SPRAY: testors paint v.s tamiya paint?

Can anyone post the pros and cons of testors spray paint and the pros and cons of tamiya paint?

You are kidding right?

Testor's is junk compared to Tamiya. Tamiya goes on better,sprays better and dries much quicker. Testor's is for people who don'y know any better. The only good things Testor's makes is Dullcote and the metallizers. Their so called primer is the worst stuff you could use as primer. Testor's needs get up to date they have made the same slow drying enamel way to long. I think Tamiya is cutting into their business, so maybe they will get motivated to make a better product.

Tamiya Paint look very high end against Testor.. mayly becose of the nozzle.. but the paint is good on board, juste que quality of the nozzle make Tamiya WAY better... but I use both..

wtw Try to get Model Master Spray can.. it's testor high end series and it's quite close to Tamiya imo.. but te price is close too

Boyd's spray paints, I think are part of testors, are great too. Go on smooth, no runs, dry to nice gloss, minimal orangepeel.

definately Tamiya, ill take lacquer or in this case synthetic lacquer over enamel anyday. the only thing enamels are good for is hand brushing.

When talking spray cans, Tamiya solidly trounces any Testors product that I've ever had the displeasure of using. The quality of the paint is far superior, and the quality of the nozzle is far superior. The only downside to Tamiya is that some colors don't cover very well, requiring a primer or base coat in the right color, and cost. And don't forget if you want to clearcoat it, you must do it in 10 mins. or after a month.

Testors nozzles are crappy. Testors enamels are formulated in a very old fashioned way, and they take a long time to cure. Their quality from can to can varies widely. Sometimes you will get nothing but orange peel. Sometimes it will run like mad on you. I simply will never trust a can of Testors paint on any of my models. I do however spray Testors enamels through an airbrush.

I wish Tamiya had bottles of their spray lacquer so I could airbrush/custom mix them. Testors bottle paints are very simple/easy to airbrush, allowing a lot of custom variations. But it never dries as hard as a lacquer, so is prone to getting a "sticky" feeling when handled, especially when assembling the model. This can happen months after it's painted, because their cheap paint reacts to the oils in your fingers. I've found that clearcoating Testors with Gunze 501 Mr. Topcote to be a good alternative.

Tamiya paint almost dries the way you spray it - i.e. if you spray a glossy wet coat, it will stay that way, unless its one of their flat/semigloss paints.

Testors paints, on the other hand, are liable to do anything after spraying a wet coat - form orange peel, stay glossy, run. And they take a hell of a long time to dry to, like one or two days, and as Zoom Zoom said, can still feel sticky long after it's "dried".

Tamiya paints cost $1.75 more than Testors over here, but I pay the extra to save the hassle.

Well, Tamiya is a lot better but...

Since there is no place around me to get tamiya paint, I have to stick to Testors. I just painted a RX7 Gloss black and it came out quite nice. I did take like 3 days to dry though, and theres little bubble styled thing on it. I think anymore Ill stick to Dupli-Color paints. I hear they're next in line from tamiya. For those who use Testors, Wash the car EXTREMELY
well before painting it and do light coats. I also got some BOYD paint. Black N' Blue Pearl its called. Ill see how it is on my Aristo.

Anyways I have some questions for those pros who used Testors. If you used primer how did the paint come out? and can you polish testors?

Testors is simply enamel. It works well with primer, though Testors primer sucks, since you can't sand it and it takes forever to dry. Find a good quality automotive primer, Plastikote comes to mind-that says "sandable" on the can.

Testors primer covers very well, and can be used like a primer to cover colored plastic and bodywork, but since you can't sand it you do have other options. If the Testors primer is smooth, you can spray the gloss color over it, and polish that. Testors paint polishes very nicely if you use Novus #2 or Tamiya compound, and stick to using fine wetsanding sheets or polishing kits.

Testors enamels airbrush so much better than their spray can cousins. My biggest gripe w/Testors enamels is that they are slow to dry and rather soft when dry, so fingerprints/sticky surfaces can be a problem forever w/too much handling. It polishes out, but your finger oils react w/the paint.

So your saying i could use Testors primer? And does real car polish work? Because like I said i have no where to get tamiya things except online

Originally posted by daggerlee
Tamiya paints cost $1.75 more than Testors over here, but I pay the extra to save the hassle.

hehe lucky

here:

Testor paint: 4$
Tamiya paint: 9$
Model Master: 7$ (bigger than tamiya)

sure for 1.75$ take tamiya ! but for 5$ when you need 3 or 4 color... that's expensive..

but my experience with Tamiya paint was perfect.. while Testor paint praticly alway make orenge pearl

Also:

Testor need more than 2 coat for a solid color
Tamiya = 1 coat and it's near perfect.. you can make a second light coat if you want but it take lest paint to cover...

so for the price... Testor is cheaper, but tamiya will make a bit more model

Tamiya = 3 model
Testor = 2 model

anywy. I praticly always use Acrylic Paint with airbrush... only clear coat in spray

Originally posted by Camber
So your saying i could use Testors primer? And does real car polish work? Because like I said i have no where to get tamiya things except online

Yes, you can use Testors primer but it's not as good as Tamiya or automotive primer. It covers very well but can't be sanded. You'll have to do all your sanding after the gloss paint. You might sand/polish the gloss and realize you'll need another coat. Not a big deal, but I like getting things as smooth as possible before adding the final gloss colors. The smoother your primer, the better your final results.

Real car polish is usually too harsh on enamels like Testors. The chemicals (usually petroleum based, and you can smell them) usually eat into the paint. The Treatment is okay if you can find it. Try to find Novus #2 plastic polish. It's available in a lot of hobby shops and probably through Micro Mark online, and it's not a petroleum based polish that will eat into the paint. Even Meguiars plastic polish is too harsh.

If you can shop online, Hobbylink Japan sells Tamiya sprays and compound. Not knowing where you live, I don't know what products you have available locally in hobby shops or auto parts stores, my only knowledge is for the US, but if you can shop online the whole world is available at your fingertips.

testor Primer sux... it take over 1 week to dry and even after 1 week, ifyou sand it, you see see it's not dry....

I hate TESTORs, ive used it i think 3 times and will never use it again... i tried one paint job of tamiya and i am NEVER GOIN to use testors again!!!, even if i have to drive 30 minutes to get a bottle of it!!!:licker:

I wont use anything but Tamiya paints from now on. There paint flow from there can is perfect for me and with a bit of care you will end up with a great paint job.
The drying time is fast and you can almost start working on the body of the car the next day if your in a hurry to build.
I've tried others but have found the paint flow to be to heavy and thick and i always seem to end up with some orange peel in it.

Bah, the only thing I've used is Testors. It's all they sell at my local hobby shop.

Originally posted by Bimmerkid
Bah, the only thing I've used is Testors. It's all they sell at my local hobby shop.

If you're stuck w/only Testors products and you want the best results, think about investing in a decent airbrush, air source, and dehydrator. I used Testors exclusively before I could get Tamiya sprays, with very good results. I just never use Testors spray cans which have forever been unreliable. Sometimes they're great. Other times, they ruin your model or set you back to a point where you don't want to work on it any more. If you mix it yourself and spray it through an airbrush, the results are far more reliable. Great color range, easy spraying, and if you mix it w/lacquer thinner it dries faster. Use a dehydrator and the drying time is dramatically reduced. The only downsides are it's a soft paint when dry, so it's sensitive to finger oils, and their clear is yellowish, too much can change the color. Some people like to clearcoat Testors w/Future floor wax, which does dry to a harder finish than Testors clear. I've not had much luck with it though, always seem to get streaks in it, and I've not tried airbrushing it yet.

Testors paint can and does give excellent results...but with more work involved than picking up a can of Tamiya spray.