Tamiya Paint

Yea....... I bought some the other day, "Flat Blue" and just used it. It was more watered down then beer at a bar! Maybe I just got a bad jar.. but the smell from a 5 min brush session got my head swaying. My blue also smelled like blue berry..

I wish my LHS's would supply vallejo, I dont have a problem with model masters acrylic, I actually like it.. but for some reason I see the Tamiya paints being better fit in my airbrush.. maybe not.

I haven't started using an airbrush yet, but I find Tamiya acrylics very good with a brush. They are thinner than other acrylics I have used (Humbrol and Citadel Miniatures), but I don't usually have any issues with coverage. Perhaps like you say you got a duff batch?

Bit late into this thread, but, when a paint seems very thin, it's normally an indication that the pigment has settled, leaving a lot of the carrier holding the colour, but not being very good at coverage. This can happen, particularly with acrylics, even if the viscosity seems 'normal'. A thorough stir should solve the problem, when you should feel the pigment starting to blend with the carrier. If it still 'misbehaves', then it's probably 'off'!
Personally, although I know that hundreds of thousands of modellers swear by Tamiya paints, I don't particularly like them. I find them reasonable in the airbrush, although with the typical acrylic habit of drying quickly in the nozzle, but not very good for brushing. They're OK to a point for brushing, but nowhere near as versatile as an enamel, when various thinning and blending techniques can be used.
However, I have used Vallejo acrylics once or twice (Model Colour), for both brush and airbrush, and have found them to be excellent, far superior to Tamiya, and I was even able to spray direct to plastic, without a primer. Although, again, the versatility of enamels wasn't possible, the Vallejo wasn't far off giving similar effects that one should expect with enamels.

Tamiya remains my current favorite. Originally I was a Gunze Sangyo fan. But due to the difficulty of finding it, it dropped to 3rd. Next would be the enamels by Testor's Model Master line. All the newer acrylics I haven't tried yet and by looking at the jar's weight and their price tag I may not. I also used to like the Floquil lacquers but they were hard for me to find readily..

I am from Florida too. If you are new to Tamiya what you have just described to me is a bad jar or it settled and you didn't mix it. There are a few people affected by the smell although most are not. It's mostly alcohol with a tinge of lacquer thinner. If you are sensitive then go with the water based paints, (Polly Scale, Poly 'S').

I remember that the only non-smelling paint I've ever used was Polly S which is water based. It is thinned with pure distilled water. For various reasons I really didn't like it though. A few times it sprayed bad since it dried too quickly. And it was difficult for me to use it for dry brushing. It really had no holding ability. I have to say that in twenty years that I dedicated to this hobby I've never had a bad mix from any manufacturer so yours may be an unusual case.

There are too many reasons why I like Tamiya, but primarily I wash Armor and War birds with Model Master enamel thinner and it does not affect Tamiya acrylic paint in any way. A Tamiya base coat can take a lot of punishment. I also love Tamiya for it's dry brushing characteristics. It seems to hold on a lot longer for dry brushing then most other paints I've tried. It even holds better then the enamel based Model Master, (for dry brushing).

Tamiya shelf life is fantastic. Also, I love those big 23 ML jars! No other manufacturer I know, (there used to be Floquil lacquers), give such nice big jars or bottles. Tamiya is now dropping some paints down to the mini jars, (about the same amount as the Gunze paints). This is pretty disappointing.