How to thin Tamiya acrylic paints

Well, the best thinner for Tamiya acrylics is… Tamiya’s own thinner!

But if you enjoy mixing stuff, here is a cheap recipe I found a while ago on the Internet. I tried it several times and it works beautifully.

Water (25%) + isopropyl alcohol (75%) + a few drops of food grade glycerine.

The first time I tried it, I was able to prime two 1:35 tanks – with constant pauses (I even had to take a phone call that lasted a few minutes) – and my Iwata never had any kind of clogging during the 40 minutes of spraying session. I have recently filled a couple of one-liter bottles with the stuff spending just a few euros.

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Another kind of thinner that works with Tamiya (I personally never tried it) is the thinner used for lacquer paints

Ww2 Japanese afvs

Sandy Yellow (base colour)
xf-57 + xf-60

Green
xf-58

Red-brown
xf-9 (5) + xf-60 (1)

Yellow
xf-3 (3) and xf-60 (1)

Painting – Digital camo for uniforms

Example: First lay down a grey / green base.
Then using a tiny piece of packing foam proceed to ‘dab’ random speckles of sand coloured acrylic. Some areas will be then touched -in with a fine brush.

Painting – afvs tracks

• xf-20 + xf-52 + xf-57

Israeli afvs

xf-20 + xf-57 + xf-49
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Olive Drab (Sinai War 1973)
xf-62

Sand Grey (Six Days War 1961 to 1973)
xf-60 + xf-57

Sand Grey (Yom Kippur 1973)
xf-57 + xf-59 + xf-20

Sand Grey 3 (Lebanon 1982)

colours for an ARV – Recovery Vehicle (IDF)
xf-20 (2) + xf-49 (1)

Ww1 British tanks

Overall colour
xf-52 + xf-55

Painting – Wood

• Use xf-52 as base colour. Once this has dried, a thin coat of Winsor & Newton 744 Yellow Ochre and 074 Burnt Sienna is applied with a broad brush. To get the wooden texture right, it is important to thin the paint with white spirit, but not so much that it becomes runny.

Infra-wars British afvs

• xf-82 to render< Battleship Grey
Weathering: W&N 076 Burnt Umber mixed with plenty of white spirit.
Chipping: xf-63 and a soft lead pencil
Example model: Rolls Royce Armoured Car

Modern Syrian afvs

Sand yellow
xf-2 (6) + xf-57 (3) + xf-3 (1)

Green
xf-73 (2) + xf-67 (1)