Can you thin Tamiya X-22 clear by using Tamiya's acrylic thinner? The reason is that I tried to airbrush X-22 but the AB had some difficulty with the thickness of the varnish.

Thanks in advance,

Hermann.

Can't be sure but I think lowering the pressure on the AB may be preferable to thinning. I am currently using Tamiya Semi-gloss Clear and had similar thoughts of thinning but resolved to reduce the air pressure instead which worked for me. The semi-gloss appears to have a similar viscosity to the gloss along with some type of matting agent. I found that low pressure with slow and even passes maintain a good wet coverage which is what I think you want when working with clear coats. Interested to see other comments as I am certainly not an AB expert.

Thanks ...I'll give it a try.

You can thin Tamiya Clear with the Tamiya acrylic thinner or isopropyl alcohol, which is much cheaper.

You can use X-20A thinner for the clear and that's what I do when I airbrush it on. I've never tried using non-thinned tamiya clears (clear, semi gloss, matte) when spraying

You can thin it with Tamiya Lacquer thinner too.

Isopropyl alcohol is a bit tricky. Without retarder, it tends to dry, before it reaches the surface; causing a pebbled finish.

I thin X-22 with about 20% Tamiya thinner and lower the air pressure. I also have the tip just a few mm's from the model's surface as sometimes it can (seemingly) dry in mid air and cause a pebble like dry finish. Also, keep the flow fairly heavy as it's much thicker than paint (even thinned) and can struggle with very fine tipped ABs otherwise.

One tip, keep a cotton bud dipped in Cellulose (Lacquer -US) thinners to hand and frequently wipe the AB tip, as it also has a habit of collecting in this area due to the still 'gloopy' consistency ....then hitting the model unexpectedly with a sudden 'spatter' causing all manner of problems.

HTH
Gary

Thank you all for the great advice.