In previous posts I have said that my prefered acrylic paint is Tamiya. This is based on having had good results with it and it being quite widely available...Hobbycraft branches always see to have it if you haven't a model shop nearby.
Having said that my local H/craft in Truro decided to remove Tamiya from it's shelves, leaving Humbrol which I don't really rate that highly.
At the till I commented on it's removal and was told it was down to available space when they revamped the model area. In there yesterday and they have it back on the shelf...albeit now 20p a jar more expensive.
I spoke to the chap who had given the reason for it's removal, and he said they had been frequently asked for it so decided to put it back. I bought a couple of colours I am gettin low on.
Whilst looking around I came across a range of acrylic paint under their own Hobbycraft label. At 60ml they are 6 x the volume in a Tamiya jar. I picked out a reddish brown to use on brickwork, and a light grey that looks very similar to B.R. unfitted grey. My daughter bought a copper colour to use on a small project and said the covering capacity of it was exceptional.
Haven't used my colours yet but will report back when I do with the results.
I did buy some 250ml bottles of an American acrylic a while back, crimson and cream that matched a Farish coach I had bought an hour before. They were £1.50 a bottle in a H/craft clearance sale.
So, Hobbycraft can sometimes offer a source of really cheap acrylic paint.
Have others found a cheap source for some of their acrylic colours?
I usually stock up on 'Crafter's Choice' acrylics when I go to the craft shop at the Fleetwood outlet centre.
They're 59ml and seem to give good coverage.
I generally use Daler Rowney artist tube paint and mix my own colours. I thin down with both acrylic thinner and water. This can be thinned down foe airbrush use and lasts for ages in sealed jars.
Elmo
Forgot to mention that the H/craft own brand 60ml colours were £1.50, their normal price.
There will be times when you need a specific colour and the likes of Tamiya fit the bill. For other colours a much cheaper option with greater volume can often suffice.
I have looke at Lifecolour packs, seemingly "pushed" in some of the model press. Cannot see myself parting with my cash for these though when you can mix your own.
I prefer tubes as well, either Reeves from the Range or a box of cheap ones from Lidl, thin with water as and when needed.
Mike,
Are the Lidi ones OK for airbrushing?
Dennis.
Sorry Dennis, not tried any airbrushing, I don't find any difference with a brush, don't see there would be much difference in an air brush, I've diluted them quite a bit when I use them for a wash they don't seem to have any "bits" undissolved.
I agree with mike the Range is very gòod for cheap artist materials,prices are a lot lower than hobbycraft for the same items.some items are expensive at hobby craft and I got ripped off buying a magnifying lamp from them that went faulty.so do not buy electrical goods from them.
Agree with Chris' statement comparing the Range and Hobbycraft, plus for me the Range is less than half the distance than Hobbycraft, what's more it's on a big retail park, Hobbycraft shares spece with a Garden centre.
Oh' there's no doubt that Hobbycraft can be expensive. Their prices for plastic kits, plasticard and balsa are frightening (oh' for the days of 2/6 airfix kits...lol) Recently though I have picked up some good buys in there.
A few months back they were doing sets of 5 Daler Rowney brushes for the knockdown price of £2. These were the ones with varnished honey coloured handles, consisting of pointed and chisel edged brushes. At this price I bought a few sets and am quite satisfied with them.
They do tend to be knocking selected stuff down to half price or below. Just yesterday my wife was buying Daler Rowney Artist grade watercolour tubes at £2 each. Some of them had a rrp of £7 each. They also had plastic bottles of ready mixed watercolour paint , inc brown and green,at £1, and stainless steel 300mm rules at £1.50
Maybe they are carrying a lot of stock due to their previous top whack prices on most things, and are freeing up some cash by discounting...just a guess on my part. Anyway, I know the Range also offer some good prices.
With regard to air brushing tube acrylics I have found that you need to mix with acrylic thinners. Using just water they do not adhere to the surface very well puddling and leaving gaps. I use water very sparingly in instances where a thinned acrylic needs say one drop of water to perfect the consistency required.
Elmo
Hi elmo,
Thanks for the info. I have not yet summoned up the courage to use mt airbrushing kit so am glad of any knowledge.
Dennis.
What I have found is that due to the quicker drying time with acrylics the air brush blocks up after a short time requiring the pin to be cleaned. Just the pin in my experience, not a full washout, so you can pull the pin out, wipe it then carry on painting almost immediately. Acrylic thinners slow the drying time which reduces pin clean off sessions.
What I have found is that acrylics will not leave as good layer of paint as enamels. One example being a plain black coat. This would have taken one enamel coat. With acrylics it took four. However, with acrylics faster drying time the 4 coats were complete and dry before the enamel would have been. Also, multiple thinner coats allow model detail e.g. wood grain to show through better.
Elmo
Thanks again elmo for your input.
Very grateful.
Dennis.
Quote from: Only Me on August 17, 2017, 10:30:06 AM
Citadel Acrylics are pretty good too, but by no means cheap!..
Humbrol IMO are awful as too thin
Agreed, Citadel are excellent and the wide range of colours means you can match most shades pretty well if you can get over the sci-fi names. For example, Mechanicus Standard Grey is an excellent match for Farish's GWR freight grey.
Vallejo also do an excellent range of acrylics including ones designed for airbrushing straight form the bottle.
Yes the Citidal acrylics are good. I was at a boot sale and a young chap was selling off all of his Warhammer stuff and had a lot of Citidal paints to shift. Many had been barely used and I had around 10 pots from him. When i used them I wished I'd had more from him!
Our son in law does Warhammer and said they have changed the formula in recent times, along with the shape of the plastic pots. His opinion is they are not quite as good as the old formula. They do give their paint range some cracking names!
Humbrol,IMO, would do well to assess and re-formulate their acrylics. For a leading name for so many years their acrylics fall far short of others products.
As an aside from acrylics, I also bought at a boot sale some of the old Humbrol authentic enamel colours. I remember these from the 1970s and their wonderful smell. They needed a lot of stirring but were perfect,still using them now on the odd occasion.
Quote from: trkilliman on August 18, 2017, 12:48:13 PM
Our son in law does Warhammer and said they have changed the formula in recent times, along with the shape of the plastic pots. His opinion is they are not quite as good as the old formula.
It varies depending on the shade. They have also split their range into Base (strong pigments for undercoating), Layer (much thinner for highlights etc) Dry (for drybrushing) and a few other types.
Their standard bright green used to be Goblin Green which had excellent coverage. The modern equivalent is Warboss Green which is the same shade but part of the "Layer" range which means it is much thinner and does not cover so well.
Cote D'arms still makes the original citadel shades so if there is a colour you are particularly after, you can probably track it down.
:hellosign:
Currently, Aldi are selling art materials including sets of ten 38ml tubes of acrylic paint c/w pallette knife for £6.99. I'm not sure whether they would come in handy as I know nothing about acrylics at present.
Please see
https://www.aldi.co.uk/c/specialbuys/dates/2018-09-16?sort=popular&q=%3Apopular%3AtransactionalStatus%3Atransactional%3AtransactionalStatus%3Anontransactional%3AEvent%3AArts+%26+Crafts&lowerBound=2&upperBound=55&text= (https://www.aldi.co.uk/c/specialbuys/dates/2018-09-16?sort=popular&q=%3Apopular%3AtransactionalStatus%3Atransactional%3AtransactionalStatus%3Anontransactional%3AEvent%3AArts+%26+Crafts&lowerBound=2&upperBound=55&text=)
:thankyousign:
I use acryllivs a lot. Especially on backscenes, some buildings and as base layers which will eventually be covered by scatter or static grass.
Generally I use acryllics on scratch built walls and buildings but they can end up a bit too glossy on plastic surfaces so I generally finish off with some dry brushed tamiya powders.
For general painting using acrylics, e.g. scenery and ground cover, I use the tubes that 'The Works' sell - 200ml for £3.00p. One tube goes a long way, especially when mixed with a drop of water, which I find is good for scenery. I bought some airbrush ready Vallejo paints a couple of weeks ago. I have only used the airbrush for testing on artists paper so far, but was quite pleased with the results.
There is an NGF thread somewhere about using car paint sprays to match train colours with a table of equivalents
Worth a look ( some enamels though)
http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=36618.msg431384#msg431384 (http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=36618.msg431384#msg431384)
Cheers,
Chris
For what it's worth and just throwing in my ten pennyworth -you get what you pay for applies to paint along with everything else-im an ex (? Never die ) 1/35 armour modeller - and always used tamiya paints ( both brush and airbrush ) then I moved onto vellejo and lifecolour because I have industrial asthma and they don't smell like tamiya ( not dangerous tho ) now ice gone back to railways-I'm using mission models acrylic primer -( because you'd have to be a real banana to mess it up -it's a superb finish ) and a mig ammo fast set for the tracks ( again acrylic) and ak enamel / vallejo for details /main colours -plus vallejo do a superb range of washes /pigments for weathering . As I'm doing U.S models at the min -i've managed to find a list that gives me alternatives to the American paints (some you can get here -a lot you can't and never will cause there discontinued over there ! Most are enamel and smell really bad if you have no extraction ) Vallejo do both airbrush ready to spray -(model air ) and brush ready (model colour ) in a whole host of colours /shades inc rust ,concrete , wood colours plus I'm sure there will be a conversion chart somewhere for UK railway models ?
If you use to cheap it will let you down !! - Again down to prep /undercoat / top coat and laquer choices !
Down to the individual and there abilities - not all can airbrush - not everybody sees the same colours ( my wife especially) it's what ever suits you -but unless you try -- you won't know what you can do -and remember it's your railway if it looks good to you -it's good enough !!
I have used Vallejo for years. They are great paints that come in an excellent container which requires you to squeeze it for the paint to come out which helps avoids spillages and keeps the paint from drying out. Just makes sure you shake them before using.
Comming from a Military Madelling background my personal choice for Acrylic is Vallejo and Tamiya, but would only use Tamiya in an Airbrush as it's not do good on the brush, due to being alcohol based it skins very quickly which can get pulled up by the next brush stroke leaving a lumpy finish, never got on with Hombrol or Revell acrylics, and the new Ammo by mig is very difficult to use.
Still like Humbrols enamel though and get excellent results with brush and airbrush.
My local art shops do a range of acrylics in quite large pots compared to modelling paints and come in a large selection of colours, these I find with careful mixing and thinning airbrush well also and cost less than £2 A bottle
Thanks Folks,
The Aldi ones are of Chinese origin (as are the brushes) and branded Script, described as water-resistant.
I guess they will make an economical starting point to get some experience, I can always move on to better quality ones if I feel the need.
:thankyousign:
I was looking for acrylic aerosol paint to weather track with. I had previously used Humbrol but they discontinued the colour I had used. I found some Montana Gold Acrylic aerosol paint at an art shop, seems to be very good and much better value for money - £5 for a large can.
Can anyone recommend acrylic colours to represent lightly coloured wood, for interior detail?
For basic scenery paints I use The Works, £2 a tube for 200ml
https://www.theworks.co.uk/c/art-supplies/acrylic-paints (https://www.theworks.co.uk/c/art-supplies/acrylic-paints)
for basic stuff I use these from B&M https://www.bmstores.co.uk/products/brunel-franklin-artists-acrylic-paint-tube-325901 (https://www.bmstores.co.uk/products/brunel-franklin-artists-acrylic-paint-tube-325901)