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What is your favourite Acrylic paint - polls for airbrushing and hairy stick


planehazza

What is your favourite acrylic paint - polls for airbrushing and hairy stick  

62 members have voted

  1. 1. What is your favourite Acrylic paint for airbrushing

    • Tamiya
      22
    • Vallejo - Model Air
      11
    • Model Master
      2
    • Hataka Red Line
      2
    • Revell
      3
    • Humbrol
      1
    • Lifecolor
      4
    • Meng
      0
    • MIG
      2
    • Mr Hobby (Aqueous)
      24
    • AK Interactive
      1
    • Hannants' Xtracrylix
      4
    • AKAN
      1
    • Testors
      0
    • Citadel
      1
    • Mission Models
      2
    • Mr Color Lacquer Acrylics
      7
  2. 2. What is your favourite Acrylic paint for hand painting

    • Tamiya
      6
    • Vallejo - any of the Model range
      31
    • Model Master
      1
    • Hataka Red Line
      0
    • Revell
      14
    • Humbrol
      9
    • Lifecolor
      4
    • Meng
      0
    • MIG
      1
    • Mr Hobby
      4
    • AK Interactive
      1
    • Hannants' Xtracrylix
      4
    • AKAN
      1
    • Testors
      1
    • Citadel
      4
    • Mission Models
      2
    • Mr Color Lacquer Acrylics
      3


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UPDATE: Paints added. I'm sure there are more, so please keep correcting me :)  I've change it to multi choice, because it makes more sense that people aren't bound to just one favourite brand.

 

 

Just trying to gauge what people use. Not interested in causing any arguments.

 

Please let me know if I've missed any options,and I'll add it to the poll.

 

Thanks :)

Edited by planehazza
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Interesting to see that Mr Color seems to be doing well in the polls thus far. I saw them at my LHS and thought about giving them a go but I'm already using a mix of vallejo, Tamiya, and UMP (for primers).  I'm not keen on having many different brands/chemistries and it means I have to have more thinners/cleaners.  

 

How well does Mr Hobby perform with UMP thinners?

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7 minutes ago, Marlin said:

I'm becoming more and more fond of AKAN acrylics.

And I'm a brush painter.

 

/Bosse

Thats good to hear, I need to buy the set for the SU35, but was worried as brush painter having been burned with some brands being airbrushed optimised out the pot...

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5 minutes ago, PhantomBigStu said:

Thats good to hear, I need to buy the set for the SU35, but was worried as brush painter having been burned with some brands being airbrushed optimised out the pot...

AKAN works great with a paint brush.

But you have to prime the surface with something else before you start using them. 

AKAN will not stick to bare plastic, I'm using Humbrol 140 as a primer and that works for me.

 

/Bosse 

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It was difficult to choose between Revell and Model Master for the stick, but I chose Revell, as it inches out model master with adhesion and slightly beats some colours for coverage, but both are great, and don't need any primer so long as you wash the kit well first. I am still waiting for the first batches of Humbrol acrylic to appear from the UK factory before trying it again.

Edited by sapperastro
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10 minutes ago, Tony Oliver said:

 

Would that be the

 

‘dipping into a 5L tin of emulsion’

 

technique?

 

😂

 

 

Or the paint pour? :D 

 

Or can you buy scale B&Q paint rollers? :D

9 hours ago, sapperastro said:

It was difficult to choose between Revell and Model Master for the stick, but I chose Revell, as it inches out model master with adhesion and slightly beats some colours for coverage, but both are great, and don't need any primer so long as you wash the kit well first. I am still waiting for the first batches of Humbrol acrylic to appear from the UK factory before trying it again.

Would it be more beneficial to switch the poll to multi choice do you think?

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8 hours ago, Tony Oliver said:

Can you add Mr Color acrylic lacquer to the airbrush poll please?

Mr hobby is the aqueous one. 

 

Mission models paint also for both  please - currently one of my favourites for both airbrushing and hairy sticking 👍🏿

Will add them now :)

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I think the poll is fine, so long as people give a comment on their runners up. I am surprised by Tamiya in the brush painting vote though; I can get them to work after adding retarder and flow improver, but as to the best? I would love to hear their thoughts on the matter and what they do to accomplish it. When the question of brush painting comes up, and someone asks 'what is the best' I try to think along the lines of 'ability to paint the entire model with a brush' rather than just small details.

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This poll is definitely telling me I need to try Mr Hobby Aqueous; how do they play with UMP thinner and Vallejo flow improver?  Or is there a better 'generic' acrylic retarder? I haven't sprayed anything of Tamiya's except for there flatt and gloss clears.

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With the few I have sprayed I just used Tamiya X20a thinner. Aqueous and Tamiya acrylic are very similar paints. Some use lacquer thinner, but that kind of defeats the whole 'spraying enamel is evil' chant, as lacquer thinner is much worse for you than white spirit.

Edited by sapperastro
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I use a selection of acrylics to brush paint, humbrol, revell, XA, vallejo color, life colour, mission models, and have tried, ak interactive mr colour aqueous and hataka red. My thoughts are as follows

 

Humbrol, hit and miss, rarely use them for major exterior work, brushes on ok if thinned right but some colours come out thin anyway

Revell, excellent but with the same priviso as above,  thinning them is tricky, water takes time to mix and they have a habit of drying out in the pot over time

XA, my go to brand, only complaint is the odd occasion where hannants supplies dry up and the fact there isn't enough colours in the range. 

Vallejo color, excellent, but some colours scratch off really easy which complicates things 

Life colour, super, would buy more if my regular suppliers sold them, best I've tried.

Mission, excellent, brought due to a shortage of XA, but now my go to colour for RAF medium sea grey as the XA isn't blue enough.

 

Now for the bad

Mr color, out the pot was really thin so took 4/5 coats, and didn't dry very solid, so gravity caused contact indentations 

Hataka and AK, again thin out the pot, clearly airbrush optimised paints. 

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56 minutes ago, PhantomBigStu said:

I use a selection of acrylics to brush paint, humbrol, revell, XA, vallejo color, life colour, mission models, and have tried, ak interactive mr colour aqueous and hataka red. My thoughts are as follows

 

Humbrol, hit and miss, rarely use them for major exterior work, brushes on ok if thinned right but some colours come out thin anyway

Revell, excellent but with the same priviso as above,  thinning them is tricky, water takes time to mix and they have a habit of drying out in the pot over time

XA, my go to brand, only complaint is the odd occasion where hannants supplies dry up and the fact there isn't enough colours in the range. 

Vallejo color, excellent, but some colours scratch off really easy which complicates things 

Life colour, super, would buy more if my regular suppliers sold them, best I've tried.

Mission, excellent, brought due to a shortage of XA, but now my go to colour for RAF medium sea grey as the XA isn't blue enough.

 

Now for the bad

Mr color, out the pot was really thin so took 4/5 coats, and didn't dry very solid, so gravity caused contact indentations 

Hataka and AK, again thin out the pot, clearly airbrush optimised paints. 

 

Thanks for this. Mr Hobby and Life Colour are on my "to give a go list"? What do you mean you brought them?

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The brush painting choice for me was fairly easy to decide on. Vallejo in all its variations I find lovely to brush, the ‘Model Color’ range I find are especially good.

 

I’ve been through so many ‘favourites’ when it comes to airbrushing acrylics. A few years ago I’d have said Xtracrylix hands down. Although many modellers seemed to have problems with them I found Xtracrylix gave me no trouble and were pleasant to use. More recently I’ve been airbrushing a great deal of Vallejo, again no trouble and pleasant to use.

However my absolute favourite to airbrush is good old Tamiya. Every time I use it I have a smile on my face. Reliable in use, very consistent in quality and provides a wonderful finish. I’d use Tamiya all the time if they had a wider range of colours.(I know I can mix them, but I’m just a lazy bugger.:D)

 

Honourable mention to Aeromaster WarBird colors. Probably the best paint I’ve ever used to both brush and airbrush. Sadly no longer available and the remaining pots on my shelves are treated like religious artefacts only used on ‘special’ projects.

 

Mart

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With the Revell Aqua containers, don't forget to snip off the two 'prongs' on the lids after you open them. These invariably get a little bent when taking on and off, and never allow the lid to seal up again properly. With them off, you should have a lot less drying issues.

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On 10/08/2018 at 15:56, marky sparky said:

I thought they were a bit gimmicky looking at them (silly pots).

 

Actually quite clever. Typical Deutsche efficiency.

Makes them easier to stack and store. And to identify in a drawer from the top. 

However the best bit from a modellers perspective is the low centre of gravity so you’re not likely knock them over. Even more so when you clip the upturned lid onto the container and use it as a built in mixing/thinning palette.  

 

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I wouldn't really say that Mr Color is an acrylic. It's a synthetic lacquer paint. More smelly than a traditional acrylic. I think most people seem to think of acrylics as water based, which Mr Color isn't. I've never tried to paint it with a brush, as I believe it's more of an airbrush only paint...

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2 hours ago, Steve Noble said:

I wouldn't really say that Mr Color is an acrylic. It's a synthetic lacquer paint. More smelly than a traditional acrylic. I think most people seem to think of acrylics as water based, which Mr Color isn't. I've never tried to paint it with a brush, as I believe it's more of an airbrush only paint...

Mr color is lacquer based, but what about aqueous? 

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