Chuck1945

How tipsy are the wax melting spoons? Will it remain stable enough sitting on a work surface to add paint and thinners or must it be held in one hand? I got some tattoo ink cups to try, but chose poorly, getting the small ones that turned out to be too small for me to easily use. For years I have just mixed the paint and thinner in the airbrush cup. That worked great with suction feed brushes, but not so well with gravity feed.

I honestly don’t have any idea what I used 30+ years ago thinning the Gunze paints. These days when I use the Mr Hobby aqueous paints I thin with Tamiya X-20A, works fine. While not a chemist I suspect chemically there isn’t much difference between the Tamiya and Gunze aqueous paints.

Way back when (late 80s) I began using the Gunze H series paints since a local store in the Dallas area ( I lived once upon a time) stocked them. Don’t remember what I thinned them with although it was probably either Diosol or enamel thinners since the majority of my paints at that time were either Floquil or Xtracolour. Anyway, one time I used a masking solution on a model that had an initial coat of one of those Gunze colors, and at least half the paint came off too when I removed the masking. I put those paints aside as no good. Quite a while (years) later I realized that the problem wasn

While the H&S brushes are outside the desired price range, the needle size question prompts my response. I routinely use both .15 and .2mm nozzles with my Evolution, the smaller for detail and small areas, the larger for general coverage on 1/72 fighters and smaller (twin engine) bombers. I went to the H&S after 5-6 years using an Iwata HP-C I bought new in ‘98. The Iwata had a .4mm tip and the tiny nozzle required a special tool to remove for cleaning and would never be found again if it had ever slipped into the carpet monster’s grasp. The Iwata was a good brush, but for me it was a

I usually add thinner after the paint is in the airbrush cup. However if it is quite thick in the bottle I usually add a bit of leveling thinner directly to the bottle. If it is really thick I switch to the restorer. In the case of the GX100 when I attempted to use it the second time it just globed onto the stirrer (MicroMark battery run) like soft chewing gum. After adding restorer I tried a shaker instead and it never smoothed out to be usable. Perhaps more restorer, don’t know? I tossed the bottle and went back to Tamiya. I’ve tried Hataka’s Orange line clear gloss; it seems to work ok but

An excellent modeler friend of mine swears by GX100, I swear at it. The first time I tried it, it was thick in the bottle so needed more thinning; no problem, just added more leveling thinner. I normally have been using Tamiya clear as a gloss coat so for the next couple of models reverted back to the Tamiya. When I finally did try the GX100 again, it was gelatinous goo and no amount of Gunze’s restorer could get it back to a nice usable liquid form

I tried some blotch masks several years ago (10-15?) and went back to free handing a mottle camouflage. You need to have a jig to hold the model at the proper angle, one hand for the airbrush and another to position and hold the mask (or be quite dexterous and hold both the mask and model with one hand). The results looked nice as I best recall, but with one of the high end airbrushes you have, you ought to be able to free-hand the mottle - really thin paint and very low air pressure.

I’ve been spraying Tamiya paints using their X-20A for ten years and never a problem. Even though I use Mr Color Levelling Thinner when I spray Mr Color paint, I always use a Tamiya’s thinner for all the X/XF-series Tamiya paint including clear and clear flat. i did try using Mr Color thinner once with Tamiya paint, nothing bad happened, but didn’t see any improvement either so why bother.

As of my last order from Sealmodel, late March, they were able to ship a max of about eight 10ml Mr Color bottles by air, order took about 2-2 1/2 weeks

Ditto on Tamiya XF-86, Clear Flat. Do not get Tamiya Flat Base which is to be mixed with glossy paint to flatten them. Isopropyl will thin it if needed, or you could use Tamiya’s own thinner XF-20A. I apply with an airbrush but it could be brushed if desired

Like Chris, I would normally just go to Michaels and pick up a fine liner brush, but... Here is what Amazon has https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Fine+liner+paint+brush&ref=nb_sb_noss

Same thing with all my AKAN water based paints, all dried to a sledge, most bottles unopened. Add some Tamiya X-20A thinner and let it stand for a while, the paint will thin back out and be usable again. I bought mine at least ten years ago and was finally going to use them on the new Arma Yak-1b

Last year I completed five models, and that was an increase from the year before! I didn’t keep track but probably acquired at least 10, maybe 15, the stash is several hundred, so I suspect that at 75, even if I stopped buying new kits and ramped output up to 10/month, there is no way I’ld get through them.

I have a modeling friend who recommended Gunze’s Mr Color GX-100 Super Clear as the best for the gloss coat. After deciding to try it I ordered a bottle from Hong Kong (couldn’t find it from my usual US dealers). Once it arrived I just had to give it a try and to my dismay, the initial application looked more matt than gloss! Not sure what was happening, but as I continued to spray, it did end giving a nice gloss finish, but geez, the initial impression...

Should work, normally I use the manufacturers recommended thinners, but I have successfully used Mr Color Levelling Thinner with Tamiya paints. Do a test spray first if you want to be sure