Your preferred paint brand(s)?

[Sweet-Chuck]

Probably going to start investing in real acrylic model paints. What do you like using, and why? Is it the ease of finding the product? The price/value? Ease of using?

 

[BarleyBop]

It was a pretty easy choice for me, what is available in my local hobby store with good selection.
I paint with a brush.

Vallejo and AK.
I seem to have gravitated to the AK mostly for vehicles (I like their resources, sets, and books)
Vallejo for figures. (Available range of colours)

Unfortunately, they don't play well together, or I'm just not experienced enough?!

 

[Jakko]

I use all kinds of paints, I don't stick to a single brand. Most of my paints that I use regularly are acrylics by Tamiya, Vallejo (both the brush and airbrush kinds), plus some Mig/Ammo, Revell, Mr. Aqueous, Italeri, AK 3rd Gen, and Army Painter. Ones I use less, but still have a good number of, are Humbrol enamels, and more acrylics by LifeColor, Rackham, Games Workshop (the kind they sold 15 years ago), and others.

Basically, I buy paints in the colours I think I need, with the brand only being a secondary concern. One exception there is that I prefer Tamiya and Mr. Aqueous acrylics for spraying whole models, as the base coat.

 

[Kalle M]

I'm a brush painter too. I use mostly Vallejo, some from the Model Color line but mostly Model Air. Model Air works just fine for brush painting, maybe except for white, which you have to paint with many layers to get a decent coating/cover. That's my experience, anyway. I've also bought some Hataka, Ammo Mig and Citadel. I haven't used Hataka or Ammo Mig so much yet, but they seem to work very well. Citadel is very thick, which is good in some cases.

I started with Vallejo, because that's what my local shop had, and then it worked fine so there was no reason to change. The other brands I got was partly because I was curious to try other brands but mainly because they seemed to be what I was looking for, shadewise. There was also a discount...

Right shades, availability, ease of use, i e good tins which are easy to pour drips from and with good lids so that there's no risk of them drying out in the tins, and price, in that order. Oh yeah, and it's also nice if the colors are non-toxic and non-stinky.

 

[TimM63]

Probably going to start investing in real acrylic model paints. What do you like using, and why? Is it the ease of finding the product? The price/value? Ease of using?

I primarily use Tamiya X and XF acrylic paint. I like the adhesion properties of Tamiya paint. There is no real need to primer. It thins nicely with X-20A thinner and sprays well. The color selection is also good.

 

[Jim62]

I primarily use Tamiya X and XF acrylic paint. I like the adhesion properties of Tamiya paint. There is no real need to primer. It thins nicely with X-20A thinner and sprays well. The color selection is also good.

I'm with ya I stopped using primer a while back and am very pleased with Tamiya paints for spraying without primer. I also don't mind mixing the paint, I know that turns some folks off if they can't get the precise color to use in a bottle. For brushing I use Mig ammo paints if memory serves. To lazy to walk upstairs and look right now, it's coffee time.

 

[Steve Ski]

Tamiya is a solid choice for me.

 

[mark2]

Mr color/hobby mostly and a few tamiya ,using up my vallejo for brush painting and making washes etc.

 

[Sweet-Chuck]

Thanks to all for your sharing your experiences

 

[the Baron]

Like Jakko, I have a number of different brands in my paintbox. I've accumulated them over the years, because when I started out as a kid, I bought paint for the color and didn't consider the medium-whether acrylic of any kind, enamel, lacquer, etc. I didn't mix colors back then.
Over the years, I have come to think about the medium more, and though I do mix colors today, I will still buy a color off the shelf instead of mixing.

So, I have the following brands in my Farbkastl:

• Tamiya X/XF acrylics, which I use for hand-brushing and airbrushing. I thin them with Tamiya's own X-20A thinner.
• Water-based acrylics which I use primarily for painting figures by hand: Andrea, Vallejo Model Color, Lifecolor, Reaper Master Series Paint (they were giving these out at the Chicago World Expo), Apple Barrel, Folk Art, Americana. I use these all with a wet palette, for ease and convenience.
• Testor enamels in the little square bottles (thinned with mineral spirits), also for hand-brushing.
• Mr Color, Gunze-Sangyo and similar brands of lacquers. Airbrushed but also applied by hand, depending.
• Schminke-Mussini oils. For hand-painting. I thought I'd teach myself to paint figures with oils, in the classic way. I takes a long time to learn the techniques, so I use them now primarily for weathering.
• A gradually dwindling stash of Model Master acrylics (thin with isopropyl) and enamels (thin with mineral spirits), for airbrushing as well as handbrushing
• Ditto a couple of ancient jars of Pactra paints, enamels (mineral spirits) and...acrylic enamels! They thin with water or isopropyl. Those are the oldest paints in my box; I got them in the 70s when I was a kid. They are not related to the Pactra brand that came out of Europe (specifically Poland?) a few years back, as far as I know.
• Tamiya rattlecan lacquers from their Aircraft line, the AS paints, and the TS line of military colors for plastics.
• Model Master rattlecans, enamels, I think they are.
• And the odd automotive or household brands in rattlecans, like Rustoleum and Krylon.

That's why I don't get too excited about this or that new brand that comes out, or brands that I don't have. Unless a paint jumps out of the jar and magically coats the model to a perfect finish, I'll wait till I run out of the ones I have before buying other brands.

 

[Littlemarten]

De gustibus non disputandem est. "There's no disputing a matter of taste."

I am not suggesting that anyone taste any paint. I guarantee it will taste bad, and if it doesn't, it's deadly. Regardless of what paint or other coating you slap on the surface of your models, please use it (them) safely. No, I will not define "safely." However, regarding any chemical or mixture of same as potentially toxic, especially if it is labeled non-toxic, is good practice.

Why the emphasis? Because essentially the definition of "non-toxic" is that the material in question has not been proven, beyond the tiniest shred of doubt, to be toxic.