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Hi all! Just thought I’ll talk a little bit about the paints that I use and what I found they work best for.

There are
different paints available on the market that you can use with your
brush and airbrush. All the brands have their advantages, some come in
interesting colours, some are more vibrant and some flow smoother
through the airbrush.

 

The first range
of paints I would like to talk about is GW Citadel. It is the most
well-known paint and comes in vast range of colours. It is great for
applying paint by brush, but it is not a perfect paint for an
airbrush. It can be diluted with distilled water, but many colours
tend to have an uneven flow and even clog the airbrush. I have a wide
range of citadel, which I used to dilute, but nowadays
I use it mainly for painting by brush: doing a more detailed painting
or dry brushing.

 

The next paint on
my list is Vallejo. There are two types that I use Vallejo Model
Air/game air, Vallejo Game colour and Panzer Aces. All the paints
come in a 17 ml bottles with a nozzle, which makes it easier to pour,
but tends to be wasteful towards the end of pot life, especially for
the thicker paints. The first is a range specifically designed for
airbrushing and it does perform well. It has a good colour range and
when applied gives a good coverage, so I use it a lot for base
coating. I would say that it is perfect for everyday airbrushing.  Although some colours are problematic, such as black and white, they
tend to clog a bit.

Game colour is a thicker paint and is required diluting with distilled
water to use in an airbrush. I mainly use it for airbrushing for
certain colours that don’t come in Vallejo Model Air range and also
I use it for application by brush for details an dry brushing. Panzer Aces are the range where
all the colours are matched to official military colours. I don’t
have many of those, only a few very good colours, which I tend to use
quite a bit.

Other paints
Vallejo range that I use is Liquid metallic colours. This paint is
not good for airbrush, most metallic are not due to clogging. They effect is really
vivid and shiny; it is great to use with brush to pick out metallic
part of a model. Although you can’t use the paint directly from the
pot, first it needs to be diluted with mineral spirits to get it to a
thinner consistency.

Another paint
that I use is P3. It is a thick paint, but it sprays through airbush
even without dihluting. It also does have some nice shades that are
missing from the Vallejo range. In terms of flow and quality, I think
it’s quite similar to Vallejo. So I just have a few of their
colours in my collection.

A new addition to
my range is Com Art. They are the priciest ones from the list, £3.50
compared to £2 for Vallejo. They come in a bigger bottle, but don’t
be misled, they are thinner, so I think you probably get similar
amount of paint as you would in Vallejo. So are they worth the price
tag? I would say yes. In my view they are the best paints for the
airbrush in terms of flow. They are smooth and easy to apply, but
tend to be a bit opaque, which makes them perfect for a tinting, mist
application and detail. Their white and black flows perfect. The
colours are incredibly vivid and stay so after the paint dries. I use
this paint in small amounts to enhance and brighten up colours. The
last point to mention is the bottle. It is very solid and well made,
with a nozzle that twists to block the flow. The bottle also features
a ball inside, which helps to shake the paint well, as well as
prevents the paint from drying inside on the walls of the bottle,
making it less wasteful. 

I also use some Tamia paints. They are not water based, so are quite
toxic, which makes them a challenge to spray in doors. But they are
good in an airbrush, they go through it very smooth and even the
metallic go through the airbrush very well. It has a nice mat sheen
to it when it dries and the colour is vibrant. I tend to use it for metallic on larger models,
due to it smooth application.

Those are defintely not all the paints on the market, although some of the most well known. Once in a while I still discover new brands and try them out. What paints do you guys use?