After hours of testing various acrylic paints in our dry high desert environment, I can, humbly, offer the following advice:
Once you understand how to thin Mission Models Paint (MMP), MMP sprays the best with least overspray, and with very minimal to no tip dry. MMP also offers a nice selection of armor colors. Their Dunkelgelb Ral 7028 (MMP-011) is a real winner and looks accurate to me. I also like their olive drab selection. I use 1 drop of their thinner, 1 drop of their Poly, to ten drops of their paint (before learning to use their paints, I over-thinned them and that created all sorts of problems). I also use a 10:1 mix of their thinner and Poly but I find that using MMP thinning recommendations is the way to go. I also had success using airbrush medium (Golden) but I suggest that you stick with MMP products and their thinning recommendations before experimenting with other thinners/reducers.
Hataka Red Line - these are a close second to MMP. Spray great, great coverage, minimal to no tip dry and nice satin finish. I purchase directly from Hataka (Poland). Hataka uses DHL and delivery is fast to USA, and buying higher quantities can lessen the unit cost impact associated with DHL shipping. Absent Hataka acrylic thinner, Hataka recommends Vallejo Airbrush Thinner. I combine 10 drops of paint with 5 drops Vallejo Thinner and 5 drops of Vallejo Flow Improver - sprays great at 15-18 psi. For fine lines and Camo, I increase thinner to 10 drops and reduce flow improver to 3 drops while decreasing pressure to 8-10 psi. Hataka’s Ral colors are very accurate; particularly, Ral 7028 and Ral 7028 Augsabe 1944.
Vallejo Model Air - good choice but too much tip dry unless you use an excessive amount of flow improver; which slows drying times and makes the paint overly translucent. I mainly use them for base colors. I’ll reach for MMP or Hataka when spraying fine lines and Camo with acrylics.
AK Gen3 - disappointed. Vallejo Model Air is superior in my opinion.
Give MRP paint a try too some time. They shoot great right from the bottle in the high (5800’), dry climate of Denver, with no mixing ratios or any of that to worry about. HUGE selection of accurate colors for all kinds of subjects…and they fully cure in less than an hour. They are, by far, the most trouble-free, durable Acrylic Lacquer paint I have ever used. Give 'em a try some time and see what you think.
Sorry, I was referring to water based acrylics. Yes, MRP being an acrylic lacquer sprays fantastically. I have some of their Ral colors, and they’re real easy to spray with no tip dry…but open that window and wear that Niosh mask!
I prefer to use MRP, Tamiya, Hataka Orange Line (lacquer), Mr Color, Mr Hobby Aqueous when finishing small scale efforts, 1/72 armor and planes, with intricate Camo and fine lines. My focus is on German Luftwaffe and Panzers so my color selection from each of these manufacturers is limited to a couple of bottles each for given camouflage color.
My airbrushing skills have improved with constant practice. I only had a Paasche H, VL and a broken down Badger 100 when moving here four years ago from the Northeast. I learned the hard way by purchasing airbrushes which are better suited for T Shirts and Canvas than stryene plastic. I have settled on Iwata (Eclipses), GSI Creos (PS-270), Harder & Steenbeck (Evolution, Ultra) and Sparmax (DH103, SP20X, SP35). Yes, I have too many airbrushes but I enjoy using each of them, and it’s a lot cheaper than a golf club membership particularly if you can’t play!
DOH! I see the “water based” part in your subject line now. Must have missed that before. [sn0ps]
Ventilation or wearing a mask don’t seem to be a problem in my situation. I don’t have paint in the air, but I also airbrush a lot differently than a lot of guys do.
I added the clarification regarding water based after your posting since I wasn’t clear in my original subject - I’m the one that should say “DOH” not you, no sweat, my mistake!
… how do you avoid not having paint in the air? I was considering buying a ventilation system type box with an outlet to the outside to divert the paint fumes.
I guess its just from saving up my money to buy my Paasche H 35 years ago and teaching myself to airbrush as a 15 year old. I had always thought (perhaps wrongly) that the primary purpose of using an airbrush over spray cans or the old PreVal sprayers was so I wouldn’t have to take everything outside. So, I started with a paint pattern that was just big enough to get paint on the model from an inch or two away. Did it like that for a couple of years before life changed with joining the Air Force and all the usual stuff that causes a lot of us to take a really long hiatus from modeling. When I came back to it about 6 years ago, I still had those old habits. I have sometimes watched instructional videos on airbrushing on YouTube and thought to myself “Holy cow that’s a huge cloud of paint he’s got coming out of that thing! No wonder he uses a spray booth!”. Heh…just never learned to do it the right way I guess. If I made a video, people watching it would probably say “Why is it taking him so long just to paint those 5 tiny landing gear parts?”. Its because I’m close in, and barely have any paint coming out of the airbrush. Shouldn’t work, but it does…I get really good results, so I don’t see a reason to do it differently than I do.
Thanks for the info HighDesertmodeler greatly appreciated. We recently moved from a high desert climate where it was not unusual to see single digit humidity in the summer, to a climate with mid to high double digit humidity in the summer. I am actually looking forward to the new learning opportunity. I may change that opinion quickly once I actually start spraying [:^)]