Wow, thanks for that link! I’ve been searching for SOMEONE who uses Testors paints in airbrushes. It seems everywhere I look, people are either using Tamiya or Vallejo. Testors for me, like your airbrush, is more of a personal/emotional attachment. I’ve grown accustom to their color names and have been afriad to switch because I don’t know what Testors Dark Brown is in Tamiya or Vallejo (among other colors). Besides, they’ve always been good paints for me. I’m interested to see how they handle in an airbrush.
Cautions about using Testors Model Master Acrylic in airbrush:
- It should be thinned. Do not believe Testors recommendation that it can be airbrushed out of the bottle.
- Use Testors brand of thinner only. It can gump up with other brand of thinner.
I use acrylic only in airbrush because I do not have a spray booth. I had the MM acrylic gumped up one time, but was able to limit the damage since I mix paint in small plastic cups first. Wow.
This is one of the color conversion charts and you can find many more that includes Testors paints.
I still use Testors MM, but ofter need other brands for some of the colors.
Hey Icer,
I hear ya on being attached to Testor’s paint. Me too. The color reference chart is cool, but I’ve got one you’re gonna love. Go to www.paint4models and play around in there for a while. It’s free and it allows you to cross reference between brands. The best part is that if you click on a particular brand you can drag it around, so say you’re kit lists only Humbrol colors and you want to use MM, all you do is drag the Humbrol column next to the MM column and there they are, side by side for conversion. You can use the chart at the site or download it. I don’t think there’s a charge to download, but I know for sure that using the chart at the site is free. Let me know how you like it.
Once again, I screwed up the link. [00ps] try this: www.paint4models.com
One more thing about paint4models: if you download the chart it’s not the same chart as you get when you use it at the site. It still works, but you can’t move the columns so it can be a lot more work. I usually just use it right at the site.
Keilau: Thanks for the warning. I would never just pour the paint into my airbrush from the jar anyway. But about the thinner - I can’t even use distilled water on their acrylics? I’ve heard distilled water or IP alcohol work as good thinners for acrylics. But this was for Tamiya. Bleh that sucks… I was wanting to avoid spending money on acrylic thinners when I could just use water or IP.
Gary: The funny thing is I linked that same chart the other day in this forum. Haha Thanks though! 
I have never used a company’s thinner with any paint as it’s unnecessary. Try your own thinners first before wasting good money on overpriced thinners. Iso alcohol or ethyl alcohol works fine for me usually. I have not tried the newest MM Acryl paints as I too use Tamiya but I had no problems a few years back with Acryl when I used it.
Acryll can be some strange stuff. Open one bottle and it’s already thin as water, open the next and it’s so thick you could turn it into 4 bottles. And then there’s all the ones in between. I’ve thinned it with distilled water, or even tap water, with no problems but normally I use Testors Acryll thinner. I don’t use alcohol with it, it dries to quickly as it is.
This spring my Iwata Sprint Jet quit building pressure so I went over to Harbor Freight and got one of their 1/5 horsepower airbrush compressors and it works great. A small bonus was, it came with an extra compression ring which is what failed in my Iwata and they’re exactly the same. Also, the Harbor Freight has auto shutoff. Came with a free airbrush too. hehe
Tony
Hey Icer,
You and I talked briefly the other day about seams, so I thought I’d let you know I bought one of those seam scrapers from Micro-Mark (Item #80801) and I just tried it out on this FW 190. It works great. I used it as a first step and then I just needed a couple passes with a medium and then a fine sanding stick and I do believe with a little primer the seam won’t show at all. My little Kodak doesn’t have the best resolution, but maybe this will give you some idea.
Tony: I bought one of those cheap $12 airbrushes from Harbor Freight and it makes a pretty good primer gun. Saves wear and tear on the Iwata, ya know? 
That’s impressive, did you use CA or cement for the fuelage bond?
Testror’s liquid cement (in the black bottle with the metal tube/tip). I’m pretty careful so there was only a couple small spots where the glue oozed out, but the scraper took both plastic and glue together, and I was kinda impressed by that because this airfix kit is pretty soft. It just curls off a tiny bit at a time. Kinda makes a mess but that’s half the fun, right? The tool was eleven or twelve bucks, but now I’m really glad I bought it. I think I’ll be using it a lot in the future.
Looks great! Upon my re-entry into scale modeling, seams kind of frighten me. All the years past before I took a break I just ignored them. But then again I wasn’t NEAR as well informed about this hobby as I am today.
Not to stray from the main topic of this thread… haha (I will be posting my review of my compressor here as soon as I get it in the mail) But through my research into seam elimination (correct me if I am wrong!) I found that using a plastic welder cement can be handy. I figure using Tamiya Super Thin works well for smaller seams (as well as an all-around fantastic glue) and something like Tenax for the larger seams. Of course this is accompanied by sanding after it dries. I’ve also seen people using magic putty (or a similar formula i.e. Miliput) for large gaps. I also found a pretty nifty walk-through of using Mr. Surfacer to block a seam.
I assume there are many ways of going at it. My problem is identifying WHICH method to use at the proper time.
Also, where did you get that seam tool and what is it called? I have a massive list of all the supplies I am ordering. Might as well add this to it. haha
Hey Icer’
The tool is just called “Seam Scraper” and it’s item #80801 and you can get it at www.micromark.com It’s on sale right now for $10.85 (list is $18.65). Micromark has lots of cool stuff. I just got another box from them yesterday and it was kinda like Christmas in July. I think the coolest item in this box was the Waldron punch set I finally broke down and bought.
I wouldn’t worry too much about going off topic. We’ve pretty much covered the reason you started the thread and you’ve ordered your compressor and airbrush so I would say a little general discussion would be OK. But then, I’m new to the forum so if I’m wrong about that I hope one of you veterans will enlighten me. I really, really like this forum so I don’t want to do anything taboo.
Like you, i’m just returning to the hobby after a long hiatus (15 years in my case). But even though I haven’t been modeling I’ve been a subscriber to FSM for the last ten years (I get my subscription for three years at a time so I get a really good deal. And don’t believe that price in the magazine. If you haggle with them they’ll come down some) and the amount of stuff I’ve learned just from reading the magazine is phenomenal.
As for glue, I’m like you in that I don’t always know just which one to use, but I basically use CA for stuff like seatbelts and resin, clear parts cement for canopies and windows, and for styrene to styrene joints I use the old reliable Testor’s liquid cement. For small gaps I’ll use Zap-a-Gap and for larger gaps it’s squadron putty (both green and white) and sometimes regular automotive spot putty. That stuff works surprisingly well and it sands real easily. Sometimes if I want a really strong joint I’ll even fall all the way back to good old fashioned tube glue. That’s one thing that’s really changed while I was away is glue technology. Now I have half a dozen different kinds on the bench, and that’s not counting epoxies and fillers.
I’ll be looking forward to your review of the new compressor. I’d especially like to know how loud it is compared to the craftsman you took back.
Gary
Thanks for the link to that website. And if anyone is interested, H.F. has a deal right now for a $7 rotary tool with all accessories!
Also just got my Badger Velocity in the mail today. I can’t put it down! It feels so good in my hand. I can’t wait to get the compressor in and start practicing.
Hey Icer,
I got a coupon for that rotary tool for $6.99 about a month ago. I bought two. [whstl] It works pretty good, and I like the fact that it’s a lot slower than the minimum setting on a dremel. Melting plastic seems to be less of an issue. The seat in the FW 190 kit was smooth and flat and it should have been kind of hollowed out, like a tray (hard to describe without seeing it) and I used the H.F. mototool to to hollow it out to match my reference photos. Worked like a charm, and at that price even if it craps out in a few months it was still a good deal.
Gary
Hey Icer,
Exactly which airbrush did you get? I thought you were getting the 105, but your last post says Velocity. Unless the 105 IS a velocity? I was curious so I went to merriartist and they had two Velocities, the R1V and the R4VJ. Is it one of those? Mainly just curious. I’m looking forward to hearing what you think of it. I’m using the Iwata HP-CS and I really like it, but I’m always looking for new options.
Did you see the airbrush holder I’m using? it’s on page three of this thread. I was on squadron.com and I saw the Badger airbrush holder for 26 bucks and had to laugh. Mine cost a dollar.
Oh yeah, I went to H.F. and picked up that 22 piece clamp set you turned me on to. Good find. Just in time, too, as the larger clamps turned out to be just perfect for when I installed the main landing gear on the FW 190. One thing that tripped me out is the size listings. What they call a 1 3/8 clamp in the 22 piece set is exactly the same as the clamp I bought seperately that’s marked 1 1/2 and the small clamps are marked one inch and they’re exactly the same as the mini clamps, which are marked 7/8 of an inch. Weird.
Gary
Yeah in an earlier post I said I was switching. I got the Badger Velocity R1V instead. There is a YouTube model builder (a member of Scale Model Addict) that uses a Velocity on all of his builds. What sold me was the fact that it has a screw in the back that stops your trigger pull at whichever length you want it at.
And yes I saw your holder! It was great. But I got one of those Iwata cleaning stations with my airbrush and it doubles as a holder, so I was pretty happy about that. Plus it’s cheap for what it does. $25 (or around that). And the base is glass - good construction.
My clamps haven’t come in yet. 
I’m so anxious to get my compressor in so I can make a good review of both that and my new airbrush. But if you want the channel of that YouTube builder, his user name is SMConsortium. Go watch his stuff. He has a detailed look at the Velocity and also has a 10-part walk through of him building a Tamiya Corsair. I learned a lot from that alone.
P.S. I don’t know if any of you have ordered from Northern Tool, but it’s been 4 days since I ordered my compressor and they still haven’t shipped it. lol Hopefully it goes out tomorrow.
I saw that guy on Youtube building the corsair. He’s pretty good, too. Very informative. That stop screw sounds like it’s pretty cool. I rarely spray with the brush wide open so that would be great for consistency. I’ll be looking forward to your review of the airbrush to see what other cool features it has. I wonder if I could make some kind of stop for my Iwata with a small hose clamp. I’ll have to investigate. I doubt that would be all that easy to adjust, but maybe I can figure something out.
Did you have to order the clamps? I thought you had a H.F. store close by? Or were they out of stock and you’re waiting for them to arrive at the store? I think you’ll like them. The only bad thing about them is they tend to slip off sloped sufaces, like wings, but if you put a strip of masking tape where you want to put the clamp it takes care of the problem. Just don’t put the tape under the pad, put it down in a strip so when the clamp starts sliding the tape acts like a stop.
The four days you’ve been waiting for them to ship your compressor could be worse. I recently placed an order with Roll Models and they waited till AFTER they had my credit card info and the order was placed to tell me it wouldn’t ship for two to three WEEKS. I waited over a month for that order and that’s why I won’t go back to them. They have pretty good prices but I’d rather pay an extra buck or two and get my stuff in a reasonable amount of time. Scalehobbyist.com seems to be about the quickest I’ve found, and they also have great prices, but Squadron and Micromark are also pretty fast to get your shipment out.
Gary
Iwata makes a preset handle add-on for the HP-CS. You can get generic one from BearAir cheap.
You should have received an email from them acknowledging your order. If not, call them.
If you ordered last week, they did anounced earlier that orders would be delayed due to their warehouse or software maintanance or something like that. They will ship mid week this week. Did you see something like that?
Most important, make sure that your credit card is not charged yet until they ship.