Hi all!!
I am getting back into modeling and getting supplies. I want to start using Vallejo paint exclusively. I am not an air brush guy.
What sets would be good to have in the beginning for cars, ships, tanks, and aircraft? Is there a set that would work for all of them?
I have bought the Basic Colors USA set.
Those four subject areas have such a huge range of color needs, so a single paint set to cover them all is not likely. A basic common color set (black, white, silver, primary colors, etc.) to cover where they cross over is probably the best you can get.
I’ll second Stik that Vallejo won’t have one single set that covers all subjects. In fact, that’s why they make sets, to cover specific subjects.
You can certainly start out with sets; there is a convenience to buying something like a “US Army Uniforms, ETO 1944”, and taking some of the guesswork out of choosing the colors to use. I second Stik also in the concept of getting basic colors that can be used across subjects. With time and practice, you’ll develop a sense of which colors to get and use.
I will add my own advice, too. Vallejo’s paints are water-based acrylics, so it sounds like that’s the medium you’ve chose. I use water-based acrylics, including Vallejo. But I also use other brands, such as Andrea and Lifecolor. And I use craft store brands-Apple Barrel, Americana, Folk Art. They are reasonably priced, and they work just as well as those made by companies for us scale modelers.
The other advice I will offer is to try using a wet palette with your water-based acrylics. If you’ve never used one, it’s an air- and water-tight container that holds a sponge, with a piece of permeable paper for the actual palette. You soak the sponge, and the paper lets water through to give your paints a good consistency. It makes mixing colors easy, and when closed, it means you can use a batch of colors from one session to the next. There are good ones on the market, from Masterson’s, which is probably the oldest brand, and can be found at art supply and arts & craft stores, as well as online, to RedGrass Games, which has palettes in various sizes, and what I think is the best paper on the market today.
Before you might buy one, you can make your own and see if you like working with it. I did that, with a takeout container, a kitchen sponge that fit, and brown packaging paper for the palette. I got the hang of how wet to keep the sponge, how to mix colors, and how long I could keep a batch of colors before I had to chuck them. Now you might ask why I just didn’t continue to use my homemade wet palette? Well, over time, the plastic wore out and the edge of the lid cracked, so it was no longer air-tight. The commercial product is more robust. But I find it indispensible for working with water-based acrylics.
I hope that helps you!
Best regards,
Brad
I use Vallejo paints exclusively also. I mainly use the Vallejo Model Air paints for brush painting since I don’t own or use an airbrush. The Model Air paints can be hand brushed, but depending on the type of model you’re building and the colors used, you may need to apply more than 1 coat of paint on the model.
@Pinkbooger You are starting down a slippery slope, my friend. I, too, started out buying the Vallejo color sets, and this is what it has morphed into:
I now own a huge collection of Vallejo, a respectable collection of Tamiya, and a growing collection of Mission paints. I now own most of the paints needed for my models, but each model generally requires one or two or three or four (you get the point) colors that I don’t have. I am blessed to have a couple of great model stores near me and have found that one near my work carries a huge selection of model paints. I never seem to be able to leave there without having spent at least $20 on paints.
Best of luck.
I had to look up the wet palette system that you are talking about and it looks like a great idea. I will look into making a home made version but i really like this idea alot.
Thank you!
I bought a set of paint from vallejo but it is the model color and not model air. I didn’t know that the model air is ok to brush paint also. I do not think I will be an airbrush artist. Brushes and spray paint cans!
Do the Tamiya paints have an odor/smell? I get kicked out of the house if I am painting with Testors paints and have changed to using Vallejo and ProAcryl.
The Hobby Lobby close to me sells Vallejo paint individually. I built up my set as needed,
I only work with Tamiya acrylics so I don’t know how the lacquer paints smell. The acrylics have a light odor. It’s no worse than Vallejo. I would imagine the lacquers are much stronger. When I spray Mr Surfacer, the odor is very strong and I need to crack a window (I use a spray booth, so that is saying something).
Tamiya and Vallejo paints don’t have an offensive smell. The primers and spray cans do.
The acrylic paints dry fast, very fast, so that’s what the palette slows down.
If there was one other thing I’d recommend, it would be to use a pipette for drawing paint out of the Tamiya bottles after mixing them well. Replace the top as soon as you have drawn the paint you need to keep the paint from drying. The dropper bottles don’t allow a lot of air to reach the paint, so they don’t dry out as quickly.
I work with both Tamiya and Vallejo acrylic paints and haven’t noticed a smell. If you do end up using both brands, just be mindful. I’ve started to notice that if I put any of Tamiya clear colors (red, blue, etc.) over Vallejo (Air, Metal, Color) that there is a chance of striping the layer. Then again, that could just be me and operator error! 
As for sets, you might want to buy the paints as needed instead of going with a set. Since the subjects you mentioned are so broad, no one set is going to cover them all unless you bought a large number of paints and you will most likely end up with coors you won’t ever need.
That could be that the Tamiya product is a little hot to apply over the Vallejo paints without something to seal them.
Tamiya’s paints are lacquer- or alcohol-based, depending on the product. The acrylic isn’t a water-based acrylic, but alcohol-based, for example. That could be why a coat of Tamiya applied over the Vallejo paint stripped it.
Not meaning to highjack the thread, but Pinkbooger, these are some of the things to consider when you start collecting your paint. Good luck! 
Tamiya paints have a faint odor - that’s the reason I rarely use them. They have a solvent based binder (so I’d use a lacquer thinner instead of A-20) and that’s what does it. I certainly prefer water based acrylics that have a water based polymer binder.
If you’re going to hand paint your kits I’d strongly recommend using Vallejo Model Color instead of Model Air - they’re thicker and made for the paint brush. There are alternative water based acrylics… Mission Models makes a good range of military colors. Italian made LifeColor are also very good, especially for matte. But my favorite - beyond a doubt - are Golden Fluid Acrylics. Golden pioneered the use of acrylic paints for artists in the 1950s and are still going strong. There is a very wide range of colors (check the Blick Art Materials web site - they have a list of all of them.) The basic colors are less expensive than any model paints. You can pay more for the ritzy “mixing paints” but they’re incredibly useful if you know what you’re doing.
If you change your mind about air brushing you’re going to want to get Vallejo Model Air - or better yet Golden High Flow. Golden paints are extremely pigment rich and airbrush splendidly. But don’t throw away Model Color or the other water based acrylics if you decide to give airbrushing a try. Use a brew called “Airbrush Medium” made by Golden, Liquitex and even Vallejo. The thing to remember is not to use water except in very small amounts.- it will weaken the finish very badly.
Concerning Golden, if you go on Vallejo’s web page there will be two “doors” - one is for their model paints and the other for their art paints. They’re the same, but the model paints have military colors. I have a color mixing book and can match any color with a little effort. I get a kick out of it.
Below is a list of Vallejo Model Color (along with some Model Air and White Ensign (WEM) that lists their colors and their equivalents for Luftwaffe Paints (RLM), German standard paints (RAL) and some others like USN, or RAF - more or less self explanatory.
-RLM:
02 – 886 green gray
04 – 877 golden brown or yellow
42 – gray green - 866
65- 973 light sea gray
66 - black gray 862 RAL 7043
70 – black green 896 extra black germ green or 897 bronze green
71 – cam olive green 894, 893 us dark green
74 – dark gray 994
75- medium sea gray 870
76 pale blue 906
79 sand yellow 843 (cork brown)
80 897 bronze green (olivegrun)
81 braun violet 887
82 – 823 LW Cam Gr
83- dunkel grun intermediate green 891
84- 971 green gray (sky)
RLM 02 (possible Zero) mix of Feldgrau 830, khaki gray 880, green gray 971
WEM:
OD 41, OD 613, 4 Color Scheme - Insignia White (lower USN), Non-specular sea blue ANA 607(val 989X), Semi gloss sea blue (Val 995X), intermediate blue ana 608 (val 903X),: 41-42 - blue gray (val 904X), light gray (Val 989X, lc ua025) Gloss Blue (LC)
RAF: dark earth (pre 41 & desert Val 873X) dark green (val 893X), ocean gray (869), sky (val 971X), med sea gray(870)
New need: white; 820 - insignia white (similiar FS 37880) 992 neutral gray
x - own 924 Russian uniform green for UK tank
spit 9 - medium gray/987 or 869 basalt gray (body gray); body green 893 (US dark green); underneath 870 medium sea gray
Model color
x 806 german yellow
x809 royal blue
816
x816 Luftwaffe unifrom Used as Sabeo Gray w/blue tint : USN Navy Blue
819
x819 iraqi sand
x822 Germ camo black brown
823 Luftwaffe camo green rlm 69
x 824 German ochre camouflage (iraqi sand: for wood decks)
825 Germ camo pale brown RAL 8025 FS 30140
x826 Germ camo med brown
x 830 German Feldgrau
x862 black gray pnz col RAL 7043
865
x865 oily steel panz col
x866 gr green
867
x867 Dark Blue Gray
x869 basalt gray
x870 medium sea gray
870 med sea gray
x872 choclate brown panz col
x 873 field drab
873 us field drab
x874 tan earth
877 gold brown rlm 4
879
x 879 green brown
879 green brown
879 green brown
x 880 khaki gray panz col
882
x882 middlestone
882 middlestone x 2
x 884 dk gray
885 pastel green
x 886 gray green RLM2
887 brown violet RLM84
x 889 olive drab
x 890 reflective green panz col (Olivegrun)
x891 intermediate green
x 893 us dk green
893
894 camo olive gr
x 894 Russian green or cam ol grn
x895 gunship green
896 Germ extra dark green rlm 70
x897 bronze green
x898 dk sea blue USN 3 color scheme top surface
x900 french mir blue
x903 intermediate blue USN 3 color scheme: middle and tail
x904 dk blue gray RAL 7000
x905blue gray pale
x905 blue gray pale US Haze gray RAL 7001 (Soviet Blue)
x 906 pale bl
x914 green ochre
x924 Russian Uniform Gr (US AC Int post 43 but needs more green) or 873
x916 sand yellow x
x941 burn umber
x943 grey blue
948 golden yellow RAL 1017 RLM 5
x950 Black
x951 white
957 red
x971 gray green
971 grn gray X 2 (sky)
972 light green blue RLM 78
973
973
x973 lt sea gray RLM 65 lichtblau
x975 milit green
x 976 buff
x977 Desert Yellow
x978 Dark Yellow panz col
979 germ camo dk green
980 black green 72
x983 flat earth
x 989 sky gray
x 990 light gray RAL 7001
x991 kure w/o blue dark sea gray
x994 dk gray revell 378 RAL 7016
x995 german gray (7024 RAL)
995
FS 34088 equals OD ANA 41.
Model air 71xxx
002 yellow
004 blue
015 olive green 71
016 us dark green 73
016 us dark green 73
016 US dark green 73
020 german green
020 german green
021 black green
022 camo green 82
024 khaki brown
040 burnt umber
041 tank brown
041 tank brown
043 olive drab 81
044 light gray green 02
046 pale gray blue 76
052 German Gray 75
054 dark gray blue 74
055 gray green 66 (RAL 7016)
85 italian red
My experience with Tamiya’s acrylics is that I get my best results, airbrushing or brushing by hand, using their proprietary thinner X-20A. I have used lacquer thinner for airbrushing the acrylics, on a tip that it would render the flat colors, the XF’s, absolutely dead-flat matte. I didn’t notice a difference. And it’s tricky to use lacquer thinner to thin paints for hand-brushing. It can be done, but it takes a little practice. It’s a popular technique among Maschinen Krieger modelers, for example.
Of course, others may have other experience.
Best regards,
Brad
When I hand-brush Tamiya acrylics, I use 2 methods, both with the X-20A thinner.
I will use the jar of paint, and a jar of the thinner. I dip my brush in the paint, or pick some color up off the lid. Then I dip the brush in the thinner. I apply it to the subject. Or I’ll pick up thinner, then color from the lid. Either way, the paint thins as I apply it.
The other method is to mix the color and the thinner in a well on a ceramic palette. Either way, I get the consistency I want.
Best regards,
Brad
I see your list of colors and raise you this Vallejo list of colors. 
I don’t think any paint made for airbrushing (that means having a solvent binder) - Tamiya, Mr. Color, MSP, AK Real Color - is good for hand painting. The thicker water based acrylics cover better. You can also add a little retarder if you want to mix paints on a figure. Vallejo Model Color, Citadel, Army Painter and - if you want to mix your own colors - Golden Fluid acrylics will do the trick nicely.
