SPA Modeler

Paint survey

Carlos made a big purchase of Vallejo Model Air.
Fermis made a big purchase of Hataka Laquer (aka Orange Line)
I do prefer to use Mr Paint

What about all the others, what is your preferred paint brand ?

- Kari

I have come to like the Tamiya paints. I also have a box full of Model Master and dozens of the little jars of Testor’s enamel.

I bought a few bottles of Mission Models stuff and so far I am not too happy with it. Need to keep after it to see what is going on I am sure it is operator error

Mostly Tamiya and Vallejo Color.Also happy with Mission Models.
Getting ready to try some AK Real Lacquers

For airbrushing I have a lot of Tamiya and will keep using them for basic colors. But since AK came out with the Real Color line I no longer need to custom mix Tamiya so I have been buying a lot of them.
For brush painting I have a big supply of Vallejo that are great for brush painting but not airbrushing. I also have some Andrea paint too for brush painting.

Hands down, my favorite paints are still Humbrol enamels. For hand brushing and airbrushing, I absolutely love them. I do like Tamiya for airbrushing, but they do not handbrush well for anything more than small jobs and their color selection is close, but not quite, in many cases- you have to mix.. I loved the Gunze Aqueous line for airbrushing, but again they do not handbrush well most of the time. However they have a great range of colors. I don’t care much for their Mr Color lacquers. Mission Models and AK Real color are a case of so far, so good, in my limited experience. But again, I do say limited. Vallejo is growing on me reluctantly, in their Model Color, Model Air, and Panzer Aces lines. Primer is a must, as is a device to shake the living snot out of those damn dropper bottles to properly mix the stuff for use. And I still love the little square bottle Testors enamels. Those will always have a place on my bench. I’m looking forward to when Revell paints arrive here in the USA to take the place of Model Master.

I use a wide range of paints...

Model Master - acrylic and enamels. I still have the old Model Master enamel paints from 15 - 20 years ago.
Aeromaster - donated to me by Rex
Pollyscale - grabbed a bunch before the last LHS closed down due to owner's retirement.
Tamiya
Testors small square bottles - few basic colors
Gunze and Mr, Paint/Mr. Color
Humbrol - about 5 tins
Mission Model
Vallejo Model Color
1 or 2 Pactra colors - yeah, theyr'e old and still good
Pollyscale Railroad colors - donated to me by Rex
Alclad metallics
Ahkan colors - Linden Hill is the company. They specialize in Russian colors but have others as well. Their Tire Black is spot on.
I recently purchased a couple Createx colors for my auto kits, They spray nice straight from the bottle.

I plan on purchasing a few MCW colors for my auto kits as well.
Don't even ask how many bottles of paint I have. My wife thinks I'm a hoarder with model paints. I told no - they're a necessity for my builds - future and present.

Stikpusher wrote:Hands down, my favorite paints are still Humbrol enamels. For hand brushing and airbrushing, I absolutely love them.

I do want to get more Humbrol paints as well. Hearing so many good things from your experience using Humbrol is a good thing.
I am anxious to try Revell paints if they ever come out in my area..

Stikpusher wrote:Hands down, my favorite paints are still Humbrol enamels. For hand brushing and airbrushing, I absolutely love them. I do like Tamiya for airbrushing, but they do not handbrush well for anything more than small jobs and their color selection is close, but not quite, in many cases- you have to mix.. I loved the Gunze Aqueous line for airbrushing, but again they do not handbrush well most of the time. However they have a great range of colors. I don’t care much for their Mr Color lacquers. Mission Models and AK Real color are a case of so far, so good, in my limited experience. But again, I do say limited. Vallejo is growing on me reluctantly, in their Model Color, Model Air, and Panzer Aces lines. Primer is a must, as is a device to shake the living snot out of those damn dropper bottles to properly mix the stuff for use. And I still love the little square bottle Testors enamels. Those will always have a place on my bench. I’m looking forward to when Revell paints arrive here in the USA to take the place of Model Master.

Make yourself one of these redneck paint shakers. Just need a jig saw, one dull blade and a hose clamp

It shakes the hell out of Vallejo in just a few seconds

In order of preference.

AK Real Air Colors- They just spray perfectly!!
Ammo and AK Acrylics- Never had an issue with them
Model Master Acrylics- Still have tons of them
Tamiya- I don't use a whole lot of them cause they don't have a lot of the colors I want
Vallejo Model Air- I hate using them in the airbrush but they brush paint well so I keep them around

For metallics I use Vallejo Metal Colors. They're not bad but I want to eventually switch to Alclad.

I'd also like to try out MRP. I've heard good things about them.

I've tried all sorts of paints over the years and have all sorts of acrylics - Mission models, Vallejo, Akan, Revell Aqua, Citadel and Humbrol. The Citadels are good, as are the Revell Aqua Metallics.

I'm with Carlos in that I really like Humbrol Enamels but the smell gets me a few complaints in the house, so these days I mainly use Hataka red and blue lines. I was an early convert to Hataka when they were first released and had mixed quality issues - these older sets are easy to spot because they still have the older black lids. I've always found them really nice paints to brush paint with, even straight from the bottle.

I must have dropped £300-400 on sets over the years. I have roughly 24 sets although some are doubled up - I also picked up their 'Basic colours' set which was really useful.

The only thing I don't like about them are their metallic paints - they're shit. I've never been able to mix one in the bottle properly and they don't look too good when painted. I much prefer Revell Aqua or Citadel - but the best metallic paints for brush painting are Humbrol enamels.