Painting and airbrushing: the complete modeler's guide

So you got it put together without losing any parts. Great. Now gees the part that will make or break your model: painting. So what if it has 2,000 PE and scratchbuilt detail parts. A good finish is a must, and here are some helpful tips:-Airbrush, airbrush, airbrush. If you don't have one yet, get one - this is almost as important as the X-acto knife. A good beginning airbrush would be the Badger Crescendo 175 or Paasche VL. When you're ready to try thin camouflage lines or panel shading, try a Badger 100 LG, Sotar 20/20, or Iwata revolution CR.-So now what paint to airbrush? My favorites are Tamiya acrylic, Gunze Sangyo aqueous hobby color, and Gunze Mr Color. Tamiya and Gunze aqueous are both acrylic, so they dry quickly and are pretty forgiving. Mr Color, however, is a lacquer, and will melt your model if you screw up! Mr Color doesn't mix well with anything but its own thinner, but Gunze aqueous and Tamiya both mix well with rubbing alcohol. One warning would be that if you put too much alcohol in the paint, it will be so flat it starts getting much lighter. Don't use more than 30/70 alcohol/paint without adding black to gepensate. Beginners, try Tamiya - it doesn't stink like some paint. Both types of Gunze paint are kind of hard to find in the US, so you'd do well sticking to Tamiya.DON'T brush the above paints, ever - they have solvents in them that will dissolve previous coats.-Brush Painting Basics. I love my airbrush, but sometimes I'm forced to use a brush. Figures don't lend themselves well to airbrushing, nor do instrument panels. My favorite brush paint is Vallejo acrylic - it covers in one coat, levels out well with no brushmarks, and is great for tinting and glazing, if you like to shade with acrylics. It's waterbased and has no nasty solvents in it, so you can use it over anything. Humbrol enamels are good solvent-based paint. They take more careful brushing, and sometimes require 2 coats, but the finished result is a good as Vallejo. (These paints are what Francois Verlinden paints all his models with!)Testor's model master enamels are on the bottom of my list. They turn glossy when they aren't supposed to, like to run, don't cover well, and the model contest will be here and gone by the time they dry.I use Winsor-Newton oils for my shading. They sometimes cost $25 a tube, but you won't be dissapointed! I also use Winsor-Newton red sable brushes - they are the best I have ever used.-Blending basics. The best way to shade is the way Verlinden invented. He painted the basecoat much lighter than what he wanted, and then overpainted with unthinned oil paint in a much darker color than he wanted. Then he took a wide sable brush, and brushed the oil paint off the high spots. The oil still colors the high spots so they are darker than the basecoat, but enough is brushed off to create a good final color. The key to this technique is to clean the brush very often on a soft tissue, and to not use ANY thinner of ANY sort.-Paint chart. A list of what each brand of paint is good for.Tamiya Acrylic - Airbrushing, excellent, brushing, poor.Gunze aqueous - Airbrushing, excellent, brushing, OK.Gunze Mr Color - Airbrushing, touchy but excellent. Must use Mr Color thinner. DON'T brush this paint!Humbrol - Airbrushing, poor, Brushing, pretty good.Model Master - Airbrushing, poor, brushing, OK.Floquil Railroad Lacquers - airbrushing, good. Must use Dio-Sol. DON'T brush this paint!Polly Scale - Airbrushing, good, brushing, OK.Vallejo - Brushing, absolutely wonderful, airbrushing, absolutley horrible. Can't be thinned with alcohol.Vallejo air - meant for airbrushing, OK but $$$.Model Master Acryl - Airbrushing, ok, brushing, poor. Chips very easily.Tamiya bottle lacquer - Airbrushing, good. DON'T brush this paint! Hard to get outside of Asia.Winsor-Newton - This gepany's artist's oil colors are the choice of master modelers for shading. They have no equal.So there you have it - a perfectly finished model. Now you have to go dig through the stack to find the next project!