Noob with airbrush questions on paint options

Unless you plan on building mostly Russian / soviet subjects, or have no concern over price, I would go with Tamiya acrylics to start with. They are easy to find, cheap, airbrush great, and ez to brush paint as well--especially now that tamiya sells a retarder... some folks will tell you other brands are not that expensive when you consider the quantity of paint you get, but remember that many of those brands are 'airbrush ready', so you are paying for 50 to 30 % thinner...Regardles, I can get 10 separate colors of tamiya at my hobby shop for less than $20 USD... well, that is my opinion... happy modeling

Oh, one more thing. I have used and still have numerous bottles of other brands such as testors/model master, polly scale, Mr color , gunze aqueous, vallejo... but I usually reach for Tamiya when I need a color...

Tamiya is good for Japanese subjects, but might require mixing to get the color/shade needed.  I've mostly used MM acrylic and Tamiya, but have some MRP, Vallejo, AK, and MIG on hand.  Shot some of the Vallejo, but you want to let it dry completely before masking over it.  Most say their primer is junk.  Tamiya white or grey are my go-to's.

Lot of kits give color callouts for Mr Color.  Need to clean the airbrush with laquer thinner, as they are an acrylic lacquer.

As to a color guide, FSM did an issue in winter of 2020, called "building and detailing aircraft".  It includes cross reference to the major paint brands and their color numbers for most all countries from WWI to present.  Can order from FSM or check with some hobby shops.  Around $11.

I literally just received this today with my subscription.  But it doesn't have the Meng colors in it which is fine.  I think I can wade through and find them.  

I watched Russian fellow on YouTube make a Mig with Mr Color used a lot.  His videos were excellent too!

I literally just received this today with my subscription.  But it doesn't have the Meng colors in it which is fine.  I think I can wade through and find them.  

I watched Russian fellow on YouTube make a Mig with Mr Color used a lot.  His videos were excellent too!

goldhammer88

Tamiya is good for Japanese subjects, but might require mixing to get the color/shade needed.  I've mostly used MM acrylic and Tamiya, but have some MRP, Vallejo, AK, and MIG on hand.  Shot some of the Vallejo, but you want to let it dry completely before masking over it.  Most say their primer is junk.  Tamiya white or grey are my go-to's.

Lot of kits give color callouts for Mr Color.  Need to clean the airbrush with laquer thinner, as they are an acrylic lacquer.

As to a color guide, FSM did an issue in winter of 2020, called "building and detailing aircraft".  It includes cross reference to the major paint brands and their color numbers for most all countries from WWI to present.  Can order from FSM or check with some hobby shops.  Around $11.

 

I literally just received this today with my subscription.  But it doesn't have the Meng colors in it which is fine.  I think I can wade through and find them.  

I watched Russian fellow on YouTube make a Mig with Mr Color used a lot.  His videos were excellent too!

I use mostly MRP for airbrushing now, with occasional use of all of the Tamiya paint that I had before trying MRP.  MRP has been a huge time saver, since it is fully cured in less than an hour.  Another thing that saves time with it is not having to clearcoat prior to putting decals on.  Their paints, unless specified otherwise on the bottle, are all semi-gloss paints which take decals quite nicely.  After decaling and weathering, you have 4 different sheens of clearcoat available from MRP...and that too fully cures in less than an hour.  The durability of it, out of all of the model paints I have used, is absolutely unmatched.  Once it cures, its almost as if your model was molded in that color, because the paint isn't fragile...doesn't flake or wear off with normal handling while you're continuing to build, and after that hour-long cure time, no matter what color you paint with, you will NOT burn into the paint and leave permanent fingerprints.  Definitely take a look at their web-site, because they have a pretty extensive selection for aircraft and armor of all kinds of different countries.  They have pretty much all of the US military FS and ANA colors that Model Master used to offer back in the good old days.  Recently, I discovered on accident that it is also 100% impervious to enamels and their thinners, so if you use enamel paints for hand brushing details and screw it up (as we all have done from time to time), even the biggest misplaced brush stroke can be erased with a q-tip dampened with enamel thinner...and it absolutely WILL NOT even so much as cause the MRP to bleed even a little.  Because of that discovey, I recently bought a bunch of the little, cheap, Testors square bottle paints to do detail work with.  Heh...I know sometimes I sound like I own stock in MRP, but its just that good.  For me, time is money, so I don't mind at all paying extra to save time and extra steps.

BTW...if you really screw something up and have to strip and repaint, it can be stripped easily with isopropyl alcohol and a cheap electric toothbrush, just like all other model paints.

M33

Lastly.....is there a way to get a color code that is a cross reference for all the manufacturers?  Let's say Meng wants me to use MC-101 (their version).  Is there a place that cross references all the colors from different manufacturers so I am not stuck with that one option?

Look for the iPhone iOS app Model Color in the App Store.  I'm sure there is a similar app for the Android system

Model Color has an extensive list of hobby paint manufacturers products showing paint "chips".   There is also a section on Standards including Fed-Std, BSC, RAL, RLM, etc .  
There is a similar-to function that allows you to compare your known paint to something in your stash, something in your favorite product, or in all products. You can adjust your level of similarity (DeltaCIE).   

Example; Meng MC101 Transparent Red is strongly similar to Games Workshop Air Tuskgor Fur acrylic paint,among others  

It's a free app, the shopping list function alone is worth it

There are multiple other web pages which offer color comparison opinions between various brands, many now out of production