Acrylic Paint Question (Long)
Mike
a dead horse with this, but I need some opinions.
I have used enamels throughout my 15 years of miniature figure and model
painting. I am pretty well versed in the medium, and have always enjoyed
the finish and ease of use of enamels, along with their durability. I
both brushed and airbrushed these paints. I mostly used Testors and
Floquil paints, and liked using both.
HOWEVER:
My wife and I have recently purchased a condo that is completely carpeted
and has no basement. Which, as implied by my wife, means: "I don't want
the smell and stuff associated with enamels in our home and I don't want
anything dripped and/or spilled on the carpet that won't come out. I will
kill you if these things occur." She's been really great about dealing
with my hobbies in general, even going to the unheard of lengths of not
caring about my excessive purchases of models an figs throughout the
years. (As an aside, the condo has a TON of closet space. It's going to
take forever to fill them all with unbuilt models!) So I think I can
honor her request and respect her wishes on this one.
I have a Testors spray booth for airbrushing, but you can't escape the
smell of thinner in the air. Cleaning my airbrush requires a lot of
thinner blown through it. (Ch' CHING!) About the only thing I can use
the enamels for is brush painting.
SO,
I'm looking into replacing my enamels with acrylics. That way I figure I
can still use the stupidly expensive spray booth, avoid the unpleasant
smell, and clean all this up with water, which is free! I've read up on
the many surface tension ideas (dishwashing detergent, rubbing alcohol,
etc.) to help with washing, and also checked out other issues with the
paint medium. I am also going to start painting vinyl figures. My
question is:
What opinions do you all have on what paint line/manufacturer is best?
I am looking for a line that has finely ground pigment with excellent
coverage and durability. I want to both brush and airbrush these paints.
I do not want to mix every color I want to paint, as I use the miniatures
for wargaming and they need touch-up from time to time and saving a
acrylic mix is probably impossible. I want a line that has military flats
or at least dries to a flat finish. Price isn't really too much of a
consideration, I will have to get them sporadically but I do eventually
want to completely replace my current collection of enamels. (About 80
different jars.)
I have some Liquitex acrylics I purchased at an art and supply store, but
I really don't want to mix every color I use, and they're really thick.
I looked at the (I believe) Floquil Polly-S acrylics, which have a large
line of colors. I was thinking of these, since I really liked the Floquil
enamels. I've also read about Freak-Flex, Horizon, Model Master, Games
Workshop, Ral Partha, etc…
I'm trying to purchase the best I can, so learning the new medium will be
less frustrating and more enjoyable.
I am looking for a general consensus on what acrylic lines you've used,
how you like them, what made you stay with them, and your overall
impression of them.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Any advice you could give would
be greatly appreciated.
--Mike
Johnny Flores
Cream Coat (available in craft stores and places like Walmart). The great
thing about Delta is the low price: about 1 dollar for several ounces of
very thick paint. When watered down to various consistencies, it can be
used as a base coat, for staining, and for washes. If price is no object,
go Polly-S. For a little more economy, try Delta.
Another thought, paint inevitably gets on the floor. You might want to
invest in one of those plastic office floor protectors to keep the carpet
from getting splashed. Ot you can do what I did, replace the carpet with
good quality ceramic tile!
J
Mike wrote in message <7opr09$4...@newsops.execpc.com>...
MSiggins
perhaps, but you should be able to get hold of this stuff somewhere.
I use a mixture of acrylics, almost exclusively these days - some oil paints
are still use for horses. This is based on around six years acrylic painting.
The main range I use is Vallejo Modelcolor which are also marketed as Prince
August. These can be used for washes, but usually I use them for blocking in
colours. The paints are superb, easily the best I have used for quality,
coverage, colour range and consistency. They do loads of uniform colours, armor
colours, and an entire range of 'craft' colours too.
For washes I use a range of artists acrylics and a couple of inks. Winsor &
Newton Finity and Galeria form the main task force. I also have some Goldens
(made in the US I believe) and some Tamiya for tanks
and weathering.
Failing anything else, I use some games Workshop inks (but I am not entirely
happy with them) and some of their metallics are very nice.
Filling in the gaps are Miniature Paints (pots, again UK only I suspect) who do
some colours that Vallejo don't. But not many.
I have always avoided Humbrol and Rowney as they seem inferior to me. YMMV.
Hope that helps.
Mike
Greg Kelleher
>
>I am looking for a general consensus on what acrylic lines you've used,
>how you like them, what made you stay with them, and your overall
>impression of them.
>
>Thanks for taking the time to read this. Any advice you could give would
>be greatly appreciated.
>
>--Mike
Hi Mike,
I have been using acrylic paints ever since I began figure painting, about 15
years. In all of that time I havepredominately used the Tamiya range with
small additions of Sanyo Gunze, Citadel and Humbrol acrylics. The oldest army
I possess is a 1347 Burgundian one and the colours are just as fresh today. I
can recommend all of these ranges.
Greg Kelleher
An interested party.
Michael Falcon-Gates
>painting. I am pretty well versed in the medium, and have always enjoyed
>the finish and ease of use of enamels, along with their durability. I
>both brushed and airbrushed these paints. I mostly used Testors and
>Floquil paints, and liked using both.
>I'm looking into replacing my enamels with acrylics. That way I figure I
>
>What opinions do you all have on what paint line/manufacturer is best?
>I have some Liquitex acrylics I purchased at an art and supply store, but
>I really don't want to mix every color I use, and they're really thick.
>I looked at the (I believe) Floquil Polly-S acrylics, which have a large
>line of colors. I was thinking of these, since I really liked the Floquil
>enamels.
"Polly S" are actually the older line; they were replaced by "Polly Scale" a
couple of years ago. If you see "Polly S," you're probably looking at old
paint.
Floquil's "Polly Scale" acrylic line is VERY good. Without getting all long
and gushy about it, these paints meet all of the requirements you have
listed except POSSIBLY the "not having to mix colors" one; all of the Polly
Scale color lines are 20th-century military colors, or train colors, so they
don't have a really bright, glowing green in their entire line. (They do,
however, have at least half a dozen colors of dirt.)
>I'm trying to purchase the best I can, so learning the new medium will be
>less frustrating and more enjoyable.
Any of Polly Scale, Tamiya, the new Testors "Acryl" line, or Badger's
"Accu-Flex" (for airbrushing only) may meet your needs.
>I am looking for a general consensus on what acrylic lines you've used,
>how you like them, what made you stay with them, and your overall
>impression of them.
Polly Scales-- I love my Polly Scales.
Testors' older "Model Master" -- dried too fast. It was hard to get them off
the brush before they'd dry into it.
Cheap craft paints, of various brands-- I still use these for some of my
wargaming figs-- they cover well. However, the pigment grind is coarse
enough that they don't go on smoothly at all, and you can't make a wash with
'em. Don't even try to run them through an airbrush.
Tamiya-- Good paint. They would sometimes lift off of plastic if you got
them wet, but they went on smoothly and covered VERY well. I might have gone
with these instead of the Polly Scales, except that the nearest hobby shop
at the time was a train place.
Ral Partha - Nice fine pigment grind, but the texture-- they're sort of,
well, stiff. If you add more water, they get runny and stiff. (No, I don't
know how they manage it.) No "real", matched-to-the-real-thing military
colors, so you can't use 'em for scale models easily. They don't airbrush
well.
GW - Wierd stuff-- it's like melted plastic or something. Dries semi-gloss
instead of flat. Lots of colors, but they're not "real" colors, they made up
all the names. Goes on VERY thick, so it's distressingly easy to obscure
fine detail with 'em. Dries way too quickly-- I never dared try the new
formula in an aibrush, the old one already just coated the needle rather
than going onto the model, and one of the "advantages" of their newer
formula was that it dried even faster than the old formula.
-m
Blaze
than the standard soft roll up floor covering. I tried
that at first. I don't think his wife will go for
the tile even though I'd not considered that.
blaze
Yale F. Edeiken
beating
>a dead horse with this, but I need some opinions.
>I have used enamels throughout my 15 years of miniature figure
and model
>painting. I am pretty well versed in the medium, and have always
enjoyed
>the finish and ease of use of enamels, along with their
durability. I
>both brushed and airbrushed these paints. I mostly used Testors
and
>Floquil paints, and liked using both.
>I'm looking into replacing my enamels with acrylics. That way I
figure I
>can still use the stupidly expensive spray booth, avoid the
unpleasant
>smell, and clean all this up with water, which is free! I've
read up on
>the many surface tension ideas (dishwashing detergent, rubbing
alcohol,
>etc.) to help with washing, and also checked out other issues
with the
>paint medium. I am also going to start painting vinyl figures.
My
>question is:
>What opinions do you all have on what paint line/manufacturer is
best?
I think that this is a matter of taste and convenience. Why
restrict yourself to a single line.
> I am looking for a line that has finely ground pigment with
excellent
>coverage and durability. I want to both brush and airbrush these
paints.
>I do not want to mix every color I want to paint, as I use the
miniatures
>for wargaming and they need touch-up from time to time and
saving a
>acrylic mix is probably impossible. I want a line that has
military flats
>or at least dries to a flat finish. Price isn't really too much
of a
>consideration, I will have to get them sporadically but I do
eventually
>want to completely replace my current collection of enamels.
(About 80
>different jars.)
I use several lines which meet your specifications. All the
major brands work well. I get good results with FOLKART which
runs 58 cents at Wal-mart. I fill in with hooby brands for the
colors they don't provide.
>I am looking for a general consensus on what acrylic lines
you've used,
>how you like them, what made you stay with them, and your
overall
>impression of them.
The only line that I have used that I do n ot like is
Polly-S. But this is not for the paint but for the poorly
designed jars which frequently seize up.
--YFE
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Andy O'Neill
<msig...@aol.com> writes
>I have always avoided Humbrol and Rowney as they seem inferior to me. YMMV.
There are two humbrol acrylics I find very useful.
The dark yellow for German armour ( dunkelgelb ) and a green, 5102 for
late German uniform 'field grey'.
Tamiya acrylics I do not like at all, I know people who say they are
particularly good for airbrushing. IMO they are the worst acrylics I've
ever tried. Clearly, tastes enter into this.
There are ranges of acrylic artists inks which're rather cheaper than
GW, and you might find interesting (Mike S).
Andy O'Neill
www.l-25.demon.co.uk/index.htm
Liverpool Wargames Association
www.l-25.demon.co.uk/LWA.htm