Mr Color T108

Transcript*

Skit

They’re not coming back. Are they with Tamiya lacquer thinner being banned in Canada and their regular acrylic thinner being recalled till god knows when. If Tamiya is your go-to airbrush paint, then I guess you’re screwed, right? They can try all they want, but they will never break our will. There is always a way.

Intro

Hello all, this is David from Sunward Hobbies and in today’s video we are going to test whether Mr. Color Leveling Thinner is a good substitute for thinning Tamiya acrylic paint. Spoiler alert, it is. But let me show you anyway. This stuff incredibly versatile. I swear it has a thousand other uses than just for painting your models.

Mixing Brands

So, now that I’m smelling good with my O de lacquer let’s get to it. Before we begin, some of you may be a little confused and are saying, “But David, you always stress to never mix acrylic with lacquer. What are you crazy and stupid?” Yes, but that’s irrelevant right now. What I mean when I say that is that you can’t mix pure acrylic paint with lacquer. So, for instance, something like Vallejo, you could never mix that with Leveling Thinner as the leveling thinner would just eat it up.

However, Tamiya, as I’ve mentioned several times before, is a special solvent based acrylic paint. So, essentially that makes it act like a lacquer paint. Compared to Vallejo or AK, Tamiya has that distinct funky smell. Now, obviously what I’m about to show you works perfectly with lacquer [music] paint. And after today’s demonstration, I will prove to you that it works with the acrylic paint as well.

Test Set Up

So, for today’s demonstration, we’re going to take two paints out of here, and we’re going to mix one with the thinner that you’re technically supposed to use, X20A. And then I’m going to mix the other with leveling thinner. Here are my chosen two paints. Neutral grey I’ll be thinning with X20A, and the olive drab with leveling thinner. So, first thing we got to do is shake the bottle up. Make sure the paint is all mixed in there. Since this is just for demonstration purposes, I won’t be uh taking too much paint. I did eight drops of paint and I like to thin these paints 50/50. So, we’ll do eight drops of thinner [music] as well and mix those two together. So, I’m going to pour this into my airbrush and we’re going to test spray it on a piece of plastic and see how that goes. Now, obviously, this is going to work as this is what the uh thinner was meant to do.

Tamiya Paint Airbrush with X20a

This is merely just to show you how Tamiya paint looks when it’s thinned with its proper thinner. So, obviously X20A sprays nice with Tamiya paint. However, X20 is just a regular paint thinner. And you’ll notice [music] whenever you spray Tamiya paint mixed with X20, especially if you do a thick coat, it’s got kind of a texture to it. It’s a little rough.

Tamiya Paint Airbrush with T108

Now, Mr. Color leveling thinner is [music] a lacquer thinner, but it also has a little retarder in it. So, whatever paint you’re spraying with it, it makes the paint dry a little slower, thus not leaving as rough of a texture when it’s sprayed on the plastic. So, we’re now going to take olive drab, mix it up, take the exact same amount of paint, and mix it with the exact same amount of thinner. So, now let’s put that in the airbrush and see how that does. Now, time to compare the two. Uh, both spray through an airbrush really well.

Comparison

Uh, the only difference really is the texture of the paint when it’s sprayed on. So, X20A, I mean, it’s not a rough and coarse texture, but you can feel it. I’d say it’s like moving your finger across 4,000 grit sandpaper, whereas when you move across here, it’s like 12,000. Uh, leveling thinner is incredibly smooth. And you would prefer to have a smoother paint texture cuz that makes stuff like panel washes and applying decals that much easier.

So, both are great options. Uh really the only determining factor I would think is what smell you can tolerate as X20 has a little bit of a smell but not too bad. Uh leveling thinner has a a strong distinctive smell with lots of projection. So not everybody can handle that but those of us who know what’s good we can. But I mean it’s not like you have a choice these days anyway as with X20 being recalled [music] till I don’t know when. This is pretty much all you can use with Tamiya paint at the moment. [music]

Pure Acrylic Paint with T108

Now, before I sign off, just for fun, I’d like to show you exactly what happens to a pure acrylic based paint when it’s mixed with leveling thinner. Uh before that, I just got to scrape the raised panel lines off of this raised panel lines. Just cut myself. Nothing that leveling thinner can’t fix. Feel better already. This is just a pointless demonstration, so I don’t want to waste too much product here. So, let’s try 50/50. So, as you can see, when you try to brush it on, it acts almost like Tamiya paint when you don’t properly thin and give it retarder and try to brush it. So, yeah, I don’t recommend it.

David’s Conclusion

In conclusion, yes indeed, Mr. Color leveling thinner thins Tamiya paints and thins them beautifully. So why scour the lands of Canada desperately looking for the last few remnants of X2A thinner when you’ve got a more than capable thinner right here. and feel free to pick some of these up at Sunward Hobbies in store or online. Thank you very much for watching our video. Remember to like, comment, subscribe, follow us on our socials, and until the next one, adios.

About the Author:

David Peckam has built scale models since he was 12, specializing largely on military aircraft. He is a makeup artist and background actor for films and TV. He enjoys watching hockey and of course, movies. He has an excellent knowledge of hobby products and if you have questions concerning scale model airplanes.

*Video by David Peckham
Video Edited by
Daniela Castellano and Leo Nguyen
Transcript generated by youtube
Edited by Angelo Castellano