We Figure it Out! Flow Improver or Retarder?

[@wyqid]

Jet-Dry dishwasher rinse liquid = acrylic paint flow. Glycerin = acrylic retardant. Water = acrylic thinner. Alcohol IPA = speed dry.

[@hobcen]

Excellent summary. Thank you for sharing.

[@alexogle8950]

From my own research (and I am only interested in Vallejo paints)... The 'thinner' is the base carrying chemical. For Vallejo, this is water. They even say as much for thinning Model Color for use in airbrushes (which I do). The retarder is intended to make the thinner hang around longer. For Vallejo, they use propylene glycol at around 15% (this can be found in the MSDS of their paints). The flow improver is a surfacant (think a soap). It uses its -OH groups to dissolve in water but its long chain carbon groups to for better Van-Der-Vaals attraction to plastic and metal surfaces (hence bridging between water and the surface). Vallejo uses 2-butoxyethanol at around 7% (again, from the MSDS). However, Vallejo stuff is expensive, so I am going to mix propylene glycol (widely available), Winsor & Newton flow impover (Polyethylene glycol octylphenyl ether according to that MSDS) and water to convert my Vallejo Model Color to airbrushing. So in a 2l bottle: add 250ml propylene glycol and 125ml of the flow improver solution and then top up with water.

[@hobcen]

Thank you for this very clear explanation. Sharing information helps us all!

[@ddistrbd1]

Well explained, thank you for taking the time to make this video.I also like your style of teaching/explaining .well done.

[@hobcen]

Glad it was helpful! I LOVE youtube as I can explain to many people at one time!

[@printitpaintit.2436]

Nice video if you are airbrushing with vallejo, army painter or scale 75 you just want to add a few drops of flow improver and a few drops of thinner together! That's normally enough to thin the paint to the consistency of milk maybe slightly thicker and have it spray nice and smooth, if you want to wet blend id either use two airbrushes at the same time (one in each hand) and maybe add a little water or preferably I'd use paints designed for wet blinding like createx illustration colours!! (They reactive when wet until sealed with a clear coat we use ZeroPaints clear lacquer) Also using an enamel lacquer at different stages helps to protect your work similar to a save point on a video game add a layer before before moving on to the next stage. That way if anything goes wrong or your not happy you can easily just strip it back to the enamel layer witb some vallejo cleaner without losing days of work or in my case weeks of work!! Ps vallejo also sell vallejo PREMIUM airbrush retarder in there airbrush line it's just not very popular so it's harder to find in the 60ml bottle woth the red premium label also because flow improver does a similar job. Airbrush ready version!! www.scalemodelshop.co.uk/60ml-retarder-vallejo-premium-airbrush-color-62-065-p1650/

[@hobcen]

Perfect! Thank you!

[@kencreppin2146]

Excellent. Your degree in chemical engineering is in the mail! :-)

[@richard858]

Excellent!

[@DianosAbael]

You get it a bit wrong: Glaze medium / medium adds a bit of retardant effect but is intended to avoid “breakage” of paint. I’m fact when the acrylic percentage is too low due to thinning can’t trap the pigments and the coverage is spotty. Is useful to glaze with brush or to add subtle tones of another color. It tends to desaturate a little.

[@hobcen]

Thank you for sharing! :)

[@DianosAbael]

@@hobcen thanks for your contribution, is more than mine! I’m just airbrushing a lot and acrylic whites are usually terrible in paint when diluted. So mediums help to trap the lithium oxide for light filters without breaking. Now I’m fond of inks and using those on the airbrush but still using a bit of medium for regular brushes where other colors are usually fine with distilled water.

[@yakkyuu12]

Question , Will Glaze OR GLOSS medium slow down the drying process when air brushing? How LONG( approximately) will your airbrushed paint that has glaze medium/Retarder in it --- stay dry enough so you could possibly work with it if you want to add some DETAILS?

[@brianuy75]

thank you for a very informative video

[@dovel1000]

Great video

[@hobcen]

Thanks!

[@dosdont]

What I don't understand is why they come with black labels and white labels

[@hobcen]

Originally Model Colour came with white labels on the paints and black labels on the mediums, thinners and accessory products. The new improved bottles are arriving with black labels on the paint colours.

[@dosdont]

@@hobcen Ok, thanks

[@edwinchampeau8685]

Where in Canada is your store? I’m in Ontario

[@hobcen]

Ottawa sir

[@nataliaranda3931]

So can flow improver be used with acrylics paints ? Or only the airbrush situation?

[@hobcen]

Flow improver has been marketed for airbrush use, it's characteristics are similar to retarder. Experimentation is key, traditionally retarder was used for brush painting.

[@nataliaranda3931]

@@hobcen which is easier to use as far as ratios are concerned?

[@robertmunoz7543]

Wreckx n effects?😳 Jman

[@ThinkerOnTheBus]

3:30 1 to 2 drops flow improver to 10 drops of paint at first glance may look like 10 - 20%, but it's not . . . it's close, but not quite. A 10% ratio would 1:9 (1 drop of flow improver to 9 drops of paint), and 20% would be 2:8. If you have 2 drops of flow improver mixed with 8 drops of paint, then you have a mixture consisting of exactly 10 drops total, of which 2 out of that 10 is flow improver (2 out of 10 is equivalent to 20 out of 100 which should be easy to recognize the percentage->20% flow improver, and 80% paint). Now, if you have 10 drops of paint, and then you add 1 or 2 drops of flow improver, you will either have a total of 11 drops (10 paint, 1 flow improver), or a total of 12 drops (10 paint, 2 flow improver). The formula to calculate a percentage is simply: (value/total value) x 100% or worded another way if it helps: (portion/base) x 100% Using this for the ratio of 1 to 10 we would have (1/11) x 100% -> 9.09% approximately. Additionally for the ratio of 2 to 10 we would have (2/12) x 100% -> 16.67% approximately. My Vallejo bottle of Flow Improver states, "We recommend adding 1-2 drops improver to 10 drops of paint." Thus, they are suggest using a percentage of about 9% to almost 17%, but really, the percentage will depend on several factors, the most vital one being how you feel about it, and whether or not the paint is behaving like you want it to. You can really use either, the 9 - 17%, or the 10-20%. Just use that as a starting point to determine if you need more or less, and remember if you need less flow improver, you don't have to remove it from the paint, just add more paint. I would hope everybody would realize that, but you never know.

[@hobcen]

Awesome insights. Thank you for sharing!