What is the best paint (enamels or acrylics)for airbrushing camo?
Man, JM -
This could fill your mail box with so many ideas. For myself I use mostly Model Master enamel FS colors, primarily because it affords my greatest comfort level based on experience. MM works well for me, I can thin it as needed, it sprays very well and seems fairly consistent from batch to batch, pretty durable when cured in two - three days.
I’ve tried a few of the different acrylics, I like them OK, but my low experience level with them has posed some minor issues and resprays, my fault, not theirs. So far I like Tamiya acrylics best, very agreeable to work with, superior finish when it’s done well, durable and holds up well when handling.
Some other acrylic brands have been quite inconsistent from bottle to bottle of the same color, they can also be touchy about thinning, etc. Again, my experience with them being minimal does not really amount to solid feedback.
If you’re fairly new to camo work, I’d say Model Master enamel might be a good place to jump in. I hope Don Stauffer will stop by, he’s well able to give sound recommendations, with his considerable experience.
Patrick
There’s really no right or wrong answer which type of paint to use for camo. Every one has their own favorite. Most of my paints are acrylics, and I have several brands on hand - Model Master Acrylics, Gunze Aqueous/Mr. Color, Life Color, Vallejo, Humbrol, Tamiya, Aeromaster, Pollyscale (very few bottles), and a couple Akah bottles as well. The reason is the low odor and easy cleanup.
I’d say go with what brand you prefer to use.
Start with looking for the colours you need, and what you can get locally.
No point in reading about rainbow colours made from Unicorn horn, but has to be thinned with Unobtanium on a full moon night. [;)]
AS BS214 says above everyone has their own favourite, & will rabidly defend it, often against all the evidence. (as I do, lol)
I have paints from virtually all the ranges available, what I use depends on what colour I need to paint, & what I’ve got in the paintbox.
E.G., Hannants XtraAcrylics for WW2 British planes, Vallejo OD Primer & Tamiya OD for US WW2 Armour, Tsamiya for NATO schemes, etc.
Each Mfrs paint behaves differently, even sometimes between different colours in the same range, & therefore needs to be handled differently.
The best option would be to narrow the options to what you can get locally,
re-post with I can get X and Y ranges, & want to paint (example) …
what you think…
& how do I…
Then get the Same Mfrs Recommeded thinners, retardents, flow enhancers, etc, (before you start following kitchen sink chemistry experiments), then practice with a junk/scrap/practice model.
good luck
You need to list some criteria for how you define best.
One thing many folks use as a reason for using acrylics is that they are water-based and hence odorless. Then, they end up using iso alcohol for thinner, which isn’t odorless. Fast drying is another advantage of acrylics. Matt enamels (most useful for camouflage) are not a whole lot slower, though. Gloss enamels ARE notoriously slow drying, however (I built a drying box because of that).