Anyone tried to brush paint Vallejo Model Air?

[rwoolven76]

All,

I have a 1/48 Tamiya Mossie that I'd like to do in PRU blue. I love Vallejo model color paints for brushing but I note that they only do the PRU blue in their airbrush range. So, have any of my fellow brush painters out there tried brush painting their air range and how did you get on with it?

And also, to any fellow model color Mossie fans, can you point me to an acceptable Vallejo model color blue in its place?

Thanks,

Richard.

[Giorgio N]

it is possible to brush the model air paints, but they are very watery and do not cover too well. Plenty of coats and patience are the solution

Alternatively I've used 904 Dark Blue Grey from the standard model color range and it is IMHO a good match to PRU blue. Actually it's the paint I use today for PRU blue, used it on a wartime Spitfire PR and a postwar Sabre and looks good to me

Edited April 30, 2013 by Giorgio N

[bootneck]

I regularly brush paint my kits with Vallejo Air. I do prime the model first with Tamiya's Surface Primer spraycans 'Light Grey' or 'White' (depending on what top coat colour I am applying) and the Vallejo seems to take well over that.

I decant some Vallejo Air into an open pot, something like a milk-bottle lid, and stir for quite a while. This action seems to evaporate/dry some of the water content in the paint so that it thickens slightly ready for painting.

Mike

[Richard M]

I find it depends on the colour, yellow model air is very thin and hard to get a consistent coverage, however the metallic air colours are a delight to brush paint - far superior to the metallic model colours I have tried.

[rwoolven76]

Thanks for the tips guys.

Very much appreciated and it's this kind of advice that makes BM such a great site. My models would be awful without it.

Might try and pick up a 904 on my way to New Street station tonight. :-)

Cheers,

Richard

[Des]

On 4/30/2013 at 11:30 AM, bootneck said:

I decant some Vallejo Air into an open pot, something like a milk-bottle lid, and stir for quite a while. This action seems to evaporate/dry some of the water content in the paint so that it thickens slightly ready for painting

As an inveterate  hairy stick wielder I have used paints from the standard Vallejo range before but found a good price this week on a set of Vallejo Air Metallics and wondered about brushing them so checked here before buying and have had no problems whatsoever brushing them over my usual Humbrol 64 base coat for a really nice finish.

 

It does however have an odd effect on the milk bottle cap that I also use for dripping the paint into , after washing it clean the inner surface is a bit soft and tacky , looks as if the plastic is starting to delaminate and what started out as a couple of pinpricks in the surface are now 1mm wide craters and growing.     Doesn't happen with Vallejo's standard range , AK , Humbrol etc.  so maybe only yet another chemical lurking about that hasn't killed me yet.

[B0BY_1234567]

I use Model Air for brush painting all my models! I like them because they’ve got a very big range while also being very easy to work with. You can see some examples of how they look here:

 

[Casey]

They are as brushable, their consistency is okay for not leaving brush marks, but you might want to have some primer on plastic first, as others mentioned.

 

Or if all fails, mix your own.

 

I did put recipes for alternative brushable paints some time ago, I admit in a bit cryptic place:

 

It is bit hard to read thread, but I provided paint mixes for most important modelling colors using good quality artist brushable paints set from liquitex. Beware of lots of nerdtalk, but it started as a topic about brushable alternatives.

Edited September 28, 2023 by Casey