Has anyone use Tamiya acrylic airbrush model paint, then clear over it? I am working on a shade job over a painted canopy and want to add some shading. Since it is a small canopy I wanted to use an airbrush and thought the acrylic would work as long as it was given a good clear topcoat. How have you done shading?

Best,    DennisT

Charles,
For the airbrush what size tip/needle have you used for shading? The Paasche VL airbrush that I have comes with a No. 3 needle and tip, their manual indicates this gives a medium line weight. They also offer a No. 1 needle and tip for a fine line and a No. 5 for a heavy line. What is a good size for our purpose of canopy shading? Do you use a compressor or for these small parts is the canned propellent good enough?

I believe have a double action Passche VL, I'm guessing,    Anyway, I have all three tips. I can't ever remember using the fine tip. The 3 tip should be fine. remember, distance and speed play a roll in how the paint goes on.

For the paint, they show acrylic that is thinned with a mix of distilled water, ISO 90% rubbing alcohol and a bit of glycerin. Seems this is like base coat which also can be wiped off is rubbing alcohol. So clear coat topcoat should protect the shading.

I have seen videos of shading where they use a 50/50 mix of thinner/paint. is this what we should use or 60/40? One tip they showed was using a gravity cup (1/4 oz.), they put the thinner in first then the paint and mix it in the cup with a small brush. They said this insures that you don't get a blob of unthinned paint being spurted out on the work.

What is the temperature? This is the reason you start a bit thick with the mix then thin to get the consistency you need for a good wet coverage. Building with coats if necessary for coverage. The substrate color and the paint color matter also. White over black or black over white. Translucent?

I did professional air brush illustrations, custom show car graphics and a bunch of other stuff for a living and I never mixed paint in the cup, ever. Also, most professionals, we do get paid for excellent results BTW. The WWF paid me 2,500.00 dollars for 18 hours of work, repeatedly. This was the 90's. With this said, every professional I knew in the business would strain the paint before placing it in a jar, as you have, or a gravity cup as I had with my Iwatta. Yes, sometimes a jar or a detail gun, we called them Jam Guns. I still have one someplace. I wish I could find my Iwatta, but the inexpensive Paasche is fine. I painted the Stuka Tank Buster with the Paasche. It works! Check out the paint build.

No, I didn't strain the paint. No one was paying me.  I did use a test cardboard, actually a piece of white .032 aluminum, a "hit" before spraying the subject/model. Lots of "Expert" stuff is on U-Tube but they could be amateurs. Some, not all. It's also good to use a good clear varnish over the "light dusting?" you expect to do. I cleared the nose of the Mig-3 with a good air brush varnish.

Best,   DennisT