While possibly true for the craft-type acrylic paints, there are high-quality water-based paints that will give you incredible results. Example: 28mm Zulu war figures:
When I was finishing my RPO I needed a green to match the Accucraft green and couldn’t find anything in the hobby paint world so I took an end from the car to Sherman Williams store and had them scan it. They used a Benjamin Moore latex enamel and come up with an almost perfect match. After much research, I finally found an excellent thinning technique. Mixing in 25% Windex allowed for a relatively fine spray through my airbrush and whatever is in Windex acted as a great whetting agent allowing the paint to flow nicely.
Doc
I respectfully disagree with the notion that high quality painting only comes from solvent based paints. That may have been true at one time but no longer. In fact I will almost argue the opposite is true. Airbrushing has changed that game. Because of the need for easy clean up and thin viscous paints acrylics have come a long way from the craft paints of the ceramics industry. I keep mentioning Createx but Vellajo, Badger, Testors, and many others are making very high quality acrylic paints that are thin and sprayable and give great results. I will never go back as long as I can find the colors I need. They have thinners and accelerators made specifically for acrylics now that take it even further just like they did for enamel. So while i believe in each to their own and use what works best for you and I will never say anyone is “wrong” I will defend the quality of the high end modern acrylics.
The model car hobby is one of the truest tests for quality finishes in paints. This is where I began as a competition modeler. And in those days all I had were enamels. But I still follow the scene on occasion and they are get ten times the results with the new acrylics. So many options are available. Transparent paint for layering, opaque for solid colors, pearl paints, Color shifting paint. I have seen models that have paints that rival Chip Foose.
Devon,
I agree 100%. The MRH HP acrylic paint thinner is awesome stuff. I make it by the gallon and use it also exclusively. I have noticed this latest batch I may have made a little “hot” some how as when I’m using it as a wash base, if I’m too aggressive I can sometimes get paint cracking on layers. So I’ve switched stop just using distilled water for washes with a drop of reducer.
For a great acrylic primer check out Badger Stynylrez. That’s all I use anymore on my models and spill on my pants… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
The Createx paints sound like a much more affordable way to paint vs the small bottles of Model Flex and Vallejo. I’m just not good yet at mixing colors but I’d love to see what you come up with.
There are a LOT of water based acrylics for the hobby industry that are very good paint.
For generic color use I use a lot of Tamiya paint thru my airbrush. It’s good stuff, you can airbrush inside without the smell, and it’s really forgiving. You have to be a pretty big dunderhead to mess it up.
Tamiya isn’t a true acrylic paint. It’s actually alcohol based not water based. But it’s seen as an acrylic as it’s not an enamel.
John Lenheiser said:
… but fine model painting requires enamel, or lacquer based paints to get a top quality job.
trainman
I would wager that a lot of members of http://www.missing-lynx.com/, and, http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/, and, http://www.starshipmodeler.net/talk/index.php, would have a different opinion based on their personal experiences.
And then there are my own prize winning models from late 1990s and early 2000s which were finished entirely in water soluble model paints since at the time I was having nasty reactions to solvents in general.
Not illustrated is 3rd place trophy from a KC AMPS contest for a 1/72 scale Churchill in early 2000s, again finished entirely in water soluble model paints, Tamiya, Polly Scale, Gunze-Sangyo, and even some artist acrylic in the weathering.
Chris,
Tamiya paints are solvent based acrylics. They aren’t 100% acrylics. Water soluble is different than water.
I would call a 100% acrylic a paint that is acrylic based that has no solvents at all. Aka, Vallejo, Model Flex.
https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/30967
https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/magazine/mrh2016-03-mar/publishers-musings
Craig Townsend said:
Tamiya isn’t a true acrylic paint. It’s actually alcohol based not water based. But it’s seen as an acrylic as it’s not an enamel.
I will not agree on the conclusion but this does bring to mind a great thing discovered about Tamiya’s acrylics when I started using them after they became available in Virginia Beach, VA in early 1980s, isopropyl alcohol makes a great paint stripper - which was a great help to me in my little custom painting cottage industry.
And now an anecdote, a coworker Jack Walters hired me to repaint a bunch of his ATSF passenger cars in N scale to N&W tuscan.
Since I couldn’t use solvent paints I mixed my own out of Tamiya acrylics to look like the red N&W was using on cars with the 611 which had just entered excursion service.
After looking at slides he’d taken in Roanoake back in the day we decided to shoot for the look of the cars in use right then in 1980s.
Discovered that mixing a touch of copper in to the red really made them pop.
Jack got more compliments on the cars color (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)but the other NTrak members just flat would not believe it was mixed acrylics.
They also refused out of hand to believe that the metal end doors and the window frames were not etched metal but simply Tamiya’s aluminum acrylic paint.
Oh well, their arrogance caused them to really miss out.
Such is life.
Anyway, while we’re talking acrylic paints, whether a paint is acrylic or not does not depend on the solvent, the definition is decided by the acrylic polymer which holds and binds the pigments, the water, alcohol, or whatever, is merely the thing which gets in the way of that binding happening until the paint is applied and/or subject to the solvent evaporating.
Forrest,
Yes I would agree that the binder in Tamiya paint is acrylic. That said, when most people think of acrylic paints, they think of water based cleanup. I don’t think that Tamiya paint can be cleaned up with water but alcohol? I’ve never used Tamiya so I can’t say what the clean up is like.
You’re trying to split hairs Craig. The point is that water based paint doesn’t mean house paint. Not to mention, I didn’t say Tamiya was water based, did I? Solvent based acrylics work just as well, in most cases better while avoiding the issues you have with enamels and lacquers.
Chris Kieffer said:
You’re trying to split hairs Craig. The point is that water based paint doesn’t mean house paint. Not to mention, I didn’t say Tamiya was water based, did I? Solvent based acrylics work just as well, in most cases better while avoiding the issues you have with enamels and lacquers.
No, I just like to argue… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
What if the issue with enamel and lacquers is the use of solvents?
Craig Townsend said: I don’t think that Tamiya paint can be cleaned up with water but alcohol? I’ve never used Tamiya so I can’t say what the clean up is like.
Oh, and by the way, the Tamiya acrylics will stain your brush water mug, but a simple soak in ammonia for about 30 minutes will allow the stains to be wiped right off,
And another neat thing about their acrylics - when airbrushed they dry fast, as in FAST, when I was building a lot of 1/72 and 1/76 scale armor in the 1990s for miniatures gaming it was possible to, for example, airbrush a platoon of Shermans olive drab, clean the airbrush, then go put the decals on the models & do so even without Microset and Microsol disturbing the paint.
Craig Townsend said:
Forrest,
I don’t think that Tamiya paint can be cleaned up with water but alcohol? I’ve never used Tamiya so I can’t say what the clean up is like.
Water has worked for cleanup for me since around 1983, be it cleaning air brush or hair brush - as long as you do cleanup before the paint dries, once dry water ain’t gonna move it, neither the soft water in city where I lived before here nor the hard water here: at that point it is time to break out the alcohol.
And the other neat thing about their paints are the several bottles I have from back then, when labeling was almost all in Japanese, which are still perfectly usable!
See attached photo.
Also, Tamiya does now make paints of other chemistries than that long-running line of acrylic, https://tamiyablog.com/2017/11/tamiya-color-lacquer-paint-compatibility-table-matching-list/
I often airbrush in my right hand and have the hairdryer on low in my left hand. Swap back and forth to make painting a breeze. A quick back flush followed by a flush and I’m done. Well that’s with a gravity feed airbrush.
Craig Townsend said:
The Createx paints sound like a much more affordable way to paint vs the small bottles of Model Flex and Vallejo. I’m just not good yet at mixing colors but I’d love to see what you come up with.
I don’t think you are going to get too. I was able to acquire the Badger modelflex colors I need to get the required Floquil equivalents for the STMA formulas I have. So sorry to disappoint. I have never been great at mixing colors either.