what's your favorite paints???

I wonder if Im alone in this but I prefer model master enamels over all those tamiya/gunze acrylics.. I try to spray everything as much as I can and acrylics seem to clog the airbrush a lot more often and is harder to clean once they're dried. also, acrylics seem to dry like rubber while enamels dry to a tough shell that is much easier to polish.

I do like tamiya spray lacquer but I only use it for spraying car bodies. and tamiya lacquer dry thinner and thus hide less details.

and for aluminum/steel color, model master metalizer is the sh*t.. nothing comes close!!!

the worst is the testor clear lacquers.. they NEVER dry!!!!

Funny, my experience is exactly opposite. I sprayed Testors/Model Master enamels for years and years, always with very hit or miss results, and found cleanup to be horrible. :disappoin As soon as I started using acrylics, I got excellent extremely consistant results, and cleanup is much easier, and much less toxic! :biggrin: I think it's all a matter of what you're using to thin and clean your acrylics. But if I couldn't get acrylics anymore and had to airbrush just enamels, I have to give up modeling and learn to knit! :eek7:

yes flat acrylics are good to spray as long as you keep spraying and clean up right afterward not giving the paint a chance to dry.

so what do you use as thinners for acrylics?? alcohol or water?? maybe I should give them another try..

also.. which acrylics do you use?? do you use model master acrylics or tamiya or gunz sangyo stuff???

I use them all- Tamiya, Gunze, and MM Acryl. For thinning, I use a mixture of 25ish% isopropyl alcohol, and 75ish% distilled water (or tap water, when I'm lazy). Mix this ratio by your preference. More alcohol, and the paint will dry faster, more water and it will dry slower. Too fast (most or all alcohol), and the finish may be grainy, as the paint will partially dry in the spray stream. Too slow, and its of course more likely to puddle- but, I've used anywhere from 1:3 to 1:6 alcohol:water and had good results- so this ratio isn't too critical. I keep this ina small plastic dropper bottle- I pour a bit of paint into the airbrush paint cup, and put a few drops of thinning solution in, test spray, and adjust, if necessary.

For cleanup, I use windex glass cleaner- don't use the cheap generic stuff, it doesn't have enough ammonia in it to be effective. Just put it into the paint cup, and spray and backpressure until it runs clear. Windex works very well as a stripper for Tamiya and Gunze acrylics (so be careful using it around painted objects!), and it's terrific for cleaning the airbrush. Windex won't dissolve dried Acryl, but it works great for cleanup after spraying. If you leave it to dry, Testor's MM Acryl cleaner will certainly do the trick. It comes in another small plastic dropper bottle, just like I use for thinning solution and windex.

Before painting a car body, or anything else that I'm super paranoid about paint contamination on, I take the airbrush apart and clean the tip, needle, paint cup and siphon with a bit of laquer cleaner, with qtips and pipe cleaner. Laquer thinner will clean just about anything that may be dried in your airbrush.

Your right that gloss acrylics do take a while to dry until they're ready to polish, but I've never had a paint job with acrylic that wan't ready to polish in about a week. I've had enamel finishes take up to six weeks to cure. Frequently when I polish, I find that I can spray a couple of thin coats of Tamiya clear (X22 I think), polish it after two days, spray some more, wait two days and polish some more(repeat as necessary). I find that it's very forgiving, and a little bit of patience will yield a blinding P-man shine. :thumbsup:

Give it a try!

i use tamiya sprays for bodies and testors for detail (the bottle kind)... both are great IMO.,..

For spraying bodies I love my nail polish. I've gotten gorgeous results with it and the array of colors is mind-blowing. The trick is all in the thinning process. Just cut it about 60% with lacquer thinner and you're all set.

For interior colors, when I can get my hands on them I love Floquil model railroading paints. They're a really thin lacquer that covers well (especially when airbrushed) and they don't spray "hot" so you don't have to worry about them eating into plastic. Plus, since they're thin, you'll never have to worry about obscuring upholstery detail. Too bad only one hobby shop in my area stocks them on a regular basis. Plus Floquil's primer is to die for.

Beyond that, I use pretty much just Model Master. I've recently started using Tamiya acrylics and they're pretty nice, but I've been painting with enamels and lacquers ever since I started and am pretty satisfied with them as is.

I use them all but I really like the Automotive touch ups for the ease of use and fast drying times. I agree with Laylas keeper the nail polishes offer some great color variety.

I personally use Gunze's Mr Color, and Tamiya Sprays. I prefer to use Lacquer based paints instead of Enamels and Acrylics.
The Mr. Color drys fast and allows me to continue building very soon after painting. (10 minutes tops)
I use tamiya enamels for small details and washes over the lacquer.

wow.. I guess the consenses is that there is no consenses..

Your right that gloss acrylics do take a while to dry until they're ready to polish, but I've never had a paint job with acrylic that wan't ready to polish in about a week. I've had enamel finishes take up to six weeks to cure. Frequently when I polish, I find that I can spray a couple of thin coats of Tamiya clear (X22 I think), polish it after two days, spray some more, wait two days and polish some more(repeat as necessary). I find that it's very forgiving, and a little bit of patience will yield a blinding P-man shine. :thumbsup:

Give it a try!

I will!!!!!

I use them all- Tamiya, Gunze, and MM Acryl. For thinning, I use a mixture of 25ish% isopropyl alcohol, and 75ish% distilled water (or tap water, when I'm lazy).

so I guess you dont use the model master acrylic thinner or the tamiya thinner for spraying????

so I guess you dont use the model master acrylic thinner or the tamiya thinner for spraying????

Nah, I don't bother with them. No reason not to, really, but I've been happy with just water & isopropyl. I guess I've heard a rumor that there's an additive in the Tamiya thinner that makes their gloss acrylics work better somehow, but I haven't found much difference. If you try them, let me know!

But your right in that there's really no concensus around here about paints! :grinno:

I probably use Tamiya acrylics more than anything else but it also depends on how good a particular colour is. For example, I use Plastikote chrome silver rather than any other as it goes on well and looks the most like chrome... I also use Plastikote flat black as it's really, really flat ...much more so than tamiya. Both of these are enamels. Also I find Tamiya acrylic white is rubbish for brush painting so again there I'll use enamel instead.

It also depends on what I'm painting. If, for example I have to paint a detailed item using three colours, I'll start by doing the first colour in an automotive laquer. That way when I start detailing in the second colour, if I use enamel I can wash it off with enamel thinners if I make a mess of things :naughty: . Likewise the third colour, only that'll be acrylic so again it can simply be washed away if anything goes wrong.

Car bodies I always do in either Tamiya sprays or Auto laquer, usually the latter as there is a better choice of colours and it's harder to accidentally polish through it later. Whatever finish I use on a car body everything is primed with Halfords grey primer.

I haven't tried the nail varnish trick yet. Next time I do a custom or hot rod I'll have a go I think. :naughty:

my :2cents: