Mr Hobby aqueous problem?

[Solexman]

Hi. I’m trying to get back into the hobby after almost 20 years! I thought I’d try Mr Hobby aqueous. Having never heard of it before now. Only bought one along with some Tamiya.
I opened bottle, mixed it really well and got a very nice , smooth consistency. So it looked good. Until I tried brushing it on and it was like lumpy milk!

No coverage, no adhesion worth talking about and really, really thin.

Is this only suitable for spraying or am I doing something wrong??

The Tamiya was it’s usual ( by distant memory) reliable and consistent.

[Ray_W]

Welcome back and enjoy the plethora of painting systems now available.

 

Gunze's Mr Hobby Aqueous Hobby Color and Mr Color are my usual paints. Good colour matches and performs exceptionally well. I find Aqueous Hobby Color performs similar to Tamiya for brush painting - somewhat challenging. I remember Tamiya acrylics in the early days and it was excellent for brush painting. All I did, straight out of the bottle. Now I find it a little more testing in terms of achieving smooth self-levelling coatings. I am sure there has been a chemistry change during the intervening period (we are talking 30+ years) and it smells different. Gunze's Aqueous Hobby Color has similar chemistry and, in my view, performance. I can brush paint it successfully by thinning using water and adding a little Tamiya paint retarder and it usually needs multiple thin coats (typically 3). I also always paint over an undercoat to key any acrylics be it the alcohol based acrylics like Gunze/Tamiya or vinyl acrylics like Vallejo/Lifecolor.

 

You will find plenty of posts on this site discussing the challenges in brush painting Tamiya. It is a regular subject. You can apply the learnings to Aqueous Hobby Color. Here is one of the many:

 

While many have difficulty, others have great success. Look up the work of @PlaStix to see what can be achieved. For example:

 

Assuming there is nothing wrong with the particular bottle of Mr Hobby paint, I would say that if you can successfully hand brush Tamiya acrylics you should also be able to do likewise with Gunze's Aqueous Hobby Color. 

 

Now if you use it for air brushing, it is brilliant stuff. Thin with Mr Color Leveling Thinner and be impressed. Ditto for Tamiya acrylics. Yes, seems to defeat the purpose using lacquer thinner, but the results are great.

 

Ray

 

 

 

[Solexman]

Many thanks for the reply. 
I got two bottles of Tamiya at the same time, all be it flat colours, and had no trouble whatsoever. Just this mr hobby stuff. (I used a franker term last night!) 

I can’t airbrush as I haven’t got one. I did try it about 25 years ago and just couldn’t get on with it. I just found it a proper faff. So rattle cans and brushes for me! 😆

 

Ill try this stuff again , maybe thinning it a bit. 
Thanks!

[malpaso]

Agreed with comments above, I find Mr Hobby aqueous is virtually identical in use to (modern) Tamiya acrylics.  The only perceptible difference is Mr H matt paints have a very slightly more satin finish when sprayed (i use Tamiya acrylic thinner with 10% flow improver and 10% retarder).

 

Às @Ray_Wnotes above, Tamiya acrylics seemed subtly different a while ago.  I recently found my old stash of a few colours so should do an experiment to check.  Intriguingly, these bottles from Beatties are 23ml as opposed to the welcome-to-rip-off-Britain's 10ml you get nowadays.

[Ray_W]

12 hours ago, Solexman said:

Just this mr hobby stuff. (I used a franker term last night!)

 

Gunze is typically semi-gloss. I wonder if this adds an extra level of difficulty in getting smooth coverage. Let us know how you go with the thinning. 

 

In fact, if I was forced to go 100% brush painting I would not be using Tamiya or Gunze. There are many options available now that are worth investigating. If I want to have water clean-up I would prefer the vinyl acrylics such as Vallejo Model Color and other similar products from their range such as Panzer Color, or then there is Lifecolor and AK's range and their more recent 3G's. Also many more. While not as tough as Gunze or Tamiya, they do brush extremely well and self-level beautifully. I really like Lifecolor for brushing and spraying and Vallejo for detail, and especially figure painting. You need to do some research on paint compatibility (plenty of help here on BM)  - enamels vs lacquers vs alcohol acrylics vs vinyl acrylics  - so you do not get an adverse reaction

 

Although, I think I would be also really tempted for brush painting to go back to enamels and use Sovereign Hobbies Colourcoats.

 

There is a nice summary of what is out there here:

 

https://exito.site/en_GB/blog/2022/05/Model-paints-for-paintbrushing-a-short-guide./1356

 

It is true that all the systems have a learning curve and each has its advocates. 

 

 

 

Good luck and have fun.

 

Ray

 

 

[Ray_W]

1 minute ago, malpaso said:

Às @Ray_Wnotes above, Tamiya acrylics seemed subtly different a while ago.  I recently found my old stash of a few colours so should do an experiment to check.  Intriguingly, these bottles from Beatties are 23ml as opposed to the welcome-to-rip-off-Britain's 10ml you get nowadays.

 

As an aside, interestingly the newish Tamiya lacquer range has a faint residual smell like the old acrylic stuff. That does bring back memories. Back in the early days, I use to paint my rifles' foresight with the original Tamiya acrylic matt black. Excellent self-levelling and very matt. You can't do it now with the current product.  

 

7 minutes ago, malpaso said:

Intriguingly, these bottles from Beatties are 23ml as opposed to the welcome-to-rip-off-Britain's 10ml you get nowadays.

 

I picked up some new stock Tamiya 23 ml recently so it is still available but it is the modern formula. 

 

Ray

[Solexman]

Thanks for the input guys. 
Im sorely tempted to go back to humbrol enamels. It’s what I grew up with an comfortable with.

Maybe this old dog is just too old for new tricks! 😂

[Chimpion]

12 hours ago, Solexman said:

Im sorely tempted to go back to humbrol enamels. It’s what I grew up with an comfortable with.

It might not be what you grew up with. They've also been reformulated over the years. Buy a few tins first and see how you get on with them before investing too much, just in case.