Big Hi from a reawakened modeller from Barcelona!

Welcome! Love your city, lived there for a bit in 1978.

Theres no ”best” for any of the questions, but this is what works for me.

For primer, I prefer Tamiyas white or gray in a spray can. I’m sure it’s fine in the a/b as well, but I like to prime the parts while still on the spruce and that’s hard with an a/b.

I use Gloss black enamel as a primer for natural metal finishes.

My best results with thinner are the ones made for a specific paint. Tamiya acrylic, Testors enamel for airbrush. Generic lacquer thinner is a good clean up solvent and even a good thinner for some paints. Humbrol comes to mind. But test first.

Im one of the dying breed who like Furure floor polish as a clear gloss coat.

I like Humbrol a lot.

I rarely mix colors, so I like paints that are fairly accurate.

I have found Tamiya to be close for IJn and other Japanese subjects, but not much of a match otherwise.

Humbrol is my favorite for RAF, Testors enamels for USN.

Great choice of airbrush. Cheap beginner airbrushed just cause frustration.

Anyone uses tabula rasa gets my attention.

Welcome!

Welcome, Gerard -

You will no doubt get several offers for recommendations of products, from modelers with experience and expertise within your interests. I'm strictly an aircraft modeler, so I can be of limited help.

First, for using and maintaining your airbrush, may I suggest you look up a website called "Don's Airbrush Tips," there you will find instructions for use, cleaning, assembling, etc. Very well worth the time for a detailed visit, and you will learn a great deal.

Regarding finishing products, for airbrushing I use Tamiya acrylics, for brush painting I use Vallejo Model Color. Many folks favor Humbrol, Model Air, Testor's, Mission Models, etc.

For clear coats I use mostly Testors Gloss Coat or Dullcoat, Alclad's clear coats or Microscale clears. But there are many more that are used by other modeler's, with very good results, by trial and error you'll find what works best for you.

For primer I use Badger's "Stynylrez," the gray and black work well, the white is a bit less useful for me.

May I also suggest you check out some modeling videos by very talented all around modelers, a few are "Scale a ton," "Plasmo" and "Paul Budzik," (I'm not certain of the spelling of Paul's last name, but a quick search will get you there. Spend a little time looking at their various builds, then you will have a great head start.

I think you'll hear from several others with suggestions and welcomes, and remember, questions along the way are very much OK. Enjoy your future modeling projects, I hope we'll see some of your finished work.

Patrick

Welcome aboard.

Welcome to the Forums!

Hello GMorrison, thanks a lot for the warm welcome and all the usefull tips sharing your expertise. I'm sure going to take your advice on using tamiya and humbrol for planes. I already have in mind some ideas after the Kawanishi, like a Messerschmitt with desert cammo and maybe a Junkers, other IJN planes, and there on the horyzon, the avro lancaster (for which I'll surely be looking for those Humbrol paints as you suggested)

As soon as I have all the materials and start working on my first model, I'll make sure to start a new post to show the progress and ask for advice if needed! I'm convinced that I can learn a lot in a short period of time sorrounded by skilled people like yourself.

Hello Patrick,

Thanks a lot for welcoming me and for all the advice. I'm taking a good look to the videos and airbrush maintenance page you pointed out. Clearly, I need to fully understand the airbrush before start using it myself.

I'm eager to get all the material I lack and start right away, sharing with the skilled people of this forum so you can evaluate and give some more advice!

Howdy !

Gerard C.

My concern here is: I only painted before with games workshop colours,

I use to build D & D figure's from Grenider, and Ral Partha , and loved the Game's Workshop paint's , as well as Citadel paint's ( Wish I could still get Citadel Flat coat.... that stuff was GREAT ! )

Gerard C.

I was thinking on acquiring rather tamiya or vallejo (either the air or colour ones) paints, maybe humbrol.

I just started using an airbrush ( been using "Rattle can's for 45 year's ) and the Vallejo air color's work just fine.

Tamya, and Testor's laquer's are my go to paint's ( Testor's Enamel's are good too. ) and I "Swear by" Testor's Glosscoat , and Dullcote.

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome to FSM Forums!

Your friend, Toshi

Welcome and I haven't been back at it long myself. Got my first airbrush and practiced, practiced, and practiced some more. I prefer to work with acrylics so I don't have to deal with the odors of enamel paint, and have had great succsess with tamiya paints.

For Primer I use stynylrez which works great for me and you can spray it with no thinning. The directions say 10 minutes and you can paint on it but I find that not to be true if you don't want your paint scraping off with your fingernail. so I let it cure a day or two. In fact I let all my paint cure for a couple of days as well.

I have used Pledge floor polish on a couple of models but have ordered some Tamiya clear coat both gloss and flat to try on my current project. So I'm still in the learning my preferred techniques and product stage of getting back at this.

Unfortunately we can't directly post pictures on this forum from our computers so you will need to use a photo hosting site if you plan to post pictures of your work.

Good luck and enjoy

Hi Gerard !

 Welcome Aboard !