I am working on my new project, a sail boat 1:72. The box comes with a list of recomended colors to use on the kit. I have been having a hard time finding paints to order.
I would like to stay with acrilics mainly becuase the easy of cleaning, I want to expend my time bulding the model, not cleaning brushes with toxic chemicals.
I have been loking for a reasonable priced kit of paint that would contain a selection of the most used paints for sail ships, what I am finding are kits for tanks, planes, cars, german uniforms, US uniforms, etc. but not a set for sail ships. Do you guys have any ideas you could share with me?
Sailing ships are such a small slice of the ship genre in this hobby that there likely is not such a paint set put out by the mainstream paint companies. Only recently have any of the acrylic paint lines come out with more popular 20th century naval colors, aside from a long discontinued Marine Colors line by Testors. At best you can get some generic color acrylic paint sets that include primary colors, then hunt for more specific individual colors that you may need such as for the sails and bare wood deck.
What’s the kit? I’d be happy to make some suggestions if you can let us know what’s on the ways.
Most ship models in the "sailing " category have a higher ratio of hand/ airbrush painting than others. For that I reach for high pigment content enamels.
I still keep up a good supply of the Testor’s square bottles for fine detail hand brushing.
Ship models, particularly wooden ship models, may be considered the bast**d child of modeling. There are just a few dedicated color sets for ships, and essentially no dedicated sets for wooden ships.
The colors used during the period are going to be common and relatively available natural pigments. Lamp black, lead white, ochre, red, green, and mixtures thereof
Here is a complete set for the steam ship era
Vallejo Model Color is an acrylic, brushable, water cleanup paint. Remembering that the steam era overlapped the end of the sail era. Many of the colors would be compatible. The picture is off Amazon, but you may be able to find the set through other online sellers
You can never go wrong with Vallejo. The standard line can be airbrushed if you thin them and keep them mixed up with airbrush thinner. They like to seperate but work okay if you bully them a bit with your stirring stick. The Vallejo air range airbrushes much nicer and should have many of the same colours. Panzer Aces are an off shoot of Vallejo model colour and may contain some suitable colours since they aim for perfect accuracy to real subjects.
You maybe able to find a conversion chart online to find the right vallejo colours you need.
I have been trying to get the Vallejo set in the islustration, but, Amazon shows it a s back odered, I have lookes in other location but, I have not been able to find it.
BTW, Does this posting system has a spell checker? if so, where is it?
I’ve built three of their ship/boat kits years ago ( and if not theirs then plastic at any rate), the last one I believe was a river boat, I did PT 109, a cargo ship and tug boat and the sailing ship HMS Bounty ( the only one I airbrushed)… I always used enamels back then. If you decide to go with acrylic paint be sure to prime everything first. Acrylic can be fine but they stick much better to primer than plastic and primer is made to stick to plastic. Of all the boats/ships I have done I think the tugboats just captured me at the time. The Bounty was great but a much bigger project.
I think Vallejo Model Color is a decent choice for brush painting. I also use craft paints and blend up my own colors, same with acrylic artist paints. I’d suggest Model Master acryl for brushing too but not sure how inventory is. Vallejo is a surer bet right now. All that though to say if you are sure on acrylics as your choice then please prime ! It’s too much work to have your paints chip or flake or wear off… And Ships are fun !!
Spray paints & primers from the hardware store may be used on plastic models but be sure to spray light coats. Test first. Krylon, Plasticote, American Painter, Rustoleum may have solvent properties which can affect the models surface.
I have used them, but go slow. Two light coats instead of one heavy one
What I’m going to say is basically what Ed said. I’ll add a little bit.
I used to use Krylon all the time but some folks here have said it’s properties have changed. I don’t know if that’s good or bad !! When I used it I heated the can in hot water which thinned the paint a bit in cooler weather and gave great atomization, consistent year round. Some of the guys in the model car forum have said they use Rustoleum primer and do the same as I did with Krylon. They just put down light coats and if it goes on a little dry or nubby just steel wool it smooth after it’s good and dry… Same for Walmarts lacquer primer ( sorry I don’t know the generic name they use but it’s about $3 a can and lacquer based is all I know about it). When you back away too far it can go on a little dry is why that occurs but if too close the solvents in the paint can be tough on plastic. What I did with Krylon is just speed up my passes and it went on just wet enough to be smooth but thin enough that it dried right away and could be accelerated with use of a hair dryer if need be and it never damaged plastic parts… But today since I airbrush most things, I’m using Badger Stynylrez primer which is an acrylic poly resin paint that won’t damage plastic. But I never damaged a model using Krylon, I used it for years, I think two decades after Floquil went out. I’ve also, on another note, brush painted Stynylrez onto small parts now and then and it’s come out nice.
You could also order in some Tamiya primer from one of the online stores and that’s made for plastic models, it’s a mild lacquer base…
Thanks! I did figure that out, following your build. She looks great by the way.
The spellcheck makes a real difference. I completely understand the trouble with spelling; many members here have that and have figured out various ways to get past it. Sometimes I think my own spelling is headed south.
Spellers software are not a completed solution, most of them, would not give the appropriated spelling of a particular word, or can not understand the word you just type, the one that comes with Word is one of the best, and it better be, considering that Word is a writing program.
I also a member of another blog, not related to models, that has such problem, I type what I think is the spelling of a given word, and the choices I get do not correspond to the word in question, (They just made an “upgrade” that made things worse ) in many case I had to crack open one of my 4 dictionaries to find the answer.
I am building a WW1 German aircraft with no supplies. I went looking for a prepackaged palette (color selection). I failed. I found a modern military palette, but even that was a poor fit. There are a lot of good reasons for this. For example, palettes vary by country, service, and war. So any general collection is going to have a lot of material irrelevant to any particular project.
Seems like Vallejo makes some of the best acrylics. Given that they can be had for $3.77 per bottle with shipping included if you buy a couple of dozen colors, you are best off picking your project and then buying just what you need. I did and it cost way less than that military palette of 72 colors, notwithstanding the good per bottle pricing of the larger bundle.
Do note that Tamiya are not true water-based acrylics if smell is a concern. They are alcohol based and denatured alcohol stinks in many people’s view. It is also poisonous.
