Airbrushed Vallejo

[Wellington1965]

Hi,

Anyone airbrushed vallejo's normal acrylics, if so, what ratio of paint to thinners did you use?

Cheers - Ian.

 

[Ferris]

Ian, Yes you can airbush Vallejo. I used an scrylics thinner 30-40% and a few drops of plain water to fine tune consistency. You'll notice soon enough what is the right dilution with a little experimenting. Too little you get spattering and a clogged airbrush, too much you get a nice flow but bad coverage and 'spider legs' on your model (runny paint).

I hope this is of any help. Good luck anyway!

Cheers,
Adrian

 

[Stelios Demiras]

Hi Ian,
If you airbrush the Vallejo primers you must use them almost straight from the bottle. For the Model Color or Panzer Aces, I prefer a 50%-60% thinner (use the appropriate thinner from Vallejo and if you want use a little retarder so the paint lasts more and will not dry on your airbrush nose). I use this percentage with 0.8 bar (the biggest) in my air compressor so I have more control and start making a overhead preparation using shadows (airbrushed from below and some highlights from above). This will help to see the areas that you must paint with shadows and highlights more clear. In most cases I use distilled water, Vallejo thinner and a little retarder. I think that in the Vallejo's sites has some tutorials.

Best Regards
Stelios Demiras

 

[Wellington1965]

Thanks for all the advice

Ian.

 

[Einion]

Anyone airbrushed vallejo's normal acrylics, if so, what ratio of paint to thinners did you use?

There's a basic rule of thumb with spraying any sort of paint Ian - as much as you need or want.

There's a minimum thinning amount necessary obviously, but you can't rely on formulas to get there; you have to go by how thin the paint gets because of how much the paints can vary (from the factory as well as from use).

Past that you can thin way down, for mist coats and the like; there's practically no upper limit to how much you can dilute.

Einion

 

[PaultheMilitaryModeller]

Hi

When airbrushing Vallejos Model color range of paints I always used Vallejos airbrush cleaner for thinning and always used a mix of about 50/50. The Vallejo thinner (The White one) included a retardant to slow the drying down, but I only ever used that to thin the paints for brush painting, I didn't like it for airbrushing. However Vallejo have changed the formula of their thinner and it is now based on their Airbrush cleaner, it is also now sold as Airbrush Thinner, and it looks to be an improvement on the old thinner for airbrushing, unfortunately its not as good as the old white one for brush painting, typical!. The old one included resins to help the paint stick and the new one does not. You could use water but I have always found water weakens the bond slightly, which might not be an issue but as Model Color is a vinyl based paint and is very weak structurally and easily damaged and rubbed off I don't like to do anything to make it even more prone to damage.

Also don't use IPA to thin it either, with most but bizarrely not all the Model color range will turn to jelly if alcohol is added, although according to Vallejo, their Airbrush cleaner contains some alcohol and that has no affect on Model color other than to clean or thin it, so small amounts must be ok but not high amounts as in IPA which has from 70 to 99% alcohol depending on the type bought.

Paul

 

[ausf]

I've been airbrushing Vallejo for years, I've only recently started brushing it.

Thinning to a ratio is difficult because the paint viscosity, humidity, air pressure all varies, even changes over the session in my experience. I prefer just water (distilled) and eyeball it to be similar to milk and adjust on the fly from there.

The Model Air is convenient, but I prefer the normal Color line thinned. The poly primers are excellent imo.

 

[PaultheMilitaryModeller]

Hi

The biggest issue with using plane old water, distilled or otherwise is that you are not only diluting the paint but by adding just water you are also diluting the bonding abilities as well, although most people don't actually notice this, so its not really a big problem, but some do notice it. If you use Vallejos own thinner it is said to contain a clear acrylic base that helps retain the paints bonding abilities even though its been thinned. Like I said not everyone notices this issue so its probably not that big a problem, but if you do thin it was water and then have issues with it easily rubbing off you will know what to do. Right.

As to their New range of Poly Primers another big thumbs up from me, just be warned its not the best in the world when it comes to priming metal. The new coloured versions are excellent to use as a top coat as well, as their Dark Yellow is one of the best Dunkelgelbs out there and the same can be said for their US Olive Drab, that also is one of the best Olive Drab matches out there. If metal is involved then I will prime with an enamel based primer and base coat with the Poly Primer of the correct colour to whatever I am building, if no metal is involved then poly primer all the way.

Paul

 

[Ron Tamburrini]

Some good advice there ,
Its taken me a year just to get to grips with an air brush and get things flowing reasonably well
And I haven't really tried acrylics yet still on the revell and humbrols

Ron

 

[Showlen]

For me, I've found that the thinning "ratio" varies depending on what color you use (I airbrush only acrylics, about 80% Vallejo and 20% Andrea). For example, I find that I don't have to dilute Calvary Brown as much as I do with Basic Flesh. It also depends on what type of coat you're laying down: base, highs, shadows, top coat etc. It's always an "eyeball" thing for me, vs a true ratio. I use Andrea's airbrush thinner and water (about 60% thinner, 40% water) and it works great for me. I've never tried Vallejo's thinner as it's a little more expensive and you get less. A bottle of Andrea's thinner lasts me quite a while.

-Ronnie

 

[Bailey]

An IPMS friend of mine just told me about this trick this past weekend. He's started using Windex to thin his Vallejo for airbrushing and says it works great. He's raving about it. They sell clear Windex which is probably a better choice than the blue stuff. I haven't tried it myself, so test it out on a piece of scrap first. But, based on how he was going on about it, I'd say it's worth checking out.

 

[Einion]

An IPMS friend of mine just told me about this trick this past weekend. He's started using Windex to thin his Vallejo for airbrushing and says it works great. He's raving about it.

Windex and similar products are widely used as a diluent for airbrushing Vallejo and similar paints with armour and aircraft modellers. Most contain some ammonia* in addition to the water which is one of the things that makes them thin the paint better, any surfactants/detergents also help as they break the surface tension. End result: finer spray. In the UK screen wash is used similarly.

They sell clear Windex which is probably a better choice than the blue stuff.

Nothing to worry about, screen washes are regularly tinted blue but the colour disappears even when used to thin very light colours.

*If you have live in a country where you can buy straight ammonia as a household cleaning agent it's worth getting some to make up your own airbrushing thinners, e.g. something like 60% water, 35% ammonia, 5% acrylic medium (or Future/equivalent) and a drop or two of dishwashing liquid.

A little word on safety: it would be best to spray outdoors or in a very well-ventilated space when spraying with anything like Windex; your regular dust mask protects you from particles of paint, not from vapour.

Einion