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Long story short, I gave a bunch of Tamiya acrylic paints I no longer use to a friend intending to paint 40k mini's using brushes.

Experience has told me that the paint strips off when applying multiple coats with a brush to large surfaces like on tanks. The form search has told me it reacts badly to Citadel paints under it.


So I'm looking for advice for my friend on how to use Tamiya paints on figures using Citadel paints mixed in using brushes (not air brushes). So help is much appreciated, if it's hopeless results of target practice will be provided .

what citadel colors is he using? like only the primer? or is he really mixing them up? and what tamiya paints is he using over the citadel ones?

The only Citadel paints he's using is the standard ones in the pot and maybe the washes. The primer will likely be Krylon plastic spray paint from walmart.

And no actual mixing the paints, what I meant was painting both onto the same model.

Tamiya paints are alcohol based. They dry at a FAR faster rate than water based acrylics.

To thin them, the best stuff is the official Tamiya thinner. With this stuff, they can be brushed, but you have to basically be glazing with them, and allowing each layer to dry.

I've had no issues with them over other acrylics providing the layer they're going onto is dry properly. This is most likely the issue; drying paint outgasses. This will cause a fast-drying layer on top of a wet layer to crack.

I found they tend to soften the paint underneath slightly, and also they tend to not dry properly if the paint underneath isn't dry properly. They do act as a bit of a paint stripper (my brushes are super clean after using them and if I wipe my palette with a tissue after painting with them it'll remove all the layers of paint underneath ) however not so much so that it's a problem if you're careful.

My solution was just to be careful when painting subsequent layers, and always wait for the previous layer to FULLY dry.

When I emphasise FULLY it's because GW paints feel like they've dried after a couple of minutes and that's usually what people wait before doing extra coats, but in reality it takes a few hours before they're actually fully cured/dried/whatever. You notice it with sprays quite a bit, after half an hour spraying an undercoat it might look solid and ready for painting, but you can still smell that the paint is giving off fumes for several hours after you sprayed it, the same is true of the brushed on paints from pots as well, they take a few hours to reach their fully dried state.

Lol, I was just coming back to add that (drying time is hours, not minutes). Overnight is best.

This said, Tamiya will layer happily with itself while drying. Edit: Must be touch-dry first. It's easy to tear as it forms a skin when first drying.

Thanks for the tips. I'll pass it along and see how it turns out.

I use Tamiya paints in conjunction with various other manufacturer's paints and I have to say that I've never had any problemsof it reacting to any other paint. A lot of people have mentioned the use of thinners with them but to be honest I've never felt the need to; I've always used water just like when using citadel for example. I've never encountered the problems like it peeling off etc, it had me worried for a while! Tamiya paint is thin but it is like any other type of paint in that you more or less need multiple coats to obtain a good coat; I've never even seen the remotest signs of it turning into a skin? You are not using it straight out of the pot are you? That would seem to be the cause. Lastly I've never had any reactions when mixing it with other paints, no peeling atall.