To Paint Or Not To Paint

I have faith in Ace.  A while back I was looking for a light bulb that nobody carried in the stores.  Woman in Ace said we dont have it but can get it in 2 days.  She said that they can order almost anything.

Believe me, I feel your pain. I've spent many happy years airbrushing Floquil and Model Master solvent based paints. When I found out that Testors was discontinuing Floquil I stocked up on some of the colors, and did the same with MM. Since this is a temporary fix only, I've been experimenting with the Hataka Orange Line lacquers available from Sprue Bros. I really like them so far. I use their dedicated lacquer thinner to thin them, and they spray and cover beautifully. The colors are good matches for the prototype colors. They remind me very much of the old Floquil ( pre Testors ownership) lacquers.

Just my two cents on one possible solution

Tom

Thank your local enviro nazi's for insisting tiny bottles of paint are going to destroy their mother earth.

Tickmagnet

Thank your local enviro nazi's for insisting tiny bottles of paint are going to destroy their mother earth.

 

All my local hobby shops, as well as Michaels and HL carry both enamel and acrylic in the little square bottles.

Also try Scalehobbyist. They are good for paints.

Bill

I have switched over to Vallejo several years ago and have been much happier since, though I don't airbrush and primarily use a paint brush.  I especially love their primer paints.  Base coats are done via a Tamiya rattle can.

Well Tanker, you got me started on a rant too.  Things have really changed, for I feel the worse, of the quality and dependability of model paints.

Why can't any of the model paint suppliers make a yellow or red that is consistant anymore?

And why do I have to feel like a mad chemist who needs to buy specially formulated thinners and then experiment with ratios ever time I paint?

Painting is much more a chore than it was 30 years ago.  MM and Floquil had to have you use their specific thinner, but it seemed the paint was much more reliable and I could depend on a good coat every time based on a consistant mix procedure and airbrush setting.  Now, I have to make sure the humidity is right, the temperature is right, the ratio is "guessed" right, mutiple airbrush setting adjustments to find the sweet spot, and I have made a sacrifice to the paint god.  Even then, I return to see uneven pigment bleed, orange peel, fish eyes, and who knows what else.

And don't get me started about house paints!  I'm painting a bedroom and am having to do a 3rd coat because the pigment is nill and runs easily.  And two out of three cans has the pigment or gloss ratio off.

Ace and TrueValue really are the cats meow for hardware retail. Their stores are small, well stocked, and they have folks that can actually help you. They seem to know that the big box stores have only a limited selection of stock, require you to walk miles and miles to look for someting only to be told its not in stock at that store and you need to order it on-line to be delivered to that store, and people who seem think a plumb bob is something that goes into a toilet.  

Well folks, thats my rant.  Its good to get this off my chest since I am in the middle of two model builds and repainting the interior of my house, and my biggest headache for these projects seems to be modern paint availability and reliablity.

"...and people who seem think a plumb bob is something that goes into a toilet.."

LOL!!!

By the way, what IS a plumb bob?

A small part of what you describe, Scott, is that we were not the same modelers thirty years ago.

GMorrison

"...and people who seem think a plumb bob is something that goes into a toilet.."

LOL!!!

By the way, what IS a plumb bob?

A small part of what you describe, Scott, is that we were not the same modelers thirty years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

I did find a Plumb Bob app for my phone LOL.

Your right, we are not the same as we were thirty years ago.  I guess we adapt, and as I get older, I have reserved my right to complain about how the modern age is changing my hobby and reminisce about how great the good old days were, all the while as I make my own PE and 3D print my own parts, and having to decide among twenty some odd brands of paint to use.  

12 year old me had the choice of Testors or Pactra.

GMorrison

12 year old me had the choice of Testors or Pactra.

To be honest, I hate painting and have actually finished some modern kits like I would have at age 10; just unpainted plastic with some detail painting of items.

Pactra smelled better. Some people have memories of the aroma of turkey, homebaked apple pie and pine trees over Christmas, mine was the ordor of fresh applied enamel paint thickly applied with a $.10 brush and Dupont tube cement melting plastic.  

I also feel you pain TB as I'm considered an enamel dinosaur. I love my MM and Floquil enamels and stocked up on Floquil Platinum Mist, Old Silver and Bright Silver. The small Testors bottles are still around, HL has a ton of them and some MM enamels too but the line keeps vanishing.

I don't like acrylics because they don't behave like enamels but I'm experimenting with a couple of them right now. One thing is Tamiya paints are really easy to use and spray as good as enamels but the color selection is anemic. I have heard the new AK Real Colors line of solvent paints are fantastic so that may be my route once my MM paints run out. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-B4lQC4zPs)

MJames70;'

    Understand this . I have been building models for over sixty years. I do understand things come and go. My point was that when we had such a dependable and diverse selection in this product, why did it have to go away? You obviously never had to Brush Tamiya's or others Acrylic right out of the bottle. If you had ( without ) their thinner then you might understand. M.M. Right out of the bottle was just right for brushing or drybrushing. The Household I live in has severe allergies so I cannot airbrush.

      Brushability, Not Airbrushability ! and Consisistancy in the color quality is what made Model Master great. I have some from the late eighties that match some of the last I bought two years ago, with no differences in tone or depth of color. Not many brands can claim that. Humbrol did for many years. Also remember sir: I still do commission work. I can't be spending time in the work timeframe trying to find a paint that will work in a specific area. I have to get these projects delivered on schedule!

Hey Rob:

    I still have two very old Bottles of PACTRA Mandarin Red!. Know what? they are still useable today! Oh, and I have some of their International Orange too. The tiny Testors ? How about 24 perfect bottles of Chrome Silver. Shiny when applied but don't handle even years later ! It dulls out!

Here's one for you:

   Is it Plumb, Bob? This is one of the somplest tools ever invented by man. Right up there with a Level. Now, here's the Question, Who got the idea of putting mineral oil in a glass vial and encasing it in a piece of wood? Then putting marks on either side of the bubble so you would know it's level when centered? I don't know his name, But I think he existed between Pythagoras and Da-Vinci, or somewhere thereabouts?

Tanker-Builder

Here's one for you:

   Is it Plumb, Bob? This is one of the somplest tools ever invented by man. Right up there with a Level. Now, here's the Question, Who got the idea of putting mineral oil in a glass vial and encasing it in a piece of wood? Then putting marks on either side of the bubble so you would know it's level when centered? I don't know his name, But I think he existed between Pythagoras and Da-Vinci, or somewhere thereabouts?

 

The answer is here: 

https://montgomerylevel.wordpress.com/2009/02/12/history-of-the-bubble-or-spirit-level/

Hey!

 JohnnyK! Thank you for that. That now helps fill out my tool history trivia list. Who'da Thunk ?

My recollection is long before classic Greece, the Egyptians used hoses filled with water to level foundations.  They used the water hose to ensure water at each end off hose was at same level.  Even more accurate than a bubble level over long distances.

I don't remember reading about hoses, but the Egyptians did use water filled trenches. That gives you a level baseline from which you can measure height at any point along it.

I now mostly use Tamiya paints, withTamiya thinner. I do love the Tamiya paints.  I do use other paints when needed.  There are still a lot of paints here in our well stocked Hobby shops in the area.  By the way,  I still have my Plumb Bob with it's holster with retractable string for when I stared as a land surveyor in 1976.  Boy, does that take me back!

MJames70;

    It's not the point of adapting to change at all. It's being forced to do it without time to find a similar Alternative. Some of those environmentally friendly paints are just as damaging to the ecosystem as the old stuff.

    Change for the sake of change makes no sense. If you still need lacquer thinner type solvents for acrylics then you've solved NOTHING. Useability in all venues should be a primary drive too. Have you even tried to brush Tamiya right out of the bottle? Rotsa Ruck !!