Saturday, May 7, 2011

Canadian Paint Options

Sorry, it's a bit blurry
This is all I can find at the shops near my place. Well there are lot's of paints for wood and metal but not many for plastics. I decided to go for these two first. Each is about 7 bucks. Pricey!

I took the gloss black because I'm planning on doing metallics later. I picked up the grey primer just to see how it compares to the Japanese stuff I'm used to using.

I couldn't find a place that sold Japanese primer (or any type for that matter) in a bottle for airbrushing so I'm trying this for now.

Both are enamels. I'm not so happy about that. I tried the grey out already and it smells bad (toxic so it actually smells kind of good but it's bad for you!).

Also it takes a lot longer to dry. And I'm worried that it might damage the plastic as in making it too soft and too easy to break.

We'll see. I plan on spraying enamel on it again. Man... it's funny. Enamel is what I'm trying to get away from but it seems that's all I can get here.  I knew I had it good in Japan!

Plus a lot of paints don't even say if it's acrylic or lacquer or enamel or what. Pain in the butt. I might try some of the acrylic bottles I saw and thin them down with water. I'm really trying to stay as non- toxic as I can but... I don't want to just waste the stuff I have so I'm going to try and use as much as I can before buying new stuff.

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Side note: Yesterday I cleaned up the garage and got it set up as my new paint station. I primed on panel using the Testors can show here and then sprayed a different panel with acrylic paint. No primer there. Pics to come.

You may be asking what kit am I working on? I will also reveal that later. Sorry kind of jumping around a bit.

4 comments:

  1. I use Krylon Fusion pretty often for straight colors like, red, black or white and you get a lot of it. Sorry it was $7, it's about $4.40 at Walmart here while the Tamiya Spray is $6.50.
    It dries pretty quickly for me. Love to know how it will turn out for you

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  2. I'm starting to find myself using the Testors and Krylon brand too. Krylon for the the Topcoat and cheaper paint, and Testor for different shades of color. Although I'm quite lucky that my hobby store imports Tamiya and things like that.

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  3. Personally, I think even the base price for Tamiya's paint cans and Gundam paints are ridiculous. Granted, their paints are very opaque, go on easy, and are very forgiving, as they even out pretty well and are ideal for beginners, the amount you get for the price is a bit steep for me.

    Fortunately, the hardware stores I frequent sell the BOSNY brand (imported from England) of automotive acrylic epoxy resin paint that comes in a variety of colors - flat, glossy, metallic, candy-coated and even fluorescent. It may have been meant for vehicles, but it works pretty well on plastics, I've found.

    And they average at just under $2 a can VS $7 for a Tamiya or Gundam paint can which is HALF the size the Bosny can is. No contest. I do buy Tamiya spraypaints on occasion that have unique colors like gunmetal, but most of the time, I stick with my mainstay.

    Lately though, for glossy finishes, I've been brushing on Future acrylic floor polish (known as Wipe & Shine where I live). Yep, that's BRUSHING, not SPRAYING. Future has a knack for evening out really well so long as you don't goop too much of it in one spot, and it dries more than twice as fast as glossy sprays.

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  4. i agree. you dont get a lot for the price.

    yes i heard about using the paint for vehicles as well and sometimes all it takes is to thin it down. i'll keep my eyes open for the BOSNY though. and also the FUTURE! I can finally get that stuff now that im back!

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