I plan to buy Vallejo acrylic paints for detailing AFVs. Which is more convenient for paint brushing? I guess I would have to thin Model Color paints, which would add one more step. Can I brush Model Air directly from the bottle?

For brushing, I've used Model color with good success.

+1 to Jesse's post above. I have both Model Color and Model Air, but found that hand brushing Model Color works great out of the bottle. I bought these little palettes with six mixing depressions (holes?) in them at Michael's craft stores for $2 a piece that I use. Great thing is when the Model Color dries, it lifts up in one piece as the plastic mixing trays don't take the paint at all!

Some times I will use a single drop of the Vallejo Dilutant if I want a little thinner coat, something on the order of 8:1 paint to dilutant.

Hope this helps!

Matt

Excellent information. I'll visit Michaels tomorrow. I was going to buy a bunch of small paint mixing jars!

Chris,

Here is what they look like. It's the Michael's store brand. Look for them in the aisle with the brushes:



These are probably close to three years old. The only Vallejo that didn't come up when dried in the recesses were any of the "metal" colors like gunmetal, silver and steel. Probably has to do with metallic flakes in the pigments. A little Windex, and it cleans right up!

Good luck!

I use both Model Color and Air. For brush painting it is Model Color and for Airbrush I use Air. I have used a brush with Air to do touches on a model I have airbrushed.

With the Model Color, I keep a little dropper bottle with water and a couple of drops of Sunlight Dish Washing liquid for thinning the paint, usually a 50/50 mix, depends on what I am painting. The dish washing liquid removes the elasticity of the water(basic the water won't bead up)

Kevin

Like everybody else has said, for brush painting it's Model Color. For airbrushing it's Model Air. That's what they're designed for. Even simpler, you can always thin Model Color, but you can't thicken Model Air!
You'll never find a better paint for brush painting than Vallejo Model Color. I have the same paint trays as Matt does.

I airbrush Tamiya acrylic paints for base coats and camo patterns. I'll use Vallejo for detailing only.





Wow, Sunlight Dish Washing liquid for thinning? Does it work well for Vallejo?

Don't need suds, just a drop or two in a 1 oz jar of distilled water is usually enough for me. I've used it with Tamiya, PollyScale, Floquil, Vallejo and Testor's Model Master Acryl paints and never had an adverse reaction with any of them.

You can use the Vallejo Air for brush painting, especially the metallic colors, but keep in mind it is formulated for airbrushing, so the paint is going to be quite thin to start with.

Model Color is great for hand brushing...I have always found that it is a little thick out of the bottle and can stand to be thinned slightly to aid in good flow. Will have to try the sunlight trick, sounds like it works even better.

The Sunlight works as a wetting agent, reducing the surface tension of the water and paint. You could also use Kodak Photo-Flo solution (but you won't find it any more) or, more appropriately, Liquitex Flow Aid. You mix up a working solution with distilled water and that's your thinner and wetting agent in one. Reducing the surface tension eliminates a liquid's beading properties and allows it to flow and self level, giving you a superior, flawless finish. You can get all Liquitex products at Michaels Crafts.

I'll add to SSGToms' remarks on Liquitex. I use the Flow Aid quite often, and their Retarder if I ever airbrush with Tamiya acrylics to reduce the need to clear the tip of my Iwata HP-CS airbrush. It also allows for a more forgiving spray pattern with Tamiya's acrylics as well, at least for me.

I agree with Matt, get some Liquitex Slo-Dri while you're there. A few drops will change your outlook on airbrushing. It is a retarder (no effect on the modeler) and makes the paint dry slower, eliminating paint drying on the needle tip and clogging the airbrush.
Also, I keep a tiny cup of airbrush cleaner with a cotton swab in case the tip does clog. One twirl with the wetted swab and I'm back in business.
Liquitex has a large line of art products, all in the same aisle, that are excellent for armor modelling and easy on the wallet. Matte Gel Medium and add a little pigments for gobs of mud. Gloss Gel Medium for wet mud. Natural Sand Texture Gel for groundwork. You'll get new ideas just looking at the jars.

I'm getting some Liquitex today. No more thinning with water Learning all those cool tricks is as much fun as modeling itself.

Might have to mention to my wife that she needs a few things at Micheal's today.... Going to have to try the Liquitex.

Don't thin with straight Liquitex Flow Aide or Slo-Dry. You only need to add about 10-15% Flow Aide to your water and even less of the Slo-Dry, maybe only 3-5%.

Also, Vallejo makes a thinner that works well with their Model Color paints. I usually mix it about 1:1 with water, then add the Flow Aide and Slo-Dry to that mixture at the ratios I mentioned above.

Vallejo also makes an acrylic matt medium that is another good addition to the reducer (thinner) mixture. Some of the Model Color paints will dry with a slight sheen, and the matt medium, added to the reducer at about 3 to 5%, will make the paint dry dead flat.

Once you've got your thinning down, the Vallejo Model Color paints are great to work with. I mix up my water-Vallejo thinner-matt-medium-Liquitex-Flo-Aide-Slo-Dry reducer ahead of time and keep it in a larger squeeze bottle and on my work bench.

At any rate, don't use the Liquitex products as thinners themselves, but only as additives to the water (or water - Vallejo thinner mix) used for thinning. The Model Color paints are very thick out of the squeeze bottle, but that makes them more economical to ship, buy, and use. Once thinned for brushing, you get about two ot three times the volume of usable paint that comes in the original bottle.

HTH,

Mike

Are you talking about Vallejo's Dilutant 061? I use that when I'm mixing my Model Color paints on my little palette. A few drops of that, one of Slo Dri and one drop ofFlow Aid and I'm ready to go. Stuff works awesome

Precisely!

In the larger, 32 ml bottle, it's called "061" Thinner (or "Diluyente" or "Diluant" on the multi-lingo lable). In the smaller, 17 ml bottle, it's called "70.524" Thinner Medium. As far as I can tell, both are the exact same product.

I started out thinning Vallejo Model Colors with just water, but then picked up some of their proprietary thinner with the intention of thinning out the Model Color to airbrush. (Which does work, but I still prefer to A/B with Tamiya.)

Anyways, since I had the Vallejo thinner on the bench, I tried it to thin for brush painting and found after a little experimentation that mixed about 1:1 with water it worked quite well. Straight up, it worked very well, but it seemed to increase the issues with some of the paints drying to a sheen. However, when mixed with water, it seemed to slightly retard the drying time improving both flow and brush cleaning. Plus, mixing it with water makes it last longer.

Their Matt Medium comes in the 17 ml bottles as number "70.540." It's good stuff too, and like the Liquitex products, "Just a little dab'll do you."

HTH,

Gentlemen,I may have stumbled across another thinner for Vallejo modelcolor.I am still messing around with it,but it seems to be working well.It is"Expo white board cleaner".I have used it to thin modelcolor for brushing and for airbrushing.It improves flow,slows down drying time,and does not appear to give the paint any gloss.Try it on some scrap and let Me know what you think.Build'em if ya got'em,Jeff

This KV-1 was handpainted, and the result is very good:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/110741/message/1327357631/KvII+Leningrado

Marc,That is REALLY NICE,whenever I try to do something like that my edges get all ragged.How did you get the edges so smooth?Jeff

Yes the 17ml #524, 32ml #061, and 200ml #161, are in fact the same product just in bigger bottles.

Coming soon there is also going to be a 60ml #361 bottle, same size bottle and shape as their primers.

Holy crap!!! Just bought a bottle of Liquitex Flow-Aid and a bottle of Liquitex Slo-Dri. Where the hell have you been all my life? So far I have tried the Flow-Aid(mixed with 20 parts water to 1 part FlowAid) with Vallejo, and I am amazed! It will now be a definate have for the model table now. Based on mixing it with water, the 118 mL bottle should last for sometime. Thanks for the tip.

Kevin