These themed sets of paints from Lifecolor deserve a much closer look. Not only is the idea of a themed set a good one, but the paint itself is superb.

Lifecolor Acrylic Themed Paint Sets



If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Great review Vinnie. I have been using these for a little while now. I ordered a set of allied and another set of axis armor paint. The sets I ordered came in about 15 bottles each. The one thing I have found is that they go on smooth and dry dead flat. I found out the hard way that you MUST seal the paint with a gloss or flat coat before any washes as they do not react well to thinners and can lift or at the least turn into sort of a white haze. After coating they are fantastic. For acrylics they also drybrush very well.

The themed sets remind me of the good old days when Humbrol had their themed "Authenti-colour" range. I sure do miss those....
LifeColor also has a great range of Israeli colors...including that hard to replicate gray/green as seen on so many Merkava's. I would like to hear from somebody that has used that particular color and how they like it for color accuracy.

I was chatting to Gino Poppe recently and he mentioned he's started using the LifeColor range on his figures. He's very impressed with them!!

Thanks for the review Vinnie

Very interesting review, Vinnie, but I do have a question. You said
"With the pressure set to 20psi, it proved a little difficult to maintain a nice, steady flow, so after cleaning the airbrush with water, I added about 15 parts water to the Lifecolor paint and tried again. "

Did you mean 1 part paint to 15 parts water? Seems like a very high dilution ratio to me, so if you could qualify the proportions, I would appreciate it.

Thanks

I bought a handfull of bottles a few years ago from a shop that was closing down. It is very nice to work with, you can brush it undiluted for small detail or diluted for general painting. I've not used it in my airbrush, as I don't have any colours that need such large application.
Italian subject builders might note that Life colour have a selection of Italian Plane and Armour matched colours, for example Italian Interior Green.

Cheers
Henk

Jim, I was thinking percentages, so I should have said around 15 parts water to 85 paint.

Vinnie

Thanks, Vinnie, that makes a lot more sense.

Dear Vinnie,
Hi, just reading your post on lifecolour paints, and could i ask a question.
I have used lifecolour for a year or so and seem to have a problem spraying through my Aztek a430/470 airbrushes. It covers very well but i frequently have a problem with clogging. I use Aztek airbrush cleaner to clean the airbrush afterwards and i don't know if you've ever used it but could the chemicals in the cleaner affect the spraying of the lifecolour paints as they are water based.
Sorry for my waffling,
Thanks
Rodders

Andrew, they could indeed. I never use anything but plain water to spray through and clean my Aztek, and don't have a problem with it.

Vinnie

All I use to thin them is water or their own thinner. Both work great. I clean the airbrush with plain 99 cent store alcohol and it cleans it very well.

Hi Vinnie,

Thanks for this review, I have been using Lifecolor for some time and find them very good for brush painting.

On a side note I recently went on a airbrush course run by the trader that supplied the paint for this review result of which I brought an Iwata compressor and airbrush. On said course we tried the paint and it seemed to be very good. Will find out myself at home soon, once present build subjects are cleared.

Ciao
Luciano

Luciano, Robin has had great success with his spray painting courses I believe. If I ever get to the stage where I could afford an Iwata brush and compressor, I might enrol! :-)

Vinnie

Vinnie I know what you mean they where not cheap but I thought well worth it, had to give up a few things that month if you know what I mean. I ended up buying the new trigger action airbrush as this felt more comfortable to use, and because I brought it on the course it was almost try before you buy.

I must say that for anyone like I was that is to say wanting to use an airbrush but afraid of the thing this course is a must. Robin does a very good job and you go through all the different paint types including Alclad.

Oh.. anyone would think I work for him which I don't. Sorry to go off topic.

Ciao
Luciano

I only had problems with Lifecolor -but the issue mst be with me, not with the paint. Everybody else swears by it.
Somehow the mxture is either too thick or too thin; I can't ever dilute it to be perfect.
(My paints might be old; they are not really liquid but a thicker fluid; kind of like a cheese spread. Is it supposed to be that thick? It was like that from day 1 when I bought it in the LHS.)