Tamiya acrylic or enamel

1. the choice is yours, I use acrylic because of the ease in clean up, but a lot of people swear by thier enamels. Here are dome good and bad points for each..

ACRYL

GOOD: Ease in clean up, dries fast, easily thinned, safer in confined spaces (still use a respirator though) more flexible.

BAD: Can dry super fast, even at times, on the tip of your a/b, less durable

ENAMEL

GOOD: good coverage, more readliy availble in Asian countires, stands up to weathering better

BAD: Stinks, like smells, clean up can get hairy, more solvents and chemicals used, using a respirator is a must!

2. Again that is up to you, 10 people will tell you use dark, black color as an undercoat, and 10 people will tell you use a ight base coat.  Try both decide what you like

3. Can but I would chose one medium and stick to it.

4. Nope vice versa, it's either to thick or your applying to much!  Shake your paint for at least 2 mins. before use. Also a good brush is a must, don't skimp on your brushes!

5. No sure if there is a guide how to choose, but why not learn for yourself.

Hi Neo, welcome to the boards.

Are you strictly a brush painter or do you airbrush as well?

If you're strictly brush, clean up is fairly easy for both paints; it's just a matter of swishing the brush around in the correct cleaner.

But with either paint, you need to thin it before brushing it on, otherwise, as you have already experienced, you'll end up with brush marks.  Now there are brush painters around here who do better than some airbrushers, so hopefully they'll see this and chip in with some tips.

I do some minor brush painting with tamiya acrylics.  I find the best way to do it is to dip the brush in thinner, wipe most of it off, then dip it in the paint.  Try not to go over the same area for about 48hrs.  The acrylics need time to cure before you paint over them.  Otherwise, you chance curling the first layer, which is a big PITA.

HTH,

Fred

Thanks for the advise guys, you are all legend.

I think I will go with Acrylic this time. I am still at entry level of fine scale modelling, so I still use brush, I've heard lots of people saying that enamel is less likely to leave brush mark than acrylic, not sure if that's true, but I will soon find out.