I plan to airbrush some railroad structures locomotives, scenery, and rolling stock so I need brand recommendations for acrylic paint that can be used in a 0.3mm airbrush without needing to thin the paint.
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CHECK THE MICRO MARK CATALOG, THEY HAVE A FEW OPTIONS. GOOD SERVICE AND QUICK DELIVERY.
My best results are with Tamiya paint. It clogs the air brush the least of the ones that I've used. It thins and cleans up with 91% (or higher) isopropyl alcohol. You can slow the drying down by adding a few drops of Tamiya retarder. It also helps reduce the paint drying in the gun. Vallejo is very popular and has a broad color line, but it dries slower, and I do find that it's tougher to clean the gun afterwards.
If you plan to use decals you must start with high gloss if you want perfect attachment of the decals then a final topcoat of what ever finish you need from gloss to dead flat. j
You can use flat, but then coat it with a gloss coat of some kind. A lot of folks (including me) use Pledge Floor Wax with Future. It's basically a high gloss clear acrylic paint that not only can be used as a pre-decal coating, but also can really brighten up clear parts. It will completely hide scratches in clear styrene parts. Many model air plane builders dip the entire canopy into the stuff, let it drain off naturally and cover it so it won't pick up dust. Let it dry overnight and it's a very hard clear finish. Cleans up with water. You can get a broader range of color in flats than glosses.
Trainman2001 posted:You can use flat, but then coat it with a gloss coat of some kind. A lot of folks (including me) use Pledge Floor Wax with Future. It's basically a high gloss clear acrylic paint that not only can be used as a pre-decal coating, but also can really brighten up clear parts. It will completely hide scratches in clear styrene parts. Many model air plane builders dip the entire canopy into the stuff, let it drain off naturally and cover it so it won't pick up dust. Let it dry overnight and it's a very hard clear finish. Cleans up with water. You can get a broader range of color in flats than glosses.
Myles, 100% agreement with you. I lived behind a camera for almost 30 years and pushing my glasses against the viewfinder would make a new pair unusable in less than a month. So after helping wax (clear acrylic paint) the kitchen floor one day I hit on the idea of coating my glasses with the stuff and sure enough once dry the scratches were gone. Since then the first thing I do when I buy new glasses is dip them very carefully, not to make bubbles, in a small container of pledge or future floor wax full strength. Remove them slowly letting the wax sheet off and set them on a paper towel till dry. Now it takes a good deal of abuse to go through the Future and if it does happen household ammonia removes the first coat of wax and I recoat. The stuff not only hides fine scratches it will cover gouges sometimes it takes two coats.
Back to paint, If I have a color in gloss I would rather save a step but when I use my old Floquil paints I do as you say. There ain't much choice, decals just don't work well on flat and mat surfaces. And if using the old solvent based Floquil on plastic I give plastic a shot of Future first. However I am moving to Trucolor paint for it's wide range of gloss colors.
Been using this same plastic box to treat my glasses for thirty years. j
Attachments
Createx..Mission Models..Testors Aztec..Badger..Vallejo..Microlux.Tamiya and some inexpensive stuff I got off Ebay called Modelers Decals and Paint all work well straight out of the container
Has anyone ever tried to float a decal on a wet layer of acrylic wax rather than letting the wax dry first ? Perhaps dipping the decal in the wax before applying. Been tempted to try but never got around to it. j
