Whats your paint type choice, and why?
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Hey 
I generally use Vallejo, since I use their acrylics to paint the white edges of my paper model aircrafts.
I have few transparent paints from Mr. Color to imitate the red, yellow, green lights on the wings 
I prefer enamels. Brush well and spray well when thinned properly and produce a durable finish. ModelMaster was my go to. Since theyāre gone I went to Mr Color. I think these are called solvent based acrylics like Tamiya X-# paints. MRP are great for airbrushing and Alclad II are my go to for natural metal finish.
I could never figure out the combo to get water based acrylics to work so Iāve punted on those. I have a few humbrol, testors square jar and Revell email enamles as well.
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I just stick with Vallejo paints, the premium range I mainly use doesnāt need thinning for the airbrush and they coat well and so are cost effective. I canāt get on with enamels, I know they give a stunning finish but the drying times, odour and cleaning up iāve found a hassle. But iām open minded and if anyone can give an enamel/thinner/cleaner combination theyād recommend Iād appreciate it
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Whoever has the color iām looking for,my collection is mostly
Tamiya+Mr Leveling Thinner
AK-Real+Mr Leveling Thinner
Vallejo-Model Color and Panzer Aces
Mission Models
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Wow, thatās quite a spread!
Tamiya is my poison of choice for scale modelling. Itās durable, thins to practically nothing without separating when using the proprietary thinner, sprays well, dries quickly and can even survive being thinned by Mr Colour Levelling Thinner 400 for those extra-smooth airbrush applications. Haters will say you canāt brush paint with it given its tendency to rapidly dry on the palette, but the retarder in Mr Colour Levelling Thinner 400 makes the impossible possible! I also say this having no experience in any other scale modelers paint besides the Humbrol enamels I used in my teens about 30 years ago. As far as paint performance goes, all I can remember of that period is the persistent smell of turps and Testors cementā¦
Iāve also been getting into Vallejo Game Colour, as I was looking for a water-based low-odour side-gig that I could use to paint miniatures in polite company. Iām still very much getting the hang of them, but Iāve starting locking down the basics of dilution rates with admixtures to get the desired effect. The VGC paints tend to have a more satin finish and are much more vibrant, so getting a colour match on a historical subject is a bit of an ask. But at the end of the day they have their target market and whole other ranges for scale modelling
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Yes,for hand brushing i prefer the Model Color and Panzer Aces,also i have found that AK-Real acts just like Tamiya only the color range is better.
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You know I suspect the reason why Vallejo lasts so long is because of their bottleās tiny opening.
Ones in the picture I believe are more than 11 years on the shops shelf.
Still hand painting no problems. Happy I tried them.
Yep Master was pritty Official on the Gov side. Will miss them in the shops. Tamiya Enamels are very stable.
I figured the other gamers were wondering about the smells of my Master and Humbrol Enamels in thier Games Workshop while I was there building my miniatures among them. They hadnt seen anything like it 
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What a nasty kidā¦
Out the window with himā¦ 
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I donāt have on specific brand. My paint box resembles the variety the OP shows in his photos.
I have bought paints mostly for specific colors, because when I was a kid, and when I returned to the hobby, I didnāt mix colors. I needed them out of the jar. So I have a variety of brands, and media. Though I have learned how to mix my own colors as needed.
I have:
Testor enamels in the little square bottles, some going back to the 70s when I was a kid
Pactra acrylic enamels, which also go back to the 70s
Model Master enamels and acrylics
Tamiyaās alcohol-based X/XF acrylics
Andrea water-based acrylics
Vallejo Model Color water-based acrylics
a couple of Vallejo Air colors
Lifecolor water-based acrylics
Reaper water-based acrylics (they were giving them away at World Expo in Chicago in 2017)
Gunze-Sangyo enamels and lacquers
Apple Barrel, Folk Art, and Americana water-based acrylic craft store paints
Some tube water-based acrylics whose names escape me
Schminke-Mussini oils
This is why I donāt get excited by new brands that come out. I have so many paints that unless a new brand magically covers the model when you open the jar, Iām not about to get rid of the ones I have. I replace them through attrition as I use up a jar.
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I could have bingo cards made up with all the weirdest awful things Iāve ever read about modelling or, frankly, anything elseā¦ and I donāt think Iād have āfeces in paintā for the next hundred years.
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I primarily use Tamiya paints, a few bottles of Vallejo and a bottle of Testors that I purchased for a specific color. That said, and this might be sacrilege to some, but I recently purchased some of the Hobby Lobby new Airbrush paint to try it out. It wonāt replace Tamiya for me, but I thought it worked fairly well and turned out ok. This M41 was done with the new Hobby Lobby Airbrush paints. (Edit-I forgot to say that I painted this with no primer.)
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Model Master all the way. Itās spray able, brush able and most importantly, matches FS colors. Iāve been using it since the early 90ās. Once I found out it was being discontinued I stock piled certain colors.
Steve
Yeap. Thatās true. I have few of them not used for around 3-4 years and after good old vortex mixer they are like new.
Long, long ago, I used to use Testor Model Master paints for all my model building projects. But as the years went by and Testor started to get rid a lot of their paint lines and colors, I needed some other acrylic paint line to replace Testors.
Thatās when I switched to Vallejo. I really like them a lot due to the paintsā self leveling qualities and the vast expanse of color choices and paint lines they have.
As far as accuracy of the Vallejo paint colors/shades, I donāt know, but it seems to represent fairly well what all the WWI, WW2, modern, etc. colors look like.
So Iām going to stick with Vallejo now and in the future, and also because my local hobby store near me āalmostā exclusively carries Vallejo which is what I like.
I donāt own an airbrush and canāt use one for various reasons which would take too long to explain, but I mostly use paints that hand brush well and thatās why I choose to go with Vallejo. I mainly use their Vallejo Model Air airbrushing line which can still be used for hand brushing.
Even if I could use an airbrush, Iād continue to use the Vallejo paints and/or Iād switch to the Squadron Colors paint line as Iāve heard those paints are very easy to use, come in a wide assortment of VERY ACCURATE colors, and I know the guy who made them and does the research for them.
As for TAMIYA paints, Iāll never go back to using them ever again. 
The only time I ever have to use them is maybe their spray cans of primer or maybe a spray can of some other color for painting large model parts. But thatās it.
Acrylics through an airbrush Tamiya is my first choice. Vallejo Air is my next choice. I find that both are very easy to thin without loosing opacity.
Iāve got a bunch of AK which donāt think as easily.
I have to admit that is some smooth paint. Nice job. Iād use an air brush but I donāt have a shop I can go to thatās heated, and my furnace stinks up the house when the burner lights and burns off the paint particles that accumulate when I attempt to paint in the basement. I do have an out building I can go to during the day, for some reason my lights arenāt working, and as long as it is warm.
Iād love to be able to paint a helicopter up that pretty, but unless I get my body work nephew to teach me how to mix paint and do that, that being the picture Iām looking at right now, itās Krylon or Rustoleum for me.
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