Paint. Opinions and experiences requested

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

I feel like my life is a timeline of things I like getting cancelled or discontinued. I was annoyed some years ago when Testors bought PollyScale and Floquil and shut them down. I still have my old PollyS and Floquil paints and am doing my best to extend their lives.

I have long had a personal policy of the best material for the job. Brand loyalty, for me, comes from a particular thing working well and me wanting to keep using it, including model paints. I have Mr. Hobby, Tamiya, Vallejo, Humbrol, Coat d'Arms (whatever they're called now), AlClad, and various others... But Testors has always been there for me. First, when I was seven or eight, the little quarter-ounce bottles. By middle school, expanding into their ModelMaster range of military and automotive enamels, by high school into their acrylics and metalizers as I started getting the hang of airbrushing.

I had noticed in my LHS that the Testors stuff was dwindling. Popular colors weren't getting restocked, displays were getting combined and condensed, racks were disappearing... I knew RustOleum had bought Testors. I did not know they've been basically tossing a coin since on whether to shut the company down.

My LHS has filled in the space with the new Revell stuff. Has anyone here used it yet, and, if so, what has your experience with it been?

Does any one have any good recommendations for where to stock up on Testors (or older brands like Pactra, Floquil, or PollyScale) before they're gone?

Does anyone have any other recommendations for brands that have similar ranges that give similar behavior? One of the things I always liked about the ModelMaster stuff was the Federal Standard and historically accurate military colors, and the good manufacturer matches for their automotive colors. I know of no other brand where I can get all of that under one roof.

 

[motero96]

I feel like my life is a timeline of things I like getting cancelled or discontinued. I was annoyed some years ago when Testors bought PollyScale and Floquil and shut them down. I still have my old PollyS and Floquil paints and am doing my best to extend their lives.

I have long had a personal policy of the best material for the job. Brand loyalty, for me, comes from a particular thing working well and me wanting to keep using it, including model paints. I have Mr. Hobby, Tamiya, Vallejo, Humbrol, Coat d'Arms (whatever they're called now), AlClad, and various others... But Testors has always been there for me. First, when I was seven or eight, the little quarter-ounce bottles. By middle school, expanding into their ModelMaster range of military and automotive enamels, by high school into their acrylics and metalizers as I started getting the hang of airbrushing.

I had noticed in my LHS that the Testors stuff was dwindling. Popular colors weren't getting restocked, displays were getting combined and condensed, racks were disappearing... I knew RustOleum had bought Testors. I did not know they've been basically tossing a coin since on whether to shut the company down.

My LHS has filled in the space with the new Revell stuff. Has anyone here used it yet, and, if so, what has your experience with it been?

Does any one have any good recommendations for where to stock up on Testors (or older brands like Pactra, Floquil, or PollyScale) before they're gone?

Does anyone have any other recommendations for brands that have similar ranges that give similar behavior? One of the things I always liked about the ModelMaster stuff was the Federal Standard and historically accurate military colors, and the good manufacturer matches for their automotive colors. I know of no other brand where I can get all of that under one roof.

Test Archive X paint

Star Wars Studio Scale Model Paint & Artwork UK

Archive X Paint is the best studio scale model painting companies & the first ever paint brand dedicated to Star Wars modeling. Shop paints & Star Wars models

archivexpaint.com

they are very good

 

[Analyzer]

If you are in the states, Michael's and HobbyLobby have a lot of Model Master paints and Michael's also has a lot of the old style Testor's bottles (I forget about Hobby Lobby)

 

[ID10T]

I haven't bought paint in over a decade (for models) but the Model Master paints (and metallizers) WERE quite good, for a hack like me anyway...

I have a Hobby Lobby reasonably close to my home, so I may find myself in there again at some point. I have a hughe tackle box I use for my modeling stuff, and only did cars and small scale air/space/star wars stuff, so I have not "re-bought" much- I was always adding new colors.

I bought the majority of my stash from a small independent hobby shop that I think is now long gone. I remember going in there with my Dad and getting a model of some type, and being encouraged to do a nice job so it could be displayed in the store (along with microscopic tanks that looked as if they could start and run)... needless to say, I never had a model displayed there. They moved location, and I bought a bunch of R/C car stuff, and then piles of Mopar models for future building (still unbuilt!). I haven't been up there recently, but I'm pretty sure they are done now.

 

[Attirex]

There are many players taking up the space Testors had for military spec colors - MRP, Ammo by Mig, True North, White Ensign, Hataka, Vallejo, AKAN, etc. They all have their pros and cons (hobbyists can be VERY particular about paint brands), but are all solid choices.

Also second Archive X if you want to replicate the Floquil RR colors that ILM used back in the day.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

If you are in the states, Michael's and HobbyLobby have a lot of Model Master paints and Michael's also has a lot of the old style Testor's bottles (I forget about Hobby Lobby)

That's what I was going to say as well. I still have a bunch of MM paints, some are 30 years old from when I was in 8th grade, and they're still good! I just can't switch to acrylics because I had a bad experience with them. I may have to experiment with them again. My favorite primer was Floquil gray primer, which I still have a few bottles of, but it's a bummer.

 

[ID10T]

I played with acrylics a bit on my R/C car bodies and I didn't like them. Tamia brand I think it was.

I prefer the high-VOC cancer-causing variants. Extra cancer with mine please.

 

[Riceball]

That's what I was going to say as well. I still have a bunch of MM paints, some are 30 years old from when I was in 8th grade, and they're still good! I just can't switch to acrylics because I had a bad experience with them. I may have to experiment with them again. My favorite primer was Floquil gray primer, which I still have a few bottles of, but it's a bummer.

I use almost nothing but acrylics and have never had a bad experience with them, except for yellows. For some reason, all of the yellows I've had over the years has been on the thin side, so it needs to go over a light color and/or with multiple. Really the only thing I've ever used enamels for were metallics, growing up painting minis and models, Testors metallics were always my go tos for metallic. That's one area that enamels are much better than acrylics, metallic acrylics just don't anywhere near as good as Testors metallics.

I haven't invested in any decent acrylics in ages, but I've always had good experiences with using Tamiya's acrylics. They seem to be a different composition from many of the other acrylics out there but they go on smoothly (overall) and can be watered down just like any other acrylic paint. But I'm a cheap ******* these days and just use the cheapo acrylics from Michael's that come in the small plastic squeeze jars.

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

My nearest HobbyLobby is an hour away with a bridge toll included in there. They and all the Michaelses near me have mediocre model sections, at best. I wish that were a convenient solution. I'll dig into ArchiveX. Attirex, except for Vallejo -- which I need to take a fresh look at as their range expands -- I haven't heard of any of those. I seem to have some reading ahead of me.

My LHS is good for carrying what is currently get-able, and there's a gaming store over in Seattle that has an impressive range of miniatures paints. I don't mind acrylics -- in their place. I still have the Coat d'Arms paints (bottled as Citadel Colour paints at the time) that I got in 1993 that are still perfectly good. When Citadel/Games Workshop started making and bottling their own, it was a disaster. I'd get a fresh paint pot, it'd be a couple months 'til I had a chance to settle in and paint, and, when I opened the brand-new pot, it had dried out since I got it home from the store. Some have said they're much better now, but I'm too leery. The ModelMaster acrylics are also excellent, and compare nicely with the old PollyScale paints they took over for in the range. My custom Mandalorian armor is US Medium Green and Panzer Olive Green airbrushed over RustOleum gray spray primer:

Definitely easier to clean up than enamels or lacquers.

I'm stocking up on Testors' metalizers. They're the best ones I've found for most of the applications I use them for -- reversed-process. I spray down the sealer first, then the metalizer over while it's still tacky. Then, once it's cured, buff to a polish. It can then be handled without rubbing off or picking up fingerprints. Since the leg armor for this Mando was plastic instead of metal, I wanted to get the best match I could, and it came out well. Until I recover my dead laptop's hard drive, I don't have many progress pics, but here's one of the thigh plates after it was primered for the green paint job, where you can see the glint of the stainless steel metalizer finish through the masked-off weathering:

I don't want to have to try to re-create some of these effects, so I'm stocking up where I can. But, planning for the future, I definitely want to make sure I'm not casting about aimlessly in the void. Thanks for the suggestions so far. More thoughts as they occur are always welcome.

 

[Analyzer]

Very convincing scratches!

 

[Analyzer]

Also, if you liked the "Coat d'Arms paints (bottled as Citadel Colour paints at the time)" the Privateer Press P3 line is in those same old bottles and the line was actually developed by Mike McVey who had worked at GW on the paints at that time

Also, I find the Vallejo Air colors pretty nice if working with Acrylics

They have sets like this. On the back is a color guide for F-4, F-16, F-14, F-15, F-18, F-22 and A-10

They also list the FS numbers on the bottles

Model Air - Air War - US Navy & USMC colors from 70's to present

Contains 8 x 18 ml/0.6 fl oz Model Air for painting the color schemes of most of the US NAVY and USMC aircraft in service since the seventies to present.

acrylicosvallejo.com

they have other sets for World War II planes etc...

 

[ID10T]

Regarding the hard-drive recover:

I just went through this with my wife's MacBook pro. It was around $2,000 to have the hard drive recovered by a pro. This hack (me) bought a $5 cable to convert a laptop hard drive to a USB drive. Then I wasn't hitting the wall with the boot failure in the original machine. It acts like a USB drive (plug into another machine) and I could access just about every single file on the drive with no issues.

Now I have a beat-up MacBook Pro with a SSD and more memory, and she has a shiny new one. Win-Win.

 

[StevenBills]

My nearest HobbyLobby is an hour away with a bridge toll included in there. They and all the Michaelses near me have mediocre model sections, at best. I wish that were a convenient solution. I'll dig into ArchiveX. Attirex, except for Vallejo -- which I need to take a fresh look at as their range expands -- I haven't heard of any of those. I seem to have some reading ahead of me.

My LHS is good for carrying what is currently get-able, and there's a gaming store over in Seattle that has an impressive range of miniatures paints....

If you're in the Seattle area, the Skyway Model Shop is a great place for all kinds of paints. And they specialize in plastic kits. No RC, trains, etc...

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

Analyzer, I should've also posted a pic of the metal plates with flash. Nothing really looks like stainless steel but stainless steel:

I'd forgotten about the P³ (Privateer Press Paint). I kept looking it sidelong because it was in the same pots as the Coat d'Arms/original Citadel Color... but being developed by the guy who helped develop the crappy nuCitadel Paints in the '90s...? Not a selling point. Are they actually any good, on the range Citadel established between original borrowed and later in-house?

ID10T... Yeah, I have one of those. It plugs in, the light comes on... But the two computers I've tried it with have, so far, not recognized the drive. I was gonna bite the bullet and take it in to see if maybe I'm missing some critical but banal step in the process. Otherwise, the drive's motor may have failed.

StevenBills, Skyway is one of the ones I've been wanting to check out for a while, and I keep forgetting when I'm down that way with actual time to spare. Next Ikea day, I'll schedule it.

Thanks for the continued suggestions, guys. I'm feeling a bit less panicky about the prospect of Testors going away (though I still hope they don't). *lol*

 

[Analyzer]

Analyzer, I should've also posted a pic of the metal plates with flash. Nothing really looks like stainless steel but stainless steel:
t
View attachment 1435046

I'd forgotten about the P³ (Privateer Press Paint). I kept looking it sidelong because it was in the same pots as the Coat d'Arms/original Citadel Color... but being developed by the guy who helped develop the crappy nuCitadel Paints in the '90s...? Not a selling point. Are they actually any good, on the range Citadel established between original borrowed and later in-house?

Those sure look like metal!

as far as the P3 paints and Mike McVey, they are a direct lineage to the old Coat d'Arms/original Citadel Color not the crappy "nuCitadel" stuff in those redesigned pots that were dry half the time before you even opened the bottle

I know in interviews he had mentioned trying to emulate the coat d' arms stuff and I believe they used those as a starting point just tweaking the color range. He alluded to righting the wrong of the nuCitadel stuff. I have some of those old pots and the P3 stuff seems the same quality wise

I believe they are actually produced by the same company that make the Coat D' Arms stuff which is why they are in the same style of paint pots and they all say made in the UK.

as i remember some blurb back when the paint line was originally announce it was something along the lines of this..

Mike McVey has a favorite paint manufacturer, and they currently make three gaming lines- two of which are Coat D'arms and P3.
Mike worked for GW when they first started up their paint line- he pretty much headed that project. Much later, he worked for Privateer Press and started up the paint line for them. Both times, he got the same supplier to create the paint for them.

 

[Analyzer]

some other info regarding the P3 line

Great Colors:
The key colors for WARMACHINE and HORDES come in base and highlight shades to make their application intuitive.

Workable Drying Time:
With an extended drying time, you can blend and mix paints without fear of wasting your paint or employing retardants or flow extenders.

Wear Resistant:
The formula dries to a hard and satin finish resistant to chipping. You won't fear handling your finished miniatures.

Liquid Pigment:
Unlike other paints, Formula P3 uses liquid pigments. It never separates when thinned and retains brightness after thinning and drying.

Superior Coverage:
Formula P3 often covers in a single coat - even over a black undercoat.

I found all the above accurate as far as how they work plus I love the base/highlight combos

For example, they have a color called Menoth White Base and Menoth White Highlight that pair very nicely for shading and highlighting

I have not tried airbrushing with it but I know people who have.

I mainly use it for figure painting and they have been my go to paints after the old coat d'arms/citadel stuff

In the realm of Star Wars, the Menoth White Highlight and Base are perfect for the Hoth soldiers as well as the Khaki and Trollblood Highlight colors

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

Those sure look like metal!

That's because they are. *chuckle* Carrier plates are 16-gauge stainless. The collar was cut too short, so it's being used for my custom rather than the Boba-based set. The groin armor for this costume is mild steel, that was going to get thrown away and that I salvaged from the guy who made it. The leg armor is some of RedKraytDragon's vac-formed Jango/Boba stuff from before he died. The vambraces and handplates are scratchbuilt from sintra to test my templates. And the helmet is a modded Rubies hard-plastic that was released for Halloween at Target a few years back. I decided since I was testing a lot of materials and techniques, I'd just put it all together into a custom Mando, rather than just see these pieces go to waste.

The chest, shoulder, and upper-abdominal armor came out good enough they're dual-purpose with the final Fenn Shysa costume, but with additional bits in-progress that aren't part of this one. Here's a test-fitting during final shaping and planishing -- at this point, everything's pretty much set except the collar, which still needed more curvature to it:

Thanks for the clarification on the P³. That may become a mainstay of my acrylics. Those are your Star Wars minis?

 

[Analyzer]

That's because they are. *chuckle* Carrier plates are 16-gauge stainless. The collar was cut too short, so it's being used for my custom rather than the Boba-based set. The groin armor for this costume is mild steel, that was going to get thrown away and that I salvaged from the guy who made it. The leg armor is some of RedKraytDragon's vac-formed Jango/Boba stuff from before he died. The vambraces and handplates are scratchbuilt from sintra to test my templates. And the helmet is a modded Rubies hard-plastic that was released for Halloween at Target a few years back. I decided since I was testing a lot of materials and techniques, I'd just put it all together into a custom Mando, rather than just see these pieces go to waste.

The chest, shoulder, and upper-abdominal armor came out good enough they're dual-purpose with the final Fenn Shysa costume, but with additional bits in-progress that aren't part of this one. Here's a test-fitting during final shaping and planishing -- at this point, everything's pretty much set except the collar, which still needed more curvature to it:

View attachment 1435135

Thanks for the clarification on the P³. That may become a mainstay of my acrylics. Those are your Star Wars minis?

That is awesome!

yes those are ones I painted

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

Those are magnificent. Legion or Imperial Assault?

 

[Analyzer]

Legion