As the title states, I'm looking for the pros & cons of Tamiya and Model Master spray paint products. I plan to paint a pre-war car that has no collectible value and with proper prep hope to get a decent finish. Thanks for any info that can be provided.
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Depending on your particular color choices and needs, either brand is fine, as is plain Testors spray paint.
...as is spray paint from the hardware store. Avoid the weird ones ("6 coats in one!" "engineered for space plastics!"); plain flat gray primer, white, black, oxide primer (good boxcar/caboose color) from a dollar store are superb, and usually spray less at a time - they're cheap, after all - which is good for control.
If you venture into lots of colors, I would stick with the model paints. Some hardware store color paints are based of some super-solvets, here and there. Model paints are typically "gentler". (The basic hardware flats, above, are fine.)
Try to stay within brands, but use only Testors Dullcote or Glosscote for the final overspray, if any.
As always, it's an individual preference. TEHO, I say.
As for me....Tamiya. The spray quality is much, much better than with the Testors rattle can products. Just my septuagenarian opinion, mind you.
The most telling color by which I've made this judgment is silver. When I was repainting the car end/vestibule moldings of a set of Lionel 2500-seroies (aluminum) passenger cars from the mid 50's, I tried both on opposite ends of a single car. No doubt about it, Tamiyq's Silver Leaf had the Testors beat....especially for color consistency and spray quality.
That said, sometimes Testors is the only brand that has a rattle can color close enough to my needs. So, in that case, Testors it is.
Since you wanted a rattle can, only, opinion, that's it. However, my Paasche airbrush has them all beat.
FWIW, always.
KD
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