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Paint Choices for Craftsman Kit Building
I am working on a "tour" of several paint brands from other hobbies suitable for our use. I get several inquires on this subject a week and thought it was time to address the issue. Model railroading is sadly lacking paint brands designed for great coverage that we can use to paint castings, metal or resin. As many of you know I sold a paint set with many custom colors based upon our old standbys from Floquil like Earth, Grimy Black, Roof Brown, and Boxcar Red. The manufacturer I was working with surprise discontinued the line of paints mine was made from so that has sent me on this search for the perfect water based paint. I have extensively tested five popular brands and will report my findings. All water based and relatively easy to find and purchase. I will discuss Citadel, AK Acrylics, Reaper, The Army Painter, and Vallejo Model Colors. I will also discuss ordinary craft paint.
Your thoughts are welcome here before I start posting. I am only going to discuss water based acrylics and those suitable for craftsman kit work, not solvent based, airbrushing or locomotive painting, etc...
Your thoughts are welcome here before I start posting. I am only going to discuss water based acrylics and those suitable for craftsman kit work, not solvent based, airbrushing or locomotive painting, etc...
Comments
Rick
Vallejo has, obviously, a huge selection. I recently purchased the “flesh tone” collection. There are some hues that seem good.
I also bought an airbrush set (by mistake) of Vallejo paints. The Rust works great with a brush as it is thin and doesn’t cover completely.
I like the SW paint set. Sorry to see it disappear.
I have been using Vallejo for castings and I'm little surprised that you feel they do not work well, but painting is really not a strong suit for me.
Mike S.
Hands down ... Mission Models. Best Acrylic paint period. Ideal for airbrushing and/or hand painting. Primers, metals, wide selection of colours. Constantly adding colours. My 2 cents worth.
Mike S.
For castings I've been using acrylics from vallejo model color, reaper and ammo of mig after a disappointing first try with craft paints.
Jerry
Excellent topic and thanks for taking this on ! Looking forward to your tests and your analysis / conclusions on the different acrylic paints for painting and weathering scale castings and details.
I too was a fan of the Reaper paints and the set you produced; but with no future run by Reaper your efforts here will be most appreciated.
Thanks and be well,
--Paul
"I stopped using Floquil paints quite a few years back and I primarily use military model paints. My preference is paints from Mission Models. They are acrylic and I find them really great to use. I also use paints from Mig Ammo, AK Interactive and Life Colour. They are all acrylic based military paints, but they work really well.
A number of the military paint manufacturers also have weathering powders, oils and enamel washes that can be used for weathering and rusting that work quite well. I use all these various methods. I also really like using Life Colour rust colour paints. They are really good to use. They have a really nice set of rust paint colours that I really like. I also use oils for rust as well. Of course there are all kinds of methods and such that you can use. I often apply rust with a piece of torn sponge type packing material. Almost like dry brushing. Take off most of the paint on paper towel and then lightly dab it on. It is a military technique often referred to sponge chipping - you can find videos of it on YouTube and articles on line if you want to give it a try. You can use it to make paint chips etc. I use this method frequently in my own modelling technique. I really like it.
One thing to keep in mind if using any of these methods - it is important to use Acrylics for your base colours. Enamel based washes, white spirt etc don't react typically with Acrylic base colours. So it is important to keep in mind if you are using any of these other products for weathering subsequent to acrylic base colour. Just a quick word of advice and helpful tip.
There are a lot of online retailers for these kinds of products if you want to give them a try - many in the US. I typically order items from a company in the US called the Last Cavalry but they are presently closed due to the stupid virus. I have also ordered from Michigan Toy Soldier. Both these guys sell typical military stuff, but you can get paints and other weathering stuff from them as well. That sort of thing. That being said, you don't have to go to all that trouble or expense either.
They cover well (some colours better than other but this is usual in other brands also), are easy to mix and clean.
The metallics however are not up to task so I use other brands.
They are inexpensive and, from my experience, don't have many problems with aging.
Only real chalk paint is flat , but the color palet is poor and only available in large cans.
All acryllic paints contain acryl...deuhhhh, and this gives the sheen. One more than the other.
The Tamya brand is also a flat drying paint. Dries to fast except when adding a retarder. For our use, painting castings, the surfaces are so small that coverage isn't an issue I believe.
But for some unknown reason they know what there doing!!!
Jerry