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So I managed to get myself an airbrush during the Christmas sales period but now I need to thin my paints down to use it.

I can't really find any airbrush mediums where I am, and I'm a real cheapskate when it comes to hobby so I'd rather not have to buy new stuff for thinning. So does anyone know if Lahmian Medium is any good for thinning down Citadel paints (The new Base and Layer paints) for use in an airbrush? And if so could anyone give me a starting point for thinning ratios considering that I have 0 airbrush knowledge.

Any thoughts or comments are appreciated as always. Cheers lads.

It all depends on how thin the medium is , the airbrush thiner that im using is almost like water so it thins the paint down quite abit . You can always use water but it can effect the paint negitivly ie addsion

I suppose it could work, but I've never tried it out myself.

In the long run, using Lahmian medium as a thinner, provided that it works, is going to be really expensive for you, and you'd be better off with a proper airbrush thinner (even if that means you'll have to mail order it from somewhere). Proper thinners have other properties which are beneficial to your airbrush, making it less likely to clog up, and you won't get any of that if you're using Lahmian medium.

You could also use isopropanol, which is usually really cheap, but your airbrush will likely require more maintenance, because of the paint drying in the nozzle.

I thought the whole point of Lahmian Medium was that it *didn't* thin the paint - it dilutes the colour but keeps the consistency the same, doesn't it?

Crispy78 wrote:
I thought the whole point of Lahmian Medium was that it *didn't* thin the paint - it dilutes the colour but keeps the consistency the same, doesn't it?

Correct.

If you're wanting to thin out GW paints(you can't really thin out some of the Base paints), I would suggest using Windex or a similar ammonia based window cleaning fluid.

Yeah Lahmian medium wouldn't be a good choice and it'd be insanely expensive to try...

I would however not suggest using ammonia based products, years ago (Thanks Les B.) everyone on inter-tubes recommended using Windex but there are too many downsides and it isn't really that much more effective than just thinning with water. Even a water/isopropyl mix is better.

Does Amazon deliver to you? ...Liquitex Airbrush medium really is the best, but Vallejo and/or Golden mediums are also nice and most are much much cheaper than the GW products.

Just use Vallejo Airbrush Flow Improver. It's, like, $10 for a big bottle. It works incredibly well and I would never suggest using something like Windex or rubbing alcohol to use to thin your paints. I don't think ammonia and isopropyl alcohol is ever going to be good for your airbrush.

I have used Lahmian Medium as part of a mix to thin paints for airbrushing, but mainly when I want to reduce the pigment density a lot without reducing the viscosity to almost nothing.

I wouldn't use it as my main thinning agent and as others have said, it'll get expensive quickly.

My preference is Vallejo's Airbrush Thinner.

You really don't need any medium to get started air brushing GW paints - just use some good ol water. Using water for thinning water based acrylics works absolutely fine.

Ratios are hard to suggest as it depends on the nozzle size in your airbrush and the pressure you are using to know how thin your paint needs to be.

As a ball park suggestion, you could try initially thinning the paints so they were a similar consistency to GW washes. That might end up being a little too thin, but you can add paint to it and keep trying ( if the thin paint is in your airbrush, then just load up a hairy brush with a bit more paint and stir it into the airbrush cup).


Good luck!