What paint?

[BigSea]

Up till now I have been using Humbrol enamel on the couple of models I have made. A kind Father Christmas (turned out to be the wife!) brought me a compressor which included a no-name airbrush. I am now keen to try spray painting. For safety reasons in the home I want to use acrylics. I have watched Paul's videos, which are very good and comprehensive. However, I'm a pensioner and have a limited budget for paints (and everything else). So the question is: what paints should I go for? Tamiya, Vallejo, or even Hannant's own make. I'm open to suggestions folks - your input would be much appreciated.

Best wishes

Corrie

PS: How do you enter the kits you have on your bench?

[Panzermeister36]

Up till now I have been using Humbrol enamel on the couple of models I have made. A kind Father Christmas (turned out to be the wife!) brought me a compressor which included a no-name airbrush. I am now keen to try spray painting. For safety reasons in the home I want to use acrylics. I have watched Paul's videos, which are very good and comprehensive. However, I'm a pensioner and have a limited budget for paints (and everything else). So the question is: what paints should I go for? Tamiya, Vallejo, or even Hannant's own make. I'm open to suggestions folks - your input would be much appreciated.

Best wishes

Corrie

PS: How do you enter the kits you have on your bench?

I use and have only ever used Tamiya through the airbrush. I use their lacquer thinner (yellow cap) with it instead of their acrylic thinner (white cap) because someone told me it works better, and for me it sprays perfectly well, but I don't personally know the comparison They work great, Vallejo is supposed to be really good too.

[Lee]

The easiest to use would be Vallejo Model Air as it doesn't need thinning and you can use exact amounts with hardly any wastage at all.

I started with Tamiya which you would need to thin 50/50 with a thinner of your choice. It's a very easy paint to use and quite forgiving. T

The best range of colours is Mr Hobby, which I've started to use as my main paint of choice...

[Paul]

Yeah tamiya is a good starting point for airbrushing, but they are useless for brush painting, Vallejo air still need thinning to get the best out of them. Lifecolour are good at both brush and airbrush so that's a compromise.

If it's just for airbrushing you won't go wrong with the mr hobbys

[BigSea]

Many thanks for your very quick replies folks. It's a case of looking at the costs now.
Best wishes
Corrie

[Panzermeister36]

Yeah tamiya is a good starting point for airbrushing, but they are useless for brush painting [...]

I beg to differ! I recently painted 1/3 of a Tau Hammerhead Warhammer tank Black with Tamiya straight out of the bottle. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW IT WORKED....BUT IT DID...

[SuperDryBeef]

Yeah tamiya is a good starting point for airbrushing, but they are useless for brush painting [...]

I beg to differ! I recently painted 1/3 of a Tau Hammerhead Warhammer tank Black with Tamiya straight out of the bottle. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW IT WORKED....BUT IT DID...

I'm sceptic about that, there must be brush marks or something.

[Panzermeister36]

Yeah tamiya is a good starting point for airbrushing, but they are useless for brush painting [...]

I beg to differ! I recently painted 1/3 of a Tau Hammerhead Warhammer tank Black with Tamiya straight out of the bottle. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW IT WORKED....BUT IT DID...

I'm sceptic about that, there must be brush marks or something.

There are none - smooth as an airbrush. I was gonna airbrush but I didn't feel like masking. So I was like "what the heck" and just did it with Tamiya 'Dark Olive Green' (also known as BLACK) straight from the bottle no thinner added by hand with a 0 round brush (1/32").

If you want l could upload some pics tomorrow in the sci-fi gallery as evidence but here's a video I put up over two weeks ago (just skip to exactly 5:00):

[youtube]DGb9jxwg0eg[/youtube]

[Panzermeister36]

Many thanks for your very quick replies folks. It's a case of looking at the costs now.
Best wishes
Corrie

Costwise, keep in mind that Vallejo's 'Model Air' line (not their normal paint line though!) is pre-thinned for airbrushing, and Tamiya is not. And since you need to thin down Tamiya at least 50% you'll get double the amount of paint the jar is for airbrushing, though any extra from the cup put back into the jar is thinned down and thus you need to add less thinner next time and so on. You'll also have to buy said thinner for maybe £7-10/$10-15 ($12 here in Canada, eh?).

Tamiya is also ok for hand-brushing small things/areas but you thin it down a bit (so I've heard - I usually use citadel), but there's better paints for it. so basically Tamiya is too thick for anything straight from the bottle.

The pre-thinned airbrushing paints (and any extra thinned tamiya you might put back) won't work at all for brush-painting, as it's already too thin. Personal preference is everything though

[sheppy]

I prefere to use what im used to which is good old humbrol thinned with artists turpentine. once you get used to mixing for airbrush work don't have a problem and no need for second airbrush for acrylics which I use for weathering.

[Bissyboat]

I´m sticking to my Tamiya acrylics. Find them userfriendly and they mix well. Although some would say Tamiya paint is like Marmite. You either love it or hate it.

[chief5437]

As you can see, there are a lot of different opinions regarding paints. Best advice is Vallejo model air! Ha! Only joking, best thing is to experiment, and find the one that works best for you. Might take a while to find your perfect partner, but it'll be worth it!

[ModelStudent]

All I use is acrylics. When I started out, I used a few of the polly scale paints for historical accuracy. The smell was pretty potent. I moved to model master paints and those work well with the brush out of the bottle paint. In my opinion, it provides smooth coverage and the smell is pretty non-existent. Tamiya paints seem to me to have more pigments in them than the model master paints do, for the colors are brighter and a lot more runny and great for airbrushing. However, I've recently bought some Vallejo game color paints and these are fantastic for miniatures, as they cover well and one doesn't have to use all that much of it to get an impressive result. Just my two cents from a newbie.

[RobertK]

My advice is to use the paint the local hobby dealer have. Much easier to restock, always something you need.
A note on tamiya, dark colors are brush paintable, all other colors works ok if you thin it a bit with their thinner before brushing.

[ScaleModelling1105]

I mainly use Vallejo model air as was recommended by these guys. I also have quite afew Tamiya but i prefer the finish of Vallejo and the eye-dropper bottles are so handy.

[rm6239]

When I first started out, cost was an issue also so I spent a bit of time trying to plan for the future, I started with Vallejo Model colour for a brush paint, when I could afford an Airbrush I went with Vallejo Model Air, the model colour is also Airbrushable, mixed with water. Having the 2 comparable colour sets is a great bonus I think. Vallejo can be a pain to AB sometimes, I tend put a light coat on, then clean the AB and then repeat again, until I have full coverage, takes a bit longer but keeps blockages down. Some of the Vallejo metal colours are a right pain to AB so I've gradually looked for a replacement.

I've since AB'd some Humbrol enamels (very specific and short use), they were ok. Since I started building Eduard planes I have started to get a few of the Mr Hobby etc range, they do airbrush nicely.

My advice would be to start with a paint range that has the best colour range for the kits you are going to build, start to build them up and when you can afford some others and have a specific need buy what you need and try it. I have the Italian Airforce WWII Lifecolour set specifically brought for one kit but as I haven't built it yet I haven't tested them out with an AB.

Anyway hope this helps or at least gives you some food for thought.

cheers

Rossco

[BigSea]

Thank you Rossco and all you other guys for your considered responces. Will have to bite the bullet soon. I'm hoping to go to the Bolton IPMS Show in a couple of weeks, maybe we shall see what's on offer?

Best wishes

Corrie

[Bissyboat]

Do that and debrief us on the good stuff. I´m happy to test out other brands. But the wallet rules my heart, unfortunately.