Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Tuesday Tip Cheap Airbrush Cleaner

I use many different media painting my minis with my airbrush.
Besides acrylic I also use enamels and Lacquer based metallic.
This is not a problem as long as you have a good cleaning routine.
I will try to never let the paint dry,I use enough in my cup that I am going to spray when finished I immediately run a bit of water or thinner through to keep it wet.
But when finished it is always a good idea to run some airbrush cleaner through it,I go through alot of the stuff.
At $5 for 4 fl oz it tends to get expensive,that's when I looked into what the fine scale modeler use.
I found out the name brand stuff is in fact regular Lacquer thinner you can but at the hardware store for $8 a quart or $20 a gallon.
I have been using this for the past two years and it works just as good as Alclad Lacquer Thinner.
I use it to clean the brush and thin Tamiya paint with for airbrushing.
I also bought a quart of odorless thinner that seems to work just as good for my enamels and oils.
But I suspect it is a touch stronger than Mona Lisa,but I have no issues if used on top of clear coat like
Testors Dullcote or Model Master Semi-Gloss.

2 comments:

Karitas said...

Nice find..any hint on the can as to it's chemical composition?

Will Wright said...

Alclad contains acetone,toulene,xylene,petroluem distliate

Lacquer Thinner contains
acetone,ethyl acetate,methanol,toulene,petroluem distlate