Thining paint

[kallen-bortas]

Out of curosity...what ratio y'all thin your airbrush paint at???

I am mainly painting Star Trek models, so I'm pretty much dealing w/ flats. According to my MM airbrush thinner bottel, it says that flats are 1pt thinner to 3 pts paint. I have heard of some doing 50:50 to 70:30(thinner:paint).

All the paints I have are Testors, either MM or the "regular" ones. Thats pretty much all I can find around here, so thats what I got. I also using an Iwata Revolution CR airbrush.

So, what are y'alls ratios...and what would you recomend w/ what I have.

[TREKKRIFFIC]

I generally follow the milk rule myself. Works well for enamels.

[Lt. Z0mBe]

I generally follow the milk rule myself. Works well for enamels.

Same here. Unless I am trying for very fine lines. Jonas Calhoun helped me with this one. I thin to ink-like consistency or thinner and shoot at very low pressure - generally five to 10 psi.

I hope this helps.

Kenny

[SpaceDuck]

I never followed the milk rule. Guernsey in the fall, Heiffer in the winter, left bank of teets, right bank, whole or lowfat and what about skimmed? So many questions. In the 'big world' they thin to a measured viscosity which will therefore account for the variety between paint batches and other variables. I don't bother to utilize droppers and a stop watch but over time you simply recognize the rate of flow/drip/trickle from a stir stick or even from just swirling the paint in the bottle- kinda like a wine taster. So this obviously isn't suited to a newbie who hasn't seen enough variations yet but if you start with around 1/3 thinner, shoot it and then adjust from there while watching for the consistency in the manners listed above you will eventually be able to 'eyeball' it without thinking twice. As others mentioned though the viscosity will vary based upon your intent (base coat, wet clear coat, mist coat and fine line painting) and other things like shop temp and humidity. But enamel is pretty forgiving and 1/3 thinner is a good starting point.