I recently picked up a couple new Mr. Color paints that Sprue Brothers is now selling. I ordered the paints from the “solvent-based” category (as opposed to the Aqueous Hobby Color).
Ok, this might be a really stupid question but what - exactly - does “solvent-based” mean here, as I notice the Mr. Color paints are also acrylics???
Technically speaking, water is a solvent. But in modelling terms, when I see “solvent”, I usually think of paint thinner. Are these Mr. Color solvent-based acrylic paints water, alcohol, or paint thinner paints?
I picked up some of these about a month ago, and asked similar questions then. And recieved no real feedback about this in particular. All I have been able to find out is that they work with the same thinner as their “Aqueous” line of paints. I have yet to handbrush them and see how that clean up goes. If they dont clean up with water, standard thinner, or some other easily available household/garage liquid, I may only use them for airbrushing.
No, their thinner is defnitely not water… it has a strong alcohol type smell (not isopropyl or liquor). Buy the big one! Just look how the cost difference figures out.
From what i could find, Mr Color is Lacquer based - that’s the thinner with the dark blue label, smells like Mr Surfacer. Mr Color is rarely available in Australia (from what i can see), so i don’t own any bottles etc. I’ve never painted with it and am unsure if it is water soluble.
Gunze is water soluble, but i use the thinner (light blue label) for airbrushing. It’s the one that smells like alcohol. Gunze is my paint of choice and when brush painting, simply rinse brushes with water.
Both enamels and lacquers are solvent based. Mr Color is a solvent based lacquer. Use Mr Color thinner for best results, though hardware store lacquer thinner should also work. Water won’t play well with Mr Color at all.
I’ve been using these paints for two projects now, my source is Sprue Brothers.
Couple of things, yes they are solvent based, and stink accordingly. That though is the only drawback as many of the colors come in semigloss bottles which if you are into having decals not silver is a plus. They spray beautifully IF you remember two things: (1) you must use the ‘Self-Levelling’ thinner to avoid spider webs and strings, and (2) you have to thin really well. A more sheer and lovely coat has me all jacked up about these, MM enamels are now definitely 2nd fiddle. Easy to use and great in coverage, Mr Color is a winner. Now I just need my LHS to carry them.
I mostly use Model Master enamels. I recently had a very bad experience with RAF Dark Green and Sky “S”. The green was a new bottle I purchased at the last Squadron Scalefest and Open House. It is unusually thick, had a peculiar smell unlike the other MM enamels, and, when sprayed, would somehow seem to separate from the thinner, leaving me with more-or-less pure thinner coming through the brush for lengthy intervals. I had not had this problem since I quit using Aeromaster paints. I thinned the Sky (aslo a freshly opened bottle) 40 thinner/15 paint to do some fine edgework, and had, for the first time with this brand, a hell of a time clogging and, like the green, paint separation and pure thinner coming through the brush. I wound up having to hand-paint many areas because of the paint’s poor performance. I used Testor’s thinner, although from the red “general application” can as opposed the black MM can, which is usually what I use. I use a Paasche “H” with the #3 tip and a canister compressor at 12lbs. PSI. Except when I was using Aeromaster paint, I have always gotten excellent results with thes methods.
I just read an article by an author on Internet Modeler who says he uses MM enamels and Tamiya acrylics and uses Gunze Self-Leveling Thinner, which he considers the best air brush thinner around, with everything. It’s lacquer-based. Has anyone used it with enamels to know if it will work well with them? Does anyone have any ideas on whether it will help to avoid the problems I just had? I’d like to hear experience talk before I plunge for the price of the thinner.
This came up on Promodeller and let me try to give you an answer, and please be patient if you’re a paint guru because I ain’t.
There are acrylics and there are acrylics. Gunze Mr. Hobby were “water based” acrylics which means that the pigments were suspended in a water-based solution. (I believe some water based paints are suspended in water period.) A “solvent” based acrylic has the pigment suspended in a solvent - heaven knows what it is. (I believe Tamiya is also solvent based, or at least it’s water-base is heavily charged with something that isn’t H20.) Mr. Color is solvent based and the old Mr. Hobby are being retired at least in the US.
In practice this means that you would be well advised to treat Mr. Color paints as lacquer. Use either Tamiya lacquer thinner or Gunze’s own Mr. Color Thinner which is lacquer. I got a personal message about this from the guy who runs Hobby Wave which sells Mr. Color in wide varieties. It caters to fantasy type modeling that is so popular in Japan. This guy’s background is in artist art and he gave me a long spiel. It boils down to this: “screw the technicalities and treat Mr. Color as a lacquer. If you do it’s the best paint period.” Can’t validate that, but I did use Mr. Color and Mr. Color Thinner on a recent battleship and the results were crackerjack - wonderfully smooth and pretty tough surface. But it smells like lacquer and that is not good. Wear a good paint-oriented mask - probably one of those gas-mask things would be better.
Might add that I agree with findings on another Promodeller thread that argues that Tamiya acrylic paints are best when mixed with Tamiya or Gunze lacquer thinner. I get much better results than when using Tamiya lacquer as opposed to Tamiya acrylic thinner. And I’m also looking around the water-based acrylic world (Vallejo, Pollyscale acrylic etc) for something that will work well with acrylic thinner or even water. If I can get a good basic paint job without messing with lacquer anything that’s all for the good.