I looked through the search but couldnt really find anything to help me with this. I need to know how much to thin my polytransapr WA paint, and what to thin it with. I had a guy tell me to just put a "squirt" of windex in the bottle before putting paint in. I saw in the saerch using alcohol, water, etc. Also how much thinner would you need to make it like skim milk? 10% thinner, 25%, 30%, 50%, im not sure. Any help would be great, Thanks, Kevin
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Warm distilled OR tap water will thin it, but why are you thinning it? If the paint is new, it comes ready to spray right out of the bottle. Are you trying to push it through a #1 needle airbrush? If so, it won't ever thin that much and at some point, thinning it too far will cause it to separate completely. Switch to a #3 since that's the tip it was intended for. Only inks and very thin lacquer will go through a #1.
I have found that some WA colors are too thicks. Especially dark colors like black and gill red. I usually just squirt a little bit of windex in with them and put a little retarder. I would say I use probably 10% thinner and 5% retarder. If I am doing detail work with the black, I thin it about 35% and use 15% retarder. You will have to experiment with different colors to see what works best. A lot of the colors need no thinning at all.
90% of the time my paint is not thinned. And when I do want less pigment I manytimes will simply add basecoat sealer instead of water or any of the other thinning agents. This is because I prefer (as George mentions) not breaking down the paint any further. After all, I'm not having problems shooting the paint thru the air-brush, I just want less pigment. So, basecoat sealer fits the bill well. No worries about the paint not binding to the surface. Sometimes adding water and such creates paint that is too thin and it wants to run and/or not dry as quickly. So if I do add anything other than basecoat sealer it's usually rubbing alcohol or Windex. And Windex does NOT go into the lighter colors as this blue hue will show thru. You just need to experiment and find out what you prefer. There's no right or wrong here - other than adding too much thinning agents that can break down and not adhere. Go easy with the water especially...
I thin all of the paint sometimes up to 50%. Contrary to George it really isn't airbrush ready you want to slowly build up the coloration. It will be much more user friendly this way. Thinner water based paint will give you less airbrush fits down the road. I thin polytranspar paint(other brands this won't work) with alcohol because the evaporation rate is higher than with water. This means that you will not have paint running off the fish or have to wait to apply colors. Often I add a few drops or so of retarder because when painting fine detail the thinned paint with the alcohol will dry on the tip and spatter. The retarder will prevent that. I also thin paint extensively with retarder to achieve certain effects however when you do this there needs to be drying time before any gloss is applied or paint runs will develop. My fish have a great deal of paint on them more than most can imagine however I can apply the colors so lightly the scale tipping underneath is still visible.
This is a "beginner" and thinning any paint 50% is just inviting disaster. Water based (acrylic) paint particles are simply suspended in water. To thin or to add to that water base equates to separation of paint particles by the carrier. In the hands of a master like you, that all might be well and good, but for the rest of us, it just don't cut it.
I didn't tell him to thin it 50% I believe I suggested 10%. Do not use water to thin it or you will have problems. I (myself) sometimes thin the paint up to that(50%) much. I strongly suggest to all beginers to thin the paint somewhat. This will make painting much more forgiving. Everyone must experiment on there own to figure out what that percentage of thinning/retarding should be.
I'm always reminded of that exact point just a millisecond after I get a starburst on my spot pattern. LOL