Paint price comparison just for giggles

General Discussion General Modeling Discussion
1

Today I was once again tossing a brand change around in my head, as I compared the Vallejo Model Color Russian Green I was brushing on a figure to the usual Model Master Acryls I use. Looking at the prices, I paid $3.79 for my most recent bottle of Model Master Acryl. The Vallejo I purchased a couple weeks ago as an experiment cost $2.99. I looked at the quantity of paint for each brand’s bottle. Model Master’s bottles hold 14.7 mL, and Vallejo’s held 17mL. Working out the quantity vs. price ratio, this gave a result of 18 cents per ounce of Vallejo, compared to 26 cents per ounce of Model Master Acryl. I have always heard great things about Vallejo’s paint. Considering Hobby Lobby now offers Vallejo in its modeling aisle, I can get 40% off each bottle of Vallejo, bringing it down to $1.79/bottle and 11 cents/ounce. Almost 1995 prices! This might be the game-changer for me.

Anyway, just some quick math I was tossing around while painting today. Interesting stuff.

Chris

2

Be glad you are not using Dupont Chromalusion auto paint (the color shifting stuff) or PPG’s version of it. 6-7 years ago it was $39.00 an ounce. Our stuff is a bargain.

3

umm, at $3.79 per 14.7ml, your Model Master paints are $7.48 per ounce

makes me want to say “psssttt, hey buddy, you want model paint for $1.20 an ounce?” “go to Ebay and search for Floquil Aeromaster, there’s a guy there selling Acrylics and Enamels for $.60 per bottle, shipped”

One of the main reasons that I bought so many of the Aeromaster paints was that they were costing me about 1/6 of the cost of Model Master and etc.

Rex

4

Whoops. You’re right, Tarn. I meant price per mL, not per ounce. Good catch!

Chris

5

What I just saw on fleabay was $3.00 for a 1/4 oz jar + shipping

6

okay, then the two vendors either sold out (doubtful) or the listings expired

this is the last purchase I made from the second vendor, MandMind

ORDER DATE

Feb 18, 2014

ORDER TOTAL

US $13.50

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1 item sold bymandmind

LOT 18 WARBIRD, WARPAK, WWll COLORS MODEL AIRPLANE PAINT, U CHOOSE COLORS! TK

LOT 18 WARBIRD, WARPAK, WWll COLORS MODEL AIRPLANE PAINT, U CHOOSE COLORS! TK

( 171245321404 )

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ITEM PRICE:

US $13.50

Sysurplus (or something like that) is the first guy, he was selling “your choice of 100 for $49 plus shipping” at one point, then went down to 22 bottles for 14.99 including the shipping.

(sorry, I would just link it, but, I don’t know how to do that without being signed in, and as much as I like you guys,not enough to share my debit card with all of you, lol)

When I get an email that they are up again, I will post that news

Rex

7

Wow! That is a great steal! Got to keep an eye out next time around.

How many Aeromaster colors are there?

8

There were originally 70 Enamels and 120 Acrylics in the two lines. Some of the colors didn’t cross over, so, there might have been 130 total colors if you were willing to use a mix of the types. (later, there was a third line called Color of Eagles, that was an Acrylic made for them by Vallejo)

By the time I found the listing (a guy posted it on HS a couple of years ago), there were only 62 of the Acrylic colors available. I don’t know how many enamels, but, close to the same number.

I bought so many of them, that I mailed away 3 packets of them to modeling buddies online.

I don’t have the Color of Eagles full list, but, I could type up the full list of the original two and put them on their own page on the Hangar Deck,I have an FS match list for the ones I did get a chance to buy right here, including the two Poly Scale lines. z15.invisionfree.com/…/index.php

Sorry, that link is three different color postings that I put in a thread to save them, until I could figure out how they should be arranged. The lists are after the posts with the Light Gull Gray pictures in them.

Rex

9

This is an interesting subject. I think another factor needs to be taken into consideration.

I’ve been building models for 58 years. I build all sorts of stuff, mainly but not exclusively ships. By far the majority of my paint is applied by brush. (I have that in common with most figure painters, I think, and certainly most sailing ship modelers.)

In those 58 years I don’t think I’ve ever used up a bottle of paint. I imagine that would not be the case if I used an airbrush regularly, but I don’t. (I’ve got one, but I rarely have occasion to use it.) I’ve bought hundreds - maybe even thousands - of bottles of paint, from just about every manufacturer I’ve ever heard of. (Anybody else remember Ulrich, or Aurora, or Imrie-Risley, or Rose Miniatures?) But just about every one of them (except the ones I still have) has either dried up in the bottle before I could use it up, or turned to syrup (some brands do that), or gotten knocked over (it’s happened once or twice), or gotten broken during an over-enthusiastic attempt to get the lid off (ditto).

So my preference is for paint that comes in small containers. Those chunky little jars that old-fashioned Testor’s paints come in are just fine as far as I’m concerned. For a while Pactra packaged its paints in even smaller bottles - even better. From a financial standpoint, the price per ounce doesn’t matter much if most of the paint is destined to be thrown away unused.

I don’t think my experience is unusual. Think back on your modeling career and ask yourself how many times you’ve actually thrown out an empty paint bottle.

I love the tiny plastic pots that Lifecolor paint comes in - and it seems to be great stuff. One of these days I may - just may - empty one of those pots. Then, of course, in order to replace it I’ll have to buy about seven other colors that come in the relevant set.

If you’re really interested in saving money on a per-ounce basis, check out the acrylic craft paints that are sold in places like Michael’s and A.C. Moore’s. They come in hundreds of colors, and seem to work ok on plastic (though even better on wood). A 2-ounce (59 milliliter) bottle typically costs 88 cents. I’ve bought quite a few bottles - though I can’t imagine that I’ll ever use one of them up.

10

Not to be argumentative, but, I have saved empty bottles and tins all my modeling life, and I have used them over again to store everything from custom paint mixes to small working quantities of the other liquids used for modeling.

I see where your findings could be true for me here, if I built differently. If I built one Zero, with correct colors, and then one FW-190, and then one USN Hellcat, and then one camo’d P-40,just in those four models a lot of colors would get stranded. (and never used up)

But, I am building Hellcats, Corsairs, Blue Skyraiders, etc, by the dozens (total), and hundreds of Light Gull Gray over White aircraft,one bottle of Gloss Sea Blue at a time (or Light Gull Gray) isn’t going to cut it. I am not sure I have enough paint as it is, with 700 “active” bottles (I gave away all the colors that I don’t need)

And yes, paints dry in their bottles,but, that is mostly a manufacturing thing, the packaging isn’t sold to us in a design “built to last” (I’ve posted the “right way” so many times, I am sure people are bored reading it by now)

There is just nothing worse than getting 100 aircraft into a collection with all the “right” colors, and then finding that you can’t buy them anymore before you build the other two thirds of the collection.

Rex

ps, LifeColor is sold in 22ml plastic jars (1 and 1/2 times the size of Model Master), and you can get almost all of the “colors from sets” separately

11

Great point, JTilley. When I buy paint, I put a little round label like the ones you use for garage sales on the lid. I use a Sharpie to mark the date of purchase because you often can’t tell by the price tag. I can track how often I replace certain colors this way. I do this with all my rattle cans, primers, and other modeling liquids like thinners or cements. Guess that’s what being married to an accountant does to you. LOL.

Chris

12

That’s a fine idea. Some types of paint go bad subtly: they look like they’re fine, and they seem fine while they’re being applied, but they don’t dry. I have no idea how long it takes for that to happen, but it seems like throwing the bottle out after a tear or two wouldn’t be a bad idea. (Of course, there’s no way to know how long the stuff sat at the dealer or the warehouse before you bought it. At the little hobby shop where I used to work, we occasionally made jokes about six bottles of Testor’s gloss purple that had been in the rack for at least ten years.)

I’m trying to remember the name of a huge line of solvent-based WWII aircraft colors back in the very late sixties. It was the sort of thing that every really serious modeler felt obligated to buy. Then it turned out that the stuff dried up in the unopened bottles. All the bottles in the rack wher I worked hardened up within a year. When the boss phoned the manufacturer, all he got was a message: “I’m sorry, the number you dialed has been disconnected.” Does any other Olde Phogey remember that episode?

13

was that something like “Official” paint?

I know that I-R (Imrie-Risly) paint worked okay, and the Pactra Authentics, but, I don’t remember painting a single thing with “Official”, and I did see that in shops for a while.

I was a brush only guy back in 69-75 or so, also.

Rex

14

LOL. I know you are comparing current pricing but I have several bottles of Testors paints (small bottle) still in good condition with a cap price of .19 cents. I have two MM paint bottles marked $1.29, bought about 1985 or so and yes, still in great shape!

15

The price of paint is cheap compared to inkjet ink! I use a lot of the latter. When I build I print out a page or two of photo montage of pics I find on Google Images of the model subject. And I sometimes print decals (my current project will use homemade decals). I saw a figure one time on how much more expensive inkjet ink was than oil, like many thousands of times!

16

Hey REX !

Did , or do you find an acrylic that has the same brushing characteristics as Model Master Enamels has in the mix ? That has been my big Bugaboo about Tamiya colors . I like some railroad colors because they mix and blend into another shade very easily , And brush well .

What do you recommend ? Honestly , I usually don,t use acrylics of any kind , Except of course The VALLEJO brand, on figures . Haven’t found one I like since Polly " S " . Years ago . T.B.

17

TB, I did find a paint that I think is better than Testors for hand brushing. You can still get it at some vendors, and on Amazon and Ebay. Most of the more popular colors are sold out, though. It is Polly Scale and Aeromaster.

The problem is that if you “need” a certain color a lot, and you go to Ebay to buy it, you are going to get hits on guys that think that “OOP means worth a ton”,some of those guys are trying to get $8 for a 1/2 ounce bottle of Light Gull Gray, just because it says Polly Scale as the brand. In most cases, though, you can get the paint for the same or less than it sold for on the paint stand at your LHS.

Another Acrylic option if you can’t get “non-US” made paints, is to add one of the Golden Mediums to the Testors Acrylics as your first step in thinning. Since it is not really thinner, you can add it to a brand new bottle, and mix it in. Then you just think that paint mixture with your thinnner, and any Flo Aid or Slow Dry that you use. You get a “sort of Polly Scale” paint this way.

Rex