Please tell me what paint I can use for detailing!!!

[Mothman]

As above, but please don't suggest Humbrol which is and always has been complete crap.

I need to paint small parts, mainly on model cars, like drivers and interiors, lights and wheel inserts.

All my Floquils (of blessed memory) have gorn orff!

Martin

[Balsabasher]

Martin I know that you are not a great lover of acrylics but there is one exception on these that works well for myself,it is a product called Citadel Warhammer,the small bottles cost around £2.45 each but consist of very fine quality paint that goes on well,once more you can add a tad of flow improver ( obtainable from any artists shop ) and this helps keep the paints moist and workable for longer periods of time.
Ignore the silly paint colour names like skull black etc and buy just what you need,they do some really good blues and deeper reds that nobody else bothers with.
For small detail work I find these paints worthwhile and because they dry so quickly you can overpaint if you wish.
I keep the Citadel for smaller detail work and use my trusty Halfords rattle cans for larger spray jobs,people keep telling me that using these cans is expensive but for me the convenience outweighs this,ie no blowing through airbrushes etc which to me is a right pain.
So those are my own preferences if I can suggest them to you,paint products are a minefield and the situation is not getting any better with all of these elf and safety things coming in from Europe telling us what we can and cannot do !
Barry.

[Mark Braunlich]

For gloss colors, I like the Rustoleum enamels sold everywhere in USA.  I learned from a professional model soldier maker to stay away from model paints but I have never tried the acrylics very much.  Rustoleum appears to be available in the UK but I don't know if you can find it in your local hardware stores.  They have flat colours as well but a smaller range.   You have to love their address:

RUST-OLEUM UK Ltd.
Unit 6, Spitfire Close
Coventry CV5 6UR
United Kingdom
Tel. +44 2476 717 329
Fax. +44 2476 718 930
Mobile +44 7881 973635
www.ro-m.com Website
s.winrow@ro-m.com

[Balsabasher]

Yes a lot of the model paints are merely a bit of colour component suspended in varnish which pads out the colour,this is why you need umpteen number of coats to cover anything with them.
You can make your own very fine alkyd paints with a bit of effort,for the base colour pigments you need a selection of 'Artists' quality oil colours,forget students quality because they lack the intense colour content needed,obtain some good quality yacht varnish from a ships chandlers ( not polyurethane ) and a bottle of Terabin dryer,mix up the varnish into the paint with a pallette knife on a piece of glass,add a tiny amount of Terabin into the admixture until you get a creamy mixture,decant into small marmalade miniature pots and turn the pots upside down for storage,that way no air can enter the paint.
Instead of the yacht varnish you can use Alkyd solution obtainable from art shops,to thin the paints use oil of spike lavender,your workshop will smell wonderful,do not use commercial thinners as they contain small amounts of oil which retards the drying time.
The results are well worth the time and effort,the cost outlay can be high but at the end of the day you get quality paint of the old fashioned variety.
If you mix up the primary colours ie yellow,red,blue you can mix up any shade from these,a good additional colour to have handy would be burnt umber and plenty of titanine white.

For those of us that do their own markings and lettering these deluxe home brew finishes are supreme.

Incidently the main difference between artists paints and commercial enamels is the base pigment colour,the colourmen use the same quality powder pigments whether they are creating watercolour,acrylic or oil paints in that order they add gum arabic,polyvinyl acetate and linseed oil for each very different media of paint.

Barry.

[Mothman]

Ooh, I like the sound of that, Barry.  It's a lovely way to middle finger the so-called authorities I hate with such a passion.
And as I've said, my Grandad used to make his own paint. I should have made notes!

I will definitely try that formula.  Alkyds are what my old chum in Staffordshire used to make the paints we used on our boat, but I can't find him anymore.  He used to add extra pigments for us.

Oh, btw, will these paints be gloss?

Thanks Barry.

[Balsabasher]

Yes Martin they will turn out glossy,however if you want to matt them off a bit then mix in a bit of talcum powder,or you can get matting agents to cover them from art supplies for a smoother finish.
The real beauty of the alkyd base is the drying time as opposed to oil based paints which dry by oxidisation,the terebin is also a paint dryer,use more of this with the darker colours ie blue and green but less with the yellows etc.
Barry.