Thinner Question

[warpdrvr]

So, I've watched lots of youtube vids about painting and/or airbrushing. I see guys using regular lacquer thinner to thin/clean with. Kid at the local Hobby Town says I need the Testors enamel thinner for those paints but in the vids they are using regular HD/Lowe's lacquer thinner. Question is, do I need the expensive Testors enamel thinner for a new airbrush I'm getting, or does the lacquer thinner do the job? I know for acrylics I would thin/clean with water.

 

[Aiden05]

I am personally not working with Testors, but I guess you should just try it out with the cheap thinner, if it doesn't work, get the one supposed for the colors.

Thinning acrylics with water doesn't work well mostly, I'd advise you to get acrylic thinnner or normal isopropyl alcohol for that. For cleaning the airbrush I just use methylated spirits, cheap and well working (I have to mention here that I only use acrylic, acrylic lacquer and enamel colors here, so I don't know if that works with lacquer paints too, I guess not).

 

[wjbrandel]

Regular laquer thinner works just as well. I use white spirit that I get at wal mart.

 

[TheRaceforTerra]

So, I've watched lots of youtube vids about painting and/or airbrushing. I see guys using regular lacquer thinner to thin/clean with. Kid at the local Hobby Town says I need the Testors enamel thinner for those paints but in the vids they are using regular HD/Lowe's lacquer thinner. Question is, do I need the expensive Testors enamel thinner for a new airbrush I'm getting, or does the lacquer thinner do the job? I know for acrylics I would thin/clean with water.

It depends on which paints you use. If you're using alcohol-based acrylics (e.g. Tamiya), then stay away from water, and use Tamiya Lacquer Thinner or Mr. Hobby Levelling Thinner for best results. If you are using true acrylics (i.e. water-based), then you need acrylic thinner. I have tried many, and AMMO's is the best in my experience.

I have a bunch on videos discussing all the above if you're interested.

 

[Aiden05]

I discovered yesterday that Tamiya and AK Real Colors (i.e. both acrylic lacquers) thin perfectly fine with methylated spirits. Cheap (2€ for 1 litre) and easy to get. Enclosed a picture of a Bradley painted with Tamiya XF-59 thinned ≈1:1 with methylated spirits.