thkar

Nice products! The new PIRANHA Photo Etch Tool series from RB Toolz is excellent!

My colors and sets from AKAN states "Made in Finland for AKAN" or "Made in Greece for AKAN". So, I assume that except Finland contractor also Greek contractor is involved or simply all colors are produced in Russia/Moscow and labelling "Made from" is only for easier exportation to US and EU due to Russian custom regulations. All my colors and sets was bought either from Akan factory or even better from www.hobbycolours.com since they have all series (Acrylic, Enamel, Lacquer) and codes available and restocking every 2 or 3 months.

The biggest difference between the two types of paint is the solvent. Enamel uses thinner or white spirits and lacquer paint uses lacquer thinner. Enamel paints use a process that allows polymers in the paint to set and bond together. Thus, when the paint hardens, it will not soften again. In contrast, lacquer paint dries when the solvent has evaporated and can soften over time.

I don't think so at all. From where you got this info? Did you visit AKAN facilities in Moscow and check this out? By the way, last time I was there (just few days ago) an order for Ville was under preparation and paints was produced and bottled in AKAN's facility, imagine that!

On Ebay the AKAN sets are sold by Chinese supplier. Order maybe will come (or not) or will be delayed more than 4 weeks, it is really your choice as all goods sold in Ebay by Chinese. I red somewhere that these AKAN paints are copies of the original, seems logical. About the cost, this is interesting because I would expect to be much more cheaper than the original that you can find from EU suppliers, but isn't. Actually are more expensive and the doubt of copy still remains unclear.

Lacquer paint can't be Enamel paint, is totally 2 different categories of paint classification. This can be easily proved by the thinning example. A simple example using products from AKAN or from any other manufacturer is that Lacquer thinner is able to thin Enamel paints but not the opposite (Enamel thinner to thin Lacquer paint). Lacquer thinner is much more stronger than Enamel thinner and has different consistency, that is why AKAN 84001 Thinner can only be used to thin Enamel paints and Enamel metallic from series 8, but not Lacquer paints from series 6 (for this purpose there is AKAN 64001 Lacquer thinner). Check AKAN's wholesale buyer's list for the Thinners description.

I am pretty sure (not only me) that series 6 is Laquer paints. You can ask AKAN directly or search this forum for this subject and you will be able to find the answer. Now about the labelling, it is well known that AKAN is a Rusian company and translation from Rusian to English is always an issue when Google is used. But in this case this is not the problem, labels are intensionally printed with this info due to exportation restrictions (including Rusia), you can ask AKAN about this issue as well. And just for you not to have any doubt for: "Are you sure? You know what you are talking about?", I have visit AKAN laboratory many times (maybe more than 6 times) in Rusia during the last couple of years.

Series 6 is Lacquer based paints - not Enamel (Enamel is series 8) Before Easter hobbycolours had major restocking for all AKAN colors including many new lacquer sets and paints from series 6. For the record, 1048 products are available from AKAN in their e-shop.

Hobby Colours is defently recommended for worldwide shipping. The biggest range of AKAN colours from all series are available!

Very nice work so far! I got this kit also last November but didn't started yet. It's nice to see the results and really the kit quality looks fantastic. Well done from a new supplier, expecting to see more qualified kits from GasPatch Models in the future.

No issue with the royal mail when you are buing from Hobby Colours

Their service is excelent, handling, packaging and delivery is very fast. Inside EU the delivery takes from 3 to 5 days in most of the cases and most important: as postage is within the EU, postage & custom offices are not allowed to open the parcel or add taxes.

Akan Enamel was the first series of production back in 1997. There are a lot of modellers out there (more particular in UK and USA) that from the moment they tried the enamels really love them up to now. It was difficult to find outside Russia but now this is changed (HobbyColours has the whole series available) Thinning with Akan's thinners 84000 for the standard paints and 84001 for Varnishes and Enamel metallic paints is the best choice. With other enamel thinners is fine as well. Faster drying than other enamel paints, good coverage and whithout any problen for masking. In addition for special cases there is also an enamel hardener 84011 that makes the surface after painting even stronger. I didn't use them a lot because I am working mainly with their acrylic series but if you try them and you will be satisfied then you should try their lacqer, superb colours by any mean.

The new sets of AKAN for Greek Fighters from HobbyColours for your reference. Soon will be availble also in Lacquer series: The individual bottles of the set 47702:

HobbyColours had a major restocking recently (IPMS Hellas exchibition was end of October beggining of November) and now they are restocking again after the exchibition that took place in Greece. They announced two new sets of acrylic paints from AKAN that they have already in their stock for Greek fighters (47701 - Aeagean Ghost and 47702 - SEA (Vietnam camouflage)), I think that for now these two sets you can find only from them

Yes you are right, now they are back on track and they informed me that another restoking will be end of November because some colors and sets are again out of stock. There is a big demand from EU countries and some specific colours are out of stock in a few days after restocking, that is why I mentioned the "notify me" service, at least this is what I am doing when a specific set or color is needed from my project.

A reliable sourch for AKAN paints is www.hobbycolours.com They are based in EU and shipping is fast and service is excelent.

The www.hobbycolours.com restoks almost every month. The demand is really high and better to use the "notify me" service that they have, so to be able to order the paints before become out of stock.

In most of the cases www.hobbycolours.com delivery in UK is 3-4 working days.

I don't think you have better choice from AKAN paints really. Mixing other colors is risky and result Find AKAN if you can, it is for sure the best choice ever.

I am using Hobbycolours e-shop for Akan paints and other staff sometime now. No problems, reasonable prices, fast shipping/delivery and they stocking new colors every month.

You can found them in www.hobbycolours.com

Great work Nikos

Great job! Nice finishing! AKAN paints are really good by the way, I am also using them a lot.

To clarify that the new series introduced by AKAN lately (second part of 2012). It is series 6xxxx and Yes it is Lacquer based colors. The Lacquer sets are series 46xxx. Airbrushing perfectly and dry very fast (bad smelling but much less than Mr Color) All series of AKAN paints (Series 6, 7, 8 and 9) are available also from: Hobby Colours & Accessories (www.hobbycolours.com) Paint Sets: Acrylic and Lacquer and other products are available for review and purchasing based on stock availability. The picture from their office (Akan's) is really interesting but I would say that the most interesting thing is the "thing" parked outside on the left from the window. Thomas