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Best Airbrush Ready Paint


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I think the only paints which are ready to be sprayed without dilution are the Alclad metallic paint (they are lacquers).

But all the other paints either acrylic or enamel have to be thinned ; with water or alcohol for the acrylic paints, and with white spirit

or turpentine, or other solvent based thinners for enamel paints. Both are much to thick to be sprayed directly.

I hope this helps and good luck with your airbrushing job. Polo.

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Mr Paint (MRP) out of Slovakia (not to be confused with Mr Color from Gunze of Japan) is far and away the best airbrush ready paint I have ever used, and probably the best paint overall I have used.  It is a solvent based acrylic (lacquer) and does have a rather strong odor however, so if that is an issue this might not be the paint for you.  They have a huge line of paints as well.

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7 hours ago, Fighting Eighty-Four said:

Mr Paint (MRP) out of Slovakia (not to be confused with Mr Color from Gunze of Japan) is far and away the best airbrush ready paint I have ever used, and probably the best paint overall I have used.  It is a solvent based acrylic (lacquer) and does have a rather strong odor however, so if that is an issue this might not be the paint for you.  They have a huge line of paints as well.

THIS - MRP is rapidly filling my desk, replacing Mr Color and WEM.  I sprayed a Revell Tornado and had enough Desert Pink left for a Jaguar, pretty darn economical.   No thinning needed, though you can order their own in case you want to do filters.  Cheaper does not mean better.

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  I've just started using MRP paints for interior colors, and they are air brush ready. I used a flow rate of 14-15 psi and only had one issue, the paint does have a tendency to spit when you 1st depress the trigger, but once spraying no follow up issues until I let the AB seat for a few min, then the spitting once again.   I watched Doog's review on MRP paints, and he had basically the same issue, so it's not my any of my ABs but the thinness of the paint, and it's very thin, but has excellent coverage.  Biggest disadvantage is that the paints are made in Slovakia, and currently there are only two USA distributors, so Out of Stocks take a while to be replenished, believe me I know. 

 

  Not sure why you prefer pre-thinned over thin your own. My biggest issue with pre-thinned paint is that you're literally getting a half or more of thinning agent in a bottle not paint. Non-thinned paint for the same price is twice as much paint once thinned out, so it would go twice as far for the same buck.

 

 

Joel

 

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I can understand his preference for pre-thinned.   I always approach the task of thinning with some apprehension because my paints have varying consistencies in the bottle and it's difficult to get a uniform spray for all of them even after careful thinning.  I find some of my  paints like black, white and dark green more viscuous than others.   For my black especially there seems to be a fine line between thinning too little (getting droplets) and too much (poor coverage).   I'm rarely able to hit that sweet spot.    I'm really tempted to thin the paints in the bottles themselves but heard it would cause gumming.   

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5 hours ago, crackerjazz said:

I can understand his preference for pre-thinned.   I always approach the task of thinning with some apprehension because my paints have varying consistencies in the bottle and it's difficult to get a uniform spray for all of them even after careful thinning.  I find some of my  paints like black, white and dark green more viscuous than others.   For my black especially there seems to be a fine line between thinning too little (getting droplets) and too much (poor coverage).   I'm rarely able to hit that sweet spot.    I'm really tempted to thin the paints in the bottles themselves but heard it would cause gumming.   

Crackerjazz,

  

     Honestly, I've never really had that problem since I tend to Air Brush with a thinner mixture these days then I use to. An example is Tamiya  & Mig Ammo Acrylics that I use to thin 1:1 with Yellow cap. My current thinning ratio is 2 parts paint to 3 parts Yellow cap plus 1 drop of Winsor & Newton Flow Enhancer per 12 drops of paints. flow rate is 14-16 psi.

 

   If pre-thinned paints work for you, then by all means that's the right way for you to go.

 

Joel

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Gotta try the flow enhancer thanks for the info. I also searched on some thinning procedures and saw a vid where he thins and mixes directly into the airbrush cup. What a fantastic idea :)  I normally do the mixing in a plastic cup before pouring into the airbrush but find it wasteful as a good volume clings to the cup.

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15 minutes ago, crackerjazz said:

Gotta try the flow enhancer thanks for the info. I also searched on some thinning procedures and saw a vid where he thins and mixes directly into the airbrush cup. What a fantastic idea :)  I normally do the mixing in a plastic cup before pouring into the airbrush but find it wasteful as a good volume clings to the cup.

 I've tried that, but couldn't get any consistency in the cup, leading to poor results on the model Much rather need to clean up a mess in a mixing cup than on the model!

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39 minutes ago, crackerjazz said:

Gotta try the flow enhancer thanks for the info. I also searched on some thinning procedures and saw a vid where he thins and mixes directly into the airbrush cup. What a fantastic idea :)  I normally do the mixing in a plastic cup before pouring into the airbrush but find it wasteful as a good volume clings to the cup.

 

Crackerjazz,

   I've been at this forever, and I do all my mixing in the air brush color cup in this order only using the old but still reliable eye dropper method. It does get tedious when working in 1/32 scale, but I never get around to buying those throw away pipettes . I no longer mix the paint with a brush or mixing stick.  I crack open the needle just enough so that I can force air into the mixing bowl. Then I put my finger or a Qtip over the cone and needle and lightly depress the trigger so that the air is forced into the bowl every so slightly. The air mixes the paint much better then you can with a mixing stick. I do this a few times and then I'm ready to go. At 1st it takes a little practice so that you don't introduce to much air and the paint over flows the cup and on to you. But once you get it down, it's fast and super reliable every time. 

 

Thinning agent, usually Tamiya Yellow cap

Paint

Flow Enhancer. 

 

Joel

Edited by Joel_W
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 9/29/2017 at 6:42 PM, Joel_W said:

 

Crackerjazz,

   I've been at this forever, and I do all my mixing in the air brush color cup in this order only using the old but still reliable eye dropper method. It does get tedious when working in 1/32 scale, but I never get around to buying those throw away pipettes . I no longer mix the paint with a brush or mixing stick.  I crack open the needle just enough so that I can force air into the mixing bowl. Then I put my finger or a Qtip over the cone and needle and lightly depress the trigger so that the air is forced into the bowl every so slightly. The air mixes the paint much better then you can with a mixing stick. I do this a few times and then I'm ready to go. At 1st it takes a little practice so that you don't introduce to much air and the paint over flows the cup and on to you. But once you get it down, it's fast and super reliable every time. 

 

Thinning agent, usually Tamiya Yellow cap

Paint

Flow Enhancer. 

 

Joel

What paints do you use with the yellow cap?

 

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On ‎10‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 8:58 PM, evilmedic13 said:

What paints do you use with the yellow cap?

 

 

evilmedic 13,

   Tamiya currently has two paint thinners available here in the States: X20-A which is their more traditional Iso Alcohol based thinner, and what I call Yellow Cap which is a mild lacquer based thinner. It works incredibly well with all Acrylic based paints. I currently use it with their Acrylics, and Mig Ammo paints. I also use it to thin both Mig Ammo primers as well as Tamiya lacquer based primers.  The advantage of the Yellow Cap over the X20-A is that it thins out the paint pigments to a greater degree then X20-A does, hence, a smoother paint finish. 

   

  As far as thinning ratios go for my compressor and Iwata AB's, I start with these ratios:

Tamiya Acrylics, 2 parts paint to 3 parts YC

Mig Ammo paints 1 to 1

Mig primers 1 to 1

Tamiya Primers 2 parts primer to 3 parts YC

 

Joel

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