Notes on Model Painting

All right. I'm nine months into my return to modeling.  

Paints

Paints indeed cost a fair amount as you need many colors and there are many types of paints and accessory items for each. For each brand of paint, modelers recommend getting the manufacturer's brand of thinners, cleaners, and retarders, the argument being that generally speaking the manufacturer would best produce items of chemical compatibility. That makes sense, and most of the time, once you buy a bottle of thinner or retarder, you won't need to buy it again for a long time. So paints and paint auxiliaries add up, but once you're set, you're good for several models. 

I started with the enamels that I got in the big bundle purchase mentioned in an earlier post. After ten years, these Testors paints are still working well. 

But I've been introduced to the acrylics, something I'd never used before. It was quite a relief and very comfortable to work without having to wear a respirator mask and both affordable and easy to thin and clean with just water or isopropyl alcohol. The newer acrylic formulations from AMMO (the ATOM line) and Squadron (Scale Colors) represent an evolution in the paints, where they behave more like enamels and lacquers without being toxic. 

Going forward, I will probably favor acrylics for most work, but my enamels are still useful and cater to my OCD commitment to the sunk cost fallacy (to any overly literal pinheads reading this, that was a joke). The exception might be auto model bodies, where lacquers can provide excellent glossy results.

Airbrush and Compressor

This can be expensive, but should be a one-time purchase that will last you your modeling life. You can go a little cheaper here with off-brands. My experience is that those ubiquitous cheap Chinese air compressors and portable paint booths are actually fine. The general advice is to get a compressor with a tank, but I've also seen many testimonials that for light use, the tankless compressors are sufficient and very affordable and compact.

The airbrushes themselves are all over the map; you can get cheap ones for under $50, and there seems to be no upper limit if you want to get brand name fancy. But the cheap ones now are good enough, and nearly any brush can do well if you are good with masking. There are two kinds of painters out there; the natural talents that can free-hand everything and have great results, and the ones like me that can deliver good results only after using a few pounds of masking tape. The point here is that for all the screaming you'll hear from the modeling purists, a mediocre airbrush can work fine if you know how to prepare.

I love the modeling books from AMMO, and the author of the excellent How to Paint with the Airbrush, Jose Luiz Lopez, teaches you everything you need to know about airbrush use and maintenance. However, I take exception to his assertion that an airbrush setup must be expensive. In chapter 4, on page 37, he states:

"The cheap sets that include a compressor, three airbrushes, hose, airbrush holder, various colours and a painting manual, for $150 USD/130 £ are, bluntly and simply put, money down the drain."

More amenable is the advice of the people at SprayGunner.com who sell brand names like Badger, Iwata, Harder & Steenbeck, and Grex. They note the brand name ones are made of the best quality components, but are also forthcoming that their affordable No-Name brand airbrushes are more than capable. The difference in cost is substantive; a basic airbrush with hose and multiple removeable cups and needle sizes is USD$25 vs. at least USD$100 or more for a premier branded product. 

Here's my main argument to Luiz Lopez: air compressors and tanks are not new technologies. They've been around for decades, if not centuries, and are commodities. Economically, a commodity is something that is an established, common, and mass-produced item. A commodity benefits from economies of scale and is affordable and reliable. So I don't have a problem with the teeming hordes of hobby compressors being sold everywhere. They're bland but affordable and do their jobs, and that's all a modeler needs. 

Where I come back a little to Luiz Lopez's position is on the airbrush. While I do think they can be commodities too, I accept that the higher quality brands probably do use better metals and rubber for their components, feature more precise engineering, and will be better than the generic airbrushes. But I don't bust on the cheap ones as much; they're probably of sufficient quality for most modelers. I also think the generics have gotten better over time and the cheap airbrush of 1995 is not the same as the one in 2025. The No-Name airbrushes at SprayGunner.com have universally good reviews.

Paint Brush (hand brush)

I still like hand brushing and find it relaxing. It's also more appropriate for small parts. These brushes are readily available in many stores. 

For hand brushes, I find that spending a bit more does help. One of the cheap brushes I got didn't survive more than one use with a brush applied Tamiya lacquer primer. It fell apart during cleaning. The synthetic brushes I got from AMMO are very good, however, I haven't tried them with stronger paints yet. 

I also tried out a silicone brush which is less like a brush than a wedge, but it has proven handy for certain types of detail work.

End Thoughts

My early model building involved no painting at all. I would slap together a kit and its only decoration would be sloppily applied decals and fingerprints of glue. You do not have to paint a model to enjoy the hobby. 

In time though, I would come to appreciate that while building a model gives it life, painting a model gives it a soul. It's a cost you have to pay to make the best of model building.