Vallejo

[stona]

Then I saw the great results that Barry got and how he raved about MRP paints.

I think seeing Barry's models was what piqued my interest in MRP. I was very sceptical at the beginning, maybe informed by my fruitless and frustrating excursion into the world of acrylics, but I'm sold on them now.
There are one or two colours that I'm nor 100% happy with, but I can either fix them or live with them, it's not like they are horrible, just a slightly different interpretation.

I've also found somewhere that always seems to have the colours I need in stock, which is always a consideration for me, who doesn't keep a stash and tends to just buy and build a model more or less impulsively (I know, weird). I recently discovered I needed some Japanese colours and acquired them with no issues.

I never thought of drying time as an issue with enamels, and generally it isn't, but a couple of months ago I masked and sprayed some four colour RAF roundels in a couple of hours rather than a couple of days. That does make a difference

[Guest]

I now use Tamiya, Mr Color, and SMS pretty much interchangeably for spraying, and acrylics (mostly Vallejo) for detail work and figures.

You may want to be careful when typing [ICODE]SMS[/ICODE], it gets auto-replaced by a link on this forum

As for paints for spraying: I prefer Tamiya and Mr. Aqueous Hobby alcohol-based acrylics, especially for covering larger areas. I’ve thinned them with cellulose thinner and tap water in the past, but these days use isopropanol, which I find works better than tap water, but is a lot less smelly and nasty than cellulose thinner. The water-based, airbrush-ready ones like Vallejo, Ammo, etc. work well for finer work, IMHO, and I like them for the ability to just put some in the airbrush and go, but I’ve not got great experiences spraying entire models in one colour with them. Not that I wouldn’t do that if I had/wanted to, it’s just that the alcohol-based ones work better for it.

Concerning lacquer paints, used one bottle of MRP, which was OK but I very much disliked the cleanup, as it required cellulose thinner once more; my attempts at spraying Mr. Hobby lacquers didn’t work out well at all in addition to the annoying cleanup, so I don’t want them, plain and simple

[Andy T]

You may want to be careful when typing [ICODE]SMS[/ICODE], it gets auto-replaced by a link on this forum :smiling3:

Hence I've taken to typing S M S as another workaround. :thumb2:

[Tim Marlow]

You may want to be careful when typing [ICODE]SMS[/ICODE], it gets auto-replaced by a link on this forum :smiling3:

Hence I've taken to typing S M S as another workaround. :thumb2:

I buy them from John if the LHS doesn’t have them (they’ve struggled to get supplies of most paint since Covid) so I can probably be forgiven

[De.Mort]

I'm still learning but have found that a cotton bud dipped in an aerosol lid of water .. every 30 seconds or so i give the tip a wipe off .

My paint mixing method is better but still not perfect and i tend to find i see a slow down of the paint rather than any abnormal patterns atm .

I use air then paint but i also use air to dry sections then over paint .. useful when you have a thin light mix that needs a few overlays . roughly 20 psi is my base setting for most paints with a 0.4 needle .. i have down to 0.2 for finer work though .

I know I haven't been doing this very long. But!! I always found getting the thinning thing a bit of a nightmare. Now I mix enough thinning agent with colour using a brush to mix the paint. When the mix drips from the brush I deem the mix ready. It's not a hard fast X drops of this and x drops of that. So far my unscientific method seems to be working for me. I keep the pressure low(ish) 15-20 psi.

Excellent .. this is what i figured out after about a week of total frustration when i started using an airbrush .. for me i just chuck it all in a small mixing pot .. stir then drape some on the side of the pot to see how well it flows .

The " use X amount of this to X amount of that " .. it depends on a lot of factors with temperature , type of paint etc etc .. hence " winging it " works for me at least !

Im sure car painters use a similar method .. the old ruler and drip test ?

[Waspie]

I'm still learning but have found that a cotton bud dipped in an aerosol lid of water .. every 30 seconds or so i give the tip a wipe off .

My paint mixing method is better but still not perfect and i tend to find i see a slow down of the paint rather than any abnormal patterns atm .

I use air then paint but i also use air to dry sections then over paint .. useful when you have a thin light mix that needs a few overlays . roughly 20 psi is my base setting for most paints with a 0.4 needle .. i have down to 0.2 for finer work though .



Excellent .. this is what i figured out after about a week of total frustration when i started using an airbrush .. for me i just chuck it all in a small mixing pot .. stir then drape some on the side of the pot to see how well it flows .

The " use X amount of this to X amount of that " .. it depends on a lot of factors with temperature , type of paint etc etc .. hence " winging it " works for me at least !

Im sure car painters use a similar method .. the old ruler and drip test ?

'Winging it' always liked that method.
I learned the hard away about speaking to car spray guys!!! The clue is shutting the f!!! up when they say - "I've been doing this for 25 or so years". Shut up then whilst you're ahead!!!

[Ian M]

Been spraying Vallejo model color for years. Personally I found it fragile when thinned with water. I use their airbrush thinners.
If the weather is warm I add a drip or two of retarder, if the weather is hot, I find something else to do lol.
That said i spray gladly with Humbrol and Colour coats.