I write this with some sadness .My favorite paint is no longer available at my Local Hobby Shop . Yup , Modelmaster from Testors .Enamel that is .Not acrylic either ! You know over the years I have seen some darned good brands go belly - up ! Sad too .I have never understood what the problem is either .
Sure Polly -S was an acrylic and as to Brushability , the best I ever used ! Now Floquil was more like a lacquer , But it was favored for the hot hard finish it imparted to Model rail projects . Pactra was a straight enamel .It advertised " No Brush marks " and lived up to that claim too ! I painted many a Revell Multi-Piece bodied cars with it . They always came out looking like they were sprayed by a master !
I am not going to short Testors here as the little square bottles show up here and there . It’s the sudden and industry wide change to acrylics that has me concerned . Not only are most acrylics lousy for brushability but the color range ( Unless you buy a specific set ) Is not what Pactra or Testors Modelmaster or even Humbrol had !
Oh yeah, argue with me here . I know there’s all kinds of colors because of Gamers and Fantasy gamers and figurine Painters . there’s washes and all kinds of others .But , and I am serious here . Why should I have to Buy Windsor and Newton oils to get the weathering on my model done right ?
Washes are fine for Figurists and others ,But we hard machine modelers have had it kind of shoved down our throats .Buy these or sequester the model to the unfinished pile . Why do they do this ? I had a sequence of paints I used on ships for instance . They were the Model Master regular gloss and flat line and then their flat specialty line such as Anthracite , Magnesium, Gunmetal , Prop Bronze etc . for my work .
Now I have to buy these ridiculously little squirt bottles of water thin stuff that everyone seems taken with . Vallejo comes to mind . What’s up with that ? It takes twice as much and more time because of airbrush set-up and breakdown and cleaning to use them right .
I will grant that there more colors than you could shake a stick at . How about just one good brushable acrylic that shows no brushmarks Like Polly-S . I brush painted , hard edges camo on my first Revell 1/32 Mosquito aircraft .I was so impressed I bought a whole supply of their basic and specialty colors .Now of course it’s all gone and no -one has filled the Gap .
In closing - Not everyone has an Air-brush or wants one and there are those whom have no place to use them . Paint still has to be brushed quite often on a model . That’s my dilemna and it’s a fairly common I am sure . Bye - T.B.
TB, have a look for Humbrol Acrylics. I am really liking those so far. Especially for their hand brushing. No cursed squeeze bottles either, just a screw top plastic pot/jar. Their flats are dead flat. And they give great one coat coverage.
I also lament the passing of so many good paint lines of yore. And I’m not impressed by Vallejo either. Not to mention that Testors Model Master quality control appears to have taken a nose dive.
I love using MM enamels but they have dropped most of the military FS line. I don’t like using Acrylics so I’m having a hard time trying to adjust.
Seems like acrylic is the new thing. I have tried Vallejo and I’m not impressed. However, Mission Model Paints are new and just recently played with a couple of colors. I was VERY impressed how well they sprayed.
I’m just the opposite I don’t like using enamels, I find I have more control using acrylics. I really like vallejo for figure painting but I find they don’t airbrush good for me. Tamiya and Lifecolor acrylic are the two paints I use the most.
Tamiya sprays really well and I like using it. It sprays closely like enamels. Only issue is the color selection is limited. I wish they would come out with an FS line.
I finally had enough of Testors enamels last year; I was having issues with paint drying out and their thinner/paint mix was giving me fits trying to airbrush. I went with Gunze and am enjoying using it.
Many decades ago I decided to try oil painting as a diversion. Never got very good at it- found I was a better photographer than a painter. But, I had bought a book on beginning painting. The book explained how to mix colors, and it was a very good explanation (also bought a color wheel). Since then, I have not feared mixing my own colors. I too have noticed Model Master dropping their military colors. But being willing to mix colors, that is not the panic now that it would have been fifty years ago.
Having returned to the hobby a few years ago, I wished I had acquired a stash of Pollyscale Acrylics. I managed to acquire a few colors of what was still around at my LHS a couple years ago.
Yeah . There was a time I had four full racks of Humbrol’s little tins .That was after I couldn’t get Polly S anymore. It seems " G " that here in TEXAS at least , no one carries even the basic line anymore . MM Was for me a time saver . No mixing to get a color in a hurry and always available and the batches always matched ! Plus , and contrary to other posters , I NEVER had problems Air Brushing it either ! T.B.
Brushability is excellent, like old Polly S in one coat coverage. Lots of time to work the paint, unlike Tamiya, and not too thin, unlike Gunze, Polly Scale, Model Master… Pot life I really can’t comment on yet. A local shop just started carrying them last year and I’ve only been using them for a few months. But so far, they are meeting or exceeding my expectations for acrylics.
I still love MM enamels. I have tried (very limited) others, and don’t care one bit for anything acrylic. My most recent trip to the LHS had me quite let down. It was a paint run…and the MM rack wasn’t even half of its former glory. I got a bottle of Mr Color lacquer. It did alright, and I think that’s going to be the direction I go, once MM is all washed up.
I hear ya, it sucks when one masters its use and then the powers that be decide to drop them. I haven’t tried Mr Color but have heard good things about it.
Have you tried Mission Model Paints? Like you, I do NOT like spraying acrylics but I tried a couple of MMP acrylic paints and was very pleased at how well they behaved, not quite like enamels but better than expected.
I her ya and I’m the same way. I have mastered mixing and air brushing these enamels and now they are dropped from production. A while back I grabbed several bottles in reserve but those too will eventually either be used up or go bad.