G'day guys
now im sure we all know of those tubes of craft acrylics, you know, the ones that arent thinned in the slightest, and are fairly thick, right?
Now, when it comes down to it, it's just really thick acrylic paint, correct?
So then, is it possible to airbrush with the stuff, once thinned enough.
Ive never airbrushed any kind of acrylics, so i wouldnt know, but it'd assume that i'd have to thin the craft acrylic with metholated spirits in order to get it smooth enough, or would water or windex be a suitable thinner to use in this case (ive used water and windex to thin it for handbrushing, but i wouldnt know about airbrushing)
Cheers, any advice is appreciated.

I'm not as knowledgeable as the rest of the guys here with regards to using craft paints through an AB but I wouldn't recommend using them. I tried that with my M60 (one of several screwups I've had with it) and found the pigment to be a bit too heavy and easily seperating with thinner. Especially when using this paint as a base color and using Tamiya paints to mix up a different shade. Just my .02...

Hi David,

I have used Folk Art craft paint, and shot "brass" through my airbrush (sorry the pix doesn't show the radiator better)

I thinned it with distilled water and a drop of Polly Scale gloss.

David

Water or windex - not metho.

I don't know how they would go as I haven't tries them - but you might have luck with a single action "spray gun" as opposed to an expensive double action brush which might have a finer nozzle.

Let us know how you get on.

Brian

I found that the paint was very "heavy" in the brush, even after thinning with water to the point you'd call it a wash. I had no trouble spraying at first, towards the end I got a bit of a clog that shot out luckily when i was not spraying towards my model.

Even so, it took about 10 minutes of spraying pure water through the brush for the water to stop showing signs of containting paint.

The tamiya acrylics usually clear out in seconds. I used Windsor Newton acrylics thinned in Water shot through a Clarke double action brush at approx. 20-25 Psi. The paint itself did work (it's nice paint when brushed) but I won't be airbrushing with it again for fear of clogging my brush.

Gday David,
I have used Jo Sonjas and Chromacryl tubes extensively in the last six months, thinning them with windex only. I mix my own colours to match swatches and have no problems with them at all. I use an aztec kit on single and double action and only use the bottom feed as opposed to gravity feed cups. The finish is smooth and dries in no time and the beauty about mixing your own colours is that no two models look the same as you invariably get a slightly different shade.
I use windex exclusively to clean up with and that is a painless operation as well. If I am doing a long session I will spray a little pure windex through every now and then to declog the tip.
A big plus is the price. I have about 10 different colours and that is sufficient to mix anything I want.

Happy Spraying
Alex H