Acrylic Paints


N

NP2626

Guest
I was a big time user of Floquil Oil Paints and Poly Scale Acrylic Paints for my layout, when Testor's decided to do away with these staples for model railroaders. Since they left the market, I have gone to hobbyist type Acrylic Paints, which are found at Wall Mart and many other craft stores. I have also purchased Micro-Marks MicroLux and Acrylicos Vallejo paints many other Acrylic types of paints. I still have some oils paints: Testors, Floquil, Humbrol and Model Masters. I've found that all my oil paint's caps are absolutely glued to the bottles and a very difficult to open! Whereas some of my Acrylics are as old as some of my oils and far easier to get open. I'm at a place where I could simply throw the bottles of oil paints away as the acrylics have replaced them and they are no longer necessary.

Are any of you firmly ensconced in Acrylics like I am?
 
I use acrylic paint solely as well. I haven’t gotten much into customizing locomotives, or rolling stock(actually haven’t done any). My lake bottom, and all my washes for rocks, and such were done with very inexpensive acrylic paint. I buy most of it from Amazon as add on items which makes them pretty inexpensive.
 
I still have a vast collection of Floquil paints. I stocked up on them over the years. I don't know what I'll do once my supplies run out. :rolleyes:
 
Are any of you firmly ensconced in Acrylics like I am?
When Badger first came out with their Modelflex I tried it and was impressed. No deadly fumes and it was so nice to clean up with water. It greatly reduced the time to paint a model. I was never able to get the super glossy smooth finish that I did with the Floquil and ScaleCoat but it was good enough considering the difference in mess/time. That was my first experience, but I was doing only single things.

A hobby store supplier went out of business and I was able to pick up mass quantities of the paints for dirt cheap. I got lots of the Modelflex.

A short time later I started painting a set of about 20 box cars. About the 5th car the air brush started acting strangely, started splattering, then quit working all together. Paint had hardened in the brush while in use. No problem right, clean the brush, thin the paint a little more. Try again. Same thing. Groan. Unless I thinned until it was almost not paint or what I thinned with (water, alcohol, or the actual Badger thinner) I had this clogging problem. Tried different brands of air brushes, different nozzles, different needles - same problem with the exception of an external mix type air brush. But with that brush the paint is so heavy I might a well be using a can of Krylon. I found for big projects I ended up spending more time cleaning the brush mid project than I saved in the final clean up.

Then just last November I was "gifted" one of my friends entire model railroad collection. With it came a bunch of paint, so I got out all my old paint to merge the collections. As I got my original containers of Modelflex out (the ones from the hobby store sale) I noticed they looked funny. I shook one. It didn't shake. They had all dried out. Cases of brand new, never opened paint, went bad on the shelf. So much for getting a good deal. Sigh.

So I just don't do projects with acrylics anymore that require more than 5 minutes of painting time, and I don't buy paint ahead of time. I wait until I am ready to spray and then buy the paint.
 
I still have a vast collection of Floquil paints. I stocked up on them over the years. I don't know what I'll do once my supplies run out.
How do you keep it stirred up? With mine the pigments kept settling to the bottom requiring massive stirring before use, so I bought a hot dog roller, disconnected the heating element and keep the paint rolling on the rack.
 
Badger offers a battery operated paint mixer designed for the small jars. The device really does a great job of mixing the paint and getting the paint pigments blended through out the paint jar without any stirring.

I purchased mine several years ago for under $10.00.

Greg
 
Absolutely acrylic and acrylic like such as PBL Star Brand and TruColor. 90% of my painting now is with Vallejo and Tamiya. Model Railroad Hobbyist has published an excellent PDF guide to acrylic painting and has a PDF that shows equivalent for Floquil in newer brands. Acrylic has also reduced my need for an air brush to zero. When I can't find what I need in a rattle can, I use a PreVal sprayer. This has worked well with the TruColor line when I needed the specific SP Dark Olive that I have not been able to mix from Vallejo or Tamiya. Tamiya has two lines that can be used. Their Model Air for air brushing and Model Color for brush painting. Carefully done I have had good results brush painting some box cars. See below.

NP 16763-WIP 3.jpg

The small dropper bottles are wonderful and keep paint from drying out. Tamiya has an extensive range of colors that are based on military armor and aircraft. Do not overlook them as they contain many "real world" colors that go well in the model railroad world.
 
Absolutely acrylic and acrylic like such as PBL Star Brand and TruColor.

Actually PBL and Star Brand are solvent based. Acetone is the key ingredient. Good stuff, though with Tru-Color I've noticed a lack of consistency in how much you have to thin probably because of the plastic bottles. The acetone is so volatile I think the plastic allows it to dissipate. I've noticed that with Tru-Color, priming isn't an option, especially over metals and resin.

Tamiya has two lines that can be used. Their Model Air for air brushing and Model Color for brush painting. Carefully done I have had good results brush painting some box cars. See below.

I think you meant "Vallejo has two lines, Model Color and Model Air" ;). Not being a nit picker, just correcting in case newer folks might get confused. I've used both. They do work very well and level nicely with a brush, but I don't cross over, that is, try to brush Model Air or spray Model Color. It isn't impossible but can get fussy. There is also a company called "Reaper Miniatures". They cater to the figure guys but have many colors we can use. They are a latex formulation and can be brush or sprayed. They load up on a brush every bit as nicely as Vallejo. Check them out here:
https://www.reapermini.com/Paints Color charts for the Core Colors line are on the site. They have a ton of colors.


The small dropper bottles are wonderful and keep paint from drying out. Tamiya has an extensive range of colors that are based on military armor and aircraft. Do not overlook them as they contain many "real world" colors that go well in the model railroad world.

Yep, with those dropper bottles you can squeeze out one drop of paint and it goes a long way! I bought a bunch of those little plastic six compartment palettes off of Amazon. makes working with several colors really easy https://www.amazon.com/Outus-Palett...&qid=1547389117&sr=1-11&keywords=paint+pallet
 
Actually PBL and Star Brand are solvent based. Acetone is the key ingredient. Good stuff, though with Tru-Color I've noticed a lack of consistency in how much you have to thin probably because of the plastic bottles. The acetone is so volatile I think the plastic allows it to dissipate. I've noticed that with Tru-Color, priming isn't an option, especially over metals and resin.



I think you meant "Vallejo has two lines, Model Color and Model Air" ;). Not being a nit picker, just correcting in case newer folks might get confused. I've used both. They do work very well and level nicely with a brush, but I don't cross over, that is, try to brush Model Air or spray Model Color. It isn't impossible but can get fussy. There is also a company called "Reaper Miniatures". They cater to the figure guys but have many colors we can use. They are a latex formulation and can be brush or sprayed. They load up on a brush every bit as nicely as Vallejo. Check them out here:
https://www.reapermini.com/Paints Color charts for the Core Colors line are on the site. They have a ton of colors.




Yep, with those dropper bottles you can squeeze out one drop of paint and it goes a long way! I bought a bunch of those little plastic six compartment palettes off of Amazon. makes working with several colors really easy https://www.amazon.com/Outus-Palett...&qid=1547389117&sr=1-11&keywords=paint+pallet

Thanks for edits.....of course it is "Vallejo has two lines, Model Color and Model Air".... And correction that PBL and TruColor are acetone/solvent based. I find these quite different from the older lacquer based paints.
kja
 
A nice reason to use Acrylic paints are they are sold in most Craft Stores, Walmart , Ben Franklins, etc., etc. I find them pretty readily available, even in the small town I live in.
 
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I use a lot of Apple Barrel brand craft paints from Walmart. I use them mostly for structures and scenery. For use on locomotives and rolling stock, I like Testors Model Master acrylic paints. I have airbrushed the Apple Barrel paints, thinned 50/50 with a 50/50 mix of distilled water and 91% isopropyl alcohol. The only color I could not get to spray worth anything was 2197DE Mountain Forest green! Maybe I just wasn't holding my tongue quite right........
 
I use Acrylic paints for everything: locomotives, freight and passenger cars, cabooses, structures, scenery and on an on! Unusual about me is I do not have an Airbrush; or, spray booth and haven't felt the need for one. I've found that when I use the Acrylic Paints I've used, they leave no brush marks, so I just don't feel the need for an Airbrush. At the same time, if an Airbrush where given to me, I would make use of it; but, I just don't think of one as an absolute necessity. It does bothers me that the paint manufacturers, all of a sudden, feel the need to provide special paints for spraying, as Thinning Acrylic Paints isn't Brain Science; or, rocket surgery! Distilled water and/or isopropyl alcohol is all that is needed!
 



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