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I'm painting a saunders roe sr.a/1 in vallejo duraluminium and am not sure how to clear coat it to put decals on, what clear coat should be used? Does it need a special one for metal colour or will tamiya gloss clear work? And then what coat should be used over the top of the decals?

Vallejo Model Color range has been re-formulated. https://youtu.be/1AsJgcXvdCQ?si=n7XeXrjjNWKq_fRf Only one review so far that I could find, I'm not sure if they have been officially released yet. https://youtu.be/qkGtmSNR_Jk?si=ty4vT_MpVCwZziHL I know that there are some that use Model Color for brush painting or airbrushing because the range has some close matches for WW2 aviation, like RAF Dark Green. I hope that they manage to keep the colours exactly the same. The bubbling issue is probably a bigger problem for figure painting, when there's a lot of folds and wrinkles, vehicles are mostly flat surface, so hopefully that will not be a problem. I don't use Vallejo or 3rd Gen for anything else than to brush paint small parts and details when not possible or convenient to spray, like cockpit details, seat belts, head rests etc. But I will pick up a couple of bottles, to see if the flow and self-leveling has improved. I like that the new formula is not as thick, now many colours are so thick it's really difficult to get the paint mixed.

Hi, I've been airbrushing for around seven months now, had one of those £40 amazon sets and then i changed the airbrush to a harder steenbeck ultra but kept the cheap compressor hoping that the air pressure is sufficient. Paint used to spray fine but over the last couple of times it has started to become very grainy or just not spraying any paint at all. I clean all the airbrush parts to the best of my ability. I have come to multiple conclusions: compressor not good enough, paint not thin enough, wrong thinner for the wrong brand or even something as simple as tip drying. I use vallejo 71.361 thinner on tamiya paints, sometimes I thin it so much it looks like water so I add some more paint and it goes all grainy and 30 seconds later it stops spraying. Please can you shed some light on the troublesome area. All the best, Magnus.

Hello guys, Which Vallejo Model Color paints would be needed for an F4U-1A Corsair (bubble top)? I'm looking for Model Color because they're water based, just like Revell Aqua. So far, these are the paint names and codes in Model Colour I've been able to find: 70951 Matt White, 70898 Dark Sea Blue, and 70903 American Blue. I'm not sure about 70903, it should be Intermediate Blue, but that one is only available as a Model Air colour (71299). Are these paints correct? P.D: I need Model Colour because I brush paint. Thanks!

Hello! Does Humbrol decalfix pick up the acrylic Vallejo gloss varnish? Thanks in advance for the answers!

Good morning everyone , I had a simple question that has probably been answered hundreds of times , i finally completed my tamiya tiger 1 , it was first sprayed with vallejo white primer , and then vallejo model airs dk panzer grey , ok so bearing in mind this white primer gave a slight rough finish (because its white) i then painted the panzer dark grey , then it was finished off with 3 coats of gloss , the other day when it was on the shelf i desided to test how durable it was , so i gave it a medium scratch so not too much force , and i noticed tiny speckles of the white primer showing , incredibly small , does that mean my varnish is doing its job?

How well does Vallejo Model Air brush paint? I have it in my head that it is formulated for airbrushing but does that mean it is sort of pre-thinned and does that give it a consistency anything like their regular acrylic with a dollop of flow improver added?

I am in the process of building my first (well, for about 46 years, so, same thing really) model aircraft and I have a couple of questions about spraying suitable acrylic paint. I have built some model railway wagons and have sprayed using Vallejo model air with some success, using a badger velocity airbrush. I had a look at the colour requirements for the model (Eduard Fokker Dr.1 1/48 weekend edition) and first of all the colour references seem to be for Gunze or Mission models. I set about looking up equivalent colours in Vallejo model air. To my dismay I find that none of the colours I have in stock are the ones I need to use now, so I went to a local shop to buy some and they only had Humbrol enamels or Vallejo model colours, so I came home empty handed. I will obviously need to buy all the paints on the list so that got me wondering if it would be better to buy the paints as listed on the instructions sheet, but I wanted to get some input first. I know we all have our favourite brands, but I have been happy with Vallejo model air thus far, it sprays nicely, it doesn't really smell, and is reasonably cheap. But, I am aware that others may know better so, is it a case of "stick with what you know", or, "No, there are far better makes of paint out there which would suit far better" Another question, is it better to brush paint metallics? Thanks Tony

Recently got back into modelling after 20 years or so.... Decided I'd do 1:700 and 1:600 ships - because why start with the 'easy' stuff when you can start with the tiny stuff eh. Anywho, tried using vallejo gloss varnish after painting but got a weird and undesired splotchy effect all over... Makes it look like it recently rained. I am using vallejo acrylic model color, and the rattle can is also vallejo acrylic. I tried brushing Humbrol Clear satin over it and the splotchiness was considerably lessened. Anyone have any ideas how I can avoid this problem in the future?

Good morning everyone , I have a very small question regarding Vallejo model air and their other products like their primer , should they still smell after they have dried? It’s been a good few days and the model is still a bit wiffy after giving it a sniff I am also a noob at airbrushing so another question is once I have sprayed a coat do I leave it to dry like brushpainting or can I just go over it straight away

I usually use Vallejo model air so im Not to experienced with thinners for airbrush I have thinned tamiya x-10 with Vallejo colours before and had good results but does anyone now if it works on their other paints?

Hi guys! I've recently joined the airbrush club! But I do have an awful lot of hataka blue line and vallejo model color paints, and I figure rather than replacing them I'd use them! Just wondering if anyone has experience using these paints in an airbrush and how they thinned them for use? Thanks guys!

As I’ve recently returned to modelling after an extended break techniques have changed. Currently building the Airfix 1/72 Lancaster BIII Dambuster. After having completed the painting using Vallejo acrylics I then moved to the gloss coat prior to adding decals. At this stage disaster struck. My first attempt airbrushing a mix of 75% varnish to 25% water coat of Vallejo Gloss. The coat pooled and run and dried milky even though I thought I had misted it. I then had to rub down and decided to try brushing. I used a good quality 1” acrylic brush but after 2 coats there was brush streaks all over. Even using a very fine wet & dry and glossing over again did not remove them. I have reluctantly removed all traces of the varnish and repainted the whole model again. Before I attempt the gloss coat again I would appreciate any advice from the group as to where I may be going wrong or better gloss products to use. many thanks

Hello fellow modellers (in the words of Plasmo) I have been trying for quite a while to achieve pencil-thick lines with Vallejo Model Air. Didn't manage so far. I have Harder Steenbeck and Olympos airbrushes. Always thinning with Vallejo Thinner with a couple of drops of Vallejo Flow Improver. I have thinned the paints in oh so many ratios, used all kinds of low pressure going PSI by PSI. I either get spider lines or thick atomization with chunks going all around. I am quite desperate. However, I am willing to continue my efforts as long as someone tells me that it is doable and that they achieved it themselves. I am interested only in Vallejos (and maybe MMP), not enamel- or lacquer-thinned paints (and that includes Tamiya, Mr. Hobby / Gunze). Thank you in advance.

Good morning folks, Today's problem for the wise patrons of Britmodeller is - I have been priming with stynlrez through my airbrush & then over painting with vallejo model air. It looks great - until I mask it & spray a second colour. When the masking tape is removed or the whitetac on occasions - it is taking the paint & primer off - right down to clean plastic. new airifix kit (Bedford mwd) thoroughly washed & dried silverline 2 in 1 brush / 20psi / 4mm needle / 2 moisture traps / littlejet pump primed in 2 thin coats - stynlrez vallejo grey primer also tried as an alternative painted in 2 thin coats - vallejo model air drying time 30 minutes to 1 hour between coats masking tape - tamiya whitetac also tried as an alternative to tape atmospheric conditions - 20 degrees c at all times The result when the tape or tac is removed is the paint & primer lifting - right down to the bare plastic. On closer inspection if you get a blade under a lifted area it pulls off almost like a stretchy plastic film. This first happened a couple of weeks ago with the vallejo / whitetac combination on some plastic food containers I was using for practice with the brush - before moving on to ruining a real model. I initially put it down to the fact that the food containers may have some kind of coating that the paint didn't want to stick to - but I moved to stynlrez as a precaution - as it has rave reviews all over the forum. Now I have the same problem with the tamiya tape on the airfix kit. Previously I was rattle canning using humbrol cans & using tons of masking tape or whitetac & I never had a problem with paint coming off - EVER!!! Any ideas would be gratefully received as always. PS - I'm not going to let it spoil my day this is too much fun. Thanks in advance, Steve

Diorama bases for modeling projects 1:35 AV Vallejo Scenics via Creative Models It would seem that along with other products vallejo are now making bases for modellers to sit their models on. These are in 1:35 and are aimed (presently) at the armour modeller. The bases are made from some form of resin material and arrive in s sturdy card box unpainted. Cobblestone Street Section (SC103) This is 31cm x 21cm and features a cobblestone street section typical of Europe. Not sure why they have not kept this square along the front edge? Wooden Airfield Section (SC102) This is 31cm x 21cm and features a wooden plank airfield surface. section. Despite being an airfield section its really designed for vehicles being 1:35 and not really large enough for a 1:32 aircraft. Paved Street Section (SC001) This is 14cm x 14cm and features a paved street section. Its not that big for 1:35 and will only fit a Armoured car / Bren Gun carrier, or a few troops. The road is also a little narrow Conclusion These are another line of products if you want something to sit your model on. The crux though will be in the painting of them to get the right look. Review samples courtesy of

I’ve built this over the last couple of days. It has storage for 150 Vallejo paints as well as some other odds and ends. The shelves are angled back so help the paints remain in place. I’m thinking of making a few of them to sell, so have a look and give me your feedback. And this is what it looks like with my paints in place. Manynthanks for looking. Mark

Hi guys A year or so ago I asked my local hobby shop owner if he can recommend a "better" decal softener than the average solution you can find - something more like the old Polly Scale decal softener (not available for years now but was extremely potent stuff, somebody on an American model forum jokingly said that it would probably destroy vinyl flooring if you spilled it on the floor). Anyway, the owner proudly told me about the new Vallejo line he now carries and then sold me a bottle of Vallejo 73.212 "Decal Medium" (smaller print underneath says "Decal softener"). Whatever this stuff is, it ain't "Decal Softener" - tried to use it as such and I ended up with a gooey film on top of the decal. I am going through my stash this morning and found this bottle again - was on the verge of chucking it in the bin but then thought of trying to find out what the stuff actually is. So I found this description on the web somewhere: "It improves the adherence of the decal and prevents the formation of air bubbles. It also acts as a cleaner and helps prepare the surface of the model before applying the decal." So obviously you have to apply it to the surface of the model BEFORE the decal. Has anyone ever used this stuff, and would you say that it made your life easier?

Hello guys I am Building jas 39 c gripen in 1/72 scale from revell. Time is for painting but i am in trouble. I used vallejo medium sea grey and vallejo light grey. Vallejo medium sea grey was ment to be for upper surface color and light grey for bottom. In FS it is 36270 (medium sea grey) and FS 36375 (light grey). I done like 3 or 4 thin layers with a brush both surfaces but i can bearly see and difference at paint . I will post some pictures but when i am looking on Google photos it is huge contrast betwen upper and bottom surface. So please can anyone tell me if there are any troubles with that light grey ? Anyone has any expirience with vallejo acyrlics and pigment problems ? Thank you ! IMG_20171211_182114 by Karlo Miletić, on Flickr IMG_20171211_182459 by Karlo Miletić, on Flickr

Airbrush Flow Improver Vallejo Model Air 32ml If you have ever suffered from paint drying on the tip of your needle when airbrushing - particuarly when temperatures are higher than the usual cool winters we suffer here in Blighty, you may well be interested in this clear liquid that Vallejo sell as a complement to their paint system. Adding a few drops of the paint before mixing will slow-down the drying of the paint in such a way as to make it less likely that it will dry on the tip, or on the way to the model, so you can use it to reduce stoppages, and the likelihood of you achieving an unattractive orange-peel finish to your acrylic paint jobs. There is enough in the dropper-capped bottle to last most modellers a lifetime, so it works out quite an investment over time. Conclusion Although you can't guarantee your paint will never dry on the tip of your airbrush again, you can be sure that it will become less of a nuisance, which is often the bane of the airbrush novice, who tends to spend more time finding their "bite" when commencing paint flow than a seasoned professional. It's a very useful tool in your arsenal, no matter where you fall between those statuses. Review sample supplied by

Up to recently I have been using Tamiya fine primer rattle cans for priming - sadly with asthma and a heavy cold this is proving problematic (plus all the over-spray and fine particulates that they leave behind!) I am trying to move over to acrylic primers such as the ultimate primers or the Vallejo primers. Sadly I was unable to pick up any ultimate primers at Cosford yesterday, but I do have in my possession some Vallejo primer. Now I have tried using these previously but didn't get on with them following the recommended instructions (clogging etc). Now would anyone recommend thinning these primers at all? At the moment all I have is some ultimate thinner, but there is a place locally I can get some Vallejo thinner (not much else from there but at least I can get the thinner and cleaner!) At what ratio would most people generally thin at? I have found when using my airbrush, and what acrylic paint I'm using (Tamiya, xtracrylic, humbrol) my starting point is a 50/50 mix, but have no idea with the primers so any help would be appreciated. Thanks john.

Hi all, I was wondering if I could get some help concerning the colours for some RAAF aircraft? I mainly use Vallejo Model Air paints with my airbrush because of how well they flow so it would be nice to find equivalents for the foliage green, the dark earth they used and what ever colour the underside was. If your are wondering the aircraft I'm looking to get is a Beaufighter, Wirraway and a Boomerang Thanks in advance, Cam

A couple of years ago, after I started airbrushing, I picked up a few Alclad 2 metallic paints. They took a bit of trial and error to get used to, and seemed to need careful surface preparation, but the results looked nice. However, they need good ventilation - I normally use an extractor hood, but advice is to wear a decent facemask as well. I also saw advice to be especially thorough in cleaning your airbrush after use. Then a few months ago I was at a show and saw Vallejo's Metal Colour acrylic range being demonstrated. They looked good, so I bought a couple and tried them out. Again, a bit of care is needed, but the result seemed good and they were far less smelly and cleaning my airbrush seemed a lot easier afterwards. I've since bought several more from the range but thought I'd do a test to see how they and the Alclad 2 paints compared. This is, I must emphasise, a rough and ready test. I sprayed four different primers on some gloss while board I had spare, and then sprayed a range of Vallejo Metal Color and Alclad 2 across them. The finish isn't always good - I wasn't taking my time, and I was more interested in getting good coverage than avoiding any blemishes or runs. However, the results were quite illuminating. Primers, from top to bottom: 1) Tamiya fine white primer, from spray-can. 2) Mr Surfacer 1000, from spray-can. (none - plain white paint) 3) Vallejo gloss black polyurethane primer 4) Alclad 2 gloss black base coat (Ignore the splotches to the left, that was a quick test with some AK True Metal paste) From left to right: 1) Alclad 2 Exhaust Manifold 2) Aclad 2 Magnesium 3) Alclad 2 Stainless Stee 4) Vallejo MC Exhaust Manifold 5) Vallejo MC Gunmetal 6) Vallejo MC Magnesium 7) Vallejo MC Burnt Iron 8) Vallejo MC Steel 9) Vallejo MC Silver 10) Vallejo MC Dark Aluminium 11) Vallejo MC Semi Matte Aluminium Generally (and not surprisingly) lighter and shinier shades benefit more from a dark background. Most to some extent are affected by the nature of the primer; the least affected were the darker or duller shades such as Magnesium or Exhaust Manifold. Vallejo Silver worked noticeably better on a lighter primer. Vallejo Polyurethane Black Gloss primer is noticeably much less glossy than the Alclad 2 black gloss. The latter worked perfectly well as a base for the Vallejo acrylics. The real surprise though was the difference between the two primers when Alclad Stainless Steel was sprayed on top; the Alclad 2 base resulted not only in a darker finish but one that was visibly blue-tinted. That's not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you want a hot-metal effect, but it's worth noting. Alclad Stainless Steel is much brighter than Vallejo Steel (but they are aiming for rather different finishes). Alclad Magnesium is somewhat lighter than its Vallejo counterpart; to my mind the Alclad shade is more representative of real-world magnesium, but the Vallejo shade is not unrealistic and I suppose you could use them both for contrast. Slightly to my surprise, Vallejo's Dark Aluminium came out lighter than its Semi-Matte Aluminium. Overall, this has reinforced my view that Vallejo Metal Colour acrylics work very well, but it has also prompted me to hang on to my Alclad 2 paints; they may be smellier to use and require more airbrush cleaning, but their Magnesium is a bit better than the Vallejo equivalent, and the variability of the Stainless Steel depending on the base coat gives the option of achieving some interesting effects.

Dear friends of glued plastics… I know there are some threads concerning this topic, but I don't find my question answered in a way I'm able to understand. I've got a Wesex HAS-3 and a HU.5 in my bench but can't figure out the correct acrylic colors. Otherwise I could buy from the xtracolor range, but I can't stand the smell of enamels. It would be great to find the matching cold-numbers from Tamiya, Vallejo or Revell. The HU.5 shall be painted this way: http://www.airliners.net/photo/UK---Navy/Westland-Wessex-HU5/1505911/L/&sid=d3a39fc457656ba9b24c11f6802e2926 It's the later look with Gloss Red BS381 C:538 and RAF blue-grey, as far I know. The HAS.3 is planned to be the famous XP142 from HMS Antrim, but in the older, blue and yellow scheme. Is this blue also RAF blue-grey? On pictures it does not look like that from the HU.5… have a look here. And the yellow color, ist is Rescue-Yellow? I'm completely lost, my questions in german modeler-forums are all unanswered.

Hi guys i bave recently got into airbrushing so i am getting to grips with priming my models i was just wondering do i need to thin the vallejo primer or should i spray from the bottle ? and if so what PSI should i be spraying ? thanks brandon