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My sister got me a set of enamel paints as a gift a few months ago that have been sitting on my desk. I havn't tried using them because I don't know what kind of results I will get. So does anyone ever use enamel paint for certain kinds of effects or just regular painting or should I just avoid using them?

I've used Pontiac engine blue for armor. Worked pretty good. They are just very hard to remove so you have to be sure of what you want to paint.

Personally I'd just thin the hell out of them and use them for weathering en mass.

What enamel paints are they? Testors and Humbrol are good, I haven't used Tamiya enamels but I imagine they're also good. But I have used some cheaper enamels that were terrible.

The main downsides to enamels is they dry slow, smell bad and need harsh thinners which tend to be a bit rough on natural hair brushes.

If you can get past those problems, the advantages are that they're easier to blend, if you varnish the previous layer the next layer can be manipulated with white spirits (cleaned, blended, etc) and they flow better when thinned down to a wash-like consistency.

99% of my wargaming models I just use acrylics. When airbrushing my model aircraft I sometimes like using enamels because they're tougher and more open to advanced techniques and I don't care if it takes slightly longer for them to dry. But just for the hell of it, I painted this guy entirely with Humbrol enamels, all except for his base which was acrylics...



Blending the greenish tone in to the light beige tone was made a lot easier by using enamels.

There are some effects that are easier to achieve with enamels, but most of them aren't practical for wargaming figures so it's natural for wargamers to gravitate toward acrylics.

Have a look through my galleries, 99% of what's there is painted with Enamels.

'Skink has covered it well, but I'll copy this over from another conversation I had about Enamels:

The differences come from the different bases: The majority of Acrylics are water based, and Enamels are petroleum/oil based.
First, this means that Enamels don't have as strong a surface tension as water does. They will spread out easier, making the covering of a large area quicker and easier.

They also seem to have better coverage in terms of the pigment. I often see complaints about trying to get one colour over another, and I don't seem to have quite as hard a time about it.
However, this can work the other way, with Acrylics working well with Zenthial (sp?) highlighting. I've not got this to work all that well with Enamels.

I've been told that painting fine details is much harder with Enamels than Acrylics. Maybe I have been making things hard for myself, but it's not impossible to do fine detail. This may be related to the above surface tension comment as that would hold water-based paint together better.

Enamels tend to have longer drying times. This means a few things are different:
Paint drying on your pallet? Not for a long time with Enamels, and a drop of White Spirit brings it right back again.

Made a slip of one colour onto another?
If you notice it quickly with Acrylics, you can remove it with a damp brush.
How about an hour later? Two? You can still "erase" Enamels with white spirit hours later, even though it's touch dry.

However, I do have to wait longer to do a second coat, and if I get too vigorous I could remove the lower layer by accident.

Blending is also supposed to be easier with Enamels as they stay "wetter" on the model for longer.

And washes / glazes are good with Enamels due to the long drying times and lower surface tension (without the need for detergent or flow-aids or drying retarder).

But, they do smell. Quite strongly. As does white spirit (mineral spirits I believe it's also called), but odourless varieties are available.
However, I keep my white spirit in a jar, with a lid, so the smell (and spillages) are not really a problem.
I also keep a window open.

And Enamels are harder wearing, they even get stronger the longer they are left. This is why old Enamel coated models are so hard to strip.

And cheaper, on the whole.
GW: £2.55 for 12ml (worst case, I know others are cheaper)
Humbrol Enamel: £1.70 for 14ml

I like enamel paints, for my scale modeling mostly (airplanes really is all). The only thing I would add to this conversation is watch what kind you have. That is, the ones I have are mostly Testors and those come in gloss, flat and metallics. So if you want to paint most miniatures, you may not want to use the gloss kind at all. Or you may want to dullcoate over it, if you do.

Thanks for all the information. It is Testors in small 7ml glass bottles, it looks kind of "sparkley"

 Dr H wrote:
They also seem to have better coverage in terms of the pigment. I often see complaints about trying to get one colour over another, and I don't seem to have quite as hard a time about it.
However, this can work the other way, with Acrylics working well with Zenthial (sp?) highlighting. I've not got this to work all that well with Enamels.

Which enamels are you using and what do you mean by zenithal highlighting?

Humbrol enamels I find are quite opaque, Testors seem to be more transparent. But that's just a general thing, some specific colours have better or worse coverage. I've tried a few enamel reds and yellows and none of them cover as well as Tamiya acrylic flat red and flat yellow.

I can zenithal highlight with enamels or acrylics. The only tricky thing with enamels I find is when you thin them right down for transparent airbrushing they're more prone to pooling.

I've been told that painting fine details is much harder with Enamels than Acrylics. Maybe I have been making things hard for myself, but it's not impossible to do fine detail. This may be related to the above surface tension comment as that would hold water-based paint together better.

I find even though enamels take a long time to fully dry, they thicken up quite fast. So to do fine detail work I have to pay much more attention to thinning them frequently to keep them flowing well. Then as you say, the surface tension can act against you if you thin too much the paint will naturally seep in to the crevices instead of staying on the details.

Also the slow drying can be a pain in the arse with fine detail because you often want to swap colours, do a quick edge highlight, do a quick shade.... you just can't do that as easily with enamels.

Even on aircraft where I sometimes prefer enamels, I still swap to acrylics to do the fine cockpit details.

Blending is also supposed to be easier with Enamels as they stay "wetter" on the model for longer.

It's mostly because it can still be manipulated long after applying it. To blend the green in to the beige on that genestealer I based the model beige, painted the green in to the crevices and then cleaned off the brush and used just the slightest hint of white spirit to smudge the green in to the beige. You just can't do that with acrylics, even if you add a ton of drying retarder to keep them wet, they will go grainy when you try and blend them like that.

But, they do smell. Quite strongly. As does white spirit (mineral spirits I believe it's also called), but odourless varieties are available.
However, I keep my white spirit in a jar, with a lid, so the smell (and spillages) are not really a problem.
I also keep a window open.

The smell is a big negative for me. I also keep my thinner in a jar and just rest the lid on it, but the paint on the brush itself stinks and I often have my face very close to the model when doing finer detail stuff so I inhale more fumes than I'd like.

If you use enamel thinners rather than white spirit, it's not quite as bad. White spirit has an annoying lingering smell, if you get it on your hands (or brushes) even after washing them with soap and water the smell will still be present.

And cheaper, on the whole.
GW: £2.55 for 12ml (worst case, I know others are cheaper)
Humbrol Enamel: £1.70 for 14ml

Out here I can get Vallejo acrylics for the exact same price per bottle as Humbrol enamels, $4.50 AUD. I can actually get Humbrol acrylics even cheaper again but I hate the pots even more than I hate GW pots Testors enamel, which I prefer, is actually more expensive even than GW paint locally.

Tamiya's the cheapest out here, both their enamel range and their acrylic range I can pick up for $4 a pot.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Which enamels are you using and what do you mean by zenithal highlighting?

I use Humbrol.
and I mean the act of pre-shading a model, often by spraying black (or dark) from underneath and white (or light colours) from the direction of the "light source". You then paint over that with a transparent layer of paint that colours the model but retains the shading of the lower layers.

To be fair, it can be done. If you keep the layers of paint thin enough.
I still think in terms of hairy brush, but this kind of thing is easier with an airbrush as you don't need to worry about brush-strokes.

I did use this technique (with a hairy brush) on my Wave Serpent. But the result on the blue is very subtle:
The metallic blue, gloss finish, and the interference green are all stronger effects.
Shading:

Humbrol enamels I find are quite opaque, Testors seem to be more transparent. But that's just a general thing, some specific colours have better or worse coverage. I've tried a few enamel reds and yellows and none of them cover as well as Tamiya acrylic flat red and flat yellow.

This is true. Although I have one yellow that covers quite well; Trainer yellow (24). It's not an in-your-face yellow, but is certainly yellow and serves as a good base for brighter yellows without having to do a layer or two with white mixed in.

I haven't seen any Testors in any shops I've been in, but then I generally go straight to what I know (humbrol).
I have tried Revell Enamels, but didn't like them.

I can zenithal highlight with enamels or acrylics. The only tricky thing with enamels I find is when you thin them right down for transparent airbrushing they're more prone to pooling.

True, and beyond that some colours will precipitate from solution/suspension and be useless.
Don't know if water-based paints do this...?

I find even though enamels take a long time to fully dry, they thicken up quite fast. So to do fine detail work I have to pay much more attention to thinning them frequently to keep them flowing well. Then as you say, the surface tension can act against you if you thin too much the paint will naturally seep in to the crevices instead of staying on the details.

Also the slow drying can be a pain in the arse with fine detail because you often want to swap colours, do a quick edge highlight, do a quick shade.... you just can't do that as easily with enamels.

Even on aircraft where I sometimes prefer enamels, I still swap to acrylics to do the fine cockpit details.

Yeah, getting the right consistency is important.
I use old lids for mixing paint in, instead of a dedicated pallet, and I've left some open to thicken up if I've gone too thin (I use a second spare lid, upside down on top, to keep a mixed paint good for longer).
But when too thick, a drop of white spirit and all is good.

It's mostly because it can still be manipulated long after applying it. To blend the green in to the beige on that genestealer I based the model beige, painted the green in to the crevices and then cleaned off the brush and used just the slightest hint of white spirit to smudge the green in to the beige. You just can't do that with acrylics, even if you add a ton of drying retarder to keep them wet, they will go grainy when you try and blend them like that.

Yeah, this is a technique I don't think I could give up.

The smell is a big negative for me. I also keep my thinner in a jar and just rest the lid on it, but the paint on the brush itself stinks and I often have my face very close to the model when doing finer detail stuff so I inhale more fumes than I'd like.

If you use enamel thinners rather than white spirit, it's not quite as bad. White spirit has an annoying lingering smell, if you get it on your hands (or brushes) even after washing them with soap and water the smell will still be present.

Yeah, having worked in chemistry labs, I'm quite "immune" to chemical smells.
It's certainly not for everyone.

Out here I can get Vallejo acrylics for the exact same price per bottle as Humbrol enamels, $4.50 AUD. I can actually get Humbrol acrylics even cheaper again but I hate the pots even more than I hate GW pots Testors enamel, which I prefer, is actually more expensive even than GW paint locally.

Tamiya's the cheapest out here, both their enamel range and their acrylic range I can pick up for $4 a pot.

Interesting. And the moral of the story is ... Price will depend on where you are and your proximity to the company that makes/sells what you want.
I always wince when I see Australian prices for this hobby.