What Paint To Use?

[Ern]

I am still working on sanding off the tools and working on the upper hull converting my HL Tiger to a late model, and waiting for my Asistam lower, but am looking for suggestions/recommendation for painting it up proper when the time comes.  What are the pros and cons of acrylic vs. enamel?  This will also be my first attempt with an airbrush, and I don't plan on going overboard with weathering - just looking for a nice camo pattern with a slightly toned down finish.  Also, what considerations are there for applying decals with both types of paint?

Thanks!

[vonrundstedt]

Hi ern, I always use paint, always have done as i cant afford an air brush. I use a mixture of Tamiya acrylics, though these seem to hate even the slightest amount of grease on the model, Humbrol enamels, wide range of coulors, can be thinned and mixed easily, and vellajio water based paints, basicaly the same as citadel that are used on war hammer models, agian, come in a wide variety of coulors and are very flexible with what you can do with them, dry brush, washes, bulk coulers, can also mix with Tamiya paints and dry to a slight semi gloss finish. My T-34 arv, though all green, has been done with a mixture of these products. As for decals, ive mainly added them to model kits like air craft. It depends on what ones you get. Some are a matt finish, some semi gloss and some glossy though they can always be matched up to the model finish with varnish and weathering.Also some can be thicker then others and may not apply well to textured surfaces Ie zimmeret. Hope this helps a little, Im sure other folks on here could help you better. Check out Oz's post - painting panzer grey.

                      Regards, Luke

[swathdiver]

Ern, I stick with Polly Scale and Xtracrylix Acrylics.  If you screw up with acrylics, get out the Windex!  These brands don't stink or smell up the house and thin with only water.  The other thing I like about them, hardly anyone in the tanking community uses them!  How many Tigers are running around with Tamiya paint on them?  Boring!

Polly Scale you can get just about anywhere.  The Xtracrylix I can only get in the USA from RollModels.com.  Their bottles are smaller, it will take at least 2 of base color to do a Tiger.

Y'all rested after that trip?  Did you get yer picture on the wall at Cheeburger-Cheeburger?

[Ern]

No, no pic on the wall but should have.  I've never did it but the daughter did once. [Eat a one pound (weight) cheeseburger, all the bread and french fries] I got a smaller burger that didn't quite do the job and had to add a shake to fill me up    I love that place - they had one in Columbus, OH but I don't know if it's still there.

Thanks for the advice about Polly Scale.  I used to use that on 1/35 models but haven't seen it around here for awhile.  Great color selections from what I remember.  How does it hold up with RC tanks?  I would imagine that you have to seal it with something - from what I remember it seemed to rub off a bit.  Do you use floor wax as some seem to do with other paints?

[Crispy]

I've been using acrylics for the main colours and then use artist oils thinned with white spirt to apply washes. Once thats dry i'll use some chalk pastels to with it that final dusty weathered look and top it off with an acrylic matt varnish.

Use either Humbrol spray cans (dark green is very close to "field grey") or Tamiya acrylics through the airbrush. Humbrol matt varnish seems to go on nicely but you do lose some strength of any pastel weathering when you varnish over it. I usually just reapply a little afterwards and dust over with Tamiya "buff" through the airbush for a dusty matt finish to help holed it in place.

[swathdiver]

It's fine on the tanks.  Haven't used acrylic sealers as I wanted the natural scrapes and scratches to reveal the red oxide primer underneath.  In the "future" I will try a tank or two with clear acrylic, Ace Hardware sells Future Floor Polish for about $8 a bottle.

Some guys paint red oxide in enamel and then acrylic over it for just that purpose, to expose the base coat when it scratches.  Sticking with acrylics makes it easier to clean my airbrush!

This applies with German armor.  Some American equipment had the paint applied directly to the bare metal and baked on just like the car companies do.  Don't know if this also applied to tanks.

[Ern]

Thank you gentlemen!  This is probably going to be a slow build/late conversion.  I'm planning to add the new Creeping Death gun system or turret to it, and my Asiatam hull should be mailed out this week [got stuck in customs] so I'm just working on the lower right now.  Will post updates as it progresses... thanks again!