what can i use to thin acrylic paint for airbrushing

How do you thin acrylic paints to airbrush miniatures? As a best practice, you should thin your model paints to the proper viscosity for your airbrush. The proper viscosity for airbrushing depends on the air pressure level, the resolution, and the airbrush nozzle size. For simplicity, of course, you could buy "airbrush-ready model paints". But, these can exist costly and may withal demand thinning for all-time results with your airbrush setup. I ever recommend to anyone with an airbrush to learn how to thin acrylic paints for painting miniatures.

In this article, I bear witness you an established fashion to thin acrylic paints for airbrushing miniatures. These methods work well with virtually any brand of water-based, acrylic hobby paints, including Citadel, Reaper, Vallejo, and Army Painter model pigment brands.

RELATED: 10 USEFUL Ways TO THIN ACRYLICS FOR MINIATURE BRUSHWORK

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Ideal Airbrush for Painting Miniatures?

In general, a gravity-feed airbrush, such as the Annoy Patriot 105 or IWATA HP-CS, will work peachy for base of operations blanket, priming, and painting details. These airbrushes accept nozzle openings of 0.3mm or larger, which make clogging less likely and more useful for spraying regular hobby paint (which you lot'll demand to sparse–see how to practise this below).

The Iwata HP-BH is a professional level airbrush that uses a gravity-feed pigment cup. Air and paint is activated through a double-activeness trigger, e.g., push button downwards for air; pull dorsum for paint.

Of grade, the larger the nozzle on an airbrush, the less capable the airbrush of spraying finer particular. Ultimately, I notice that airbrushes with a 0.3mm nozzle size is the most versatile for almost all miniature painting needs.

The nose and nozzle assembly are delicate parts on any airbrush.

If yous're planning to airbrush very thinned paints or inks and washes, a smaller nozzle size will help. But, over again, smaller nozzles are prone to clogging if you try to spray thicker paints and will require higher air pressure, which reduces your control.

Best Way to Thin Acrylic Paints for Airbrushes

How practise you thin acrylic paints for painting miniatures with an airbrush? The best way to thin hobby acrylic paints for an airbrush is to use water. This is because almost all hobby paints are water-based mediums, and therefore dissolve easily in water (a solvent).

Note that you'll want to employ "soft" h2o rather than "hard" h2o for thinning hobby acrylics.

"Soft water" is h2o that contains little or no dissolved minerals, such every bit calcium. "Difficult h2o" contains minerals that tin can lead to an undesirable chemical reaction with some art mediums and paints, or react with the metallic inside your airbrush, which can grade hard-to-clean mineral deposits.

Water is the best thinner for any acrylic hobby paints.

Most household faucets in modern homes have soft water. Just, if yous live in an place with older pipes or water system, you may desire to filter your tap h2o earlier using it as a paint thinner for airbrushing. You tin use a Brita filter or employ distilled water you detect at any food market place.

Culling Model Paint Thinner for Airbrushing?

If for some reason you think water isn't working–sometimes you need a kick–and so you can attempt using airbrush mediums or airbrush paint thinner. The ii I've tested and work for me are Vallejo Airbrush Thinner and Liquitex Airbrush Medium. Both work peachy with any model paints, e.k., Citadel, Vallejo, or Army Painter, and provide a smashing viscosity for spraying with an airbrush.

Both Vallejo Airbrush Thinner and Liquitex Airbrush Medium work to thin your model paints and lubricate your airbrush equally the thinned paint mixture travels through your airbrush. In my experience, using these thinning mediums reduce the run a risk for clogging and produce cracking atomization (east.one thousand., pigment spray product).

Note that Liquitex Airbrush Medium also tends to irksome down the model paint dry out fourth dimension, which may be useful if you lot're a slower painter or want to avoid needle "tip dry" on your airbrush.

Liquitex Airbrush Medium is another slap-up thinner for hobby paints. It irksome downward pigment dry and helps paint flow through your airbrush at lower air pressure.

The disadvantages of using airbrush mediums is that they cost much more than than water, take additional wellness risks if you are susceptible to inhalation, east.thousand., working in a poorly ventilated space, and they tin have unpredictable results on your models, if mixed with improper ratios. In the latter, for case, some airbrush thinner mediums can make your hobby paints dry out glossy, which can make layering and other techniques more difficult.

The bottomline: I often recommend that y'all endeavor using water beginning to sparse your hobby paints for airbrushing. Using h2o as a thinner will give your more command and predictable results when thinning your acrylic model paints. This is true whether you're airbrushing or using a regular castor.

Read on to run into how to use water or airbrush mediums to thin your acrylic paints for airbrushing miniatures.

How to Mix Thinner and Pigment for Your Airbrush

At that place are two popular ways to mix thinner and paint for your airbrush:

1. Mix thinner and paint exterior your airbrush
2. Homogenize thinner and pigment within your airbrush

i. Thin Paint Outside the Airbrush

The near widely-accepted method to mix thinner and paint for airbrushing is to pre-mix in a dish or palette. After mixing your thinner, due east.grand., h2o or airbrush medium, transfer the thinned paint mixture to your airbrush paint cup with an eyedropper or a make clean brush.

To thin paint outside the airbrush, I do my mixing in a separate palette dish.

Using an center dropper, I add a few drops of pure water (or thinner) to the paint. The ratio depends on how thin I need the paint for airbrush. Merely, I generally first with a 1:3 paint to water ratio.

I stir the paint using the back end of a paintbrush.

To cheque the viscosity of the paint, I'll pull some of it upwardly the side of the dish. If it runs like "whole milk", then it is ready for my airbrush. You may want this paint thinner or thicker depending on your application (refer to the chart beneath).

The reason y'all want to pre-mix your pigment with h2o before loading it into your airbrush is to avoid debris or other particles from clogging your airbrush nozzle. The risk for clogging your airbrush is higher if you attempt to thin paint inside the paint loving cup of your airbrush.

The paint cup on your airbrush is where a lot of problems can occur if contaminants and droppings get within. You can avoid clogging by mixing your thinner with paint outside the airbrush paint cup.

Of course, the limitation of premixing your paint outside your airbrush first is that information technology'due south slower and does waste a chip of paint. Pre-mixing is best used for those who are planning to airbrush a decent corporeality of surface area. If you're merely "spot" airbrushing a pocket-size corporeality, so you could thin your paint in your airbrush paint cup.

ii. Thin Paint Inside the Airbrush

Here is the style I recommend you mix your thinner (due east.g., h2o or airbrush medium) and paint directly in your airbrush paint cup. Get-go, add together the thinner into your airbrush paint cup. And so, add together your paint. The mixture ratio depends on how sparse you need your paint. To mix the thinner and paint, you can employ a stirrer like a cheap, make clean brush, or a toothpick.

Drop pigment straight into the pigment loving cup to start the thinning procedure.

If your airbrush has a airtight-blazon nose cone, you can use a back airflow to agitate the mixture in the paint cup. Merely, place your finger over the forepart of the nose cone, blocking the airflow, and slowly push the trigger downwards for air. The back pressure from the air will lead to bubbles the paint cup.

Add water or your preferred thinner to the pigment cup.

To mix the thinner and paint, block the nose cone of your airbrush with your finger or other soft material, east.g., cream or rubber glove.

Press the trigger down, holding information technology for 1-two seconds, assuasive the backflow air to produce bubbles in the paint cup. The bubbles will mix the paint and thinner. Echo until your paint is thoroughly mixed.

The bubbles are a sign that you've mixed your paint and thinner. Make sure yous allow the bubbles to work through the entire mixture. You lot may demand to echo the process a few times. Be careful y'all don't overpressure your airbrush backflow, e.g., lower your PSI, or the bubbles volition splash out!

The backflow bubbling will mix the pigment and thinner for you inside the airbrush paint cup. I ofttimes allow the bubbles to work for 1-two seconds at a time, repeating the process if needed, to properly mix the paint inside the airbrush loving cup. If it worked well, then you can expect to accept a nicely thinned pigment that is ready for enjoyable airbrushing.

What is the Best Thinner-to-Paint Ratio for Airbrushing?

The proper ratio to sparse common hobby acrylic pigment to the viscosity of whole milk is approximately 1 to iii drops of paint to thinner (i.e., add more thinner than paint). This baseline paint-to-thinner ratio is derived from my experience with Ground forces Painter and Citadel Paints. For Vallejo or Reaper Paints, you lot may need less thinner since these brands of acrylic paints kickoff out less thick.

Here is a useful chart for recommended settings for airbrushing miniatures.

Recommended settings	Small models (less surface)	Large models (more surface)
Airbrush nozzle size	0.2 – 0.three mm	0.30 to 0.v mm (or college)
Air pressure level	xv – 25 PSI	25 – 35 PSI
Paint viscosity for airbrushing (use thickness similar to)	Ink or whole milk	Coffee creamer or melted water ice cream

The proper viscosity or thickness of paint you'll need for airbrushing miniatures depends on the size of your airbrush nozzle, working air pressure level, and the detail you need to airbrush.

Starting with a ratio of paint-to-thinner of 1:3 allows you to experiment with your airbrush. You tin spray this thinned mixture to meet if the paint flows properly and produces the spray pattern you lot can control, i.e., sprayed paint isn't runny, dripping, or making spider spider web patterns when it hits a surface.

Following the chart higher up, y'all'll find that the smaller your nozzle, the thinner y'all'll want your pigment, eastward.one thousand., ink or whole milk-similar viscosity. It also follows that if you have thicker paint (e.g., less thinner added), you'll need to use higher air pressure and want to use an airbrush with a larger nozzle size. All of these variables are direct related to each other.

How to Avoid Clogging Your Airbrush: Thinning Paints for Large and Pocket-sized Models

For larger models and airbrushing more surface area, I recommend using a higher air pressure along with thicker paint. This will assistance you cover that larger area more than effectively.

For better control airbrushing smaller miniatures with less surface area, a lower air pressure along with thinned paint volition give you the finer atomization you lot'll want. You may too need to thin your primer more to account for the lower air pressure and reduce the risk of bottleneck the nozzle.

How much thinner you lot add to your hobby acrylic pigment volition depend on your airbrush application. For example, if you're base coating a model, you lot tin use thicker paint and spray at college air pressure level–of class, yous'll probable also want to use a larger nozzle with you lot airbrush to reduce the take a chance for clogs.

A product I utilize to avoid clogging in any airbrush awarding is to dip my airbrush needle in Regdab needle juice. Regdab is made by Badger Airbrush Company. Information technology is an airbrush lubricant that helps polish trigger action, reduce friction of the moving needle, and reduces pigment tip dry and bottleneck.

Regdab needle juice can help you prevent clogs and meliorate the service life of your airbrush.

To use Regdab oil, dip your airbrush needle into the oil, inserting the pointy end directly into the Regdab canteen, and wipe off the excess with a clean tissue or towel, earlier inserting back into your airbrush. Regdab lubricant oil works by lubricating the metal surfaces inside the airbrush, which makes it difficult for drying paint to stick.

Take your airbrush needle and get some Regdab lubricant oil on it.

I'll oft just stick the front end of the needle into the oil bottle.

Once you have oil on your needle, let it to coat the end and part that inserts into the airbrush nozzle and nose cone.

You can see from this close up that you don't demand much oil on the needle to piece of work.

Earlier inserting the needle into your airbrush, wipe of whatsoever excess oil with a newspaper towel. A very thin film of oil volition remain and piece of work well to lubricate the nozzle and airbrush. In my experience, using a bit of lubricant oil like this before any long painting session helps reduce paint clogging.

For longer airbrushing sessions, I'll always apply a bit of this oil to my airbrush needle. I've certainly noticed that it makes painting much less frustrating since I'thousand able to paint longer without worrying about paint drying on the front of my airbrush. A single canteen has lasted me more than 5 years, and it's been worth every penny for airbrushing miniatures.

Avoid Using Ammonia-Based Products to Thin Hobby Pigment

Do not use ammonia-based products, e.chiliad., Windex, to sparse pigment for airbrushing.Ammonia is a toxic chemical and can seriously harm your lungs if inhaled or ingested. Additionally, ammonia-based cleaners can degrade metallic coatings, e,chiliad., brass, inside your airbrush and reduce the service life of the tool.

Exercise not use ammonia-based cleaners to thin your paints. It is an inhalation gamble, especially if you lot paint a lot.

I likewise try to avoid using non-airbrush flow improvers like Winsor & Newton Flow Improver to sparse paints considering they make paint carry unpredictably.

Artist grade period addition or flow aids for traditional acrylic painting are great for brush work, only aren't safe for inhalation or ingestion. It actually says information technology on the bottle. They are toxic surfecants, eastward.thousand., soaps, that can exacerbate existing respiratory issues. Play it condom and only use water or thinners formulated for thinning pigment for airbrushing.

Recommended Airbrush-Fix Paints for Miniatures and Models?

Let's say you want to skip the unabridged step of thinning regular hobby paints for your airbrush. In this case, you'll want to use airbrush-ready paints, in which case you lot're in luck because there are a ton of options.

I've written upwards a total list of my recommended model paints that are airbrush-ready. For these paints, all you demand to do is open up the cap, transfer the paint to your airbrush paint cup, and adjust the air pressure and spray. Note that many of these airbrush-ready paints still work great with a regular castor.

Sure, some of these airbrush-ready paints may require a scrap more thinner if you're using a smaller airbrush nozzle or desire to spray at a lower air pressure for effectively detail. But, airbrush-ready paints are great because they already start you off on the right foot right abroad. No experimentation or thinning ratio formulas to follow.

For more details and my thoughts nearly these airbrush-gear up paints, check out this article.

Conclusion

An airbrush is a great tool for miniature painters. They allow you to paint surfaces quickly and, with practice, airbrushes let you to blend colors in ways that would be hard with a regular brush.

You can use an airbrush with mini-stencils to apace paint textures and patterns on your models.

If you take a collection of hobby acrylic paints and want to utilise them in your airbrush, and so all yous need to do is sparse them down. I've tried a lot of methods to thin hobby paints. For airbrushing, my recommendation is to first with h2o since it is the best solvent for thinning h2o-based acrylic paint.

Of class, everyone has their favorite method. To airbrush miniatures, y'all'll desire to endeavour thinning paints out for yourself to see how it works. The great thing about the miniature painting hobby is the space yous take to explore and discover new ways of doing things.

I hope you found this article helpful! Do yous airbrush miniatures regularly? How do you thin your hobby paints?

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