Hi all- question on painting for plastic models

[PilotJon777]

Hi all! I recently got back into plastic model building and have a painting question- Hope this is the correct thread! I was using enamels back in the day for both brushing and airbrushing, but recently I bought a new dual-action airbrush, compressor and a bunch of Tamiya acrylic paints. Those work extremely well, and I'm playing around a bit with mix ratios of thinner and hardener...It worked great for the airbrush as well. I then purchased some HissiCo acrylics and want to learn how to apply these. They come out much thicker than the Tamiya ones, and as I tried different thinning ratios the paint doesnt seem to apply well and beads up on the plastic. I would love to hear if anyone has experience with this and can recommend a method I can get this to work well. Could anyone provide some feedback? Appreciate anyones' help!

 

[urumomo]

I'm not familiar with that brand of acrylics , but keep in mind that there are many different types of acrylic resins used in paints .
Some are compatible with solvent thinners containing alcohol and ketones and some are not .
Some resins have a much higher adhesion on plastics , so these are used by companies like Tamiya for obvious reasons .

Any paint can be airbrushed though . You can run a cheeseburger through an airbrush with the proper solvent ratio .
Are you using a primer ?

 

[the Baron]

Ant paint can be airbrushed though .

So unplug the airbrush
And do us all a favor
That paint has lost its gloss
So try another flavor
Ant pa-ai-aint
Ant pa-ai-aint
Ant pa-ai-aint
Ant pa-ai-aint

Sorry, I had an 80s flashback there

 

[urumomo]

Thank you , Alexa .
I have corrected the text .

 

[the Baron]

Hi all! I recently got back into plastic model building and have a painting question- Hope this is the correct thread! I was using enamels back in the day for both brushing and airbrushing, but recently I bought a new dual-action airbrush, compressor and a bunch of Tamiya acrylic paints. Those work extremely well, and I'm playing around a bit with mix ratios of thinner and hardener...It worked great for the airbrush as well. I then purchased some HissiCo acrylics and want to learn how to apply these. They come out much thicker than the Tamiya ones, and as I tried different thinning ratios the paint doesnt seem to apply well and beads up on the plastic. I would love to hear if anyone has experience with this and can recommend a method I can get this to work well. Could anyone provide some feedback? Appreciate anyones' help!

Now, to the original post...

Welcome to the Herd!

I've never heard of HissiCo paint, either, but one bit advice I'll offer is that if they have a proprietary thinner, I'd try using it with their paint. It's not a black-and-white rule, but often a brand's paint will produce its best results with that brand's own thinner and other adjuncts. Some will work fine with generic products. Trial and error will show, and replies from other modelers.

Along with that tip, I'd also start thinning at 50/50 paint to thinner, and try going to ratios with more thinner, till I got a result I wanted.

Another thing to consider is what kind of acrylic is HissiCo's paint? Is it water-based or a lacquer-based, or some other kind of acrylic? That will affect what thinner to use.

OK, just a quick look at HissiCo's website, https://hissicoart.com/, it looks like their paints are made more for artists than for scale modelers. That doesn't mean they can't be used, of course. But they might not work the same way as brands that are made specifically for modelers.

You might want to have a look at their FAQs, if you haven't already: https://hissicoart.com/pages/faqs According to one of the FAQs, they are water-based. In that case, I would start with water or with isopropyl to thin. 2 other FAQs state that the paints can be airbrushed.

That rambled a little bit, but hopefully it's not useless advice.

Best regards,
Brad

 

[Pantherman]

So unplug the airbrush
And do us all a favor
That paint has lost its gloss
So try another flavor
Ant pa-ai-aint
Ant pa-ai-aint
Ant pa-ai-aint
Ant pa-ai-aint

Sorry, I had an 80s flashback there

Nice one Adam. 80's man myself. Pantherman

 

[PilotJon777]

Now, to the original post...

Welcome to the Herd!

I've never heard of HissiCo paint, either, but one bit advice I'll offer is that if they have a proprietary thinner, I'd try using it with their paint. It's not a black-and-white rule, but often a brand's paint will produce its best results with that brand's own thinner and other adjuncts. Some will work fine with generic products. Trial and error will show, and replies from other modelers.

Along with that tip, I'd also start thinning at 50/50 paint to thinner, and try going to ratios with more thinner, till I got a result I wanted.

Another thing to consider is what kind of acrylic is HissiCo's paint? Is it water-based or a lacquer-based, or some other kind of acrylic? That will affect what thinner to use.

OK, just a quick look at HissiCo's website, https://hissicoart.com/, it looks like their paints are made more for artists than for scale modelers. That doesn't mean they can't be used, of course. But they might not work the same way as brands that are made specifically for modelers.

You might want to have a look at their FAQs, if you haven't already: https://hissicoart.com/pages/faqs According to one of the FAQs, they are water-based. In that case, I would start with water or with isopropyl to thin. 2 other FAQs state that the paints can be airbrushed.

That rambled a little bit, but hopefully it's not useless advice.

Best regards,
Brad

Thanks for the in-depth info- very much appreciated! When I was researching various paints, that brand was one somebody had mentioned and even the site I think stated it could be used for plastics. But so far, the Tamiya ones seem to work perfectly as you mentioned so I may stick with those (Pardon the pun!) and use what I know works...

 

[the Baron]

Sure thing, Jon!
I use Tamiya's acrylics, among other paints, because I find them very easy to airbrush. I read somewhere that they're formulated for airbrushing; it wasn't at Tamiya's site, but I can see that it might be the case.

Some say that Tamiya doesn't have all the colors they need, out of the bottle, but I will mix colors as necessary, and also, I take color callouts in the instructions as suggestions, most of the time. For a subject like a tank or an airplane, a callout of "Olive Drab" is my starting point. By the time I weather the subject, I've usually lightened the color, and added mud, dust, rust, etc.

And I build Maschinen Krieger subjects, too, where there is no real right or wrong, except insofar as we might use the same paint and color that Kow Yokoyama did.

I've got old Model Master enamels and acrylics, too. I'll use those till they run out, then I'll look for replacements. Old Testors enamels, too, in the little glass bottles, as well as newer paints like Lifecolor water-based acrylics, Gunze-Sangyo lacquers, and even water-based craft store brands like Americana, Folk Art, and Apple Barrel.

So, you can look around, try various brands and media, till you decide on a brand or two that work best for you. Even the HissiCo paint-you might just need to play around with it till you hit on the right combination of inputs to make it work for you.

 

[Jim62]

I use Tamiya paint but I did recently purchase some ammo by mig metallic silver set of four for aircraft and it really sprayed well. They are water based acrylics that require no thinning and can be sprayed as low as 10 psi, using several light coats, and the one I tested did just that. I was actually blown away with no thinning and being able to spray at such a low psi. If I like the results when I try it on a build I may convert. I like the way they sell them in sets for different eras of aircraft. Gets rid of guess work when trying to match other paint brands used in instructions other than Tamiya.