Opinions on Revell Aqua Color paints?

[mjensen939]

So I've tried using a couple of these colors with mixed success and am wondering about other's experience with them?

 

[Jakko]

I like some of them and don't like some others The ones I don't like feel "thin" and don't want to cover too well — which seems to be mainly the gloss and semi-gloss paints. The matt paints work well, and unlike a lot of acrylics, you can drybrush with them pretty well, too.

BTW, beware that the paints will dry out in the pots after you've opened them, because they don't seal all that well — clean the rim of the pot and the lid of any dried paint before you close it. If the paint has gotten too thick to use but not a solid block yet, you can revive it by adding a little water and stirring it in, then repeating that until the paint has a usable consistency again. Once it's a solid block, though, it's beyond saving

 

[mjensen939]

I like some of them and don't like some others The ones I don't like feel "thin" and don't want to cover too well — which seems to be mainly the gloss and semi-gloss paints. The matt paints work well, and unlike a lot of acrylics, you can drybrush with them pretty well, too.

BTW, beware that the paints will dry out in the pots after you've opened them, because they don't seal all that well — clean the rim of the pot and the lid of any dried paint before you close it. If the paint has gotten too thick to use but not a solid block yet, you can revive it by adding a little water and stirring it in, then repeating that until the paint has a usable consistency again. Once it's a solid block, though, it's beyond saving

My biggest issue was with tip-dry; sometimes even after just 10-15 seconds of spraying full throttle at 18 psi. I tried different thinning ratios, adding varying amounts of flow improver, and finally breaking into the retarder. The retarder worked for the dry-tip but the paint coverage was less than undesirable.
The one thing I'm wondering though is if using the Vallejo Premium Reducer that I'd been using was incompatible with the Revell Aqua Color medium and it actually was the cause of the problem?
Urumomo would probably know the answer to that. I've since purchased the Revell Aqua Thinner but haven't yet tried if. I expect to next week though.

 

[RocketRanger]

Don't know if this problem is peculiar to only the US retailers, but every Revell Aqua Color paint container I've bought is VERY thick. It's so thick that it's not possible to draw an accurate pipette quantity to measure for mixing. So I started filling new Aqua Color containers with DISTILLED water when I first bring them home from the store. I fill the container up to the inner line embossed just below the cap and add an "Army Painter" mixing ball. I then stir the paint/water mixture with a toothpick so the water gets mixed in with the paint to thin it. I then use a vortex mixer to complete the mixing/thinning process. I've gotten pretty good results airbrushing with this mixture thinned with Revell Aqua Color Mix Acrylic Thinner. I got interested in Revell Aqua Colors because of the color callouts on the Revell airliner kit instructions. I've found that the Aqua Color mixtures are pretty accurate for airliner colors. One final word of advice is to use DISTILLED and not purified, drinking water or tap water for the initial thinning. Distilled water is pure H2O and the others may (or may not) contain minerals that alter the paint's properties in funky ways.

 

[Jakko]

My biggest issue was with tip-dry

Oh, you were asking about spraying them? I didn't realise that I've only tried spraying them once, on my Goalkeeper, and that didn't go too well — but that was with one of the paint colours that I wasn't impressed with generally when I tried brush-painting it later.