what ratio of paint to thinner should I use for the basecoat of a tank?

xf63 german grey in particular, I realise this question may be pretty vague but I'll answer any queries :-)

cheers

edit : I have searched the forum already but couldn't find anything.

Mate

I don't use a fixed ratio - it will depend on temperature, humidity and whether youa re airbrushing or hand brushing.

For airbrushing I thin somewhere about 60:40 paint to thinner - enough that the paint flows freely down the side of the colour cup - like milk down the side of a glass.

I try to avoid hand brushing Tamiya acrylics as here is Aussie it seems to be too hot or dry and the paint does not go on well - keeps lifting and generally causing frustration. I have however on a couple of rainy days had success hand brushing by adding a few drops of thinner (very scientific definition that).

So really the answer is experiment and see what you can come up with that you are then happy with.

Brian

For airbrush I don't start with a fixed ratio. I just add thinner until the consistency is thin enough. Just like what Billko said, it depends upon a lot of things including age of the paint. I guess it usually ends up somewhere around 40-60% thinner.

For hand poaint I try to stay away from Tamiya but if I must use it i thin it very little if at all.

This is probably the most suitable answer you can get. I never measure or count the thinner. Eyeballing the result works for me. I stir the paint and thinner with a tooth pick and when the paint runs of the pick freely, I airbrush with it.
I cant brush paint tamiya´s paint for the life of me. If you dont have an airbrush, I recommend buying a suitable spraycan for the base colour. Hobby shops usually carry an assortment of colours, which usually include, olive green, sand, and dark grey. These three can be the base for most. Details can be brush painted afterwards.

Brush painting Tamiya Acrylics can be a pain, but it's perfectly possible. The problem with Tamiya is that if you brush it onto plastic without a base coat, it tends to be brushed 'off/ away' if you brush over the same stroke twice. If you base coat (primer) your model this problem will be a lot less. Personaly I think that the rough finish you get when brushing Tamiya can be very nice when painting armoured (WW II ) vehicles, as the paint on those vehicles was rearly smooth anyway. Don't forget that vehicles received a lot of damage ( i.e. scratches, dents etc., not battle damage) which would be repaired/painted almost immediatly in the field. This would give a wide variety of shades as the new paint would have weathered or faded differently, and there is usualy also a difference in the shade between batches of paint. Hence the troubles we go through to 'age' the appearance of a perfectly flawless painted vehicle with washes etc...
For hand brushing I either don't thin at all, or just a little bit, just a few drops, depending on the day. You really have to try it out, start with neat paint (on the underside of your vehicle...) and thin as/if required.
This one wash entirely hand brushed ( and it shows some might say :-) )



Cheers
Henk

I use them straight when I'm brushing. When using the airbrush I use the Tamiya thinner. Expensive, yes, but at least I know that it works well.
I dilute the flat paints 3 parts paint to 1 part thinner, and with gloss, 3 parts paint to 2 parts thinner. I've tried thinning it down more, but I don't like the result.

make sur your bottles are well mixed, with a tooth pic make sure you dont have clups of paint at the bottom, it happened to me once and it was a pain

Frank

Anybody ever use regular tap water to thin acrylics?

I tried destilled water which should be almost the same and the colors came out somehow more light and they didn't stick to the plastic well. Tamiya thinner or isopropyl alcohol works best.