I personally find Tamiya paints the best all around, at least for Acrylic
No matter which paint line you use, I would recommend sticking with what ever the paint brand thinner is.
i.e. for Tamiya I use their thinner. Vallejo, I use their thinner. Not all acrylics use the same type of thinner either. Some are water based, others alcohol based
for example, I believe if you try thinning Vallejo with alcohol type thinner, it will actually clump up and go all gooey, where as with Tamiya, it works ok
I know people try their own home brew and it may work, but I prefer things specifically formulated for that line as their are often other ingredients specific to flow retarder etc... that really work best for that paint type
That being said, the only downside I find with Tamiya is if you do certain military modeling, Tamiya often does not have many straight from the bottle colors for many common FS colors (at least for USAF and US Navy aircraft/ships), and they also do not list the FS colors on the bottles even when they might have a match
I could be wrong, but most of their paints are geared towards Japanese military colors?
Sometimes you can find some mixes online, or in the paint guides for the kits, but often your on your own mixing colors
For example a Light Gull Grey, or even Light Ghost Grey and Dark Ghost grey color common to most base coats has to be mixed if using Tamiya
a possible custom mix for FS 36375 (Light Ghost grey) used in most modern low vis schemes for F-18s that matches Model Master's color very closely.
XF19 4 parts
XF66 1 part
XF2 5 parts
I think that 36320 (Dark Ghost Grey) might require a touch more XF66 or a small addition of black.
This is where other paint lines come in handy, and my next go to is Vallejo Model Air for common FS colors, and their paints will be labelled with the FS Color in addition to the Vallejo color number
Therefore I can get the common FS colors I need for aircraft like the Light Gull Grey, Light Ghost Grey etc... simply matching the FS number
However some people find Vallejo hard to use. I personally never really had any issues with their paints, but others complain of tip drying or clogging.
Also note that just because it says the Model Air can be used straight from the bottle in the airbrush, certain colors benefit from adding a bit more of the Vallejo airbrush thinner
i.e. When I am not painting military aircraft, like with Star Wars stuff for example, I always go with Tamiya as I have to mix anyway and prefer Tamiya but when I need a specific FS color, unless there is a direct Tamiya equivalent I have found, I will go with Vallejo Model Air
ps I would try Model Master line, but I think that is a dead/discontinued brand and is getting harder to find these days
