Brand of model paint

[Anonymous]

I read with interest some recent threads and posts about airbrushes, the pros-cons of them, buying compressors, etc., but what about the paint? Please share your experience on paint brands to be used on plastic models. Are any of the major suppliers of a lesser quality or more difficult to use? Have you found consistent tints/colors over the years from the same company? Thanks for the thoughts!

[:)] Have a great day!! [:)]

[Anonymous]

Floquil.

And a little bit of testors, tamiya. My LHS has all the paint you can want even war gaming paint. But for trains floquil fits the bill. I hand paint everything except very large areas to be covered with sprays from the can. If you checked my photos you would see the brown is actually testor's flat earth spray which I consider a base coat on all of my buildings.

Air brushes is something that I plan for 2006. I suppose I have been hand painting too long to change over.

[AntonioFP45]

Hello Dbean,

A lot of the guys have brands that they experiment with or prefer, so they'll be chiming in.

I used Floquil paints. Solvent based and reliable. Scale Coat 2 is also a solvent based paint that's pretty reliable.

I've switched over to the waterbased "Acrylics". They are much better in quality than they were a decade or so ago. I love the fact that they leave little to no smell behind, are much less toxic and lay down very smoothly.

Two very popular acrylics are Polly Scale and Badger ModelFlex. IMHO, they're excellent! Recommendation: Thin with 70% alcohol rather than water. Dry and cure times will be better. Modelflex has the advantage in that no thinning is required. It's ready to shoot as is. Clears are available in flat, satin, and gloss.

Give these two paints a try. I always recommend that modelers have 2 or three "scrapper" freight cars to practice on.

Hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

Dbean,

Oil/Solvent based:
I have found Floquil to supply wonderful paints, they are my first choice. They flow out well and do not show brush strokes. Humbrel, Testers, Testers Model Master are all good paints. I find the small testers paints to have the shortest life span, but I still use them. Scalecoat is another. However, I have no experiance with this product.

Acrylics:
Modelflex and Pollyscale are all great stuff. (I don't know for sure if Modelflex is acrylic).

I only brush on paint. I don't have a spray rig and don't feel the necessity for one. Others feel spraying is necessary and I won't argue. What works for you, is what works best!

Some feel solvent based paints are dangerous! If this is a concern for you, stay with the acrylics as the honest truth is acrylics are very good, too!

I have to say I feel most of the paints available are good products. If they weren't, the company would not still be in business.

[Anonymous]

I mainly use acrylics, as you can wa***he brushes with normal tap water rather than needing thinners. I'm a big fan of the Games Workshop range - intended for wargaming though some of the colours are usable. Their aerosol cans are great for undercoating, especially the "Chaos Black" which is very good for underframes, roofs, etc.

I also use a fair bit of Tamiya acrylic paint, especially for loco handrails as I can effectively paint Athearn metal handrails in one coat with these - just load the brush with paint and draw it along the rail, it'll leave a smooth thin coat. The trick is to avoid going back over the same area - this will leave brush strokes and won't look as good. Hope this is of help!

[DigitalGriffin]

I've been using Polly scale acrylics for about a week now. They are a LOT thinner than enamal based paints. So it may take multiple coats.

Right out of the bottle Polly scale I've noticed is very watery. I mix them up with wooden skewers and find there are large heavy clumps on the bottom. Even after 2 or so minutes of stirring, you will still have clumps on the mixer stick (especially grimmy black!), and the paint will still be a little "wet"

I recently had some problems painting motor/concrete on brick structures using acrylics, but the more experienced guys here gave some really good ideas that worked well.

On the plus side, acryllics do cling to metal surfaces well, clean up easy, dry much quicker, and are less toxic than enamals. (I'm comparing this to testors enamal based which I used as a kid.)

Overall I'm pleased with the transition from enamal -> acrylic color based.

I can give no opinion about airbrushing paints however. I still fear that road.

[cwclark]

I use floquil, poly s and testors...

[davekelly]

I love Floquil. Comes out very fine and covers greatly. Have also had great sucess with Testors (enamal and acrylic), modelflex and pollyscale.

I use Floquil as a base when another paint will be applied over the first (weathering, mortor etc). I use acyrlic for the following coats as they won't attack the Floquil base coat.

[orsonroy]

I prefer Polly Scale for various reasons. It's water cleanup and low odor, so I don't stink up the house while using it (yes, I have a paint booth). It's readily available. It mixes well. I can easily use it in either an airbrush or brush painting. It flows well. It's nontoxic. Finally, I'm more used to using acrylics, and intuitively know how they act.

[AntonioFP45]

If you ever get into Metalizing, I strongly recommend Alclad 2. Very impressive!

Alclad2 Chrome makes plastic look like it's real stainless steel.

Check out http://www.alclad2.com Very cool stuff!

[Anonymous]

I use Polly Scale to airbrush, but I find it doesn't cover very well when used to brush paint. Does anyone else have this problem?

Mike

[mikebonellisr]

I've just finished a couple of HO steam engines with scalecoat ll with a couple of drops of glaze added to the mix and I'm very happy with the results(airbrushed on).Being most of my stuff is plastic,I mostly use polly scale so that I cut out the barrier step.Floquil works well if I spray it on plastic,and I usually use it to paint wood or metal.Basically,I use whatever will get the job done....Acrylics,solvent based,lacquers,chalks,colored pencils,etc.I just have to be a little careful when combining them or laying one type over another.By not testing,you might ruin a good paint job or even the model