Paint replenishment

I'm looking forward to reading the responses, as the selection is thin in this era. Tru-Color is not acrylic and I read that Badger's acrylic Model Flex paints are formulated for air brushing, not brush painting. I've had good luck airbrushing and brush painting with Tamiya's paints. They have an extensive line of colors, but there are no pre-mixed railroad colors. Scalecoat's rebirth so far remains wishful thinking.

 

That would be excellent information now! Please!

 

I use Vallejo paints . The Model Air paints work well in an airbrush , and their regular paints brush well . Mike

 

Vallejo is good paint, but I hate the bottles it comes in (at least around here). I have a Testors airbrush that I use 80% of the time, and it's designed so you can spray right out of the bottle.......it has a siphon tube ( that happens to match up to a coffee stirrer) and lids for Testors bottles and larger (like Modelflex or Trucolor) bottles. I just put a tube in the lib, screw it onto the bottle and spray.......cleanup is screw the lid off the bottle, throw the tube in the garbage, and give the lid a quick shot of cleaner. Anyway Vallejo doesn't work for me. Sorry, but my go to right now is Trucolor ......it's airbrush ready and I've had great luck brushing it. A while back, I had a chip I needed to fix........I put a dot of paint on the chip , and came back an hour later, and the paint had flowed and filled the chip perfectly. It's also one of the few that still offer railroad colors.

Ammo is a european distributor located in Spain, but I know nothing about them. They appear to be roughly the equivelent of Testor as far as products. I've never seen a US distributor so I'd guess you'll pay twice as much for shipping as you do for the paint.

 

Yes, the Badger paints spray great. I used them when I repainted my Bachman Depot station. I do believe I brushed the window trim, but I cannot be certain because I painted the station many years ago. I did seal the finish with an acrylic semi-gloss from Tamyia after all was finished. In any case, the paints spray great, and clean-up is simple, I recommend them.

All the paint with the exception of the concrete was Badger.

 

I have heard lots of positive comments about Ammo, Vallejo and MIG. They are aimed at military modellers so no RR specific paints but weathering colours are weathering colours.

I personally do not get along with acrylics so cannot comment first hand. Or cannot comment anything productive to you anyway.

Good Luck

 

BoxcabE50, I have similar issues with that. The only local shop is in Green Bay, about 45 miles, then Milwaukee about 150 miles. But most of the good hobby shops a closed. And they took away my license and vehicles! I've tried finding links to Kato in Japan but get no response and USA dealers are more expensive.
I very much enjoyed modeling when I lived in Milwaukee and west of. There were a lot of shops auctions and computer connections. But even Radio Shack is gone.
Oh well, that is modern society.

 

Most of my shopping (especially for hobby supplies), is strictly done online. Amazon has next day delivery for many US areas. I place an order and the next day it's on my doorstep. I am very grateful for that kind of service, especially with my work schedule being extremely erratic.

Living in the Chicago area does have its benefits, as we still have a few hobby shops floating around, but I still find I prefer the internet as my main source.

 

I have not found any paint that is quite like Polly Scale. That paint would polymerize when it cured/dried and was very chip resistance. You could strip it off with Pine-Sol and whole scions of paint would lift off the model. It was basically a spray on vinyl wrap. You could get away with not using a primer and it would be fine. And I have old bottles of it that are still good.

I would say with all the current paints on the marker, a good primer is more or less a necessity, unless you are painting wood. I use Tamiya fine surface primer, but have also had good luck using cheap Martha Stewart Crafts brand metal primer from the local craft store. Badger is the best railroad color acrylic I have found so far, but I dislike their bottles. They are pretty much one time use as once you break the seal, they can dry out pretty fast. So, buy a pack of glass vials for long term storage. Tamiya is my next favorite. No railroad colors but they sell a good thinner, and thinned, it airbrushes well and is fairly chip resistant. I have been fairly happy with a paint brand called Mission Models. You can airbrush this paint or brush paint it. I would say if you are hand brush painting a wood model... you want want this paint. They have something in it that self levels and brushes on in a smooth 1 coat application that looks as good as airbrushing. They have hinted that they are looking into adding railroad colors to their line.

I have tried Vallejo.. I don't know if I'm spraying it wrong and its just drying out too much before it gets to the model, but its like I run my finger over the model its painted with colored powdered sugar that just wipes off. It seems to have the worst adhesion/durability of anything I have worked with. But I seem to be the only one with this issue, so I'm probably the problem. It's fairly popular in the war gaming figure painting, and those things get handled all the time.

-Matt

 

If you are spraying Vallejo, it is very important that it is thinned properly. Vallejo does sell its own thinner for their paint which they recommend as the first choice for thinners. There have been many conversations about this on the boards at FineScale Modeler. I highly suggest checking out the forums over there for more info on Vallejo. I do not shoot with the stuff, so my personal opinion is 0.

 

I have just received some MicoLux. I have never used this paint, so this will be an experiment. Hopefully it applies well. They sell 3 styles of this paint: Airbrush - Airbrush or brush - brush only. I have just received railroad brown in the airbrush/brush blend, I have another in the brush only blend arriving Monday. Once I get a chance to use this paint I will post back with my thoughts on the experience.

 

I painted a base coat on my ties on a #6 turnout using the MicroLux Railroad Tie Brown brush or spray blend. The color seems good, maybe a bit towards the dark end, but good none the less. The blend of paint I used was designed to be sprayed as well as brushed. I found this blend a little thin, but it brushed well enough. I think the brush only paints will be a bit thicker and more friendly to brushing than this blend, but the paint did apply fairly well. The clean-up was a breeze, just a little warm water and some towel paper. My next test is to run this through one of my airbrushes.

The photo didn't catch much detail, but the turnout was painted by brush and the paint did a decent job.

 

Ammo paint is now distributed in the US thru Heartland Hobby Wholesale and is listed as a non-toxic paint. The line is huge with the amount of colors available. You can ask your local hobby shop to look into being a retailer for this product and the other manufacturers Heartland carries. You can see the current inventory and product lines carried by heartland by going to http://www.hhwonline.com/ . Hope this gives you more information on another paint line now available without ordering overseas. Don't know if this answers any of your questions BoxcabE50 or "stirs" up more hobby paint issues. John

 

I don't think there are any paint issues, just a lack of supply for the OP. I, for one, do not cheerlead for any brand as I have tried many and use a variety. Ammo is on my list to give a go; I do like the selection.

 

Hi All!
As I also do aircraft, I have a wide range of paint I use. But I still miss Polly Scale........

Vallejo and Hataka- Acrylic paints with a wide variaty of color. Most are themed for military colors but they both have general colors. You need to wash parts and use a primer to gain adhesion of the paint.

Modelflex- This is hit or miss. When the paint is good it does brush somewhat well ( you normally need 2 coats) and airbrushes very well. But the least amount of contaminants in the bottle and you wide up with a bottle of goo.

I do wish someone would buy the formula for Polly Scale my supply is quickly disappearing!

Bruce