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Acrylic Paints Recommendations? Tamiya, MM, Mr. Color....


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I started getting into Bombshell Brew paints but Lewis pulled the plug cause things got too hectic for him.  They were similar to Vallejo Air and he had a great military color range.  I managed to get about 15 colors before he decided he was done.

Edited by Spectre711
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I'm a bit late getting to this thread, but here are my thoughts about Tamiya Acrylics and Mr Color Lacquers:

 

1) Tamiya is great stuff. If they have a limitation its that their colour range is a bit limited, but they have been cautiously expanding the colour line in recent years (E.G., XF-81 RAF Dark Green). There are many places where you can find good mixing formulae to create colours from scratch like RAF Dark Earth. I get the best results by thinning them with Mr Leveling Thinner. Tamiya now makes a Lacquer Thinner with retarder blended in but i haven't tried it yet.

 

2) Their metallic acrylics are so-so; i have used XF-56 successfully, but for the most part i prefer lacquers when doing metallic finishes. I'm told their LP-series of Metallics are very good.

 

3) Being able to clean out your eye droppers with water is a definite plus. They also have a very long shelf life....something MM enamels were terrible for.

 

4) Tamiya doesn't bond quite as well to bare plastic as enamels do. I counter this by wet sanding my surfaces to give them some "tooth" and they generally work better when applied over their lacquer based primers. if you try to sand Tamiya applied to bare plastic, it will "scratch" off the surface and not feather smoothly. Tamiya (and Mr Color) will occasionally chip and lift up evenif you're cautious and use Tamiya tape. The good news is repairs are very fast because of the drying times.

 

5) Mr Color is great stuff, but definitely harder to find. I use them almost exclusively on my Navy Gull Gray/ Gloss White subjects. They bond to plastic better than Tamiya acrylics do, though they dry so thin than any deep sanding scratches will show thru more readily.

 

6) I'm a huge fan of the Mr Super Clear. It's like Future but it dries a heckuva lot faster, and you can carpet bomb the gloss paints and clear coats with straight Mr Leveling Thinner to well.... level out the surface. Mr Leveling Thinner will not eat or melt plastic like cheapo Kleen Strip lacquer thinner or its equivalents will.

 

7) Mr Color slowly out-gasses thru the plastic caps, but they make this stuff called "Mr Replenisher" which when added to very thickened Mr Color, brings the paint back to life. Mr Color's line of metallic finishes are also excellent.

 

😎 Tamiya offers an LP (Lacquer Paint) series of colours and i just got one of their silvers. I'm told its great stuff, especially if you use "Mr Rapid Thinner" with it. 

 

Hope this helps.

 

david

 

 

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My problem with colour chips is this.

 

When I look at the black rubber seal on the windscreen of my car when Im standing next to it it looks more of a really dark grey colour.

When I look at the black rubber seal on the windscreen of my car from my window is looks black.

 

When I see a model painted in a model colour that is colour chip matched to the real thing it never looks quite right.

I know it is, I know its colour perfect, but it looks different.

 

And that is before you get to the sun bleaching out the colour and weathering changing everything on top of that. 

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7 hours ago, ElectroSoldier said:

My problem with colour chips is this.

 

When I look at the black rubber seal on the windscreen of my car when Im standing next to it it looks more of a really dark grey colour.

When I look at the black rubber seal on the windscreen of my car from my window is looks black.

 

When I see a model painted in a model colour that is colour chip matched to the real thing it never looks quite right.

I know it is, I know its colour perfect, but it looks different.

 

And that is before you get to the sun bleaching out the colour and weathering changing everything on top of that. 

 

Years ago I saw an article about "scale effect", and how it changes with different scales. Basically the colors are lightened, I do not remember by how much, or how the effect runs (more/less) with smaller and smaller scales.

 

I build (almost) exclusively in 1/48*, and when I did an F-4 in SEA camo, I lightened the colors and the effect was subtle, but was noticeable.

 

*I chuckled as I typed this...after a 14 year hiatus, my first build is a Hasegawa 1/32 F-16A, ancient kit - I bought two of them on a whim in the early 2000's. I built one in 1986, couldn't believe I paid $30 for that kit then, but it was a dream to build.

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11 hours ago, ElectroSoldier said:

My problem with colour chips is this.

 

When a paint manufacturer sets out to produce a Federal Standards color, that color better matches the color chip 100%.  Otherwise anybody can make a BS light grey and call it Light Ghost Grey, for example.  When you go to your car dealership and get touch up paint to cover up a chip or a scratch on your car, that touch up paint better matches.

 

It's up to the modeler to lighten the color as needed since different scales require different amount of lightening.  Someone who is building a 1/4 scale aircraft does not want to lighten the color the same amount as someone who is building a 1/144 scale aircraft.

Edited by RichardL
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Yeah I understand what you mean, at my work I know the paints have to match the colour chip but in model paints I just dont know.

 

These are scale model paints that are aimed at scale modellers. These paints are not going to be used on the real thing.

 

Ive seen it so many times with German Panzer grey.

When a company makes a paint that matches the colour chip modellers dont like it, they say it doesnt look right, it looks to dark so they buy somebody elses paint.

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8 hours ago, ElectroSoldier said:

When a company makes a paint that matches the colour chip modellers dont like it, they say it doesnt look right, it looks to dark so they buy somebody elses paint.

 

Those modelers only need to lighten the matching paint for scale effect.  That is all.  No need to buy another paint.  For 1/35 tanks, just add 7-8% white to the colour.  For 1/48, add 10% white.

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Then it's their fault, not the paint's fault.  No paint manufacturers will add in scale effect for you.  In fact, I rather that they don't.  Like I said earlier, different scales require different amount of lightening.  What works for one scale will not work for another.  There won't be a one size fits all.

Edited by RichardL
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6 hours ago, RichardL said:

Then it's their fault, not the paint's fault.  No paint manufacturers will add in scale effect for you.  In fact, I rather that they don't.  Like I said earlier, different scales require different amount of lightening.  What works for one scale will not work for another.  There won't be a one size fits all.

 

Richard,

While it's not common, I know I've seen a few cases, perhaps in box sets of colors, where paint manufacturers claim to have addressed scale effect in their paint colors, but again, it's not common, and as I recall, it was clearly marked/stated as such.  I didn't want to be contrary, but just wanted to note something I have seen.

Edited by Curt B
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1 hour ago, Spectre711 said:

Yeah , but color match and scale effect are two different things.  It could be lightened but it should still start from the correct mix to begin with.  When I want a certain color I dont want to end up something that looks like blue, green or purple.

 

Exactly 👍  I always start out from a good color match.

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10 hours ago, Curt B said:

While it's not common, I know I've seen a few cases, perhaps in box sets of colors, where paint manufacturers claim to have addressed scale effect in their paint colors.

 

Yes, but I'm having a hard time believing that their claim would work for all scales ranging from 1/144 up to 1/16.  Like I mentioned earlier, a one-size-fits-all solution will unlikely to work.  Some also offer faded aircraft colors, but these colors turn out to be too dark.

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1 hour ago, RichardL said:

 

Yes, but I'm having a hard time believing that their claim would work for all scales ranging from 1/144 up to 1/16.  Like I mentioned earlier, a one-size-fits-all solution will unlikely to work.  Some also offer faded aircraft colors, but these colors turn out to be too dark.

Oh, very much agreed!  🙂  I didn't say I thought these manufacturer claims made sense, just that they made the claim at all.

 

If a modeler buys in to the 'scale effect' concept, it is no doubt better to apply it on an individual basis, based on scale, paint, etc.  Personally, I think the differences in base colors between manufacturers accounts for huge differences in color/tone.shade, etc., much less to try to account for 'scale effect'.  I think that if it were possible, for a given airplane, to be able to match the actual aircraft color with 100% accuracy, I'd go that route and the 'scale effect' be damned.  Since no one has yet invented a 'shrinking machine' to know what it would be like to see a plane shrunk down, there is, again, in my humble opinion, no right answer to this oft discussed and argued point.  Whatever looks good ought to be the charter here!

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On 11/21/2020 at 9:52 PM, RichardL said:

Then it's their fault, not the paint's fault.  No paint manufacturers will add in scale effect for you.  In fact, I rather that they don't.  Like I said earlier, different scales require different amount of lightening.  What works for one scale will not work for another.  There won't be a one size fits all.

Yeah I agree. But then if that is true then the real colour will never work on a scale model.

 

People like to make models of the ones they see in photos.

I remember many years ago I made an MH-53J on display at Mildenhall, it will just over the ramp from an F-15E but the colour looked a light lighter. They didnt look like they were the same colour.

On 11/21/2020 at 2:32 PM, RichardL said:

 

Those modelers only need to lighten the matching paint for scale effect.  That is all.  No need to buy another paint.  For 1/35 tanks, just add 7-8% white to the colour.  For 1/48, add 10% white.

I suppose thats what they did on the MH-53J...
Does one size fit all in this example?

 

 

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