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Using Gunze Sangyo Aqueous


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I've been using Model Master Acryl for the past year. Just started using Gunze Sangyo Aqueous for the first time because I heard that this was the best acrylic paint out there. Can anyone tell me how to thin it other than by using the Gunze thinner, which I do not have? Any other tips on using this paint? Do I need to add anything to it in order to airbrush it?

Thanks!

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These are called Aqueous but are NOT Acrylics!

If you can't buy Mr. thinner, the best thinner you can use is Tamiya Laquer thinner (yellow cap), or any commercial Laquer thinner.

Alcohol 80°- 90° can also work but give some problems: too fast dry and makes paint soluble by decals setting solutions.

Avoid Tamiya Acrylic thinner.

That said I still think gunze are the finer hobby paints ever made.

good luck!

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These are called Aqueous but are NOT Acrylics!

If you can't buy Mr. thinner, the best thinner you can use is Tamiya Laquer thinner (yellow cap), or any commercial Laquer thinner.

Alcohol 80°- 90° can also work but give some problems: too fast dry and makes paint soluble by decals setting solutions.

Avoid Tamiya Acrylic thinner.

That said I still think gunze are the finer hobby paints ever made.

good luck!

By Mr. Thinner, do you mean the Mr. Color Thinner by Mr. Hobby?

Edited by ex-USMC_Hornet_WSO
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These are called Aqueous but are NOT Acrylics!

If you can't buy Mr. thinner, the best thinner you can use is Tamiya Laquer thinner (yellow cap), or any commercial Laquer thinner.

Alcohol 80°- 90° can also work but give some problems: too fast dry and makes paint soluble by decals setting solutions.

Avoid Tamiya Acrylic thinner.

That said I still think gunze are the finer hobby paints ever made.

good luck!

No, Mr Hobby Aqueous Color are acrylics. They are alcohol based acrylics and you can thin them with Tamiya acrylic thinner, Mr.Hobby Aqueous Thinner, or isopropyl alcohol. Mr. Hobby Mr. Color paints are lacquers and you can thin them with Tamiya lacquer thinner or Mr. Color Thinner, but the best thinner to use is Mr. Color Leveling Thinner because it slows the drying time and allows it to self level. You can use hardware store lacquer thinner to clean up, but I would never use it to thin Mr. Color paints.

See here for the differences between the labels.

You should be careful if you want to thin acrylics with lacquer thinner and never use non-proprietary lacquer thinner.

Considering Tamiya acrylics as lacquers. They aren't. Nor should you use any "lacquer thinner" with an acrylic paint. Lacquer thinner is a blend of solvents, one of which is likely to work with any of a number of polymers—and several of which are probably incompatible. Lacquer thinners usually contain a high proportion of alcohol, the primary solvent for Tamiya and Gunze acrylics. Just use 90% isopropyl with a retarder, or Tamiya's thinner.

Article on thinning Tamiya paints for airbrushing.

The first choice is the X-20A Thinner and the second is the Tamiya Lacquer Thinner. Tamiya X-20A is the easiest to work with as clean-up is simple and less messy for modelers who are new to airbrushing. The paint will dry slower using X-20A which will give modelers more time to work with the paint.

For advanced modelers Tamiya Lacquer Thinner will yield two main benefits, but at the expense of a messier clean-up. Tamiya paint thinned with Tamiya Lacquer Thinner will result in the paint drying much faster and the paint will have a harder shell. For modelers who sand their work, a harder finish is preferable. A softer shell is easier to over-sand and it's easier to go too deep into the paint.

If you want to use lacquer thinner to thin your acrylic paints you might as well use Mr. Color lacquer paints in the first place. They have a larger color range and will produce better results.

Edited by SoaringArmor
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The best for the Aqueos colors is the Mr. levelling thinner (for airbrushing) - has a yellow label. Also the - blue label - Mr. Color Thinner should work (it works for both AFAIK, Mr. Hobby Aqueous and Mr. Color). It you do not get that stuff, the Tamiya X20A (note: "A"!!) is fine too.

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These paints can also be thinned with distilled water, but they dry slower. I get great results thinning them with Mr. Aqueous Thinner.

Note that these are acrylics, and aqueous means water solvent.

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Both Mr Color and Aqueous are acrylics. The difference is in the solvent... with Mr Color its lacquer thinner (or something approximate to it), but the paint itself is an acrylic. Best way to show that is to take alcohol to dried paint: it will attack it just like with other acrylics.

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Apart from Tamiya X-20A acrylic thinner and Mr Color thinners ("standard" and self-levelling), you can also thin Gunze Aqueous with denatured alcohol (a.k.a. methylated spirit), which is a heck of a lot cheaper. Here in Australia, methylated spirit costs around $3 for a 1-litre bottle, while isopropyl alcohol costs around $8 for 500ml bottle (or was it 250ml? Can't remember).

I've also experimented thinning Gunze Aqueous with Windex, which also works, but a bit more runny when sprayed, so I went back to X-20A and/or methylated spirit.

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Yessir, I use MM enamel paints for my main colors. But, I can't remember the last time that I finished a model that I didn't have to use some sort of acrylic. I can tell you this from personal experience and from what I have read from other modelers, you should really like the change. In fact, any change from MM Acryl paints is a change for the good. I don't know why MM makes decent enamel paints, but their acrylic paint is pretty much worthless. I have some Gunze Aqueous paint. However, my main acrylic paint that I use is Tamiya. I also use some acrylics as gloss coats, mainly Future and Pollyscale(made by Testors). I have pitched all of my MM Acryl paints.

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