help with Vallejo Model Color acrylic behavior

update: i brushed it with distilled water again last night and let it sit. woke up this morning and it looked a lot more even, no spots. Vallejo contacted me back and said to airbrush it. uhh, ok, haha. 1. i don't have an airbrush and 2. i got these paints because they said they'd work for brushing small areas. textxure, ok, fine, but this is uneven color and/or strange color behavior. anyway, i am wondering how long i should wait now to coat with matte varnish. the distilled water disappears fast so i'm sure it's being absorbed. i'll probably wait overnight one more time if i don't hear anything that opposes my line of thinking and then varnish it tomorrow.

I'm not sure about your problem,but maybe it wasn't noticed.If no one answers p,try the Painting/Airbrushing section lower down.

I only had brush the Model Color and Spray the Model Air,so not sure myself.

Maybe it's the clear plastic,maybe it needed primer.

ok thanks. maybe i'll ask moderation to move this to that forum.

ok thanks, they moved it! i appreciate the tip.

here are some additional pics:

after seeing heat:


after being brushed repeatedly with distilled water and left alone for a while. i just checked it again and it still looks good. i'll wait a bit and top it with matte varnish to see what happens.

i know i'm pretty much talking to myself here but i wanted to put this out there in case anyone else has a similar issue and uses the search feature of the forum. the last time i brushed it with distilled water was early this morning. it looked fine tonight so i decided to mask the frame and the bottom of the strip and coat with matte varnish. it came out nice. i had to do some very creative trimming of the tape ridge at the bottom of the black strip, as the varnish had created a whitish raised line on the edge of the paint. having a fresh Swann Morton scalpel blade made that possible but wow was it an exacting process. remember, this is a 1/43 model, haha. so, in summation, brushing repeatedly with distilled water days after the fact somehow made the spots stop appearing and then i was able to varnish to a satisfactory finish. i will post pictures tomorrow.

  Is that a gloss black or flat?

it's just their regular Model Color black, which is pretty flat...though it's not called flat or matte.

I have both Vallejo & Tamiya acrylics.  I have to make Vallejo work, whereas Tamiya just works.  I much prefer Tamiya.

I do like the small pastilc bottles

  I would agree with you, for me both Tamiya and MM provide more predicable and reliable results. The original Vallejo Model color line has a great consistency for brush painting and of course the little bottles are better for dispensing paint.

thanks all. i appreciate the replies. my responses show up very late because every one has to be approved by moderation before it posts. that can take a couple days. i'm sorry for the delays.

i bought these paints specifically because everyone touted them as being ideal for brush painting and they are completely water cleanup, which is nice. i used to use MM/Testors stuff several years ago, enamels, not acrylics and it was such a hassle, although the results were satisfactory.

as a couple days have passed since i topped this with the Vallejo matte varnish, it has been fine.

i think i need to invest in an airbrush for situations like this where i'm painting broader areas, and also, where it can be sensitive to a raised tape line. though i think if it thinned the paint down more and did thinner coats, it would cause less of a raised line. i don't know yet. like i said, i'm used to using enamels and i used to mask a lot with parafilm and tamiya tape and overcoat pretty much everything. with these little cars, i'm not overcoating stuff.

ok, thanks again.

   It took awhile for me to get used to using Valejo paints, it sounds like the paint wasn't completely cured in those spots or maybe there was some surface contaminant.

   Glad you got it fixed.