Model Shipways Paints from Model expo

I bought some about a dozen years ago.   It was unusable mud.   I chucked the whole shipment & marked the whole thing a loss.   Caveat emptor.

Other, more recent, customers may have different opinions on their QA processes.

The brand is under new ownership.  I attended a forum at the Manitowac model ship show a few years ago, and the new proprietor dealt with the new technologies he is using. I tried a bottle of the stuff, and found it worked fine, but wish it were available at LHS. I hate having to buy paint on line.  Fortunately, I have not needed an ochre since then- a good ochre is indeed hard to find at LHS.

I bought a big assortment of MS paints a long time ago (somewhere between 10 and 20 years ago), and had mixed luck with them. Some of the colors worked fine; others had the consistency of syrup, and were just about unusable. But Don is right: the stuff Model Expo is selling now is completely different. I've bought four or five different colors in the past few months, and they all work fine.

There are lots of good colors in that line. I particularly like the "warm white," a very slightly off white that, to my eye, is just right for lots of sailing ship uses. There's also an off-black, called "iron/cannon black," that's slightly different from pure black ("hull/spar black"); just the thing to distinguish iron fittings from black-painted ones. Also a couple of buffs that look nice for various painted parts of a sailing ship.

One possible source of confusion is the color called "hull copper red." It doesn't look like copper; it's a dark, brownish red. It's a really good match for the anti-fouling red paint that's been in use on wood ships and boats since the very late nineteenth century. That prototype pain looks bright copper when it's brushed on, but oxidizes to the dark, dull red within a few hours of application. I really like the ME color, and intend to use it on the bottom of my current project, a fishing schooner from about 1912.

I haven't tried any of the metallics yet.

Painting wood or plastic? On plastic, I used a 4:1 mixture of

Polly Scale "Yellow-orange" and Testors MM "Wood" acrylics.

I can't assume that polly scale paint is around any more.

This is a plastic kit and  the only one I will get is the yellow ochre. Im not crazy about acrylics except for Tamiya but I dont see a yellow color in that range that would work for yellow ochre.

Bill

Then I think you definitely do not want the Model Shipways paint.

Model Shipways (or Model Expo) paints are acrylics. They work fine on plastic. I'm speaking, though, as an Olde Phogey brush painter. I have no idea how they work in airbrushes.

I personally like acrylics. My favorites are the now gone Poly-Scale, Lifecolor, Model Expo, and Vallejo. (I've just started using Vallejo in the past few months; so far I like them.) Testor's "Acryl" range is ok, but I haven't used it much.

Never tried them. Generally I like enamels except for airbrushing.

I may try to mix my own with enamels. Im not sure but I think yellow with a drop of red to start, and maybe a little blue. Yellow Ochre looks like mustard to me but I could be wrong.

Bill

Rather than blue go striaght to brown

Ok I will give it a try. I think I will use the little square testors enamels and mix up enough for the whole project.

Bill