How much paint for a 1/35 model

[snowman819]

Hello,
This is my first post here after visiting the site for some time and I'm looking forward to getting back into the hobby I left many years ago.
I've been watching the YouTube channel for some time and found everything very helpful.I've been away from the hobby for more years than I care to mention, and hings have certainly changed from when I was a kid,and the only choice I had was Humbrol and a paintbrush.Now I'm older modeller ( cough cough) I have a couple of questions about Vallejo paints and airbrushing. First question is,how much paint would it take to cover a 1/35 tank (Merkava) with an airbrush? Second question is, since I''m starting off in airbrushing for the first time does it really matter about which airbrush cleaner brand I use? Obviously Vallejo cleaner is imported into Japan and can be really expensive in Japan, so if I can use another cleaner brand,maybe a bit cheaper would this do the job just as effectively? Vallejo paints are very very expensive in Japan due to the tax,just look at Amazon.jp so I don't want to over buy the paints either,with paint going to waist. Thank you in advance

[Avgas]

Welcome to ISM! A little goes an amazingly long way with an an airbrush. I don't know if Ultimate export to Japan but their brush cleaner is good, Paul who co runs this forum is a director so may be along to help.

I'm surprised you don't want to use Tamiya paints, they can't be expensive in Japan!

Just as an aside, it helps a lot if you put your location on the sidebar, just country will do as it makes recommending or not recommending stuff a lot easier for the other forumites. Although I take it you are in Japan!

[snowman819]

Thankyou. A little goes a long way is good to hear. Would one bottle be enough? 2?
For sure Tamiya paints are really cheap but Japanese homes are really small and Tamiya paints really kind smell a bit.Thats why I was thinking of trying some other brand. I'm also wanting to use the Vallejo Israeli tank color along with the weathering effect from Vallejo.
It's been years since I built anything and the last one I did was a Hasegawa F14 Tomcat with a verlinden aircraft carrier deck over 20 years ago.
I decided to get an Iwata airbrush as they are pretty cheap here compared to the other brands. I'll check out Ultimate. Thanks for the tip on location. I do that!
I'm certainly looking forward to starting painting my Merkava .

Thanks for your reply.

[Avgas]

Even if you painted it one colour only 1 bottle of Vallejo would do you unless you wanted to put half a dozen coats on. I've just painted the underside of a 1/48 F16 with Vallejo and used 20 drops from the dropper bottle. Don't forget that Vallejo do a paint specifically for airbrushes, if you try using their Model Colour range you will have to use around 70% thinners with it. Which will make it last longer of course!

[snowman819]

Thankyou for that. Thats perfect for me. I'll give vallejo air a try. First time airbrushing so ill give it a go.

I'll have a look at thinners incase i do get some other paints.Although one modeller i know said he actually uses distilled water.
Mmmmm.I'm not sure about it though.Seems a bit unusual to be running water through an airbrush.

[ForbesHutton]

Tamiya airbrush cleaner should be easy to find and cheap for you. It will smell, they all will, but if you get a cleaning pot it will capture most of it. Running a cleaner through the airbrush is fine between color changes, but once your finished are brushing a proper cleaning is needed before it's put away. The exact steps required will depend on which airbrush you'll use, but youtube has videos covering the cleaning of all the different airbrushes.
As for the amount of paint needed, it will certainly be less than a bottle. With experience less paint will be needed, but I suspect that with a little experience most will get full coverage for 2 or 3 tanks out of the dropper sized bottles and that will double if the paint is thinned.

[Homerlovesbeer]

Buy Mr Tool cleaner R. Fantastic cleaner and will be easily available for you in Japan.

It's brilliant!

[wookiee76]

Let me put it this way, my bottle of russian green must've done half a dozen tanks by now and still has at least one more left in it.

[snowman819]

Thank for your advice. I'll certainly check out Mr tool cleaner along with Tamiya.
I'm really surprised at how many models you can actually paint with one bottle of Vallejo. I've found two web sites in Japan that actually sell Vallejo at a reasonable price so I'll give them a try.Tamiya really stink and If the wife's happy,then I'm happy, and I can be left to model away.
I'll certainly be watching YouTube for cleaning help.
Btw I am totally shocked at the prices of some of the Japanese airbrushes in the UK.
Thanks you all once again.