Tamiya, Vallejo compatibility.

[papaof2]

Got the Italeri Bugatti T35B 1/12 scale on order at LHS. Working on converting Italeri paint codes to Tamiya and some are a real stretch. Can find Vallejo compatible. My question is can I use Vallejo as Tamiya, same thinners and such.

Curtis

 

[blakeh1]

Got the Italeri Bugatti T35B 1/12 scale on order at LHS. Working on converting Italeri paint codes to Tamiya and some are a real stretch. Can find Vallejo compatible. My question is can I use Vallejo as Tamiya, same thinners and such.

Curtis

Not sure the right terminology, but Vallejo are water based/thinned acrylics where as Tamiya are "alcohol?" based/thinned

Bottom line is, no you should not use the same thinner. I believe the Tamiya thinner will muck up the Vallejo paints

I would stick with Vallejo's Airbrush thinner for their paints and stick with the Tamiya airbrush thinner for their paints

That being said, they have no problem being used in layers on each other, you just can't really mix them together to create a color

 

[papaof2]

Thank you

 

[Jakko]

@blakeh1 is correct: Vallejo paints are water-based, Tamiya's acrylics are alcohol-based. You can mix them, but results are far from guaranteed. For example, when I tried darkening some Tamiya acrylic medium grey with Vallejo airbrush-ready black (not sure why, except I had it available I guess), I found that the mix would keep separating into a grey layer on top and a black layer underneath. Stir it with my brush to get a darker grey, and very quickly it would turn medium grey again.

Anyway, thin Vallejo with water or with their own airbrush thinner, not with Tamiya X-20A.

 

[josh]

So glad to have resources like this board. Thanks for sharing your wisdom folks. Saving the rest of us a bunch of time and experimentation