Hello everyone,

I have read some of the forum and this may have been answered previously but I am looking at getting back into modeling and have several wooden boat kits that I am working on, but have subscribed to the Millennium Falcon and am intending to paint it and other things but want to get back into modeling in general. And specifically detailing and painting, which I have never really done at all.

My question is - I am on a limited budget? (but I can still buy the MF ) and am not sure about an airbrush and compressor, so for now I was thinking about just paint and a brush, there are so many choices what would you recommend. I am going to go to the hobby shop in the next week or so and just pick up a couple of their cheapest models to practice painting on and go from there. My local hobby store has Tamiya, Testors, and a couple other kinds I cannot remember.

What do you guys recommend and does everyone use a primer and what what kind.

ALSO - what is the recommended brush...should I just go with a general purpose cheap brush or spend more for nicer ones?

Any and all suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks all of you.

Hi Roger.

Welcome back to the Modelling Hobby! The list of paints and accessories is almost endless but these are some of the ones I've used on my various diaries here.
Revell Aqua Color acrylics: (little square plastic bottles) about £1.90 in the local Antics shop, very good with both brush and thinned down for airbrushing, you will need a good primer coat first with some colours (Dark Green especially!)
Citadel Paints: A very good range of acrylics, not sure on the current price available from the Games Workshop stores. Haven't tried airbrushing them but very good with brushes.
Vallejo Model Colour: available in some model shops but I had to get mine on-line. A very good quality paint for brushing. They also do the same colours in a ready to spray airbrush form but I haven't tried them yet. Probably the most economical of all the acrylics, comes in a 17ml 'squeezy' bottle and a tiny drop goes a long way!
Tamiya acrylics: I used to use these many years ago, they were pretty good back then so they should be still handy, I think a little more expensive than those above.
Primer spray: I use the excellent Prodriver Grey Primer from the Poundland stores. Be aware there are two versions, one for cellulose paints and one just called Grey Primer. Both can be used on plastics but the non-cellulose one is a better flat finish.
Admiralty Paints: another range of acrylics specially formulated for period ships and highly recommended. I got mine from Cornwall Model Boats online.
Brushes are everything! (unless you are airbrushing of course!) You'll need a selection of good quality ones but they don't need to be overly expensive. For tiny detail work I find nylon is ideal from 000 up to 2 size. Also some natural hair ones from 0 to 6, my set are all by Revell which I hadn't realised!
If you're painting thin wires etc you might also consider the good old enamel paints like Humbrol, they tend to be much smoother and cover better on some things.
If you do decide to go up to the airbrushing later on, a suitable one can be picked up on Ebay for less than a tenner, my favourite is the BD130A, have a look at some of the bundle packages on there, you can get a mini air compressor and that same airbrush for around the £50 -ish mark.
Hope that helps but check out the topics on this forum, there are many other helpful hints around re: paints and airbrushing.

Best of luck at the model shop!

Robin

Hi

Gloss paint has a shine matt has not.

A wash is basicly the colour paint you want watered down by at least 50% this creates a colour that will let the colour beneath show through and will mainly settle around details and panel lines making then darker thus adding more depth.

Get your paints where ever you like if its at the right price, if the pots look old though I would buy one and test it 1st to check its ok.

Regards

Andy