Tamiya paint equivalents
Discussion
Hi,
Forgive the slightly repetitious nature of this post! Like about half the population, I’d like to have another go at making some models for the first time in about 30 years. This time around, I’d like to have a try painting using an airbrush. I intend to start with the Tamiya eunos kit as it doesn’t look too complicated, and it isn’t expensive if I make mistakes.
I understand that Vallejo model air paints are well regarded. My question is this: I understand that they are all matte finish - for the matte colours in the list, there should be a pretty straight match to the Tamiya paint. What do people do for the gloss and semi-gloss colours? Paint matte and use a varnish over the top? Or should I be looking at other paints?
If painting goes horribly wrong, is there any way to remove it and try again, or do I just get one go at it?
Any advice would be great!
Cheers,
NB
Forgive the slightly repetitious nature of this post! Like about half the population, I’d like to have another go at making some models for the first time in about 30 years. This time around, I’d like to have a try painting using an airbrush. I intend to start with the Tamiya eunos kit as it doesn’t look too complicated, and it isn’t expensive if I make mistakes.
I understand that Vallejo model air paints are well regarded. My question is this: I understand that they are all matte finish - for the matte colours in the list, there should be a pretty straight match to the Tamiya paint. What do people do for the gloss and semi-gloss colours? Paint matte and use a varnish over the top? Or should I be looking at other paints?
If painting goes horribly wrong, is there any way to remove it and try again, or do I just get one go at it?
Any advice would be great!
Cheers,
NB
dr_gn said:
Get the Tamiya paints for airbrushing.
X- is gloss
XF- is matt or satin
If you want to brush paint satin or Matt chassis parts, use Vallejo paint, and airbrush Matt or satin varnish for a consistent finish.
That’s what I’d do.
Thank you. I imagine the Tamiya paints would need thinning, is it best to use their thinner? Would the body colour require a lacquer do you think, or would the gloss finish be enough by itself?X- is gloss
XF- is matt or satin
If you want to brush paint satin or Matt chassis parts, use Vallejo paint, and airbrush Matt or satin varnish for a consistent finish.
That’s what I’d do.
Yes, use Tamiya thinners.
What I’ve done in the past for car bodies is to buy a Tamiya rattle can for whatever colour you want, shake it up well, then spray through a plastic straw into a glass jar. Leave a few minutes to de-gas. You’ll end up with a pot of perfectly thinned, lump-free paint which you can then apply with your airbrush. You’ll get a much finer, more controllable spray (assuming your airbrush works well) than through the can nozzle. Apply a few coats and leave to harden for a few days in a warm place, and then, if necessary, polish with Tamiya compounds or T-cut.
I’d use a Tamiya fine surface primer in the same way, as a guide coat to check for any blemishes first. You can wet-flat that with a bit of detergent to get a perfect base for the top coat. Again, make sure it’s completely dry before overcoating.
What I’ve done in the past for car bodies is to buy a Tamiya rattle can for whatever colour you want, shake it up well, then spray through a plastic straw into a glass jar. Leave a few minutes to de-gas. You’ll end up with a pot of perfectly thinned, lump-free paint which you can then apply with your airbrush. You’ll get a much finer, more controllable spray (assuming your airbrush works well) than through the can nozzle. Apply a few coats and leave to harden for a few days in a warm place, and then, if necessary, polish with Tamiya compounds or T-cut.
I’d use a Tamiya fine surface primer in the same way, as a guide coat to check for any blemishes first. You can wet-flat that with a bit of detergent to get a perfect base for the top coat. Again, make sure it’s completely dry before overcoating.
I could not get on with the Vallejo paints, but Tamiya paints using Tamiya thinners are very good.
Also Mr Color Aqueous Gunze Sangyo I like very much, better than Tamiya even, I get them from EModels:
https://www.emodels.co.uk/paints/mr-hobby-paints/m...
Also Mr Color Aqueous Gunze Sangyo I like very much, better than Tamiya even, I get them from EModels:
https://www.emodels.co.uk/paints/mr-hobby-paints/m...
BTW if you decide to go down the decanted spray route - make sure you’ve got some airbrush cleaner. The TS sprays are synthetic lacquer, so the X-20 thinners won’t touch it. It also dries very quickly (which is another benefit of using it), so don’t leave it in your airbrush for long.
These guys do a very good range of paint for car modelling.
https://www.hiroboy.com/search?q=hero+paints#
Tamiya paints should be thinned 50:50 with x-20 thinners for spraying but need very careful mixing as paints before thinning.
Aclad do a range of top coats. I find the semi-gloss to be very good. The full gloss just doesn’t look right so I use it just as a base for decals.
https://www.hiroboy.com/search?q=hero+paints#
Tamiya paints should be thinned 50:50 with x-20 thinners for spraying but need very careful mixing as paints before thinning.
Aclad do a range of top coats. I find the semi-gloss to be very good. The full gloss just doesn’t look right so I use it just as a base for decals.
Hi all - apologies for resurrecting this thread. I think I may have screwed up 
My Eunos has been coming along well (albeit slowly - the Dr's advice "Let it dry" ringing in my ears!).
All the advice re tamiya paints has been extremely useful, and the chassis parts are looking great. The problem I've run into is with body. I decided to use zero paints as they do a colour match for my old car, and I wanted to try to replicate that. I applied it over tamiya fine surface primer, and found it extremely hard to get an even coverage, even after 5 or so coats (using a 0.3mm needle - does that sound right?).
This morning I tried applying the first mist coat of a semi-gloss top coat, and this is where I've really run into trouble. I bought a rattle can of Mr Hobby Mr Top Coat semi-gloss (https://www.hiroboy.com/Mr_Topcoat_SemiGloss_86ml--product--8160.html) and when I applied it, I got what looks like water marks, and almost what looks like real-life lacquer peel (see photos).
What might I have done wrong? Is this completely the wrong product to use (if so, what would be the right one)? Is this retrievable - can I flat it back and start again?
As usual - any advice would be very welcome - and thanks again for that which has already been given!
http://photos.harris-web.net/albums/tamiya-eunos-p...
http://photos.harris-web.net/albums/tamiya-eunos-p...
My Eunos has been coming along well (albeit slowly - the Dr's advice "Let it dry" ringing in my ears!).All the advice re tamiya paints has been extremely useful, and the chassis parts are looking great. The problem I've run into is with body. I decided to use zero paints as they do a colour match for my old car, and I wanted to try to replicate that. I applied it over tamiya fine surface primer, and found it extremely hard to get an even coverage, even after 5 or so coats (using a 0.3mm needle - does that sound right?).
This morning I tried applying the first mist coat of a semi-gloss top coat, and this is where I've really run into trouble. I bought a rattle can of Mr Hobby Mr Top Coat semi-gloss (https://www.hiroboy.com/Mr_Topcoat_SemiGloss_86ml--product--8160.html) and when I applied it, I got what looks like water marks, and almost what looks like real-life lacquer peel (see photos).
What might I have done wrong? Is this completely the wrong product to use (if so, what would be the right one)? Is this retrievable - can I flat it back and start again?
As usual - any advice would be very welcome - and thanks again for that which has already been given!
http://photos.harris-web.net/albums/tamiya-eunos-p...
http://photos.harris-web.net/albums/tamiya-eunos-p...
Can't help directly but this is an excellent guide to car painting using Tamiya or Zero paints.
https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/top...
https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/top...
new_bloke said:
Hi all - apologies for resurrecting this thread. I think I may have screwed up My Eunos has been coming along well (albeit slowly - the Dr's advice "Let it dry" ringing in my ears!).
All the advice re tamiya paints has been extremely useful, and the chassis parts are looking great. The problem I've run into is with body. I decided to use zero paints as they do a colour match for my old car, and I wanted to try to replicate that. I applied it over tamiya fine surface primer, and found it extremely hard to get an even coverage, even after 5 or so coats (using a 0.3mm needle - does that sound right?).
This morning I tried applying the first mist coat of a semi-gloss top coat, and this is where I've really run into trouble. I bought a rattle can of Mr Hobby Mr Top Coat semi-gloss (https://www.hiroboy.com/Mr_Topcoat_SemiGloss_86ml--product--8160.html) and when I applied it, I got what looks like water marks, and almost what looks like real-life lacquer peel (see photos).
What might I have done wrong? Is this completely the wrong product to use (if so, what would be the right one)? Is this retrievable - can I flat it back and start again?
As usual - any advice would be very welcome - and thanks again for that which has already been given!
http://photos.harris-web.net/albums/tamiya-eunos-p...
http://photos.harris-web.net/albums/tamiya-eunos-p...
I've never been able to good results with Zero Paints, and I've tried at least twice with different colours. In fact I scrapped a Tamiya Honda S2000 due to some kind of incompatibility between non-zero paint, and zero lacquer (at least I think that's what went wrong). This happened several months after application - it initially looked great. Metallics on models are a real pain - the grain size invariably looks far too big. Zero are supposed to be scaled, but the silver I had was nothing like. My Eunos has been coming along well (albeit slowly - the Dr's advice "Let it dry" ringing in my ears!).All the advice re tamiya paints has been extremely useful, and the chassis parts are looking great. The problem I've run into is with body. I decided to use zero paints as they do a colour match for my old car, and I wanted to try to replicate that. I applied it over tamiya fine surface primer, and found it extremely hard to get an even coverage, even after 5 or so coats (using a 0.3mm needle - does that sound right?).
This morning I tried applying the first mist coat of a semi-gloss top coat, and this is where I've really run into trouble. I bought a rattle can of Mr Hobby Mr Top Coat semi-gloss (https://www.hiroboy.com/Mr_Topcoat_SemiGloss_86ml--product--8160.html) and when I applied it, I got what looks like water marks, and almost what looks like real-life lacquer peel (see photos).
What might I have done wrong? Is this completely the wrong product to use (if so, what would be the right one)? Is this retrievable - can I flat it back and start again?
As usual - any advice would be very welcome - and thanks again for that which has already been given!
http://photos.harris-web.net/albums/tamiya-eunos-p...
http://photos.harris-web.net/albums/tamiya-eunos-p...
For the gloss take advantage of your airbrush (you can forget horrible cans now, you have the next level up) and use something like aquagloss or tamiya x-22 with lacquer thinners. Another is GX100.
Gloss out of a can rarely works well especially for beginners. Its too thick an no control.
Gloss out of a can rarely works well especially for beginners. Its too thick an no control.
The_Jackal said:
For the gloss take advantage of your airbrush (you can forget horrible cans now, you have the next level up) and use something like aquagloss or tamiya x-22 with lacquer thinners. Another is GX100.
Gloss out of a can rarely works well especially for beginners. Its too thick an no control.
Thanks for this - I've bought a selection of satin and gloss finishes (alclad aqua gloss, Klear Kote light sheen and zero paints semi gloss) - I've painted some plastic spoons in the base coat and I'll do a comparison of the top coats.Gloss out of a can rarely works well especially for beginners. Its too thick an no control.
Whilst I summon the courage / will to flat back the body and start over, I have another question for the group. The Tamiya acrylics have sprayed beautifully when thinned about 50:50 with X20a. I notice though that the finish is either very thin or very soft or both, and scratches easily. Would it be worth applying a matt varnish over the top? I've heard folk mention Windsor and Newton Galeria Matt - would that be a good choice here? If so, does it require thinning to airbrush (and if yes, what should be used)?
Thanks again for all the help and input - it's been hugely useful and is very much appreciated. Hopefully I'll have some results to show you all soon!
Hi, final thread resurrection, I promise. I got there in the end! The results are reasonable, and I'm happy with, what is after all, my first attempt in 30 years! I made a bit of a mess of the windscreen - it was slightly warped and I ended up having to use cyano to get it to stay in place and it fogged in a couple of places. I guess it's a 1 metre model at best. Other lesson learned - don't use t-cut to polish paint - it leaves a rock-hard white residue in panel lines that is very hard to remove - autosol metal polish seems to be better.
The only deviation from the kit was the body colour - which is nice, but took an age to get right and I de-chromed and painted the wheels, as they were way too shiny.
I've not put the number plates on yet - still waiting for the decals to dry fully.
Let me know what you think!
The only deviation from the kit was the body colour - which is nice, but took an age to get right and I de-chromed and painted the wheels, as they were way too shiny.
I've not put the number plates on yet - still waiting for the decals to dry fully.
Let me know what you think!
Looks good to me, nicely done. Being a convertible you've got to work that bit harder on the interior as well.
Until recently I used T-Cut before a final resin polish but I must admit I've stopped now, partly through having got fed-up of cleaning panel lines but also polishing through high points on a couple of models.
Until recently I used T-Cut before a final resin polish but I must admit I've stopped now, partly through having got fed-up of cleaning panel lines but also polishing through high points on a couple of models.
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