Paint choice

Personally I’m a big fan of Humbrol, both Enamel and acrylic. They handbrush superbly and airbrush great as well. Not to mention that they also have an extensive line of colors.

I like Humbrol for several reasons. It hand brushes well, it lasts forever in the tin, and the colors seem very close to matching original spec.

I also like the White Ensign Colourcoat enamels for Navy subjects.

I have never much liked Tamiya paint; I use it a lot but it's "OK" in color.

I'm trying out AK. It is good airbrush paint and easy to mask and clean up. I am not so impressed with the colors, they seem bright.

Thanks guys. I have used Humbrol and MM enamels and love them but their longer drying time and my limited build time cause a conflict of interest. 

Glad to get that feedback on the color brightness of AK though. It’s something I’ll keep in mind. 

There really isn't anything wrong with MM acryl, they get a bad rap because some guys seem to think they shouldn't need to use primer. Well primer helps any paint stick to plastic better, even lacquer and enamels ( I've done the tests). Just so happens there isn't any fudge room with acryl, you need to prime and then it sticks great and dries very hard too. Yes you do have to mix it well. Use it right and it will treat you right is my personal experience. Just like with the enamels keep the bottle and cap threads clean.

Non the less I can't get totally away from solvents, sometimes it just has "the look" so to speak or the color is only available in it. I couldn't find a true suitable yellow in acrylic for the 1/16 scale Mercer build so on that I have opted for MM enamel over medium grey primer. So far so good, still many parts to paint yellow though. I'm in no rush, it will get done eventually. I almost went with Tamiya acrylic but to me the tone was off just a touch. Rather than keep searching I went with what I knew, MM enamel and I'll just deal with the dry times is all. It's not like I need the Mercer done to take it on a trip somplace, heck it sat in the box in a crawl space for 40 years, no sense rushing now lol !!

I'm an enamel guy mostly.  I often do models that require gloss finishes, and find that too hard to do with acrylics.  Also, have had acrylics dry too fast in my airbrush, and don't want to bother experimenting with retarder.  I like MM because of the color selection.

I have used acrylics to make sure I could still paint, after hearing rumor of disappearance of enamels, but as long as they are still around I will use them.

I find enamels brush as well as they spray.

Don Stauffer

I'm an enamel guy mostly.  I often do models that require gloss finishes, and find that too hard to do with acrylics.  Also, have had acrylics dry too fast in my airbrush, and don't want to bother experimenting with retarder.  I like MM because of the color selection.

I have used acrylics to make sure I could still paint, after hearing rumor of disappearance of enamels, but as long as they are still around I will use them.

I find enamels brush as well as they spray.

Tamiya gloss acrylic comes out pretty nice and their clear gloss acrylic is nice. Many acrylic gloss paints kind of haze a bit so my cure for that is to clear coat with Tamiya clear thinned with lacquer thinner. But indeed, MM enamel is pretty sure fired for a natural looking gloss finish with no clear coat required.

I recently built a 39 Ford sedan from AMT in 1/25 scale trying to sort of duplicate one from memory that I built in 1961 or 62, shot it with craft paint and clear coated it with Tamiya clear. It came out pretty nice but admit it isn't quite enamel either. Not sure where I'm headed with this, maybe that acrylics are great for flats and semigloss, interiors etc.... Tough to beat enamel gloss for a natural finish. Tamiya clear over acrylic leaves a bit of the wet look, can be buffed, might not have to buff ( I didn't buff the 39).

oldermodelguy

There really isn't anything wrong with MM acryl, they get a bad rap because some guys seem to think they shouldn't need to use primer.

That's an interesting perspective.

Greg

 

That's an interesting perspective.

 

Just an observation Greg. I had a couple of different guys from two different forums suggest this to me. That they didn't need to prime using enamel but acryl just peels off. And from that they concluded that acryl is just lousy paint. So me being me had to test this out and I found that MM acryl sticks fine If you use primer and if not, then indeed it doesn't stick. But I went the next step and tested enamel paint sprayed straight to plastic and enamel paint sprayed over primer and found it much easier to scrape ( actually just with a finger nail) off the bare plastic test subject ( prescription pill bottles) . So then went the next step and tried it with lacquer fingernail polish, same result. In all cases paint ( top coats) stuck to plastic better with a primer base applied. And fwiw the primer I used was Stynylrez and as good as Stynylrez is we could probably all agree there are more agressive primers out there.

Conclusion non the less: they make primer for a reason.

I had issues with MM acrylic coming off when masking when I didn't prime.  I use their laquer rattle can primer, scuffed with a grey "scotchbrite" pad, and no more issues with it coming off when pulling tape.

Tamiya works well for me, and going to try some Humbrol acrylic on an Airfix kit in the near future, but have to wait until I get back to Portland and stop at the LHS up there (only place out here that handles it without ordering online).

Greg

 

 

oldermodelguy

There really isn't anything wrong with MM acryl, they get a bad rap because some guys seem to think they shouldn't need to use primer.

 

 

That's an interesting perspective.

 

 

Yes, primer helps. But it should not be an absolutely necessary step, for hand brushing or airbrushing. At least not on basic styrene. Yeah, I’m “one of those guys”. There are plenty of choices out there nowadays. I’ll stick with the brands that require the least fuss. And for me, that means pretty much moving away from Model Master paints, both enamels and acrylics. Their quality control has gone downhill, their paint line is shrinking, and there are better products now out there. It was nice while it lasted.