sapperastro

One of my older threads, but I discovered something that I thought I might put out there for discussion. I am currently working on a fw 190a3, and while getting my usual colours ready for painting (h27, h32 and h127) I thought to myself 'isn't rlm 74 supposed to be grey green?'. Now I know h32 has the slightest green tinge to it, but after brushing out my tin of h66, it too is very dark grey with a slightly greater greenish tinge, and so I thought perhaps h66 would actually make a better rlm 74 grey green than h32. Thoughts?

It is the same as Tamiya acrylic, so without additions like retarders, the fresh coat can easily reactivate and pull up the previous coat when brush painting. I would advise either going through the rigmarole of using an acrylic paint retarder, using a different acrylic paint (model master, revell, humbrol, etc) or enamels when brushing.

Hey Leslie, I brush paint more than I spray these days. Tamiya acrylic and Mr Hobby are very easy to spray, but I wouldn't call them a brushpainters dream. Acrylic wise, my top two are Revell Aqua and Model Master Acrylic, both of which are the brush painters version of Tamiya and Mr Hobby: easy to get good results. I have been told that xtracrylix is a very similar formula to mm acrylic, so was eager to check them out. However, you mention Agama as the maker of xtracrylix? Have you tried Agama out? Is it the same paint? If so, this might be another possibility. edit; Actually, Agama looks more difficult to source than xtracrylix.

Perfectly understandable Jamie, from a sellers point of view. If I was copping that bs on a regular basis, I would feel the same. However, I can equally state that tracking is biased in the other direction. I have had packages that went to somewhere else, been signed by somebody else, and when I stated that was not my signature, been told 'too bad, it was signed for'. So in effect, I paid extra to cover insurance costs for a seller/carrier and received nothing in return, nor have the ability to argue against the decision. Since tracking does not necessarily mean you will actually get the product, but rather you lose the ability to claim if it never arrives, I prefer to keep the extra money and take my chances, if the option is available, rather than spend over $30 in shipping for a half dozen paints that cost less than the shipping. In any case, I just managex to order a few that a retailer has left in stock here in oz. If it is a wonder paint, then I can possibly make a major order in the future and wear the shipping costs from hannants. No way would I do that without trialling the stuff first.

Hello Mark, I have ordered things from aeroworks before, and Craig is a great bloke. Unfortunately, he only ordered a few xtracrylics in the past and didn't order anymore. It seems a lot of places have stopped stocking it. I can see Hannants and Wonderland models as the only people selling the full range, and both of them have horrendously priced overseas shipping unfortunately. All of the stores that do have competitive shipping prices have stopped stocking it.

Hello Leslie, Thanks for the help, but after emailing them, they have stated that they no longer will be stocking xtracrylix paint once everything left on the shelf is gone. The search continues. Is Xtracrylix popular over there?

Hi all, I am keen to try out the xtracrylix line of paint, and went to order half a dozen colours from Hannants to try them out. Fell off my chair when I saw the postage. I tried emailing them to ask if they have a budget option for postage of small packages like emodels or topslotsntrains do, but nobody responded. So, can anyone point out any decent retailers that sell xtracrylix and ship overseas at competitive rates?

Oh I don't know...I have had my 50 year old humbrols run away on occasion. Midlife crisis?

Much like brush painting, 'a donkey' will find airbrushing an aggravating, and time consuming experience. I have ruined just as many kits using an airbrush as I have with a paint brush. They both take time, experience and money to sort out your personal preferences and what works for you. For both areas it took me years to get things 'down pat', and many different paint brands! And then some swine changes paint formulas, or a line of paints/varnishes is discontinued, and it is back to the drawing board.... As Jamie said, get your construction technique downpat, and find 'your' paint and brushes. Then enjoy the ongoing imrpovement. Just a quick word on varnishes, as this has caused me pain...when you watch videos such as the quick kits videos, you will see many use a rattlecan varnish. An excellent idea in many respects, however, bear in mind that many paints react with rattlecan varnishes. TEST THEM FIRST BEFORE USING THEM ON YOUR FRESHLY PAINTED MODEL. One paint will not react at all, while another will bubble and ruin your masterpiece. Ask on the forum, and test on painted scrap objects before committing. Brushing gloss coats are fairly forgiving with brushes, use the same system as you use with your paint. Brushing Matt and satin is another story. I have had brush success with Humbrol matt cote (oil based varnish) and model master acrylic matt varnish. Others not so much. Again, it is all trial and error. If your matt coat goes frosty, recoat with gloss to elimate the problem and start again with a different product/style.

You want your paint consistency to be about full fat milk. This should tell you how thin you need to go. A soft, yet springy brush is recommended such as a flat sable. Don't overload your brush. There is a young guy that did videos on youtube. I find them to be excellent for beginners and mkre experienced brush painters alike. He uses both acrylic and enamel paint on different builds, and his paint of choice, humbrol acrylic, is not as good for brushing as either your Revell nor Model Master, yet I am sure you will be impressed. He prefers synthetic brushes, I don't, so it is a personal choice. On youtube search for 'quick kits' builds. It really is a lovely collection of videos for the aspiring brush painter, which is rare in an airbrush laden world.

Thin your aqua more I would say. Or try Model Master Acrylic that is so easy to brush paint successfully a baby could do it without brush strokes.

With decent paint, like Revell Aqua or preferably Model Master Acrylic, you can brush without brush strokes, no matter the size of the model.

I use Revell 9 anthracite usually.

I feel your frustration. I constantly look at all the different enamel paints available in the UK (Old Humbrol tins on UK ebay, Xtracolour, Precision, Colourcoats, etc) and wonder why life is so hard and full of terrorists that threaten our way of life with these tins and bottles of oil based WMDs. Forget about the UK, they don't sell Tamiya enamel over there either. Try one of the Hong Kong based modelling shops, or if you don't mind paying a premium, plenty of shops in Australia sell it. That being said, I don't know whether Australia too suffers from this ridiculous restriction on enemals too, so sneaking it in via the far east might be your best bet.

There are photos of German vehicles that appear almost black, and it isn't really that far off Humbrols rendition. A bit of dry brushing and dust and it looks fine.

Are these also stored on your website Jamie?

Good to hear it worked out all good John. I have never had an issue painting enamels over acrylics before. Sometimes I have had issues with the other way around, but usually only when the enamel isn't fully cured and the oily surface deflects the water based paint. Good to see you Jamie, and I have to say Jamie steered me onto electric stirring as well, though I went with the Scottish method (haha sorry Jamie..) of buying a coffee frother and taking the spring off the end. Works a treat on those paints that are heavily coagulated in the bottom.

Just apply another coat of gloss varnish to sort the issue, then try something else for the matt coat.

No, I read that, hence why I was throwing out the suggestion for the Satin Cote. I use it just fine on enamel or acrylic paints. I have never had much luck with acrylic coats of matt or satin, as they seem to leave quite a frosted finish in comparison to the solvent based formulas.

Indeed. The only issue I ever had with those pots were the the slight lack of stability, but with even a little bit of thought, it shouldn't be an issue. I am mostly happy with the change of paint itself; night and day next to the old rot.

Never had an issue with humbrol satin cote. I have had bad batches of tacky gloss cote, and some streaky matt cotes, but never a satin cote issue. As with any solvent based varnish, try to apply it somewhere above 20 degrees celcius and not overly humid.

I managed to try out 11 silver; not bad at all, but I will have to try it out on a subject to see whether it will match the revell metallics. Overall, these paints (the colours I can access anyway) have been a success and I rank them up there with revell aqua and model master acrylic. Ie: good for acrylic paint (Im mainly an enamel user). How is the range looking over in the uk? Have they worked through most of the old crap yet on the shelves? Not sure what happened with it coming off with water. Nothing like that has happened to me with this paint, though I would suggest to anyone that waiting an hour before rubbing/masking/etc is a very risky proposition. Paints may look dry, but they certainly have not cured to any degree.

I must live in an alternate universe, because as long as I have used them, Tamiya enamel paint has been excellent. Smooth coverage, plenty of pigment and no problems at all with lifting, however...you are using Tamiya enamel thinner? I have noticed that when I have painted Humbrol matt coat on top, using humbrol enamel thinner, there has been a slight issue with lifting. And Tamiya enamel is not the hardest wearing enamel, but more than good enough. I think you are doing something wrong there.

For both this reason, the seemably lower pigment count in some shades compared to old bottles, and the price of the 10ml bottles (compared to the price of the old 23ml bottles that used to be on the stands), I don't really use Tamiya acrylics anymore. The enamel is still excellent, and I know the Tamiya acrylic is still a very easy to use airbrush paint, but I find other paints give better results these days. Who knows? Maybe Tamiya is using the quality control team from Humbrols old Chinese factory.

Isn't the Methoxy methyl a psychedelic drug? Or have I got that mixed up? In any case, I take it that part isn't all that important if your bottle of butanol is working. Either way, if it works, excellent. I have used the retarder and it does indeed work for those that wish to work with it. unfortunately, I find my pots from the 80s (the old 23ml pots they used to sell) seem to be better quality than the newer stuff, However, it does help to know there is an economic alternative out there. Thanks for the tip.