I recently finished a HighPlanes Commonwealth Wackett, and after screwing up with some Floquil green paint that had gone bad (will I ever learn?) I used some old Humbrol paint I had around, and thinned it a tad and handbrushed it on, and it came out beautiful. It got me thinking- What is your favorite paint brand, and why? Kim M
Testor's for enamels and metals---liked 'em from the beginning (late 50s early 60s) Tamiya for 'clears' Windsor/Newton or Grumbacher for oils Grumbacher or Academy for acrylics
-- Chuck Ryan snipped-for-privacy@REMOVEearthlink.net Springfield OH
Humbrols, despite the fact that they keep dumping colours.
Bill Banaszak, MFE
Floquil paint go bad? Was the cap not on tight? Floquil is probably the best paint in this hemisphere if Testors didn't screw with the formula. Since all the NA paint mfg. is under the RPM umbrella there's not much difference. They deleted the WWII color range from Floquil and we're left with Testors which is usable.
Yeah, since they ended their country oriented kits it's been tough to keep up. Still great paint though. Is Xtracolour produced by Humbrol? Cheers
The Keeper (of too much crap!)
pre diaspora humbrol. the old ridgey bottle pactras.
Gunze for acrylic (even if the gloss paints are a bit "weak"), Testors Model Master for enamel (thins very well and sprays great) and old superscale/microscale clear coats (very tough, great "barrier" for enamel washes).
Testors "square bottle" enamels and Testors ModelMaster enamel and acrylic--simply because they're readily available, and they're what I started with since I got back into this. I still need a lot more painting experience to make an informed deciion, so this may change. I also have a couple tins of Humbrol but haven't tried them yet. I bought them because they seemed to be the only one that had Bronze Green for my 1/32 Corsair. One I've decided I really do like is Revell's ProModeler line, but I've only found a few odd bottles at Hobby Lobby, and only olive drab and aluminum. I wish I could find more, as they seem to spray and clean up very well with a minimum of fuss. Given their lack of availability, I wonder if they're being phased out?
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Probably, I wouldn't doubt they're being made by RPM/Testors. Most shops aren't going to give up the space for two racks of the same paint. Monogram tried this in the eighties with Humbrol tinlets. Very small rack with little info on what the color was and where it belonged. Doomed to failure. hth
The Keeper (of too much crap!)
Testors Model Master enamels - for ease of use, ease of ability to find, and variety of colors available. I especially like the new "Model Master 2" formulations for airbrushing. Very smooth in the application, not much additional thinning required.
Second to those are/were the Floquil/Aeromaster enamels. They would sometimes fill in colors not available in the Testors line. I liked the consitancy of them - very smooth when airbrushed.
I like enamels better than acrylics, possibly because I don't have enough practice with acrylics: too many problems with 'flock-coated' finishes and paint drying on the brush. I use Humbrol and Xtracolour, Humbrol for brushing and detail work and Xtracolour for airbrushing. Thin and clean up with white spirit, good finish and adhesion, good range of colours.
I have tried Revell but found that they do not thin with white spirit, but must be thinned with Revell thinner only. They are described (if you look hard enough) as *synthetic* enamels; they dry faster than Humbrol, and go off in the tin quicker too. The range isn't good enough to make me want to stock another tin of thinners.
I went mad on Tamiya acrylics in the late 80s / early 90s, but I've come back to Humbrol enamels over the last 5 years or so. Why? The Tamiya stuff was readily available and I'm lazy (water clean-up!). Why back to enamel? I've found that the acrylics are a real bear to spray in summer and the enamels *seem* to be a bit more durable during handling. I've still got a lot of Tamiya, but I'm not replacing them as they're used. I also use a fair bit of the Tamiya acrylic laquer (the TS rattle-can range) on my cars and bikes - good coverage, specific colours for Tamiya models and very good gloss when you get the hang of it. And no clean-up! :-)
I've tried most of the others, but for various reasons (mainly availability) they've fallen out of the race. Although I did LOVE the Gunze Sangyo acrylics - much finer pigments than Tamiya, but alas, a bit like rocking-horse poo around here since the hobby shop closed up.
RobG
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