Are Lifecolor paints any good?

[swimmer25k]

I'm a faithful Gunze and Tamiya customer.  Lifecolor makes a shade I'm looking for that no one else makes.  

Thanks,

 

Chris

[82Whitey51]

I've heard they are pretty good. Not as "soft" as Gunze so may pull up or scratch easier. I haven't used them, but the fact that they have "FS" colors makes me want to give them a try.

 

You go first...

 

Edited May 31, 2017 by 82Whitey51

[eraucubsfan]

They are okay.  They are definitely airbrush only and are very thin out of the bottle.  They did pull up when masked and I used putty to mask, they "stained" where I had the putty; this was probably my own doing though.  

[ChippyWho]

They are absolutely fine; I use them on a few things with Lifecolor thinner and never had any grief. Masking a fairly simple splinter pattern on Revell's little Go 229 (Tamiya yellow tape, no primer) suffered no pull-ups. Coverage was good and various washes/filters did no harm at all. I understand thinning ratios can be an issue, but roughly 60 thinner/40 paint on a mild, dry day seemed to airbrush nicely for me.

 

HTH

[Fighting Eighty-Four]

I started out using them because of their extensive color line and relative ease of acquisition.  But after having used Gunze Aqueous and now Mr Paints, I cannot bring myself to go back to them.  They are just too inconsistent for my taste.

 

The Good:

 

-Lots of colors to choose from, and they appear to be pretty accurate. 

-Almost no smell

-Rather inexpensive and easy to get

 

The Bad:

 

-Spray very inconsistently for me, no matter what thinner I used or ambient conditions I was in.  Found myself almost always cleaning my airbrush tip every couple of minutes, even after using a retarder.

-Finish is a bit fragile, susceptible to scratches and lifting with tape, even over primer.

-They tend to bubble up in the bottle and AB cup, so do not agitate them by shaking.  Must use a toothpick or something to stir them.  Also likes to skin over in the bottle.

 

They also have a very flat finish, but that is really neither a good nor a bad thing.

[Aigore]

I've pretty much used Life color exclusively for the last 6 years for all my builds. Only issue I've had is the usually acrylic paint buildup on the needle tip but that's easily remedied by having a cotton swab dipped in thinner close by.

I think they are really good for spraying, small pigments and they brush on nicely too.

[Rex]

I only have 100 of them, so this can't be "all inclusive."

 

Of those, there are only a few "clunkers" when it comes to matches. Most of that 100 are the FS number they say they are on the bottle,,,,,or just very slightly lighter. (Scale effected from the factory?)

 

As for the shaking and tip dry problems,,,,,,,,,,,it is okay to shake Water based Acrylics,,,,,,as long as you shake them at the right time, and not just before painting with them. I don't have any "skin-over" in the bottles, but, I do get the carrier separation in some of them. I shake all the Paints I am going to use in a work session, at the beginning of the session, all of them have an agitator added to them. Then I know that the pigment and binder is blended. When I actually start painting, I stir the one I am using with a Tamiya Stir Tool. Lifecolor caps are of one of the "proper designs", allowing drip down into the bottle without the possibility of drying on the underside of the cap. They are one of the paints that you have to store right side up.

 

Flow Improver is what you want for spraying, not just the Drying Retarder. I use both, mixed in with the LifeColor thinner, or in the Vodka home brew thinner that I use for most of my Acrylics.

 

LifeColor, like almost all the Water Based Acrylics, shouldn't be picked up, shaken, and used right away. As for thinning ratios, use either the "2% milk" on the side of the cup method,,,,,,or the "tiny bit stays on the Tamiya Stick" method,,,,,,and it will be thinned correctly. Add a bit of thinner to your paint cup (with the additives pre-mixed in), add paint, stir, test with Stick, add more thinner if needed, spray at light pressures.

 

Paint all of these over Stynylrez primer,,,,,,and use low tack tape for masking. Cover with a clear coat before handling or decaling, even if you already have a high gloss finish. (to protect the very thin and fragile paint)

 

(Note, over a thousand bottles of the actual water based Acrylics, all have "good" caps, agitators, all get shaken,,,,,,,I haven't lost a bottle in over 5 years since switching to Acrylics,,,,,,,,,I have ZERO bottles of Tamiya or either Gunze paints)

[metroman]

Junk frankly, even with a even primer of Mr surfacer it lifted with masking despite the tamiya tape being de-tacked first.  I sought their Desert Pink for my Tornado, and suffered through the agony of paint lifts.   About that time I saw Mr Paint had Desert Pink (a surprisingly hard color to mix oneself) and I was sold.   So as for LifeColor:   ever ever again, why bother with superior paints such as Mr Color and Mr Paint (and average ones like Tamiya) available ones really needs nothing else. 

[Camus272]

I just used them for the second time this week. First time was OK. Now they won't stick at all. Can't mask or sand or touch without the whole surface peeling into sheets. I'm hoping that a week of curing and a good clear coat will let me work on it. But, I probably won't buy anymore. The rare colors are nice, but I would rather mix at this point. Also, they dry up in unopened bottles. The first 20 I bought ended up being unusable.