Has anyone had any experience of Vallejo pre thinned paints which can be used in an airbrush straight from the bottle?

This would be ideal for me (as I find it difficult to get the correct mix) but I guess there may be a downside ....

If anyone has used them any thoughts would be appreciated.

D

Are you talking about the Model Air line of paints? I got a few bottles to evaluate them .... thinned them even further with water, as I thought they were still too thick for my preferred airbrushing set-up.
I still believe this is a skill that comes with practise and experience .... the more you spray, the easier it is to decide what is the correct balance of paint and thinner.

Thanks, that's appreciated, sometimes I am not sure if my poor end result is down to the pain mix or spraying technique .... or both!

I hoped that this might take one element out of the equation..

I usually thin Vallejo Model Air with a couple of drops of Vallejo's own airbrush thinner. They seem to spray better that way, even if the paint is fresh.

I also swipe the area around the nozzle with a Q-tip doused with airbrush cleaner from time to time while I am spraying...

I don't like them at all. They are a latex paint, so if you chip the paint by accident, it will come off I'm sheets (making a little ding into a big problem), and because of this they cannot be sanded. I could not get a good spray pattern out if them, and found that they pooled WAY too easily for my taste. By the time I noticed my color building on the model, the paint was pooling.

The new AK interactive airbrush paints with the orange cap are thin enough to be airbrushed from the bottle, and preform much better than the Vallejo model air paints. They are currently only available in the modulation sets, but soon we should see them in a more conventional range.

By far my favorite paints are Tamiya Acrylics thinned with Tamiya lacquer thinner. A 50/50 mix of paint and thinner results in a perfect spray every time

I spray mostly Tamiya as well to be honest .... but have tried most brands to get a feeling of them. Not many have surpassed Tamiya through the years. I use ethanol for thinning with no problems. Humbrol enamels also work great for spraying, but I use Tamiya as they are easier to clean.

Way I see it, and borne out by the remarks on personal-fav practices and mixes posted here and elsewhere, is "Pre-thinned paints? Why bother? And why pay MORE for paint-jobs?"

Unless one was actually satisfied with the specific mix provided in the pre-thinned bottle, you will end up thinning it (if you like things thinner, which many appear to), or you end up with a product you feel is "too thin" and thus does not work for you!

Either way, and you are paying premium paint prices for diluted paint with more thinner - a very cheap stuff you can easily add yourself to get exactly the mix you want (with, of course, the practice others have mentioned. But then about anything you do gets better with practice, so...).

The Germans had things pretty right in their WWII camo paint strategy, I think! Send it out to the troopies as a pigment concentrate, and let those folks decide how to thin and apply it to get what effect they want! I'm pretty much all for it!

For me, it's generally Floquil enamels, MM enamels, and Tamiya "acryls", all thinned to balance my style and AB demands. And isopropyl alcohol and "Windex" and auto window-washer fluid all work nicely with Tamiya.

Cheers!

Bob

Hi David, I find the Vallejo model air range excellent straight from the bottle. Keep the pressure low, say around 5-7 psi and remember to keep cleaning your airbrush tip with a q tip or piece of tissue. It might seem daft to be buying pre thinned paint, ie paying for water but it does go a long way. I feel confident in putting colour on say, 30 or40 hours of hard work with Vallejo, who incidentally also bring us the AK Interactive range.
Give your base coat a seal of Future/Kleer or satin varnish and it will stand up to the hardest weathering techniques.
Spray away David. Don't forget your mask.
Rog