{"id":50,"date":"2026-11-11T00:06:36","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T00:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dkhobby.com\/blog\/homemade-airbrush-thinner\/"},"modified":"2026-11-11T00:09:14","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T00:09:14","slug":"homemade-airbrush-thinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dkhobby.com\/blog\/homemade-airbrush-thinner\/","title":{"rendered":"Homemade Airbrush Thinner: Easy DIY Recipe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you airbrush Gunpla, you know the hobby tax is real. A small bottle of branded thinner like Tamiya X-20A or Mr. Hobby Thinner can cost $10 or more, and it goes fast when you&#8217;re painting big Master Grades or several kits at once. So I mixed my own from things you can find at a drug store and a hobby shop. Here are both recipes from my video: one with 99% alcohol, and the 70% alcohol version I actually ended up using.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How to Make a Homemade Airbrush Thinner: Easy DIY Recipe\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/woqs0XorrAs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Recipe 1: With 99% Alcohol<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This makes a 60ml bottle:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>2 parts distilled water<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>1 part 99% alcohol<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>1ml airbrush flow improver<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>1ml fluid retarder<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For a 60ml bottle, that works out to about 40ml of distilled water and 20ml of 99% alcohol, plus the 1ml each of flow improver and retarder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Recipe 2: The 70% Alcohol Hack<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most online recipes call for 99% alcohol, but I couldn&#8217;t find any when I made my batch. So I used regular 70% alcohol from the drug store instead. This version makes a 120ml bottle:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>1 part distilled water<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>1 part 70% alcohol<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>2ml airbrush flow improver<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>2ml fluid retarder<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For a 120ml bottle, that&#8217;s about 60ml of distilled water and 60ml of 70% alcohol, plus 2ml each of flow improver and retarder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Each Ingredient Does<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Distilled water<\/strong> is the base. Use distilled, not tap water, so you don&#8217;t add minerals to your paint.<\/li><li><strong>Alcohol<\/strong> (99% or 70%) thins the paint and helps it dry faster.<\/li><li><strong>Flow improver<\/strong> helps the paint flow smoothly through the airbrush.<\/li><li><strong>Fluid retarder<\/strong> slows drying a little, so paint is less likely to dry on the needle tip and clog your airbrush.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to Mix It<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Start with a clean dropper bottle (60ml for Recipe 1, 120ml for Recipe 2).<\/li><li>Add the distilled water and the alcohol.<\/li><li>Add the flow improver and fluid retarder.<\/li><li>Cap it and shake well. Label the bottle so you know what&#8217;s in it.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Before You Spray<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Test it with a small amount of paint on a spoon or scrap part before using it on a kit. Not every paint brand reacts the same way to alcohol.<\/li><li>Alcohol is flammable. Mix and spray in a ventilated space, away from open flames.<\/li><li>Wear a respirator when airbrushing.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New to painting? Start with the <a href=\"\/blog\/gunpla-painting-guide\/\">Gunpla Paint Types guide<\/a> to learn which thinner goes with which paint, then try the <a href=\"\/blog\/gunpla-painting-exercise-water-vs-alcohol\/\">Water vs Alcohol Paint Test<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Make your own airbrush thinner from distilled water, alcohol, flow improver and fluid retarder. Two recipes: 99% alcohol, and the 70% alcohol hack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12,14,11],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-airbrushing-tips","tag-diy-airbrush-thinner","tag-gunpla-painting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dkhobby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dkhobby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dkhobby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dkhobby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dkhobby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dkhobby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52,"href":"https:\/\/dkhobby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions\/52"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dkhobby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dkhobby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dkhobby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dkhobby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}