larger paint quantities

A ridiculous question but a strong answer to that is No. House paint is not recommended because they're all latex paint. Hobby paints comes in small bottles so to answer your question, buy multiple bottles of same color or better yet, but spray cans (Tamiya, Model Master, or even Rustoleum for example). But in quarts or pints? No.

You really don't have a choice in the matter but work with what's available for hobby uses.

Depends on what type of paint you can live with.  I suspect there are companies selling larger quantities for the restoration market and museums.  You might contact people who restore old warbirds, museums featuring military equipment, etc.  There are also businesses who specialize in restoring old automobiles, whom you could ask.

Old, true story.  I used to work at McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis, and belonged to an EAA chapter there that included many MDD employees.  One of those members discovered that the company had just rejected a big shipment of Zinc Chromate primer in spray cans, for some trivial spec violation.  The shipment, a number of boxes each containing a couple dozen cans each, was sent to a local salvage store.  The word spread among the members and the shipment was soon sold out- I managed to pick up four or five cans.  Was useful for models as well as the homebuilt I was building.  Unfortunately, zinc chromate spray can primer was banned from the general market as a health hazard. Real ZC is now quite hard to get.  Its main use was priming aluminum and there are now a number of alternates for that use for those working with aluminum.  Sure a downer for scale modelers, though.

White, black, basic silver and chrome can sort of work. The issue there is thickness. 

And in lots of other ways these are also mediocre at best.

I've used custom color mix house latex for stuff made of wood like model railroad buildings. But it has a really high moisture content, takes forever to dry and I have found that I'm done with the project after a few ounces and still have almost a quart left.

Like BS2 said, maybe a little sharply, model paints were created for a reason. It's just a cost factor you need to account for. I'm finishing up a CV-2 Lexington in 1/350. I used spray paint in a can (Tamiya Hull Red), but the areas above waterline have probably consumed a dozen jars of MM by now.

I can't bear the thought of buying the kit, a bunch of PE, planes and spending 100 hours on it, only to look at the paint job and say "I really wish I hadn't done that".

Alsoo, for this type of project, the Bone, buy six jars of paint all at once from one source. It reduces the risk of any variation.

Here is my resoning with the paint: model paint, while very nice, is ungodly expensive for the minute amounts you get. in some applications it works imensly well, and I have had good luck with it. The aerosol cals, I have had less luck with, as all of my models end up either have a really heavy coat or a nasty run (or both). If I was to buy Rust-Oleum (I will use this as my main example as it is simply what I am most likly to use), I could control the paint-to-thinner ratio, and could also control how much paint was put down in a single coat. 

You can get Rust-Oleum as simply a enamel type paint (not the garbage laytex). also, as Rust-oleum owns the Testors brand, I have my bets that the paint would be of similar quality, but also in a larger container that would have half a chance of making it though a couple of models at a bit cheaper price.

that is just where I am at, as far as price, quality, and quantity are concerned.

Side question: for a larger project, roughly how many paint bottles do you go though?

Yes you can use other paints.  I do not use laytex based paints but many of the craft paints can be used.  They are acrylic and can be thinned.  With practice you can get very good at mixing the colors you need from just a handful of primary colors.  I also have used paint from auto parts stores, nail polish and paint decanted from spray cans.  If you can make is stick, thin it for airbrush then you can use any paint you want.

E Baker

Here is my resoning with the paint: model paint, while very nice, is ungodly expensive for the minute amounts you get. in some applications it works imensly well, and I have had good luck with it. The aerosol cals, I have had less luck with, as all of my models end up either have a really heavy coat or a nasty run (or both). If I was to buy Rust-Oleum (I will use this as my main example as it is simply what I am most likly to use), I could control the paint-to-thinner ratio, and could also control how much paint was put down in a single coat. 

You can get Rust-Oleum as simply a enamel type paint (not the garbage laytex). also, as Rust-oleum owns the Testors brand, I have my bets that the paint would be of similar quality, but also in a larger container that would have half a chance of making it though a couple of models at a bit cheaper price.

that is just where I am at, as far as price, quality, and quantity are concerned.

 

Side question: for a larger project, roughly how many paint bottles do you go though?

 

Shop around. Yes they can be expensive if you're constantly using the same color in each project. That's why I go the rattle can approach for larger projects ie: 1/48 or 1/72 scale B-52, B-17, B-24,  or whatever. But for 1/144 scale, not so much since it's a whole lot smaller and easier to manage - plus the space requirement isn't so demending as opposed to 1/48 or 1/72 scale omber aircrafts.

The trick to using rattle cans is spray in several light coats instead of one heavy coat. Don't spray too close too. That's probably the reason why you ended up with a heavy coat and runs to begin with. Again, DON'T SPRAY IN ONE HEAVY COAT OR TOO CLOSE!!! Spray in several LIGHT COATS! If you do that, you will have a good paint job.

For paint flow control nothing beats the air brush. I decant any rattle can paint I have except if it's a very large model. Again, the control you get with an airbrush surpasses rattle can application quality.

As far as model paints go, to me one bottle turns into 2 1/2 bottles after thinning. I find that extra thinned paint, flat or specially gloss airbrushes glass smooth. Why go with cheaper low quality paints that may have poor bonding qualities or compability issues  on plastic on that not so cheap model?

Another thought is not to go crazy buying too much paint cause the shelf life seems to be   deminishing  with the newer paints. I have some older Testors and Humbrol paints that are over 20 years old and are still good while new ones purchased have gone bad within a month or two.

E Baker

You can get Rust-Oleum as simply a enamel type paint (not the garbage laytex). also, as Rust-oleum owns the Testors brand, I have my bets that the paint would be of similar quality, but also in a larger container that would have half a chance of making it though a couple of models at a bit cheaper price. 

And, I rarely use Rustoleum much any more because in the last several years I've bought some (not all, see above) that have significant problems in the can. Sometimes the cans just stops working when they still seem to be about half full. No amount of cleaning or replacing the tip helps.

You may want to look for alternate brands such as Mission Model Paints or Tamiya paints that come in larger bottles. Tamiya’s Dark Gray is a reasonable substitute for Gunship Gray FS 36118. And I am pretty sure that Mission Models makes a Gunship Gray themselves.

That aside, although pricey, there is no reason that thinned airbrushed paints should cover all but the largest projects with a single bottle. If you are handbrushing, yes you will likely need more than one bottle on a very large subject such as perhaps a 1/48 B-1 or 1/72 B-36. 

But when you think about it and do the math, model paints are quite expensive. MSRP for 1/2 ounce of Modle Master is close to $4. $8 an ounce x 128 ounces in a gallon. Gasoline costs far less by the ounce, gallon, etc.  

But that's at best a tongue-in-cheek argument. On the one hand, gas is burdened by all kinds of taxes. On the other hand, it's production receives all kinds of subsidies, the price is market driven, and it's produced in somewhat larger quantities.

The same argument could be made about brass PE. Brass goes for about $ 1.70 a pound. A sheet of PE costs anywhere from $ 10 to $ 20. I've yet to see a five to ten pound sheet of PE.

Look at it as what it adds or subtracts from your outcome. I consider the most value by far of any project to be my time. I get billed at $ 150/ hr. at work, and I might spend 100 hours on a model. While there's no direct equivalent because I model in my spare time, if I do build a model at work that's what gets billed.

So if I self-invest all that money into a model at even a fraction of my usual billing rate, why save $ 10 on paint?

In my teens, I painted my SR-71 with a can of spray paint from the hardware store.  It was cheaper than a bunch of little bottles of Testors, but it repelled the decals.

GMorrison

And, I rarely use Rustoleum much any more because in the last several years I've bought some (not all, see above) that have significant problems in the can. Sometimes the cans just stops working when they still seem to be about half full. No amount of cleaning or replacing the tip helps.

When I am talking about Rust-oleum paints, I am not planning on useing paint srait from the spray can, rather from the larger pint/quart sized can that you could brush from, or thin and spray from.

Another part of the "house paint" theory that interests me is the part where you can take something in that was paint x number of years back, and have them "color match" it for you. In thoery, what is to stop someone from going into the store with a complete model, point to one part of it, and say "I want that color". (of course you would still have to makesure that the type of paint you are getting is compatable with the plastic)

Just some "food for thought".

Sherwin Williams Paints has an app called Color Snap.   I have it on my iPhone,  it may also be available for Android.  I would imagine that the other major paint retailers have a similar product

The app can access your camera and allows you to pick a spot on the screen.  It makes a chip of that color which compares to one of the standard SW color formulations.   It also can be used to create a custom color mix at SW.  I've used it to grab USCG red-orange.

The app also has a paint coverage estimator which would be good for the poster on another thread about painting a 1:1 subject.

Sure you can use any paint on a kit, but with varying degrees of density, how thin it goes on, ability to stick and the color. Model paints are formulated to adhere well, cover very thinly so you dont loose detail, dry hard and scratch resistent and in colors consistent to each other in a manufactured line. You can use the $1.00 craft paints at hobby lobby if you thin them correctly and seal them with future for scratch resistence, but getting them just right to use is tricky. It is all up to your needs, ablility, budget and especially talent to see if the less expensive alternatives work. After the cost of a kit, aftermarket possibly and my time and care in building I trust properly thinned model paints for my work and am never let down.

EdGrune

The app can access your camera and allows you to pick a spot on the screen.  It makes a chip of that color which compares to one of the standard SW color formulations.   It also can be used to create a custom color mix at SW.  I've used it to grab USCG red-orange.

so you have used "house paint" on one of you models, how did it go?

E Baker

 

 

EdGrune

The app can access your camera and allows you to pick a spot on the screen.  It makes a chip of that color which compares to one of the standard SW color formulations.   It also can be used to create a custom color mix at SW.  I've used it to grab USCG red-orange.

 

 

so you have used "house paint" on one of you models, how did it go?

 

He’s not stating that he used “House paint” on his kit but an app on his phone called Color Snap.

E Baker

 

so you have used "house paint" on one of you models, how did it go?

 

I walk in, give the counter man my phone and say I need a quart of oil-based enamel mixed to this. 

Brush paint as before

Went fine for my needs

My . I use mainly Vallejo Model Air Paints but for some colors that I use a lot of like light greys, whites, blacks and reds I use some of the craft paints from Johann Fabrics and Michels. They come in larger sized bottles and usually go for $1 a bottle. I've been there when they were on sale for 3 for $1. I thin them with distilled water @ 68 cents a gallon and have had no trouble with them in my AB. If they are the finish coat, I cover with a coat of Future.

It's up to you what you use. After all, it's your hobby and you're the only person you have to please. Enjoy.

Jim