What’s the difference? And is one type preferrable over the other?
scott, the main difference between enamel and acrylic paint is that enamel has an oil based carrier for the paint pigment and the acrylic has a water or alcohol based carrier. if you notice, when you by your paint from the store, all the pigment is settled to the bottom of the container and the carrier comes to the top as a clear fluid. the difference is in that clear fluid at the top. another difference is drying time, if you like breeze through a piant job rather quickly, the acrylics are nice in that they dry in a fraction of the time that it takes enamels to dry. also, with enamels you have to thin and wash up with oil based thinners such as mineral spirits, lacquer thinner, or turpentine. acrylics can be thinned or washed up with water or alcohol. do not mix acrylic thinner with enamel paint or vise versa or you’ll get a goopy mess.
preference will be a personal thing scott, just like airbrushes or glues or anything else, you’ll have to find the ones that you personally prefer. i got on a kick where i used tamiya acrylics exclusively but the color selection is limited and not accurate. i ended up having to mix nearly every color and log the drop of this and that in a notebook and this was neat at first but became tiresome shortly there after. but, i still use them quite a bit. then, i settled in with model master enamels because of there availability, color selection, and paint characteristics such as opaqueness, leveling properties, and the dead on colors. opagueness being how well the paint “hides” the surface underneath, leveling is how the paint (and this is invisible to the naked eye) spreads itself evenly before it dries after its been applied to the model. acrylics are so easy to use though and most of the time the smell is not bothersome either. the only problem i’ve had with acrylics is there adhesion properties. they dont seem to stick as well as enamels. you can solve this by using an oil based primer such as floquil gray. hope this helps my friend, and happy modelling. later.
Chris has got you pointed in the right direction.
The main reason I switched from enamels to acrylics is the lack of fumes in acrylics. Most of them are water based, and while it is still not a good idea to breathe the atomized paints, they don’t have the fumes associated with enamel and laquer thinners.
Cleanup is normally with water as opposed to thinner. I frequently use the MikeV’s Famous Recipe Airbrush Cleaner (2 parts distilled water, 1 part Windex, 1 part Simple Green) but for in-between color changes I just blow plain old water through my airbrush.
I also like them because they dry quickly (as in minutes as opposed to hours). Once you get used to them, they are great. Personally I’d never go back to enamel again.
If you are brush painting, I’d stay away from them. I haven’t had a lot of luck hand painting with acrylics, they just dry too fast. The paint dries in whatever you are using to hold pain, it dries on the brush, and it dries on the surface. Using acrylic retarder helps a lot, and admittedly I don’t do much hand brushing at all, but I much prefer enamels for brush painting anything larger than small detail.
Thanks for the replies. That explains why a Chevelle I just finished looked like crap. The Tamiya acrylic was drying extremely fast and I couldn’t figure out why. I went back and looked at the paints I’ve collected and every one of them but the Tamiya are enamels.
This is good stuff. remember besides gaining good skills in the craft, painting is the next biggest part. Having good skills but lousy pianting skills can ruin your model. You have to use all types of paint, learn what will mix and what wont and learn how they are used. If ya wanna use both types put a layer of something like future inbetween them, like us flyboys do for weathering. You’ll get it.
-Jeff
Were you airbrushing or hand brusing your Chevelle?
I really like acrylics, and like I said, I won’t go back to enamel, but you have to get used to them. I’ve gotten to the point that I just automatically put acrylic retarder in the paint mix. Without retarder, some paints tend to dry as quick as ithey come out of the airbrush. People who use acrylics learn real quickly to paint at low pressures and real close to the surface or the paint will start to dry in mid-air before it even gets to the model.
The type of thinner used will also affect the drying time and the finish. I’m pretty sure that Tamiya’s thinner already contains some retarder because it will dramatically slow down the drying time. Isopropyl alcohol works great for thinner in most acrylics, but it makes the stuff dry even quicker. Some acrylics say use water for thinning (Poly Scale), and it works pretty well on some acrylics. The bottom line is you just have to find something that works well for you, and stick with it.
Always have used Enamels & lacquers & will continue to do so. Just prefer the finish I can get with oil base paints over Acrylics, plus no tip dry problems when airbrushing and no paint adhesion problems when masking. Acrylics are popular with lots of modelers, so maybe it’s just me.
I agree with Rick in that the finish of enamels and laquers is usually superior to acrylics, unless you want a flat finish. Getting a flat finish with acrylics is as easy as messing up a model [:)]
Also, no argument that there is no adhesion problem with enamels or laquers as long as you give the paint plenty of time to dry. I have had tip dry problems in the past with laquer though. It could well have been the paint I was using though. It was for Lexan R/C car bodies and was very “Hot” which made it dry just about as fast as acrylics.
Rick, it isn’t just you. Lots of people don’t really like acrylics. I prefer the lack of fumes and the easy cleanup, so I’ll continue to use them, but I do miss the finish I could get with enamels.
I am so used to tip-dry that it doesn’t bother me and that is why my transition to MM Acryl has been fairly easy.
After airbrushing T-shirts with acrylic paints and 60 psi, tip-dry becomes a normal part of the painting process. That is why I like airbrushes like the Omni, Anthem, 360, and Vega as the needle is exposed at the tip making it easy to remove tip-dry with your fingernails.
I can see though where it becomes a pain with airbrushes like the Iwata’s, Badger 100, and others where the needle is not exposed. Those take more work to clean the tip dry.
Mike
I only use enamels and acrylics too and will stay that way. not only is their finish better but I think the dried color of the paint is better. Maybe its just me too [^] -Jeff
as long as the paint is thinned properly, the psi is low enough, and you have some superlube or needle juice on the needle, the tip dry is minimum in my experiences. i just keep a q-tip dipped in mm acyl solvent gently clean the tip occasionally. mm acryl and pollyscale paints seem to produce tip dry quicker than tamiya. later.
sometimes, the disadvangates are also the advangates: for example, the shotgun is close range.
but anyhow, acrylics stick on to my krylon grey primer so well. but i usually dont prime, so if i mess up, i just put a bit of masking tape over, and boom! the paint comes off.
I like acrylics because i don’t have a big huge mess, and because the long drying time doesn’t let me put multiple coats on the model.
I’ve only used acrylics but have had some struggles with the fast drying times. In my experience this creates some issues with the paint leveling or getting an orange peal effect. In a separate posting I was made aware of acrylic retarders. I’ve just bought a bottle but haven’t tryed it yet. It’s suppose to slow down the drying time. Even with these small problems the advatages of lack of fumes and easy clean up makes acrylics my choice. I agree the Tamiya paints lack the variety of colors need but I have found that the Model Master acrylics can meet most of my needs.
John
I move more toward exclusive acrylic use every day. All brands, bust mostly the locally available and most common Model Master and Tamiya. I made a fortuitous mistake recently in a mail order and wound up with four bottles of this new (or is it?) “The Color of Eagles” acrylic and it is beautiful, user friendly paint. The colors are very slightly lightened for scale effect and thin enough to airbrush straight from the bottle. I can see myself getting hooked on these.
One more comment on acrylics: I’ve never found satisfactory metal colors in any brand of acrylic. I recently tried to use the model master aluminum acrylic and it was transluscent, no matter how much I stirred and shook it. So I’m stuck with spraying and brushing the enamel metal shades. And, of course, there will never be an acrylic subsitute for metalizers. I hope I’m proved wrong, but I can’t imagine it.
I clean up acrylics with plain 90% rubbing alcohol.
So I was going through my paints the other day and came across a Pactra bottle of flat insignia red, and it says the paint is water based “acrylic enamel.” Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?
i think its enamal based acrylic. there’ also lacquor based acrylic
That is correct. [:D]
Mike
w00t i got it right!