PAINT - - LifeColor vs.Polly - S . & HUMBROL

tankerbuilder

 DOOGS what is the best brand overall , in both selection of colors and workability with both a brush or airbrush .I just can,t afford to keep changing up .I do commission work yes ,BUT , With the things the way they are I am lucky to have the two long term clients I have . The economy knocked me down from three to four a year to these two who are long term because of what they are contracted for .So far the other stuff is mine and I shake so bad at times I don,t enjoy two coating a model if you know what I mean ? ALAMO SQUADRON / IPMS show here I come !! Gonna be there ? Look for me around HILL COUNTRY HOBBIES or KING,S TABLE between wanderings  . I will be the "CSI" cap wearer .           tankerbuilder

Honestly, I don't think there's a perfect paint. I've tried tons and found drawbacks with each. But in terms of brushability, airbrush workability, color selection, availability, and durability, I think Testors enamels are the best all around. They don't spray quite as nice as Tamiya or Gunze, don't brush as well as Vallejo, but they're pretty solid across the board. 

Not sure if I'll make Tito SATX for the show.  Hoping to, especially if I can get "Magic Carpet" wrapped by then. But it's far enough and long enough that it's a negotiation with the wife. 

Hey , DOOGS , that is part of my beef too .I never had tape issues with the old HUMBROL and POLLY S paints. I don.t usually take my brush and paint from the bottle either.That is something I stopped doing years ago .I just never could get in the habit of a touch of thinner a touch of paint .That is the way my first wife used to do with her portrait painting .I just never saw the need for changing from the " newbie ,paint from a jar ,wipe on the rim sort of thing .Whu ? Well , I guess it comes from modeling aboard a ship .When she rolls the color WILL run off any kind of pallette .So straight from the bottle it had to be .I had a rack for my paints and put the one I was using in a model truck tire to prevent spillage.In your opinion ,DOOGS what is the best brand overall , in both selection of colors and workability with both a brush or airbrush .I just can,t afford to keep changing up .I do commission work yes ,BUT , With the things the way they are I am lucky to have the two long term clients I have . The economy knocked me down from three to four a year to these two who are long term because of what they are contracted for .So far the other stuff is mine and I shake so bad at times I don,t enjoy two coating a model if you know what I mean ? ALAMO SQUADRON / IPMS show here I come !! Gonna be there ? Look for me around HILL COUNTRY HOBBIES or KING,S TABLE between wanderings  . I will be the "CSI" cap wearer .           tankerbuilder

I realized after I posted that ,yes , HUMBROL is available again .I used to do ALL my clients ships with their colors .I especially was fond of their "deck bleached teak " which my LHS tells me is not in the line up anymore .He doesn,t stock it but he has offered to get what I need .As far as two coats of acrylic to get the job done ,That is not an option when you are on a deadline on a customer build . I guess that what I am saying is why can,t they all get together and do it right ? You know , one coat  coverage with no brush streaks .Just like good PACTRA enamels did for the modeler before rattle cans ?     tankerbuilder

TarnShip

LifeColor makes a Thickener agent if you want to brush paint and are not happy with the paint texture

I'm actually very happy with it's texture off the brush. Just not so much with it's coverage. 

Honestly, though, I know I personally won't be switching anytime soon. My biggest issue with Lifecolor is my same biggest issue with Vallejo - it's very difficult to thin them down before you run into spidering and separation issues. And it tends to clog up smaller needle/nozzle sizes. Love the way the stuff sprays when it's dialed in, but I can't do fine work with it, or fading-type work that I can do with Gunze, Tamiya, and to an extent Testors. That and, despite the article, I don't entirely trust LC under tape. And I tend to mask A LOT!

I'm gonna miss Poly Scale.I've been using it for years.I've never been a big fan of Model Master.

I just switched to LC a short time ago

It sticks very well to their own primer,,,,,and their primer is working perfectly as a primer for me under the Vallejo colors

I had to go with a LifeColor and Vallejo combo in order to get all the colors I needed,,,,,or I would have stayed with LifeColor only

This all came about because right after I got all switched from Enamel paints to PolyScale,,,,,,Testor's pulled the rug out on me with PolyScale (two months after getting the final color, they started cutting colors from PolyScale, lol)

LifeColor makes a Thickener agent if you want to brush paint and are not happy with the paint texture

Lifecolor brushes pretty well - as said it's a bit too thin out of the bottle to get truly excellent coverage. It can airbrush quite well, but you'll want to put primer down, and also know that Lifecolor grabs to itself better than any primer, so you're going to be going in at least two coats. 

Cleanup is super-easy. I use Windex followed by a water flush.

I say give the stuff a shot. 

Tanker, I can't speak for why the author "had to" dip the brush in thinner before the paint, but, I can tell you why I have always done it with any model paint I have ever used (since about 5 years into my modeling time)

I do it because it is the way brush painting is done, you dip the brush into your matching thinner, then blot some off or don't blot it,,,,,,and then lay the brush into your color in or on your palette, thus loading the brush for a few strokes on the model,,,,,,the thinner sort of "chases" the paint off the end of the brush onto your work surface, clean up is far easier afterwards, also

it is the same method that painters use when working with brush paints,,,,,,,

the method of just dipping the brush into a paint jar and grabbing a glob of paint, tapping/or scraping that on the rim and scrubbing it all off onto a model is a "plastic model newbie" method, and is the #1 thing at the root of the "I can't brush paint well" complaints,,,,,,that method also ruins countless brushes, by getting paint or thinners up into the ferrule that holds the bristles, weakening those, and having those bristles then fall out of the brush

I understand some of your frustration, but not everything. You asked why can't we have Humbrol back. While there may have been times in the past where it was tough to get, right now Humbrol is readily available online from places like Squadron, and straight from Hornby America at www.airfix-usa.com . Both places carry full lines of Humbrol acrylic and enamels. I bought a small lot from Hornby just a few weeks ago.

Given the dominance of Testors and Tamiya in the USA,, it is not too likely you are going to find racks of it at many local hobby shops, though. Paint racks are a serious investment for the retailer, and one that frequently has very slow return on investment. Even with deals for 'free' hardware like racks, many distributors force your local retailer to buy paint in standard shipping lots, usually 6 jars of a shade at once. At the typical store cost of 60% of retail, that means they have to sell 4 of those 6 jars to even start making any money! Easy perhaps for something like Panzer Gray or Olive Drab; a lot tougher when you have to try to sell at least 4 of 6 jars or Italian underside blue....

Not sure if you were aware, but the PollyScale brand acrylics were sold a number of years ago to and were manufactured by Testors, up until their cancellation around a year or so ago. I agree over all they were better paints and had a better selection than Model Master acrylics. But as the owner of both brands, someone at Testors probably finally said 'why are we making two brands of paint for the same hobby market?'. When that point came, I think Testors decided to continue with the Model Master brand and dump PollyScale due to its stronger brand recognition among hobbyists, tying in as does with the enamels and tools also marketed under the Model Master name. There are still some out there at local shops and available from Testors, but no pun intended, supplies of PollyScale are drying up fast now that it has been discontinued. The LHS had a closeout on its PollyScale rack about 6 months ago...Only the PollyScale acrylic railroad colors are still in production. 

Finally, I have used LifeColor myself, and can tell you they recommend only their own thinner or water for airbrushing and cleanup. I had no difficulty brush painting it on a 1/700 Trumpeter USS South Dakota I built a few months back. I did have to clean my brush and mix up the paint again once in a while during long brush painting sessions, but I do not consider that  unusual. One thing I would say is that it is not a one coat coverage paint. Even with the dark Navy blues I was using, it took at least two coats to get a satisfactory finish. Overall I was satisfied with them, and would use them again.

Hopefully this has helped some, and if you have any other questions, I will certainly try to help. I am no paint 'experten', but I have used almost every brand out there!