Funny or maybe not so funny, I went to watch Flory’s review of MRP acrylics and realized right away I already watched it about two months ago. So I watched it again anyway. It appears to be a really solid choice, much like Tamiya acrylic it seems but tougher. Very good bond. He really doesn’t like dropper bottles very much. And he loves their lacquers enough to pull all his Valleo paints off the shelf and restock with the lacquers. He stated he still likes acrylics best for weathering and he thinks he may put in a supply of the MRP acrylics.
I use several different model paints and more craft paints than probably all of those combined. I have craft paints working very well for me, we have a good supply already in house because of my wife’s art work and ceramics. Restocking or adding colors is generally under a buck a bottle for two oz of paint lol. I have more of a desire to try the MRP lacquers than I do the acrylics personally. Faster drying than enamel, with MM enamels gone, lacquer might be a good choioce. So many products to choose from today, the 70 yo mind can’t keep them all straight !
I’ve seen Phil Flory’s MRP acryl video a couple times, and surprisingly each bit you mention is crystal clear in my memory, which is unusual.
IMO the dropper bottles are ok with the acrylic line. I’ve gotten so used to the Vallejo dropper bottles over the years I guess. I’ve discovered I make a mess of the caps trying to use their lacquer dropper bottles, just yesterday I made the very major decision to revert back to the disposabe pipettes for lacquers.
I finally found Phil’s initial review on the lacquers just the other day and watched it.
I intentionally watched the lacquer video for perhaps the third time the other day but second time for sure, looking for differences between that and AK RC lacquer. There isn’t a whole lot of difference in prep or application but it seems the RMP is a tougher coat of paint. If I already started down one of the two roads I doubt I’d switch mid stream. But I haven’t bought either yet. AK has a pretty extensive and supposedly accurate color line. That’s not to say RMP doesn’t though.
I use pipettes on any open top bottles of paint with no dropper. I rinse my color pipette till it is stained to where I can’t see well in it and rinsing does no good, then chuck it. But keep the thinner pipette for months or even years, I just give it a quick rinse if changing from acrylic to solvent or back again. Otherwise it’s just set aside to dry.
Interesting. I do the same with pipette I use for lacquer thinner and acrylic thinner (dry and re-use)…curious how you two rinse out the color pipette. Say you are rinsing out a lacquer color. If you dip the pipette in clean lacquer thinner you’d foul it.
I know I’m overthinking this, please set me straight. I don’t really like tossing out all of those pipettes either, even though I have another 10 yrs worth, probably. <cheap cheap…is there a bird in here?>
I keep a Testors mixing bottle with just plain lacquer thinner in it Greg, squeeze bulb it a few times for lacquers or enamels. For acrylics I just run a stream of hot water at the sink running into a cup. Put the pipette into the cup and keep squeeze bulbing it till pretty clear. Wipe the tip up with alcohol and that’s about it. I get several paint jobs out of a color pipette. And Tamiya acrylic even if cut with lacquer thinner I still clean with the warm water. RMP lacquer might actually do the same thing.
I’ve never had any contamination. I also soak my airbrush tips in the mixing bottle with the lacquer thinner. Course you gotta change out the thinner lol !! I haven’t tried but acetone might work too for lacquer and enamels.
Also the pipettes I keep here are Testors, I like the slim tip on them. More money than bulk packs of 100 though but they last me quite some time.
That makes sense and I’m going to try it. Thank you.
I just checked, the supplier I use (SKS Scientific) is up to 6 cents/ea on my disposable 3ml pipettes of choice. Worth trying the OMG and Ernie method for sure. [Y]
Just wanted to add that I don’t use Mr Leveling thinner for any of this cleaning, just hardware store lacquer thinner ( the original old fashoined kind not the new synthetic green stuff, actually I don’t have any MLT right now, been mixing a little xylene into regular thinner to slow it down a bit for painting for the last couple of years or so). Gotta get some MLT in or else lacquer retarder. If you use too much xylene it starts to get more like hot lacquer. Now That I wrote it, not sure why anyone needed these tidbits, oh well. lol
The pipettes I got on eBay a couple of years ago. Something like 80 or so for $6 or$7.
I clean everything with LT from Lowe’s or Home Depot, hand brushes, palettes, air brush etc. The pipettes get 2 or 3 suctions of LT and they are good to go. Since I got them, I have thrown away maybe 10 or less.
You’re not going to believe this but later I was going to ask if folks using lacquer paints clean their airbrushes with hardware store tin can lacquer or MLT. Man, did you read my mind or what?
BTW, Mr Leveling thinner is out of stock pretty much everywhere.
I had a back in stock notification request in at Sprue Bros. I got in stock email a few weeks ago. I made the mistake of waiting a few days, was back out of stock when I got around to ordering. [:'(]
These people have Mr Color, Leveling and Rapid thinners in stock. All 400ml bottles. I ordered from them maybe 6 weeks ago for the first time. Their shipping was almost immediate and their packaging was great.
Well no. But I can say in my experience in shooting 1-1, I’d be inclined to think in terms of years rather than months. Course we didn’t use this exact product ( always a diclaimer lol ).