# Tamiya Acrylic Paint Thinner question



## Spockr (Sep 14, 2009)

I purchased some Tamiya X-20A a couple of weeks ago and when I opened it it smelled just like rubbing alcohol. Do any of you know what this stuff is made of? If its only alcohol and distilled water I'm likely to save my money next time and mix up some my own.

TIA


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Someone on Hyperscale who worked in a lab broke the stuff down. It is basically (you guessed it) isopropyl alcohol, water, and a wetting agent.

I have thinned Tamiya acrylics very successfully with isopropyl/rubbing alcohol. Some people swear by Windex. I have used Windex and it works ok, but costs more than alcohol. The blue color in Windex does not effect the paint. Now I thin most of my acrylic paints with some form of lacquer thinner. I do like Gunze Mr. Self Levelling Thinner. It is a plastic safe lacquer thinner with a built in retarder that makes the paint flow better and clump up in the airbrush less. You can also use Tamiya's own plastic safe lacquer thinner as well (Tam 87077). Hardware store stuff works well, and I always use that for cleaning my airbrush as its the cheapest.


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## rkoenn (Dec 18, 2007)

djnick66 said:


> Someone on Hyperscale who worked in a lab broke the stuff down. It is basically (you guessed it) isopropyl alcohol, water, and a wetting agent.
> 
> I have thinned Tamiya acrylics very successfully with isopropyl/rubbing alcohol. Some people swear by Windex. I have used Windex and it works ok, but costs more than alcohol. The blue color in Windex does not effect the paint. Now I thin most of my acrylic paints with some form of lacquer thinner. I do like Gunze Mr. Self Levelling Thinner. It is a plastic safe lacquer thinner with a built in retarder that makes the paint flow better and clump up in the airbrush less. You can also use Tamiya's own plastic safe lacquer thinner as well (Tam 87077). Hardware store stuff works well, and I always use that for cleaning my airbrush as its the cheapest.


DJ, so you are using lacquer thinner for thinning acrylics then? I have gotten rather frustrated with air brushing primarily because I do it for 5-10 seconds and the brush clogs. I seem to have the problem with a Iwata CS and my new Badger with the very fine nozzle. I am constantly brushing thinner on the needle tip after just a few seconds of painting. I have used Tamiya, Freestyle, and now Badger Freak Flex and while I will once in a while get a long duration job done for the most part I am constantly clogging and cleaning. I have used Testors acrylic paint thinner too which helps but doesn't hardly solve the problem. It seems like the paint leaving the nozzle dries on the needle tip and then it clogs. If you think the lacquer thinner might help I'll definitely give that a try.


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## louspal (Sep 13, 2009)

For acrylic paints I use alcohol, but to be honest, like rkoenn I have issues airbrushing them because they either clog the brush or the paint is too thin and runs off the primed plastic. After some experimenting I now use enamels and lacquers exclusivley through my brush (Sotar 20/20).


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Yes I thin Tamiya acrylics with lacquer thinner... works great, and its great for cleaning out the brush too. As I mentioned, Gunze Mr. Color Self Levelling Thinner has a retarder/flow agent added. You really need this in lacquers to cut down on that weird cotton candy/spider web stuff you will get when spraying. But its good in acrylics too to prevent clogging.

Thinned paints also build up less than thicker ones.


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