Thinning acrylics with lacquer thinner??

[Cam]

What are the advantages. I have been reading this and thought I was reading it wrong but apparently people are thinning Tamiya acrylics with the Tamiya lacquer thinner. Is this specific to Tamiya paints, or is it possible to say thin Lifecolour with Lacquer? Thanks in advance.

 

[moon puppy]

I recall testing with the pollyscale paints trying to get it to thin with lacquer thinner, didn't work too well. But it may well have been the pollyscale as I've thrown all that paint out now. Wonder of Painter Phil will have some insight for us.

 

[Cam]

That's exactly what I thought too, but I have been reading lately that people are using Lacquer thinner. There must be some advantage to it.


Dioramix wrote:

For the Tamiya (and Gunze/Mr.Hobby) acrylics I only use Isopropyl alc. with 99.9%.

 

[grumpyoldman]

It works great with Tamiya acrylics, but for some reason--- doesn't work with other brands.
WHY I heard you ask!
Probably due to the chemical make up of the Tamiya acrylics allows the use of lacquer thinner, but the others probably use different polymers.
I use plain old, plain Jane lacquer thinner for the hardware store.

I find the advantage is a much smoother, more eggshell finish.

 

[sabla]

I have read the same article.
For me it looks like its only work with taymia acrylics and the use ist for a smoother finish like mix other acrylics with silk gloss. I use it that way because i use no primer and the revell paint i use is very rough without silk gloss or gloss.

hopefully you understand my bad english


greets Mirko

 

[Phil_H]

I've got no direct experience thinning Tamiya Acrylics with lacquer thinners, but I'll repost a section of something I wrote recently.

Lacquer thinner: Some people thin Tamiya acrylics with Lacquer thinner. "Lacquer thinners" vary quite considerably from brand to brand and may contain varying concentrations of solvents, many of which are unfrinedly to styrene. Many of the "hobby branded" lacquer thinners (reg. Tamiya, Gunze's "Mr Thinner" etc) are said to work with Tamiya paint What's the story there?

Well, I haven't tried either of these so I haven't any personal experience, but I'll make a semi-educated guess. The "hobby brand" lacquer thinners are formulated to work with paints for styrene models, so by necessity, they're less agggressive than "generic" lacquer thinners. It's said that you can leave styrene parts soaking in Tamiya or Gunze lacquer thinners with no ill effects, whereas if you try that with most generic lacquer thinners, you very quickly have a puddle of goo.

Now most lacquer thinners are a blend of alcohols and other aggressive solvents. My suspicion is that the "hobby brand" lacquer thinners contain a higher concentration of compatible alcohols and lower concentrations of the other solvents, which may explain why they work with Tamiya paints.

So there may be a valid reason why it seems to work.

While I do advocate using Tamiya's own acrylic thinners, particularly for newcomers to Tamya acrylic paints, I also use ethyl alcohol (aka Methylated Spirits here in Australia) frequently.

I thin my paint considerably more than what would be considered the "norm" and build colour depth using multiple coats. I very rarely, if ever, experience "tip dry", and I get exceptionally smooth finishes.

I guess what I'm saying is that even though it may seem to work, don't look upon the "lacquer thinner" thing as a magic bullet, as there can be many ways to skin a cat.

 

[shaggy]

I remember hearing this a few months ago, and thought I'd try it out. It is supposed to make the Tamiya paint easier to spray and give a smoother finish. I used Tamiya lacquer thinner with Tamiya acrylics and it worked fine. It worked well enough that it's all I use for airbrushing. Don't know about other brands of lacquer thinner, but the Tamiya brand works well.

Shaggy :dude