Conditional Surrender

Something happened today that put the final nail in the cross.

It’s not easy to admit defeat– but here goes.

I can’t teach something called “painting plastic model kits with a brush” when the basic tools are being taken off the market faster than I can keep up with it. Testors is out of the paint business and the only remaining maker of “ammonia paint” (my preferred paint for brushing) has changed the formula to make it un-brushable.

I’m talking about Badger. Their Model Flex paint was good for brushing, but I recently bought a bottle (squeeze bottle) of flat black and the paint is too thin to brush. If somebody followed my advice and bought this stuff, I wouldn’t blame them for taking my name in vain more than once.

It sucks.

The airbrushers have won the war. I won a few battles. I thought I was pretty darn cute when I used a dot-matrix printer to make Luftwaffe mottling (that’s how I do it, in case you were wondering)…

…but that was a Smolensk inside a big fat Stalingrad. My Six Army is captured. The Siberians have arrived. I’m headed for the Gulag.

I can’t tell anybody what to do if they keep moving the goalposts. I could recommend Vallejo Model Air but they might thin that out to match the “ready to airbrush” paints from other companies and then I’d have another poor soul with a bunch of paint that they can’t use.

All I can do is say “try this see if it works.”

That’s pretty lame. So far, I’m pretty sure that Revell Aqua works fine– but I’m not an expert on that paint and I hesitate to tell anybody that it’s always going to be usable. The airbrush army just keeps coming on like Patton.

Or The Red Army (…bloody good singers, though).

Tamiya may remain “brushable” but it’s NOT brushable for a lot of folks who just don’t want to put that much effort into their hobby. My recent visits to The Airfix Tribute Forum have reminded me that a LOT of modelers just don’t want to have to work that hard on something that supposed to be fun. The airbrush is a way to avoid work– AND THAT’S OKAY. Like so many sad-little-boy trainers at fitness clubs around the world, it’s time for me to face the fact that not everybody wants to put out the effort required to make it look that good.

It’s a lot of work. Far more than I originally imagined.

So it’s time to sue for peace. i won’t be spraying paint– oh no. But I’ll be very careful not to recommend any brands of paint. It’s just too frustrating.

P.S.

I hope that my recent episodes of GRRR on Vella haven’t offended anyone. I thought I’d strike off in a new and exciting direction– far removed from what Hollywood produces. i figured that I’d try adding something new–sex and violence. I know it’s a wild idea– but something tells me that no matter how unpopular it is, it’s the way to go.

Artistic integrity and all that…

 

6 Replies to “Conditional Surrender”

  1. I thought we would get here.

    Thankfully, I have a nice stocked cupboard of MM Acryl, Revell Aqua, etc. I also have enamels to fall back on which I use from time to time (even those aren’t as good as they used to be either). I can get ok results with the new Humbrol acrylic, and Coat D’Arms that I picked up from a gaming shop in town.

    Just the way of the (new) world I’m afraid.

    Air brushers are taking over, as the cost of entry is now minuscule compared to what is was like decades ago when an airbrush and compressor was only had by those with deep pockets, and some desperadoes were using inflated tyres to run their air brushes. Much like PC gaming actually.

    Join. Die. Join. Die.

  2. Well if I haven’t mentioned before the Aqueous Hobby Color of Mr Color works quite fine for me with the hairy stick. Slightly expensive and may be difficult to find but I’m getting along. Does smell of ammonia.

  3. I tried Tamiya acrylic gloss white and yellow – its not the same as Aqueous Hobby Color. The Hobby Color I brush with a brush for acrylic paint; the Tamiya with a brush for oil/enamel paints. They work different.
    The Hobby Color is just like other acrylics – Tamiya very different. In my experience.

  4. BTW never heard of Acrysion before.
    There is another video advertised at the page you link with a test of the two paints Acrysion and Aqueous – apparently not the same colors.

  5. There’s still a lot of brush painters out there (although not all are acrylic users). I’ve got a few bottles of Gunze Aqueous, tire black is one of my favorites for….wait for it…tires! and cockpits. Browsing amazon the other night I stumbled across a dozen or so Gunze Aqueous colors for $2.60 shipped. Couldn’t pass that up.
    My sizable stash of Pollyscale, Acryl, and growing stash of Revell Aqua should serve me well. I also discovered you can purchase “Pactra” online from retailers in Poland. Going to eventually order up some of that. Supposedly it is the original Pactra Acrylic formula manufactured for the Euro market.

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