying with Badger Krome Renegade .3mm tip. I mixed the paint 1:1. I've heard Vallejo is an excellent brand, but it falls flat for me. Any suggestions?

To airbrush Vallejo Model Colors like they were Model Air, you need to reduce them with the Vallejo Airbrush (Model Air) Thinner.

Alternatively, you can reduce them with water BUT you have to add into the reduced paint some amount of acrylic matt medium. How much is experimental.

I have had pretty good success airbrushing the Model Colors by thinning them with the Model Air airbrush thinner (which has the correct amount of additional acrylic medium already in it).

If you thin the Model Colors with just water to airbrush them, there will not be enough acrylic binders (the acrylic medium) in the paint to provide good adhesion for the pigments. The dried paint layer will be very delicate and prone to scratches and lifting with enamel washes or filters. Heck, just handling the model is libel to rub the paint off.

BTW, for hand-brushing Model Colors, they should also be thinned and an amount of acrylic medium must be added into the reduced paint. I use a mixture of 1:1 water and Vallejo Model Color Thinner pus about 5% each by volume of Vallejo Matt Medium and artist acrylic flow enhancer.

I usually thin my Model Color paints about 1:1 with this thinner mixture. This makes them thin enough to usually require at least two coats for good coverage on large areas, but which dries very thin and tight and will not build up and hide any detail.

HTH,

That explains a lot. Guess I will go back to Tamiya. BTW: Tamiya acrylics paint perfectly over a Vallejo base.

Wow, this actually helped me out a lot too. Good info here.

-Conor

A lot of good info here. Mike, do you have a part # for the thinner? I ordered what I thought was the right stuff and got this.



It's a milky,fairly thick product and did not work for me at all as an AB thinner.

They have a new thinner which works better, not the old milky one

I'm very disappointed. I had unstood Vallejo to be a true acrylic that could be thinned with water. As is, I will likely use as a base to paint over with Tamiya. Speaking of, does anybody want a few bottles? Pm me and we can work something out.

It can be but just like all the water based acrylics when used with an airbrush you need a retarder other wise it dries while moving through the air, the problem is not the paint it's the physics of water. Which is why Vallejo brought out the Model Air range.

The advantage of the water based acrylics is that whilst you can airbrush them (with some prep) you can also brush paint them, unlike Tamiya and Gunze/Mr color (although some say you can brush paint but I've never had any luck)

Perhaps you missed that I can't brush paint them, even if I use water to thin them. Also, Tamiya acryls apply beautifully, over a Vallejo base.

I have been brush painting with Vallejo for years, and have never had any issues described. I use plain water and/or water mixed with Flo-Aid. Also when doing flesh or a large amount of brush painting I mix in some Slo-Dry as well.

Before I brush paint, I prime with Tamiya primer and/or Vallejo.

Like Kevin I have brush painted with Vallejo paints for years with out issue and without thinning but always over a primed surface which for me is an automotive spray can plastic primer from the local car parts outlet. I use Vallejo, Lifecolor and a few Revell Aquacolor for 95% of all my painting of which at the moment is 100% by hairy brush.

That's the thinner for Model Color paints. It also works with the Panzer Aces and Game Color paints.

In the 17 ml bottles, the stock number is 70.524 Thinner Medium (Diluyente). As I said above, I mix this 1:1 with water and then add 5% by volume each of Vallejo Mat Medium, stock code 70.540 (17 ml bottle) and a flow enhancer / flow aide (either Grumbacher or Golden depending on what's available at my local art supply store - both work equally well).

Vallejo's Model Air thinner is product code 71.261 (17 ml); 71.361 (60 ml); 71.061 (32 ml); or 71.161 (200 ml) "Airbrush Thinner" (Diluyente Aerografo). It is thin, clear, and watery.

(I'm not sure what's up with the 71.161 product code in your photo. The code is for the airbrush thinner but the product inside looks like the regular Model Color thinner. The AB thinner I have on hand - 71.361 - is thin, clear, and watery.)

BTW, when describing the Airbrush Thinner product, Vallejo's own 2013 product catalog states, "We recommend a few drops of Thinner to the colors while airbrushing" (p.34).

(Note that Vallejo's Surface Primers, product code series 73.XXX and 74.XXX are polyurethanes and not acrylics. I've never used any of these, so I don't know what thinner works with them, and Vallejo does not list any special product for that purpose. Their airbrush thinner (71.261) is specifically listed for "Model Air and Liquid Acrylic" though.)

As to the characterization of some acrylic as a "true" acrylic because it's water-based is a misunderstanding of the nature of what acrylic paints are and how their binders work. Some can be thinned with water and some cannot (see the current Tamiya paint thread about using alcohol or lacquer thinner to reduce those paints).

Vallejo paints can be reduced with water, but like all water-based acrylic paints, they will perform better if the user adds back into the mix an appropriate amount of the right acrylic binders. Acrylic binders work by creating a continuous layer or matrix that covers the entire surface with the pigments being held within this matrix. The atoms of the binders attach to each other to form this layer or matrix. If you over-thin the paint, the acrylic binders cannot form this matrix with sufficient strength to function properly.

There simply will not be enough binders (and surfactants) in the paint for it to cover well or adhere after drying. You can thin them too much or improperly. Other paint types (enamels and lacquers) use binders that don't have to form continuous matrix and which will literally glue the pigment particles to the surface individually. However, even other types of paint can benefit from adding back in some amount of binders when they've been highly reduced. I add about 10% by volume of Tamiya X-22 Clear Gloss to glazes that I airbrush, and even Floquil recommended about 5-10% Glaze be added back into their paints when reduced for airbrushing.

Artist using acrylic paints have always done this and this is what acrylic mediums are used for - to ensure that the correct amount of the necessary acrylic binders are present in whatever paint solution they create.

Next time you browse the artist paints aisle in a large craft store, pay attention to the sheer number of auxiliary acrylic products that are available. The Vallejo acrylic product line is just like the Grumbacher or Golden acrylic product lines, and the same kind of end-user formulations are necessary for good performance.

HTH,