Gunze GSI Mr Hobby Aqueous Paint Advice

The GSI Creoa "Aqueous" paints are similar to Tamiya acrylics, but not quite the same.

They airbrush excellently and can be airbrushed straight from the bottle (they are slightly thinner than Tamiya acrylics), but will yield better results if thinned. They can be thinned using GSI Creos Aqueous thinner, Tamiya X-20A acrylic thinner or Isopropyl or ethyl alcohol. The label says it can be thinned with water, but I prefer not to use water.

Thinning ratios can vary depending on your equipment setup and your individual painting style, eg. I like to thin my paints right out and build depth using multiple coats. You may need to experiment a little to find what's suitable for you. Start at 2:1 (Paint : thinner) and work from there

Being alcohol based, they don't seem to brush paint too well. I find that they flash-dry and "skin" very quickly (much like when brush painting Tamiya acrylics). I haven't tried brush painting with these paints extensively because I primarily airbrush them. They may (like Tamiya) brush better when thinned slightly, but I haven't really tried this yet.

Thanks Phil, here in NZ it seems pretty difficult to get the Mr Color paints which I was originally hoping to use, but the aqueous paints sound good.

Is there any other brand you could recommend for the brush painting bits?

The horror stories of Tamiya Acrylic and Gunze Aqueous not painting well are legion. That's for large surface areas. Small touch up areas and detailing are perfectly fine with either paint. What you don't want to do is rush the paint job and try to do a second coat too quickly.

Hands down, the best paint I've found for brush painting is the Vallejo range. If figures are your particular area of interest, Vallejo's Model Color range are highly recommended. I'm not sure of availability over in NZ, they're pretty scarce here in Australia too, I order mine online from LuckyModel in HK.

OK thanks all- I will give the GSI aqueous a go. I was intending on using it to airbrush the actual spaceship, so I'm thinking it should be ok to paint a couple of 1/48 scale pilots using a brush?

In this situation how much should I be thinning?

I don't normally thin the paints first for hand brushing, but I do put a bit of thinner in a bottle cap and dip the brush into that before painting.