Tamiya Paint Retarder

Hello guys, I bought paint supplies for my PG Zeta build...I wanted to shift to lacquer paints but Tamiya acrylic paints is a lot more accessible to me. I have been using my AB for a year only, and honestly up to now I am still having mixed results. There were a few times that while ABing, I produce a pebbly texture when using Tamiya acrylics. Unlike using Mr hobby lacquers which paints smoothly and effortlessly.

I found a few culprits of the pebbly texture, one my AB is not thoroughly clean, two, the paint mixture does not have enough thinner....However if you put too much thinner, the Tamiya acrylic paint dries in mid flight. I mean, the paint particles coming out of the AB dries before reaching or immediately after reaching the surface of the kit, thus producing a pebbly texture. I remedy this by wet sanding the surface with 4000 grit sandpaper or overcoat it with gloss coat and then a layer of flat coat. Honestly after a nice layer of a well mixed flat coat, the pebbly texture is not that visible in pictures. Actually sometimes it is still smoother than spray can painted kits.

Through some research I found out that adding a few drops of Tamiya Paint Retarder will theoretically solve the problem. A mixture of  1:10 ratio will do...I bought a Hasegawa eggplane as an AB practice build and if I get Lacquer type results, I won't have to shift to lacquer paints afterall. Anyways here is a pic of the Tamiya Retarder and some other supplies I bought today for the PG Zeta commission work...

QUICK UPDATE 03-21-10 : The paint retarder works like a charm...

I painted my PG Zeta ver DC23 and my hguc Geara Zulu ver DC23 with Tamiya acrylics, though unlike my previous builds I mixed the paint retarder ( 10 % ) to the paint mixture. The paint flow will be like lacquer paints, it dries slower but it dries a ton smoother! You wont have to deal with sandy textures when using acrylic anymore...this is great stuff from Tamiya! Acrylic paints with the feel of Lacquer paints is always great coz it is less toxic. I highly recommend this product who uses Tamiya acrylics for painting! ;)

UPDATE 01-23-10 : painting the eggplane

Hello guys, I removed the seamlines of the eggplane oledi, primed and painted the kit with Tamiya acrylics. I ran out of yellow, so I used red instead...the red is a mixture of Tamiya flat red, Tamiya flat white and Tamiya clear red. The finish is glossy because of the clear red...and I also used the Tamiya retarder for the first time. the silver is a mixture of Tamiya flat aluminum and clear blue.

The Tamiya retarder worked like a charm and the paint went and leveled smoothly like lacquer paints...however, I think I over poured the retarder on the flat aluminum mixture, thus it is still wet up to now. The paint takes longer to dry if you add too much retarder, the ideal ratio for using it is 1:10...oh well, I will have to wait until the silver and red parts are dry, before I can mask it and paint the dark gray pattern.