Humbrol enamels

[Jamesday1998]

Hi I have been using humbrol and revell acrylics for a while and I have noticed that there are a lot of brush marks even when I thinned it down.
Recently I popped down to Boyes and I found out there were a ton of enamels!
So I have been thinking about using them for a while now

Three questions:
Which is better to brush acrylics or enamels?
What are revell enamels like?
Are mr color paints any good?

Please help I am pretty confused

[Nige201980]

revell enamels are rubbish in my opinion they do not brush well at all mate.
humbrol enamels i fine quite good to brush paint in fact they are i always use for my painting i tend to thin them and they go on really well but ive been using hem for years so have got used to them but i think they changed the recipe because of the newer tins seam to be really thin as if they needed thickening up.
never used mr color so i wouldn't know.

i tend to use a flat brush as big as i can get in the tins and paint in one direction with the airflow for the base coat or the 1st camo colour then with the second colour i tend to use a round brush for the out lines then a smaller flat brush to fill it in. Doing one section at a time before moving on to the next then the same for the second coat after at least for hours with enamels. enamels for me go on better but take more time to try but give you a tougher finish.

hope this helps James

[Jamesday1998]

revell enamels are rubbish in my opinion they do not brush well at all mate.
humbrol enamels i fine quite good to brush paint in fact they are i always use for my painting i tend to thin them and they go on really well but ive been using hem for years so have got used to them but i think they changed the recipe because of the newer tins seam to be really thin as if they needed thickening up.
never used mr color so i wouldn't know.

i tend to use a flat brush as big as i can get in the tins and paint in one direction with the airflow for the base coat or the 1st camo colour then with the second colour i tend to use a round brush for the out lines then a smaller flat brush to fill it in. Doing one section at a time before moving on to the next then the same for the second coat after at least for hours with enamels. enamels for me go on better but take more time to try but give you a tougher finish.

hope this helps James

Thanks nige I like it that they are thinner because it won't clog up the panel lines
Thanks for telling me about revell enamels
Thanks for being so helpful!

[Nige201980]

not a problem mate.

[Jamesday1998]

Can some one tell me about mr color

[Paul]

If it was me I would save your money from buying new paints and invest in an airbrush and airbrush your acrylics, you will get a much better finish and it's much faster too

[Daishi12]

Hi James, I can only give some generic advice on the subject. I personally haven't used enamels for 20+ years as I found when I did that they took anywhere between 1 and 3 days to dry enough to handle the model. Enamels are also difficult to clean up as you need a solvent to do so. As you are one of our younger members you will find it difficult to buy appropriate solvents because of the Sale of Age Restricted Goods Act.

From using Tamiya, Revell and Humbrol acrylics since returning to modelling I have found that the Humbrol acrylics seem to have the worst quality control and do not brush-paint easily, Tamiya brush-paint quite nicely without using any thinning but can be a little translucent. Revell are nice to use by brush as they cover quickly and have a quite solid appearance once the paint is on the model.

With regard to brush painting and getting brush marks, I can offer a few pointers :-

1. Try to use a good quality primer (such as Tamiya grey primer), ideally from an aerosol can. This will prepare the surface of the model and provide a key for further coats. You may need someone over the age of 16 to do this for you, given the legislation of the Sale of Age Restricted Goods Act.

2. When brush painting, do not try to achieve 100% with your first coat. You need to make sure that your brush doesn't have too much paint on it.

3. When covering larger areas of kit, use a larger flat brush and try not to work in the same direction every time. The idea is that when you use different angles of paint application, then the brush lines will be smaller and also hard edges will smoothed out.

4. Allow ample drying time between coats, for example, if you don't let paint dry and cure you may find that the first coat starts to lift.

[Jamesday1998]

I think that I will start to buy the humbrol enamel range
About the brush marks thing I do all those things and yet I still get some brush marks

[Jamesday1998]

If it was me I would save your money from buying new paints and invest in an airbrush and airbrush your acrylics, you will get a much better finish and it's much faster too

I have Been testing with an airbrush and I didn't really like it