Airbrush Paint Question

For airbrushing, I've used Tamiya's acrylics, thinned with their proprietary thinner; Model Master, thinned with mineral spirits; White Ensign, also thinned with mineral spirits; and cheap craft store acrylics, thinned with isopropyl.  All worked pretty well, passing through the airbrush.  It was really a matter of thinning till the mixture looked about right to my eye, and setting the pressure appropriately.  But then, that's pretty much true of airbrushing any type of model.  The only thing I will say is that the craft store acrylics tended to dry a little gritty, because they tend to have more coarsely-ground pigments than paints that are formulated for airbrushing.

That's a rule of thumb that I do tend to follow now--I look for products formulated specifically for airbrushing, where possible.  And if a manufacturer makes its own thinner and recommends it, I'll use it.  I learned that lesson with the Tamiya paints.  For me, airbrushing Tamiya paints, I got my best results with their brand of acrylic thinner.

Personally I still use Testors MM enamel on my ships.  I can find it at my local Michaels craft store if I don't want a long drive to my LHS.

Thanks for the help!  As far as colors, the ships in question almost all have sails, so mostly fairly basic colors will be required (though some colors such as the off white/yellowish color for pre-copper bottomed ships will have to be mixed).  After some further research, it looks like I will go with the Vallejo for most of the ship and other scale models.  Badger on the other hand looks to have a much better selection for my model railroad needs. Here again though some color mixing will be needed, as Santa Fe structure colors were never produced by anyone, and the only info I have found references mixing now out of production paints.

If your going to go the mail order route have a look for AK interactive as they do a set for German WW2 ships which you can use right from the bottle which may have some colours you can use

Phil

The color selection at the local Hobby Lobbies which I have been to is really rather basic and seems to cater to mostly aircraft & armor colors (with some figure stuff for good measure) .

The various grays used on naval subjects will have to be mixed.    There is really no out-of-the-bottle solution for many of these colors.   If you google around you will come up with various recipes for peoples' favorite colors.

If you intend to go deeply into Vallejo colors you will likely need top resort to the mail order route to fill your palette/

Even within the Vallejo ModelColor range, the consistency of the paint can vary between runny and pasty, depending on the colour.

Thinning ratios are best determined on an individual basis.

You might want to check out the Vallejo Air Users guide (by Vallejo)

http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/en_US/model-air-user%E2%80%99s-guide/blog/1/39

I also find the FAQ page by Vallejo to be helpful

http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/en_US/model-paints/faqs/3

I have found some contradictory information from Vallejo, but on the whole it is good information IMO.

As a new Vallejo user about 1 1/2 yrs ago, I found the differences between Vallejo Air and Vallejo Model Color a bit overwhelming. Unless your Hobby Lobby is better stocked than mine, guessing you are buying Vallejo Model Color. Make sure you don't confuse 'how-to'  info between the products as their characteristics are different.

Sure Vallejo could be used for anything.They do have a few different lines, like Model Air for airbrushing, and Model Color which is good for brush painting but must be thinned for use in an airbrush.Vallejo Thinner works well, some say a retarder is needed so it doesn't dry so easily in the tip and clog.Those are some basics, try the paint forum or Google Vallejo.

I would try this question in the Painting and Airbrushing forum.  You should get good answers there.