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I recently acquired all of the Minitaire paints and I love them. The only problem is their purples suck (for my army). I have looked around but I cannot find any airbrush ready paint that is similar to GW's Xereus Purple. Does anyone know if there is a color that is similar to this that is in an airbrush ready medium? (I would mix it myself, but I always have terrible luck with getting the consistency correct and just would rather pay for an airbrush ready paint)

Didn't see an equivalent in the VMA or Createx ranges, which are the only two airbrushing acrylic lines that came to mind. Unless someone else chimes in with an alternative, you may have to either bite the bullet and practice thinning for spraying or mix the color from two other airbrush-ready paints.

Actually I would kind of thinking that the new GW layers are likely thin enough to be airbrushed with minimal thinning.

 sing your life wrote:
Actually I would kind of thinking that the new GW layers are likely thin enough to be airbrushed with minimal thinning.

They're a bit thick out of the bottle. It's not that hard to thin their paints, though.

Badger Minitaire perhaps have a purpel (I dont know.. just a suggestion )
For thinning a citadel, I've always had good results with Liquitex Airbrush Medium.

These are the two different methods I have for thinning them:

I have used model colour thinner in my airbrush without hassle.

While many people have had success thinning with windex (I used it for a long time) there is a lot of debate regarding potential health affects of it (breathing it in) and about the possibility of some of the chemicals damaging your airbrush (orings, plating, etc.).

(do a search on "thinning" and "windex" there are already hundreds - no sersiously - hundreds of posts on it - so lets not start that whole debate here...).

I personally prefer the "golden" brand airbrush thinner to the liquitex (or windex) but the methods Dullspork presents are really good ones.

(I have a few other thinners as well....hobbycolor 400, taymia thinner, 91% alcohol, etc.).

While we can't always find the color want in an airbrush brand, it so much easier when we do.

Our of curiosity regarding the minitaire purples...is it the color choices or something physically wrong with the paint?
(I have the entire minitaire line, and I noticed one or two colors just don't spray well - and have heard that once in a while you might get a bad bottle).

best of luck!

I can't recall the thread, but I did read that Iwata had responded to a question regarding Windex and airbrushes and they said that the ammonia in Windex would be unlikely to damage an airbrush unless it was left immersed in it for an unreasonable amount of time (like days or weeks). For general cleaning/thinning it was fine.

I personally prefer mediums for thinning because you can thin the paint down as much as you like without worrying about destroying the adhesion of the paint.

I think that next time I'm getting medium I'm going to try out the Golden. I've heard others say that they prefer it to Liquitex.

davethepak wrote:
While many people have had success thinning with windex (I used it for a long time) there is a lot of debate regarding potential health affects of it (breathing it in) and about the possibility of some of the chemicals damaging your airbrush (orings, plating, etc.).

(do a search on "thinning" and "windex" there are already hundreds - no sersiously - hundreds of posts on it - so lets not start that whole debate here...).

I personally prefer the "golden" brand airbrush thinner to the liquitex (or windex) but the methods Dullspork presents are really good ones.

(I have a few other thinners as well....hobbycolor 400, taymia thinner, 91% alcohol, etc.).

While we can't always find the color want in an airbrush brand, it so much easier when we do.

Our of curiosity regarding the minitaire purples...is it the color choices or something physically wrong with the paint?
(I have the entire minitaire line, and I noticed one or two colors just don't spray well - and have heard that once in a while you might get a bad bottle).

best of luck!

windex is probably fine with proper ventilation and a mask - which you should already have anyway.

many of the pigments are probably a lot worse than ammonia.

after reading some MSDS i noticed some hobby paints have ammonia in them already anyways.

I'm guessing ammonia makes it good apparently. lol

davethepak wrote:
While many people have had success thinning with windex (I used it for a long time) there is a lot of debate regarding potential health affects of it (breathing it in) and about the possibility of some of the chemicals damaging your airbrush (orings, plating, etc.).

(do a search on "thinning" and "windex" there are already hundreds - no sersiously - hundreds of posts on it - so lets not start that whole debate here...).

I personally prefer the "golden" brand airbrush thinner to the liquitex (or windex) but the methods Dullspork presents are really good ones.

(I have a few other thinners as well....hobbycolor 400, taymia thinner, 91% alcohol, etc.).

While we can't always find the color want in an airbrush brand, it so much easier when we do.

Our of curiosity regarding the minitaire purples...is it the color choices or something physically wrong with the paint?
(I have the entire minitaire line, and I noticed one or two colors just don't spray well - and have heard that once in a while you might get a bad bottle).

best of luck!

Wow, I'm surprised at the number of posts.

It's not the quality of the purples from Badger, as they spray pretty good (mostly have problems with greys). It's the shades of purple are just too different from the Xereus Purple. I'll look into using some airbrush thinning medium, and thanks a bunch for all the tips and video links!

Might want to take a look at Vallejo paint. I've heard good things about it. Game color has a few purples that I think are close to what you're looking for. Unfortunately their Model Air series doesn't have a purple cause it's made for the airbrush. Here is a link to their Game Color line but they do have some other lines that might have purple too. Click on the color chart and it will pop up.

http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/en_US/game-color/family/18

Just the other day I had great success with Citadel Naggaroth night thinned with Vallejo airbrush thinner. Its changed my take on Liquitex airbrushing medium, I'm thinkin that Vallejo airbrush thinner is a better tool for the job. Getting the paint to a much lower viscosity with much less dilution than the medium.
A more matt finish, and less clogging in my airbrush.

Very happy with it tbh. I used to swear by Liquitex Airbrushing Medium, But think this has changed my tune a bit.