Gunze Sangyo Mr. Color Paints

Don't have much to add beyond what others have said.  But will just add myself as saying I think the Mr. Color paints are the best spraying paints I have used so far.  I use the Mr. Leveling Thinner as well.   The paint just goes down beautifully.  It's the smoothest finish I ever get compared to the other brands I use.  I tend to spray with a 2:1 thinner to paint ratio and maybe even up to 3:1.  Someone doing a 1:1 might be spraying with a larger nozzle which would be more forgiving with thicker paints but that's just a guess.

Why is the Mr Hobby line from gunze so hard to find in the USA. You would think an acrylic would be easier to ship then a enamel like Mr color

These are wonderful paints for airbrushing. Always use Mr Color Leveling Thinner with them. You can thin them in the bottle and it will not change their shelf life. They are not great for brush painting however, and they have some minor adhesions problems so only use low tac tape when masking. I think their color accuracy if great as well. I painted this phantom with Mr Color paints:

I recently started using Mr. Color and I am completely sold. Just a beautifully spraying paint. As mentioned before, the drawback is the rather strong odor. I do suggest that you use Mr. Leveling Thinner with them as it definitely enhances the paints sprayability and results. Also, I suggest using Mr. Tool Cleaner for cleaning your airbrush. It works amazingly well. One spray through your airbrush and it's good to go. I'm a stickler for paint, thinner, cleaner compatibility and in the case of Mr. Color their products are fantastic together.

Encouraging words here. I have stocked up on Mr. Color for an upcoming GB and am interested in trying them. Someone said on another post that usually at least a 1:1 ratio is needed, using Mr. Color leveling thinner. Also, certain colors require a variation of that.

BlackSheepTwoOneFour

Mr Color is made by Gunze.

It's usually ill advised to return thinned paint back in the bottle. I would never do that whether it's enamel. acrylic or lacquer.

At least with Mr. Color, you would be throwing away good paint. I know that's conventional wisdom, but certainly doesn't apply here. 

Besides Model Master enamels and acrylics, very little Tamiya colors,  a LHS nearby has a small selection of Mr. Color paints. He also has a decent amount of Gunze Aqueous colors.

I used Mr Colour paints back in the 80s, they were fantastic sets. Never saw them again after the set I bought, I assumed they'd gone OOB, glad to hear they are still around. Wonderful stuff

Thanks for the input guys. I never thought the Tamiya paints were necessarily hard to clean until recently. I think I had a seal in my airbrush go bad like someone mentioned in another post. After further inspection I found hardened paint in the needle tube of the airbrush that for the life of me I'm unable to remove. I've enjoyed the Tamiya paints so far and I will continue to use them. I had just heard great things about Mr. Color and thought I would give them a try. I'll try the Windex as a cleaner and see if that removes the dried paint.

Tamiya is the easiest to clean from an airbrush. IPA or Windex completely removes cured Tamiya acrylics.  I shoot IPA or Windex after a painting session and my Iwata airbrushes get as clean as new.  How can cleaning be easier than that?  In fact, Tamiya is so easy to clean that the last time I disassembled my Iwata HP-CS & HP-B+ for thorough cleaning was about 18 months ago.  

Great paint. Stinks like a lacquer. Cleans up real easy. Airbrushes great. Brush paints like crap. Colors are overall nice and accurate. I mainly use Gunze's Aqueous version but have used Mr. color lacquers quite a bit.

I'll second Tucohoward - Gunze Sangyo are my favourite paint, without question. Spray beautifully and, I think, very easy to clean.

HOWEVER, i note you say that Tamiya Acrylics are a pain to clean from your airbrush. I would say Gunze and Tamiya are very very similar in many respects, save for their brush painting ability.

If you think Tamiya are a pain to clean, then i think you'll find the same with Gunze.

IMHO, i find Gunze and Tamiya the easiest paints to clean from an a/b.  

In terms of odour, yes, they still have one, but i don't know of many paints that don't.

No idea of toxicity, haven't really read or researched much into this myself, so i can't comment.

Mr Color is made by Gunze.

It's usually ill advised to return thinned paint back in the bottle. I would never do that whether it's enamel. acrylic or lacquer.

Best model paint on the planet, IMHO.  If you are looking for something with low to no odor, this isn't it.  Sprays great, large range of colors, can be masked over immediately, it's lacquer so you can just pour thinned paint back in the bottle. I have hundreds of  bottles of other paint that will probably never get used, now that I have found Mr. Color. II you try it, thin with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner.

Jay