Hand-Painting With Tamiya Acrylics

[Austin Chien]

lol i agree. but u gotta use wat u have....

[Alan Britten]

VIVA LE TAMIYA!!!!!!!!!!!!! Testors sucks!

Sorry but I will have to disagree here many different brands and types of modelers have there faviourt type or brand of paint. Testors is harder to use but produces a great enamel finish which millitary modelers and my friends love. The small scale figures people love Citadel as I did and works nicer than Tamiya on terrain for me. Sometimes for particular finishes Tamiya just doesn't cut it but works really well for Gunpla as does Gunze Sangyo...

[Paul Lopez]

VIVA LE TAMIYA!!!!!!!!!!!!! Testors sucks!

Sorry but I will have to disagree here many different brands and types of modelers have there faviourt type or brand of paint. Testors is harder to use but produces a great enamel finish which millitary modelers and my friends love. The small scale figures people love Citadel as I did and works nicer than Tamiya on terrain for me. Sometimes for particular finishes Tamiya just doesn't cut it but works really well for Gunpla as does Gunze Sangyo...

  I use Tamiya, Citadel, and Model Master. I hate those little Testors bottles as  it does'nt matter if you get enamel or acrylic, they both take to frikkin long to dry. The Model Master that Testors makes is of a much better quality and is much more versatile.

  If you devote a few bottles of Tamiya solely to terrain by opening them up and let the paint thicken a little you'll find it to be superb for terrain.

[Austin Chien]

meh, i gotta wait until weekend shopping to go out and get better paints. i couldnt wait so i just decided to go ahead and start painting with my crappy testors bottles. it came out great. check out my model in models in progress section of the forum it is the mg aile strike gundam. ive only painted the interior though. cant wait to get my hands on tamiya.

[zerobxu]

cant wait to get my hands on tamiya.

For me? Tamiya is a great paint (and yeah... I've had mostly craptacular luck with Testors), but there are other brands out there. An experienced modeler I know (who does mostly armor and aircraft) couldn't believe I was using Tamiya. He says that Gunze Sangyo and Humbrol (at least, until recently) were far better hand paints. In short, paint preference is highly subjective.

So good luck with the Tamiya, and I hope it serves you well. Don't be afraid to try some other paints, though. I'll go out and buy Model Master and PollyScale for specific color requirements, as the need arises. You may find that these--or some other brand--may give you an even better experience than I've encounted with Tamiya.

[Austin Chien]

wow... damn i bet those paints must be hella expensive though...

[Ahmed X]

For me? Tamiya is a great paint (and yeah... I've had mostly craptacular luck with Testors), but there are other brands out there. An experienced modeler I know (who does mostly armor and aircraft) couldn't believe I was using Tamiya. He says that Gunze Sangyo and Humbrol (at least, until recently) were far better hand paints. In short, paint preference is highly subjective.

you know zerobxu
i used tamiya testors and gunze sangyo
i would have to say that testors isn't that good not when using but after when it dries i didnt like its finish
but sangyo better then tamiya well not that much
yes for hand brushing its easier and works better (for a beginner)
but if your pro it wont make that much diff.
i used both with hand and air brushing
correct me if im wrong but i think the colors them selves make some difference
tamiya's white gives better then sangyo's white
and vice versa for dark grey
but in the end there isn't alot of diff.
except that for me preparing the enemal for the airbrush is harder then acrylic

[Austin Chien]

its all about the skillz. but still u cant get much out of crappy paint no matter wat u do with it. i liked how my testors turned out though. the flat gunship grey did the trick for me.

[zerobxu]

correct me if im wrong but i think the colors them selves make some difference
tamiya's white gives better then sangyo's white
and vice versa for dark grey

Absolutely. I'm not a big fan of Tamiya's white--it always feels too thin, right out of the bottle. On the other hand, their metallic colors (like, "gunmetal", for example) are thicker than any other paint. Switching brands, I have a bottle of Testors white that the paint turned completely solid in--and no, I didn't leave the cap off. There's a few colors I prefer to use Model Masters for, just to save the trouble of trying to mix them. This would include colors like "rust", "leather", and Russian military colors. And I've never had a real problem--other than a bottle of MM "leather" paint solidifying on me. I think I may have been partly responsible for that one, though.

Again, go with what you know--and what you like. I like Tamiya, so I feel I can speak about it with some degree of experience. If you find something you like better, then embrace it.

its all about the skillz. but still u cant get much out of crappy paint no matter wat u do with it.

In other words, "it's the poor musician that blames his instrument. This is true, to some degree. I've painted an award-winning biplane entirely in Testors acrylics. Conversely, ever heard the saying "Garbage in, garbage out"?

[Ahmed X]

yes zerobxu
tamiya's white is a pain but i haven't found a better one
if you have a better brand for white plz let me know
well if you want a very very good white but its costly
look at my GP01-FB look at its white i mean at that time. it was my 2nd try to paint white and look how well it went
1st give it a good can spray tamiya's primer (best primer i tried ever)
then MR Color's white can spray or even tamiya's can spray
so i found that white can spray is the best for the color white but it costs alot and you waste alot of it on small parts

im sorry i dont have alot of good tips to help out but i will try my best to help

[Austin Chien]

never heard of garbage in garbage out
I FINALLY GOT GOOD PAINTS TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
tamiya and model masters

[Alan Britten]

 A quick question...

I was talking to an ace modeler at my local hobby store. We were talking about mixing Tamiya Acrylics for hand painting and airbrushing. He claims mixing paints with a flat head nail gets to the corners of the bottle and mixes the pigments perfectly. I get the same results with a tooth pick but he claims im wrong...

Is this the perfect method I don't now about or if it works for you stick to it. Knowing well shaking paints is a bad method of mixing...   

[GlauG]

I'm probably fairly well-known for disliking Tamiya acrylics because of how vocal I can get about them, but I guess they're not /that/ bad, it's just that it's an equal amount of hassle I can get Gunze lacquers, which I massively prefer.     Though that said, they're pretty terrible for hand-painting.

Personally, I /have/ enjoyed great success with spray primer/tamiya/citadel acrylics, applied in that order.  These days I rarely hand-paint except to pick out small details, but I prefer Citadel paints for those as they're totally water-based, cover well, and are easier to get hold of back home...

[tyrewb2]

Opps I always paint out of bottle with Tamiya. I usually mix a little 91% rubbing alcohol to keep it a good consistency for detailing. Although I do end up with a lot of bottles of mixed paints. It never crossed my mind to use water color style paint trays for hand painting models. Definitly going to try this method when ever I hand paint next time.

As for paints, I've used Testors, Citedal, Tamiya, and Model Masters so far. Never had much luck with Testors, it seems cheap but the amount of paint in those tiny bottles and cost of thinner adds up. Model Masters, I dont really remember using it much, though I do remember that it has a short shelf life without being used... it liked to solidify and seperate on me whenever it got lonely. Citedal paints I fell in love with them for how well you can hand paint with them and the fact that they can be thinned with water and even spit (don't ask). I really miss Citedal, none of the model shops have them where I live now. Since I've started Gunpla and actually wanting to do it right (smooth paint, no seamlines, ect, ect), I have been using Tamiya for everything, mainly for cost issues. It spreads well, rubbing alcohol is cheap, easy to mix, and the colors look great.

[Zantor Azunnas]

Testors isn't good at all. Everytime I use it I find that most of it's paints don't stick well to the primer and that even after as much as a week of drying it's still tacky to the touch and will start to rub off if handled too much. The flat grey and black colors aren't too bad, normally you can handle those and paint more layers on within an hour or two, sometimes. I still use those to paint interior parts. Otherwise, I've only used Tamiya and found that it works great. Unfortunately, Testors is the only thing available where I live so I have to by everything else online and wait for it to get here *sigh*