I have recently used Tamiya acryl for the first time. Isopropanol turned out to be a very good thinner.

and I tried an enamel with isopropanol and this worked very good as well.

Iso prop is cheap, widely available, limited or no health risks, can also be used to clean models before painting, or to clean the airbrush....

Can we throw away our whole box of thinners and use this alcohol as universal thinner??

In a word.... NO

Don't even think of trying vallejo with IPA, all you will get is a slimey lump, not good if you mix in your airbrush cup.

I know i'm odd, but i tend to use the manufacturers thinner for most things, with the exception of enamels, wehre i use lacquer (cellulose) thinners, which can also do tamiya, but it does smell a bit!!!

Andy

Andy.....not odd at all using the manufacturer's thinner for their paint.

I too used to use Iso Alcohol with my Tamiya (back when I used Tamiya, as I now use Vallejo about 99% of the time), but I always found that the paint would dry before getting to the kit, or even worse dry in the airbrush. Always too cheap to make the leap to using the Tamiya acrylic thinner. However one day I decided to "splurge" and got some Tamiya thinner, and I didn't know what I had been missing....it worked so much better than Iso did.

Same with Vallejo, while you can thin it with water, it works so much better with their own thinner. My one complaint was the thinner didn't come in big enough bottles. I had asked Alex Vallejo about it, and he said that they did make a 200ml bottle, but neither of my suppliers carried it. I talked one of my suppliers into bringing it in (hopefully more than just me buys it!! LOL), so the 200ml thinner should be available at my shop soon (and more economical too).

I have now read that there are some Japanese modelers that have a "secret" (guess not so secret as I am about to tell it) formula to thinning Vallejo.

Instead of straight thinner, they actually take 8 parts Vallejo Acrylic Cleaner, and mix it with 2 parts Vallejo Thinner, and then take that mixture and thin the Vallejo paint with it. While I am skeptical about it, I am going to try it, I would imagine it is like someone telling you that they are using Lacquer thinner to thin Tamiya Acrylics.....doesn't make sense, but it works very well!

I use cheap blue windshield washer fluid to thin Tamiya, Model Master Acryl, and Pollyscale.
I use distilled water and a drop of Liquitex Slo-Dri to thin Vallejo and Lifecolor.
I only shoot acrylics. I use Windex, then distilled water, to clean out my airbrushes.
It all works incredibly well and it's very inexpensive.

Hi

For Tamiya I use IPA and have found both 70% rubbing and full 99% to work just fine.

For Vallejo I have used both water and their own thinner but find that using vallejo airbrush cleaner works best.

For Humbrol I use generic enamel thinners or white spirit (Mineral Spirit), Cellulose works well also but realy stinks the house out.

Paul

Of late, I've been using Tamiya paints, along with Tamiya thinner to both thin and initially clean the air-brush. After reading this post, I ran down to the store and picked up 2 x 500ml bottles of Isopropyl for $3.00. Far cheaper than the Tamiya thinner. One is 70% and the other is the 99%.

Going to give it a try. Guess I'll find out if it works to thin and clean PollyScale acrylic, as I have lots of that as well.

Guy