- by Jay Daniells
- Model Making, Model Making Tutorials
The first thing to be aware of is that Tamiya Acrylic Paint is not water-based acrylic. It needs to be correctly thinned down to effectively brush-paint with it. Your brushes will also not clean in water.
You can buy and use Tamiya Paint Retarder Acrylic to thin your paint. I have not tried this product yet.
Apparently, Tamiya’s X-20A thinner can also work. I will experiment with this soon.
The worst aspect of hand-brushing with Tamiya Acrylics is “roll-up”, where brushing over a partially dry area pulls up the underlying paint in big ugly lumps. Thin your paint and apply in thin layers, allowing each layer to fully cure before re-coating.
Mostly I use an Airbrush. Tamiya Acrylic Paints are great for this. However, there are times when I need to do a bit of brush-painting.
If you are just starting out in Model Making (and model painting) perhaps you don’t yet own an Airbrush setup. This blog post will therefore be useful to you.
Side note: If you are restricted to brush painting, I have heard that you may be better off using a different brand of paint. Vallejo Acrylics brush paint beautifully. I have not tried them.
I found some good brush-painting tips in this forum. Here is one of the forum posts:
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“I just know some people are going to come in and knock Tamiya acrylics and say “use (insert brand name) instead.
The most common problem when painting with Tamiya acrylics is “roll-up”, or simply your wet brush pulling up partially dried paint in big ugly lumps when your brush passes over semi-dry or apparently dry areas which have already been painted. Tamiya paints surface-dry very quickly and may appear to be dry, but actually take at least 12 hours to harden and cure.
Tamiya paints can be brushed successfully, ut just takes a little preparation and patience.
- Don’t paint straight out of the jar – decant a small amount to a palette and paint from there
- Add a little Tamiya thinner to the paint on your palette. Just a small amount will do
- Pour a little clean thinner into another well on your palette
- Before dipping your brush in the paint, dip the tip of your brush in the clean thinner (just enough to slightly moisten it – you don’t want it wet)
- Dip your brush in the paint and apply to your model in short, even strokes, preferably in one direction. Paint to a “wet edge” – meaning if previously applied paint appears to be dry or semi-dry, don’t brush over it – only brush over those areas where the paint appears to be wet. If any areas appear to need re-coating, allow it to cure overnight before doing so.
- Each time you re-load your brush, pick up a little clean thinner first, as described above.
- Over an extended painting session, if paint appears to be drying on your brush, clean it out before continuing to paint. dry paint on your brush will severely degrade the brush’s performance and will impede the clean flow of paint from the brush to your model.
- IMPORTANT: Use good quality brushes – Look at higher grade synthetic or red sable artists brushes – they might be more expensive, but will last a long time if properly cared for.
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Some very good Tamiya Acrylic brush-painting tips are in the below video:
Video Credit: Thanks heaps to Barbatos Rex for creating this video.