Tamiya Paint Retailer

[CodeMaster]

Does anyone know of an online retailer (preferably in Canada) who sells Tamiya Paints?

I need to buy some paints for my contest entry, but the selection at my LHS is sparse at best, and they aren't sure when they will get more stock.

I'd like to stick with Tamiya paints since that's what most of my current stock is and I'd rather not mix paint manufactures mid projects, or have the restart the painting.

Thanks in advance

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

The problem with shipping any kind of paint is that Canada post won't allow it if it is flammable or explosive, which Tamiya falls into it as it is an alcohol base. That being said, I have successfully shipped pretty much any paint product within Canada with no problems, and any Vallejo product Internationally as Vallejo is neither flammable or explosive.

That being said, I don't stock Tamiya, but I am able to order it. Problem is, I just put orders in, and will likely be 2-4 weeks before I order from that particular supplier that allows me to buy Tamiya by the bottle. Not to mention that about 85% of the Tamiya line (paints, putties, etc) are currently unavailable due to repackaging, so alot of colors are currently OOS, which is probably why your LHS is telling you that they don't know when a restock is coming. Last I got from my suppliers, the putty was going to be back on the market in late April, but the rest of the product might not be until late May or early June.

Of course, I can send you pretty much anything you would want/need from the Vallejo line.

 

[CodeMaster]

I have successfully shipped pretty much any paint product within Canada with no problems, and any Vallejo product Internationally as Vallejo is neither flammable or explosive.
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Of course, I can send you pretty much anything you would want/need from the Vallejo line.

Thanks for the quick reply.

I had thought about you first (and sent an email through your web page, listing the specific paints I'm looking for which for now, you can ignore).

I've only ever used Tamiya for acrylic paint, since that's all my LHS stocks for acrylics. How do the Vallejo paints compare with the Tamiya paints for coverage and color? Are they easy to work with/mix, etc?

What do you thin with for airbrushing?

I haven't painted much on the model so far, and could strip what I've done fairly easily.

 

[AKE]

Apparently there's something going on with the Tamiya plastic cement now as well. I don't know if it's the same relabeling issue, but my local store suggested I stock up because they would be off the market for several months.

 

[GalaxyChief]

Not sure if it has anything to do with it but Japan has had 3 earth quakes a tsunami and a couple of partial reactor meltdowns in the last month.

If Tamyia makes all of their products in Japan I doubt we wil be seeing much coming out of them for a bit.

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

Tamiya Cement is part of the re-labeling, which this one puzzles me as they just went through a re-label on the X-Thin about 2 years ago, so not sure what the big deal with it this time around is...I still have some, and have one supplier saying Temporarily Out of Stock, while the other has lots of it...may just be a case of having alot in the warehouse on the later.

Has nothing to do with the earthquakes, not sure about the paint, cement and such, but most of Tamiya's products are made in the Philippines.

Simply a re-labeling problem, and not a simple task as most of Tamiya's labels are actually part of the package, like their primer, putty, spray cans etc. Having to re-label all those paint jars would be no easy task either.

@Codemaster, as I replied in the e-mail, Vallejo is 100X the paint Tamiya ever thought of being, coverage is better, takes a little steeper learning curve to master the thinning of the Model Color line, but the results are worth it. No need to strip anything you have on there now, the Vallejo will go over it no problem. A few cautions...clean your plastic, and prime your kit. Most problems derived from Vallejo paint is the mold release on the kit and not using primer.

 

[CodeMaster]

Has nothing to do with the earthquakes, not sure about the paint, cement and such, but most of Tamiya's products are made in the Philippines.

Simply a re-labeling problem, and not a simple task as most of Tamiya's labels are actually part of the package, like their primer, putty, spray cans etc. Having to re-label all those paint jars would be no easy task either.

@Codemaster, as I replied in the e-mail, Vallejo is 100X the paint Tamiya ever thought of being, coverage is better, takes a little steeper learning curve to master the thinning of the Model Color line, but the results are worth it. No need to strip anything you have on there now, the Vallejo will go over it no problem. A few cautions...clean your plastic, and prime your kit. Most problems derived from Vallejo paint is the mold release on the kit and not using primer.

I think my LHS problem is with their supplier(s) as they always seem to be out of the acrylic paints (Tons of enamels, though).

I'm going to try one more avenue of trying to get the Tamiya paints as I have to travel to Regina this weekend to attend a wedding, so I'll check out the hobby shops while I'm there. If that doesn't work, I'll have to take a longer look at the Vallejo paints, although what I've seen for colors (red anyway) doesn't look like the color I'm trying for. That could also just be the way the photos are taken and I never trust the look of paint in the color guides online.

Thanks for your help and advice on this, and I'll be looking at the Vallejo paints after the contest closes for sure.

 

[birdgunner]

Hi,

I've on occassion bought Tamiya paints from Great Hobbies, in PEI. Haven't had any postal issues with them. Here is their site: http://www.greathobbies.com/

 

[tc]

Thanks for the few great links in this thread... I can't find a decent LHS for the life of me (and to CodeMaster, this is in Regina, if you found something please let me know!).