Brush painting Tamiya and mr color lacquers

[BattleshipBob]

Me again, sorry

I need to brush paint small parts and no doubt touch up areas using either tamiya LP or Mr color

I have retarder but do I need to thin the paint as well? If so any idea of the ratio, 50/50 like for spraying??

Thanks in advance bob

[Scratchbuilder]

Morning Bob,

Lacquers - I have just gone back onto them and mix 50/50 and the result is good. If you are going to use one colour a lot for spraying then top up the jar to just under the rim with thinners and that will make the paint airbrush friendly.

For brush painting I use them straight from the jar, but if they are a bit on the thick side then I mix a bit of thinners to each brush by dipping the brush into the thinners and then mixing the paint and thinners on a scrap of tin foil, that usually works.

I have found for spraying I can turn the air pressure down to just a whisper, which is way below the 1 to 1.5 bar for acrylics, and get really close in for spraying. Obviously if you are spraying large areas then you will need to up the pressure but not a lot.

HTH
Cheers
Mike.

[BattleshipBob]

Morning Bob,

Lacquers - I have just gone back onto them and mix 50/50 and the result is good. If you are going to use one colour a lot for spraying then top up the jar to just under the rim with thinners and that will make the paint airbrush friendly.

For brush painting I use them straight from the jar, but if they are a bit on the thick side then I mix a bit of thinners to each brush by dipping the brush into the thinners and then mixing the paint and thinners on a scrap of tin foil, that usually works.

I have found for spraying I can turn the air pressure down to just a whisper, which is way below the 1 to 1.5 bar for acrylics, and get really close in for spraying. Obviously if you are spraying large areas then you will need to up the pressure but not a lot.

HTH
Cheers
Mike.

Excellent thanks Mike, heard of topping up a new bottle, I'll try that

Only use lacquer, so easy to thin and spray. Find the tamiya lp great to use but almost impossible to cross reference to Mr color and not a big range. Will use lp for ijn as they have the four greys used by Japanese shipyards

Will have to practice with the old brush, lots to do

Bob

[Andy T]

I've never had much success brush painting with lacquers. A little blob of touch up here & there if you're quick enough, but I've never managed to actually brush paint anything with them.

[Tim Marlow]

I find Tamiya do brush OK if diluted around fifty fifty with Tamiya X-20A thinners ( not Mr levelling and its relatives). You do need to work quickly though, and don’t go back over an area until it’s properly dried or the first coat paint will lift. Far prefer Vallejo though

[Andy T]

I find Tamiya do brush OK if diluted around fifty fifty with Tamiya X-20A thinners

I didn't know their LP range could be thinned with that, I thought it was for their mini-acrylic X/XF range

[Tim Marlow]

I didn't know their LP range could be thinned with that, I thought it was for their mini-acrylic X/XF range

Oops, misread the original post. Good catch Andy…..you are probably right :flushed:

[JR]

Not used any of the items mentioned, apart from Mr Colour for priming Bob. Sure you'll sort it out.

[BattleshipBob]

Did a small experiment using Mr Color, Tamiya XF and Tamiya LP. Thinned both Mr color and Tamiya XF

results not good, added a bit of retarder but still not ideal. But as Mike said LP straight out of the bottle was much better, better again with a small amount of Mr color thinner. So I'll definitely use LP to paint IJN ships safe in the knowledge that I can paint small parts and also touch up without seeing different shades.

How ever the LP range is not great so Mr color will still be used. That's another problem lol

[Flip]

Bob,

I used the same dilution regime mentioned by Mike. Kept me happy until I migrated onto MRP and found that, comparatively, MRP didn't clog the AB as quickly. So I changed the Tamiya LP dilution to the following:

• [*=1]Use Tamiya retarder-type thinners [*=1]Top up to the very top of the jar (not just the neck)

For me, that made a huge difference - just a quick flush out at the end now, no strip-down every time. Due to the ease of it, I use it for even small parts.

For touch-up I use the Tamiya LP neat.

For Mr Hobby lacquers I do exactly the same, except I use Mr Hobby Levelling Thinners. Use the neat one for touch-up.

The only exceptions to this are the likes of propeller blade tips - I hand paint them. Just stick to small areas.

I agree with Tim - work quickly and let it dry!