paints and where to buy them?

[Anonymous]

where's the best place to buy paints specifically for our hobby? my local hobby shop pretty much sucks (half of it's a toy store, with lots of collectible girly crap dolls). there's 2 aisles of trains (sort of) the G scale gets a whole row then HO and N each has a little part of the second aisle(less then half rest is big toy "collectible" cars). anyway the paint aisle sucks to they have "reefer white" and the rest of it's for model cars. Yea this post got a little away from me and it turned into a bad critique of the local hobby shop anywho where can I get paint.

[Anonymous]

Here recently, I bought a 44 cent bottle of some brown paint from Wal*Mart in the crafts department. It's not oil based paint, it's water based acrylic I think. It comes in a bottle about 3 inches high or you can get a big bottle about 6 inches high. The paint seemed to stick good and looked good on 8 of my Athearn cars that I painted. I've been using some of my old cars to create a shortline railroad, so that is why I've been painting a little on them. Anyway, the paint from "Wally World!!" seemed to work good for something simple, but If you want to paint an engine or something like that, you might consider a much higher quality of paint. I've also tried the testors oil-based paint that comes in little glass bottles, but I'm not as crazy about using it on my railcars as I am the acrylic 3 inch bottles that Wal*Mart Sells. The testors paint was way too shiny, and most railcars aren't very very shiny, they're old and worn out.

[bogp40]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jadormdrache

where's the best place to buy paints specifically for our hobby? my local hobby shop pretty much sucks (half of it's a toy store, with lots of collectible girly crap dolls). there's 2 aisles of trains (sort of) the G scale gets a whole row then HO and N each has a little part of the second aisle(less then half rest is big toy "collectible" cars). anyway the paint aisle sucks to they have "reefer white" and the rest of it's for model cars. Yea this post got a little away from me and it turned into a bad critique of the local hobby shop anywho where can I get paint.

You need to be more specific for the uses of the paint. There are many places to get the paint used for the hobby. Painting engines and rolling stock, recommend using RR colors and for best results airbrushing. Others can jump in as to solvent vs acrylic (another topic). Structures: Wood or plastic Stains, solvent or acrylics much of which can be found a craft stores such as Michael's. Scenery: base colors for plaster and foam, qts or even gallons from your local paint store work great for this. Many times you may find some close out or wrong color mixes sold very cheap. If a tan or cream have added tinting to the earth tones for you layout local. Most paint colors if light enough can always be turned to mud.
For weathering: washes of various paints stains or india ink.
But what I'm getting at is you don't need all the paint, from your LHS.
Bob K.

[Virginian]

I use Scalecoat, S2, Floqil and the rest, that I replenish as needed from shows or shops, but I have had real good luck mixing Testors to match colors as well. It's available almost everywhere, and it does have a pretty good finely ground pigment base. And it sticks fine on any plastic I have found with no priming, and over Floquil primer works fine on metal too.

[cheese3]

I go to wal-mart and pick up the good ole' testors model paints, I can usually find exactly what I need.

[MisterBeasley]

I went to a craft place, AC Moore. Michael's is similar, but Moore's is right on the way home from work. They were having a sale, and I came home with eight bottles of acrylics, similar to the Wal-Mart stuff, and left only $2.10 at the cash register. (The Governor gets the 10 cents.)

For big things like bridges, or even awkward little things that are tough to get with a brush, I go to Lowe's (yeah, it's on the way home from work, too) and get their $2.79 cans of spray paint. Their cheap gray primer makes a good base for hydrocal castings of cut stone walls, touched up and highlighted with India Ink.

[loathar]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Norfolk Southern Railfan

Here recently, I bought a 44 cent bottle of some brown paint from Wal*Mart in the crafts department. It's not oil based paint, it's water based acrylic I think. It comes in a bottle about 3 inches high or you can get a big bottle about 6 inches high. The paint seemed to stick good and looked good on 8 of my Athearn cars that I painted. I've been using some of my old cars to create a shortline railroad, so that is why I've been painting a little on them. Anyway, the paint from "Wally World!!" seemed to work good for something simple, but If you want to paint an engine or something like that, you might consider a much higher quality of paint. I've also tried the testors oil-based paint that comes in little glass bottles, but I'm not as crazy about using it on my railcars as I am the acrylic 3 inch bottles that Wal*Mart Sells. The testors paint was way too shiny, and most railcars aren't very very shiny, they're old and worn out.

Those paints work great for buildings and scenery.( can't beat the price) Got to watch, a lot of that Wal Mart stuff is gloss. The Anita's and the Appleton (or Applebye?) are flats.
What's up with TRAIN hobby shops not carrying Floquil any more? I've called 4 near me and none carry it. Only Polly S.

[Anonymous]

I was looking for paints for rolling stock, railroad colors.

[loathar]

If your LHS doesn't have what you need you order direct from Floquil. I think their made by Testors. Just do a search for Floquil and go to their site.(not the hobby shop sites that come up) They have downloadable color charts for all their products.

[on30francisco]

As many people have stated in the above posts, you can buy a lot of useful variety of paints at Wal Mart, Michaels, Pearls and other discount stores. They are much cheaper than most paints made specifically for model railroading and can be used for many projects where a particular color isn't critical. For some locos and rolling stock, you will probably get better results using model railroad paint such a Floquil or Polly-S.