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Hi all

I've been painting minis for a couple of years, but I'm slow. With my next army I want to airbrush the primer and basecoat on, mainly to speed things up plus I'm much better with the airbrush than the spray can or brush so my models will be better up to and including the base coat. My issue is I'm not sure what paints to use, vallejo air is good but as far as I know it only comes in the dropper bottles and I go through them quick so was looking for a alternative in bigger bottles. I have searched the net today but never had anything which quite hit the mark. I would prefer if they are ready mixed to go into the gun but if this is not available then I can mix. I have used parma on my rc cars but not sure how this would work on the minis. Other brands I have seen are createx and ceramcoat - but not much info on them.

Couple links to possibles;

Not sure if this is suitable? - Vallejo
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/choose-any-3-x-Premium-Color-60ml-bottles-brush-or-airbrush-ready-Vallejo-paint-/171551981070?pt=UK_ToysGames_ModelKits_ModelKits_JN&hash=item27f14b7e0e

I have these for my rc car, again not sure if they are suitable (not the colour but the paint!) - Parma
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Parma-Faskolor-Fasescent-2oz-Air-Brush-Paint-for-Lexan-Water-based-/221578737281?pt=UK_ToysGames_ModelKits_ModelKits_JN&var=&hash=item33971f3681

Ceramcoat
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ceramcoat-Acrylic-Paint-Ounces-Black-Opaque/dp/B000XZZTUI/ref=sr_1_43?ie=UTF8&qid=1417644330&sr=8-43&keywords=ceramcoat+8

Createx
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/createx-opaque-60ml-all-colors-available-airbrushing-bottles-variety-of-surface-/131356239493?pt=UK_Crafts_DrawingSupplies_EH&var=&hash=item1e95712685

I can see there's loads of arcyllic paints you can get and water-down but unsure of hwich are tried and tested!

Any advice on paints would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Rob

There's Vallejo Game Air and Model Air which come pre-mixed and airbrush ready. Not sure why you feel the need to avoid the dropper bottles. If you're using a grav-fed airbrush you don't need much more than half a pot or so. Those tend to be the choice paints. You can water down some of the Citadel paints but even watered down in my experience things tend to get a bit chunky (as a side note, clean your brush often and extensively).

Not totally certain but I think P3 also has some airbrush-ready paints you may want to look into. But as far as I'm concerned, Vallejo Game/Model Air is the way to go!

If you are going through the Vallejo airbrush paints that quickly, it means that you are either

1. Painting a whole lot of models at one time.
2. Wasting a lot of paint, or using too much paint on the models.

But anyway, Badger Minitaire airbrush paints come in larger bottles, and are pretty good quality.

Thanks

I used the Vallejo droppers last time painting a Tau battleforce and I just thought I used quite alot.

I'll look into the badger paint, thanks!

Rob

Vallejo Premium. Comes in larger bottles..
Or Golden Acrylics High Flow paints..

One thing to keep in mind is that you almost always use more paint through an airbrush than a paintbrush. If you use a prethinned paint (like model air) you will consume it at a much greater rate than you would consume model color with a paintbrush, thinned with water.

Vallejo Premium is designed for an airbrush, but for applications like art on cars and motorcycles (this is why the bottles are much bigger). It's optimized for much higher pressure (PSI) than we normally use on 28mm scale, and it's not a water-based acrylic paint. It is designed to withstand the outdoors, and is closer to the primers than game/model air paints (it's polyurethane/resin). There's certainly nothing *wrong* with that, but it is a different type of product, and keep in mind the toxicity of polyurethane (it's a carcinogen) -- make sure you don't breathe it in!

Of course, obviously, Premium has a limited color range. On the bright side, the colors are all quite vibrant -- unlike model air, where there are tons of colors, but half of them look (literally) like dirt and grass.

Let me throw my suggestion in for the Badger Minitaire paint line. I have the entire line. They are excellent paints so far I have not needed to do any further thinning of the paints.

Zeruul wrote:
Let me throw my suggestion in for the Badger Minitaire paint line. I have the entire line. They are excellent paints so far I have not needed to do any further thinning of the paints.

That's cool, I am going on a Wargame Airbush course where I'll be using these.

Cheers

Rob