Model Forum / General / Models / June 2008

on 6/22/2008 4:09 PM SiG226 said the following:

Most acrylic model paints clean up easy (with water), can be thinned
with water, and dry fast (sometimes too fast). You can pick up some
acrylic retarder (at an art supply store like AC Moore, Michaels, etc.)
which will slow the drying times.
I prefer acrylics for military stuff, because their flats appear to be
flatter than enamels.

I use Xtracrylix almost exclusively.  I usually spray them straight from the
bottle without any thinner and get good results.  However, if you have had a
bottle sat in storage for some time it seems to thicken up and so should be
thinned to the correct consistency on first use.

Xtracrylix dries quickly but can clog the airbrush tip over prolonged use.
Just be prepared to spray clean water through the airbraush after about five
minutes or so.

The only real problem that I have found is that the yellows can be quite
translucent and so will need multiple thin coats to provide good coverage.

I've found that the colours seem wuite accurate, with the notab;e exception
of RLM65 which is far too dark and blue.   I haven't yet tried it, but it
seems to me that the RLM70 and RLM71 are a little too close in contrast and
so may be almost indistinguishable under a coat of flat varnish. It may be
worthwhile adding some white to the RLM71.

As for the varnishes, the Xtracrylix Flat is superb, providing a dead matt
finish.  For a scale gloss finish, Xtracrylix Satin works well indeed.  I
never use the gloss because I use Klear (Future) instead.