I’m kinda’ curious now Baron.
Do you use the thinner straight for brush painting? No flo-aid, no retarder?
I have recently switched to Tamiya almost exclusively, across the board, and am looking to dial them in for brush work.
Rebelsatcloudnine, on yt finds they are easy to work with, despite the wives’ tales.
Yep, just the thinner, no other additives. Personally, I haven't seen the need to use them, though I don't discourage anyone from using them, either. Certainly try them and see.
When I first started using Tamiya acrylics, it was to paint my gloss figures. I painted right from the jar, just as I did with my Testor gloss enamels, Model Master enamels and acrylics, Pactra "acrylic enamels", and so on. And I found some of the issues other people discuss on various forums-the paint would often clump, a second coat could lift off a first coat, the paint went on too thick-those are the most common complaints.
Some colors were worse than others-black and white, for example, seemed to be the worst for these problems. On the other hand, I used the flat gray as a primer on metal figures and it did the job.
But as I started to use an airbrush, I read somewhere that Tamiya's acrylics are formulated for airbrushing and meant to be thinned. That gave me the idea to thin the paints for handbrushing. And I started looking for a thinner. That's when I tried water, not realizing that they're not water-based acrylics. Then I read that they're alcohol-based, so I tried isopropyl. Neither water nor isopropyl worked-the problems persisted.
My Dutchy senses* had gotten the better of me before then, and I avoided Tamiya's thinner because of its cost. But I overcame them, bought it, and tried it. That's when I got the best results. I can lay down coats as thin as if I had airbrushed them, thinning with Tamiya's proprietary thinner.
I don't know how ethanol will work, but I think it's hot enough, isn't it?
Also, I've learned that it's often wise to use a company's products together, in some cases, at least. That seems to be true of Vallejo's Model Air line of products, for example. In this case, it makes sense to me to use the manufacturer's paint and thinner together.
As far as painting the acrylics by hand goes, I thin them in either to ways. One is to use a small amount of color on the brush, and then to dip it into a small jar of the thinner, then apply it to the piece. It levels itself out well enough for me. The other method is to mix a small amount of the color and a drop or two of the thinner in a well on a ceramic palette. It really depends on my mood.
For airbrushing, I mix the paint and color in the cup, about a 1:1 ratio, usually, and brushed at 20 psi.
*
Here in PA, the Pennsylvania Dutch are noted for their thrifty ways. So we call someone who is cheap, Dutchy.