The Little World

My piece on paint dilution and the accurate way to measure it was answered by a click on Google.

You can, indeed, get a flow dilution meter for paints that electronically measures them. it costs $ 665 AUD and you can order it on-line. Go-on…fill yer boots.

Or not, if you consider that $ 665 could be better spent on kits, paints, beer, and the attentions of attractive women…try another idea.

Find some blotting paper. New agencies should still keep it or if not there, Officeworks. Get a big sheet as you’ll be doing multiple experiments. here’s how you calibrate your paint:

1. Take a fresh bottle of the paint you normally use: Tamiya, Mr Color, AK, SMS…whatever. Pick a normal strong colour that you use, say olive drab or intermediate blue.
2. Also grab the normal diluent or thinner that you use.
3. Cut the blotting paper into 2-inch squares and draw a pattern on it. The pattern is what you see in the heading image. Pencil is the best choice so as not to introduce other inks or dyes into the experiment.
4. Get some eye droppers that can be cleaned and dried – you’ll be comparing dilutions and need to do it repeatably.
5. Get some disposable or cleanable mixing cups. I use a stainless steel drink jigger for my mixing and it is perfect – no mess and no waste.
6. Dip out and drop one drop of the undiluted paint onto the center of one paper square marked ” A ” and let it sit quietly. After a minute, see how far out into the pattern the paint has flowed.
7. Dip out and drop four drops of paint into a mixing cup and add 1 drop of thinner. Mix this and use a third pipette to drop it onto the center of the ” B ” paper square. See how far the paint extends out into the paper.
8. Dip out and drop three drops of paint into another mixing cup, add the one drop of thinner, mix it and dot it onto the ” C ” square of paper.
9. Do the same with two drops of paint…” D “, and finally with one drop of paint. That’s ” E “.

You’ve provided yourself with a visual measure of the dilution of that paint. Mount the paper squares on a board to keep.

” A ” is pure paint and probably won’t flow through your airbrush – but it is there as a control monitor. It is unlikely that the paint went out very far into the pencilled pattern.

” B ” is a 1:4 ratio of thinner to paint and is likely to have gone a bit further.

” C ” should have gone further. ” D ” and ” E ” even further still.

Now grab a scrap ” Buster ” model to experiment on. Give it a normal undercoat with whatever you use. Dilute the paint to about 1:1…that’s the ” E ” measurement…and see if it sprays as you wish.

If it doesn’t, dilute it to 1:2 and try again. Or go to 1:3. That’s the ” D ” and ” C ” settings. Even if you have to go to the ” B ” setting of a 1:4 dilution ratio, you should eventually get to a choice that sprays well with your brush and that you admire.

That’s the concentration for you. If all your paints flowed like that you’d be a happy creature. Not all of them will, but now you have a paper test for each paint type and each paint maker to let you know how to dilute the particular pot for your brush.

Just get any paint in question to measure out the same as your preferred setting – A, B, C, D, or E – and you’ll know it will shoot in a predictable manner. It’s quick enough to test with the paper squares and it saves hours of horror if you get something that has to be scrubbed off a delicate model for re-spraying.