I have found that acrylic craft paints sold in craft stores can be matched up pretty closely with the colors put out in Polly Scale and Model Master Acryl (within the slightest shade variance). That was the good news. The better news is that 2 ozs. can be had for $.49-$.99 the bottle. I have used a "fawn" craft color in the place and stead of Polly Scale Aged Concrete. I can't tell the difference.
I use acrylics for weathering on all of my equipment. Cheap, easy and looks good if you do it right. (Trial and error basis)
Cut with water and dish detergent it turns into a good spray paint. I have a built in paint strainer on my air brush suction tube, and have been spaying this mixture with good results. I still use Model Flex as they have the proper railroad colors, but for black , red and various shades of "dirt" for weathering this stuff works well
I use craft paints for all painting. For airbrushing I thin them with blue windshield wiper fluid. For me they are easier to get. The LHS never seem to keep up their inventory of model paints in the colors I need. One important thing that I have found out is that you need to make sure you seal them good. They can be subject to scratching off if you don’t.
Mark: I use acrylic paints that have been watered down for most of my weathering. Michaels has a great selection of earth tone paints that I frequently use to weather building, loco's and rolling stock. Stay cool and run steam....
I pick up some at Michael's and others at Pearl. So far, only disappointments were self induced. It's snowing like hell. Dog up to his shoulders and he is 100 pounds.
I use them for all my wood buildings also, they paint on wood even better than plastic! I know what you mean by snow, we got 12" last night.
I just used craft paints for the first time and I am very impressed. I think I will use them from now on for weathering and scenery. Right now, I am thinning them about 50 percent with blue windshield washer fluid as the paint is very thick. What do you do with the excess after you finish a project? Do you save the bottles or just throw it out? Where do you get the extra bottles to mix the craft paints? You could have hundreds of shades of these things. Thanks.
Flash, Most craft stores will sell small paint bottles. If you mix a color you really want to save you can put it in one of those. I mostly use them and throw the excess out, They are so cheap and you use so little at a time that I can't see trying to save every little bit!!
I use Acrylic paints all the time. They're easy to mix with blue windshield washer solution. Many craft stores have small bottles to store mixed paint. Stay cool and run steam....
For storage I buy a few extra bottles. I also clean out the old bottles and reuse them. When I can a reuse a bottle that contained the same color. I have several old bottles of Charcoal Gray that have different formulas of Charcoal Gray from 1:1 mixture to washes. I just write the mixture amount on the top of the bottle cap with a marker.
Do you use glass bottles or plastic bottles? I have been using small glass bottles. Testors, I think. [ September 17, 2005, 06:32 AM: Message edited by: sapacif ]
I use glass bottles. They can be cleaned easily. Plastic bottles often retain the paint color on the inside walls of the bottle. Stay cool and run steam......
For storage of custom mixes- See if your local druggist has medicine eye dropper bottles. My local person gave me two dozen of the one ounce size shown below. I find them especially handy in using as a wash in crevassed areas of rock formations since the bulb allows varying squeezes of fluid.
