Thinning Vallejo for the AB

[wing_nut]

Looking for opinions as to what is the best method for thinning Vallejo for use with an AB. I know alcohol is a major no no. Don't ask how I know

[brembo--Rest In Peace]

hey wing nut,

i use alot of acrylic for all sorts of stuff so here's my accumulated wisdom on this good question.....first of all.....

you haven't mentioned which Vallejo you are wanting to spray?
They do the standard range and the vallejo air range
( which is suposed to be the air brush range)

The fact they make the 'air' range would suggest that spraying the standard colours can be 'problematic'

i ve always found that as a rule of thumb, acrylic paints tend to fall into one of two camps

the airbrush friendly camp (Tamiya, Gunze)

and brush paint friendly camp (Vallejo, GW, life colour, italeri etc...)

whilst you can use them all in both ways they tend to work best using their 'ideal use' category.

Tamiya is in fact rubbish at brush painting in most circumstances, but absolutely brilliant thru the AB...

where as GW i could only spray using water...and it suffered significant loss of opacity when it was thinned to a sprayable consistency.

my advice...Horses for Course's......unless it's an AB style acrylic paint it wont want to play the game too well..... and you can look forward to cleaning 'paint Jelly' out of your AB if you use the wrong thinner...

how can you tell which is which (other than trial & error);
generally the brush paint acrylics have a thicker consistency overall

the AB acrylics tend to seperate more readily, and have a thinner consistency once mixed (but still need thinning for AB)

and then there's the jelly test..... ;D

[dupes]

While the vast majority of my airbrush painting is with Tamiya, I have done a bit with Vallejo. Just use distilled water to your favorite consistency. Model Air is just pre-thinned Model Color (or it's derivatives)...but I tend to thin it a bit more to get it to my liking.

[bullardino]

I spray vallejo very often. For instance the firefly was painted using vallejo's olive drab.

I thin them using a glass cleaning product called Vetril, very easy to find in Italy. I dunno what it is called abroad or even if it is exported some way...

[bigjohn]

Does Vallejo have a thinner? If in doubt, I would use the manufactures thinning agent.

I'd have to look around, but I've also read where a retarding agent was added to keep paint from drying on the needle.

[madairbrush]

Yes Vallejo has a thinner. I use this one and it works very well with the Vallejo model air colors.

[robbo]

I use Vallejo through the AB quiet often and I only ever use tap water and a dash of Medea for thinning, it works for me mate, 50/50

[johnt]

Hi Wingnut
I always use soapy water to thin vallejos. That and clean the nozzle with vallejo airbrush cleaner regularly while spraying, and it works a treat for me. Best of luck!

Cheers JT

[wing_nut]

Thanks for all the feedback.

Vallejo thinner is not an option unless I wait until Tuesday when he LHS is open. Me? Wait? Not too likely.

So... distilled water, soapy water and Italian glass cleaner.. or the American equivalent in my case. Some things to try.

Ian, is Medea some sort of local acrylic retarder... or is that the vodka with the electronic bottle? If the latter... where does the "dash" go? In the paint... or you ;D I inter how Maker's Mark would work. Worked pretty well on me last night

[bigjohn]

Nov 11, 2012 7:27:19 GMT -5 wing_nut said:

Thanks for all the feedback.

Vallejo thinner is not an option unless I wait until Tuesday when he LHS is open. Me? Wait? Not too likely.

So... distilled water, soapy water and Italian glass cleaner.. or the American equivalent in my case. Some things to try.

Ian, is Medea some sort of local acrylic retarder... or is that the vodka with the electronic bottle? If the latter... where does the "dash" go? In the paint... or you ;D I inter how Maker's Mark would work. Worked pretty well on me last night

That last sentence got my attention. I have a bottle of Makers Mark that I have been hitting pretty hard the last few days. Cept last night was shots of Knob Creek. ;D

[wing_nut]

Yeah John... That's my new favorite. I was a Woodford Reserve guy until I had some Maker's at a wedding last month. Oh baby that's smooth. A bit smoother than the Woodford's.. to me anyway.

But this off off topic now... unless you consider this painting my gullet with bourbon

[spud]

you can also thin it with there ab cleaner, ive done it and it works

[wouter]

Jan 19, 2013 20:10:34 GMT -5 spud said:

you can also thin it with there ab cleaner, ive done it and it works

yup, that's how I do it

but, I just discovered something new. Had a lot of bad experience with the AK paints (pretty much thesame as Vallejo ones, only difference is that there are a lot of issues with the AK paints) I tried something new today: thin it with Tamiya Lacquer Thinner...worked out superb!

Cheers

[bullardino]

Feb 5, 2013 9:12:09 GMT -5 wouter said:

Jan 19, 2013 20:10:34 GMT -5 spud said:

you can also thin it with there ab cleaner, ive done it and it works

yup, that's how I do it

but, I just discovered something new. Had a lot of bad experience with the AK paints (pretty much thesame as Vallejo ones, only difference is that there are a lot of issues with the AK paints) I tried something new today: thin it with Tamiya Lacquer Thinner...worked out superb!

Cheers

What paint/thinner ratio did you use?

[spud]

The ak paints seem much thinner than vallejo tough, have you tried thinning the vallejo with it and seeing what happens?

[maschinenkrueger]

Wow, I'm surprised that worked. I would have thought the Tamiya Laq. thinner would have separated the pigment from the carrier.

Nov 10, 2012 9:57:08 GMT -5 robbo said:

I use Vallejo through the AB quiet often and I only ever use tap water and a dash of Medea for thinning, it works for me mate, 50/50

Thanks Robo. I tried this over the weekend and it worked. The first time I've been able to reasonably AB Vallejo without it beading on the surface with the first pass. I thinned Model Color with distilled water and a drop or two of Medea AB Cleaner until it "looked" right. I had to turn up the PSI to 18-20 which is a bit higher than I normally shoot with Tamiya acrylics.

[bbd468]

Great info fellas!

Wouts...you thinned Vallejo or AK with the Tamiya Lacquer thinner? Or Both?

Gary

[wouter]

Hi Luigi, I thinned it at about 50/50, but usually I thin my paints even more. In this case it sprayed very good, and the supergood thing about it: I didn't need to clean the needle every 50 seconds or so

Hi Spuddie, I thought the AK paints were a bit thicker, but they don't mix very well. I had shaken the bottle very heavily and when doing the AK paint in a cup there was still some thick goo-ie (how the hell do you spell that? ) stuff coming out, but mixed with the Lacquer Thinner it was all good.

Hiya Gary, it was the AK paint, but I think it will get the same result with Vallejo, will try that later on ^^

Cheers

[bbd468]

Thanks buddy...ill give it a try myself.

[wouter]

Feb 5, 2013 13:50:07 GMT -5 bbd468 said:

Thanks buddy...ill give it a try myself.

ok that's easier, let me know how it worked... If it works as good as on the AK, you won't be using anything else anymore

Cheers

[bbd468]

Heck...ill do an experiment right now bro. Be back shortly!

[bbd468]

ABORT...ABORT!!!!!!! Oh man! Its a NO GO Wouter. Turned into gooo balls and platters. Well thats settled!

Gary

[spud]

cool im interested in this. although i dint have the Tamiya lacquer thinner cant seem to find it any place but japan

haha i taught as much