Lud13 Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Hello all I have real trouble with Valejo colors. Not with the quality and ease of use which are exceptional but with their color interpretation. It seems to me that their shades are different from other manufractures. Right now i work on a adversary F-5N and since i have fair easy acces to Valejo colors i chose to use them. (my favorite is of course MM enamels but they are so hard to get here in Serbia).So i find FS values and convert them to Valejo colors on their own chart. The result...out of 3 colors only one seem to be right, so u can understand my frustration (same thing happend on A-4F build.) Does anyone have this problem too or i am the only one?? Dejan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarryWilliams Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 The big question is who is right, Vallejo or a.n.other interpretation. I too relate to FS numbers and appreciate what you say. What I think we have to remember is the differences between newly painted and weathered paint. Paint fades and changes colour over time with use and depending on the environment where the aircraft is used. It is probably this that is the problem with differing manufacturers using particular samples on which to base their colour. To my mind it is a matter of whether it just looks right. I tend to pre and post-shade and apply washes anyway to the base colour so it never turns out the same colour that comes out of the airbrush. I have to say that like you I am a big Vallejo fan because of their ease of use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ta152H1 Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 I don' like Vallejos at all or,rather,I avoid them like the plague but I'm 100% with Barry and I'll quote him as saying "What I think we have to remember is the differences between newly painted and weathered paint. Paint fades and changes colour over time with use and depending on the environment where the aircraft is used.." ...last Thursday I was on my way home when I stopped in a rest area where a bunch of Italian Air Force drivers had parked their heavy transporters.One of the vehicles was cherry-new and the three-color camo was spectacular,then there was another (not necessary much older) whose camo faded to such an extent that the wrecker looked like an enormous 25 years old tri colored Cocker Spaniel and the third heavy vehicle in the column was an all-green ASTRA ACTL 8x8 transporter which hadn't a SINGLE (and I mean SINGLE) part that was the same shade of green,going from Nato Dark Green to several shades close to WW2 RAF and Regia Aeronautica Interior Greens to Kawasaki Green to faded Olive Drab ...too bad I hadn't the cellphone handy because I wanted to take a picture to post on a tread about the "right colors" ...and that particular ACTL entered service last year!Two brand new FIAT/Lancia utility vans were the first and the last vehicles of the column,resplendent in their nice shade of quasi-civvy gloss Dark Green,polished to shine like a thousand Suns and with white stickers on the side doors that read www.Esercito-Italiano.it Aircraft don't weather that badly (not always at least) but going crazy after the right shade of RLM 66 or RAL Schockoladebraun is something I've left behind my back years ago! Cheers Lou Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csavaglio Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Having been in the military and around the military since I got out, I agree that rarely do two vehicles look the same shade unless they just got painted. there's also inconsistency between paint batches especially on wwii and earlier. I do disagree about aircraft weathering though. UV intensity is far higher at altitude, especially older types of paint. CARC paint....paint meant to help shield from EMP damage is chalky in consistency.....it weathers extremely fast. as have an antenna on our roof that's been there for a year and looks like color modulated, pre shaded model. In my opinion, its all in the eye of the modeler. Use the shades you believe to be right, weather it to the extent you want, and be happy with it. Its your model and you can't please everyone. C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ta152H1 Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 . In my opinion, its all in the eye of the modeler. Use the shades you believe to be right, weather it to the extent you want, and be happy with it. Its your model and you can't please everyone. C a BIG amen to that! Lou Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 I've heard that the Vallejo paints (not the Model Air variety designed for airbrushing) are among the best acrylics out there for brush painting. Anybody had any experience with that? For my airbrushing I normally use Gunze and Tamiya acrylics, but they're both terrible for brush painting (the Tamiya especially so). I was brush painting with some Humbrol enamel the other day, and it was a stark reminder about how inferior most acrylics are when it comes to the hairy stick, so I'd love to find an acrylic paint that comes close to the performance of regular enamel paint. Vallejo is it, yeah? Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BradG Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 My cynical theory of the modelling world says that each company has a slighty different shade of each colour, so that you can't mix and match when you run out of one half way through a build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ta152H1 Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 I've heard that the Vallejo paints (not the Model Air variety designed for airbrushing) are among the best acrylics out there for brush painting. Anybody had any experience with that? For my airbrushing I normally use Gunze and Tamiya acrylics, but they're both terrible for brush painting (the Tamiya especially so). I was brush painting with some Humbrol enamel the other day, and it was a stark reminder about how inferior most acrylics are when it comes to the hairy stick, so I'd love to find an acrylic paint that comes close to the performance of regular enamel paint. Vallejo is it, yeah? Kev Kev, they're really fantastic for brush painting (providing they're fresh,of course!) but I steer the hell clear from them for airbrushing because the thinning is fiddly and most of the times you've got to use their own thinner.The "regulars" have the consistency of white glue and finding the right ratio and avoiding clogging without filtering them is rather difficult...ditto for the Modelair....but that's ME! I ONLY use Gunze Laquers,Gunze Acrylics(thinned with Gunze laquer thinner),MM enamels,MM Acrylics,Humbrol Enamels and Lifecolor Acrylics...the latter are the only manufacturer to produce a set of very well researched interior colors for the German tanks....but I digress! Cheers Lou Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarryWilliams Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 Lou - I use Vallejo because they are so easy to airbrush.... I am not only talking about Model Air either, the Model Colour airbrushes well too. I do a straight 50:50 with Vallejo thinner and it works a treat. I rarely thin Air for the base coat as well. Dead easy specially with the eye dropper bottle. I use Gunze for their buffable metallics... these are excellent. As for Humbrol - they are dreadful and I wont touch them any more. Amazing our different perceptions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KOTR Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 For brush works, I love Vallejo paint. To me, they are simply the best. Only tried them once yet with an airbrush, but did work quite well, too. Model Colour give me a hard time occasionally, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ta152H1 Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 Lou - I use Vallejo because they are so easy to airbrush.... I am not only talking about Model Air either, the Model Colour airbrushes well too. I do a straight 50:50 with Vallejo thinner and it works a treat. I rarely thin Air for the base coat as well. Dead easy specially with the eye dropper bottle. I use Gunze for their buffable metallics... these are excellent. As for Humbrol - they are dreadful and I wont touch them any more. Amazing our different perceptions. Barry...it's ME!Looks like I cannot put Vallejos to good use thru an airbrush...I don't blame the airbrush,the colors and the rest...it's ME! :-) I've got some left in my modeling room and I've seen modelers doing great jobs with them...tonite I'll practice a bit and see if I can succeed! I bought them in bulk at a show and it could as well be be that I got an old batch! Cheers Lou Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokeyforgothispassword Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 I may be teaching you guys to suck eggs, but is it model colour or model air you have problems spraying? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ta152H1 Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 I may be teaching you guys to suck eggs, but is it model colour or model air you have problems spraying? Shane...the one who hsas problem it's me ...but I've found that I bought a very old batch!Last week I was at Milan's Modelexpo and the Italian importer for Vallejo gave me his business card...called him late in the afternoon yesterday and told him about my problems and since he knows me for being an "old salt" in the Italian modeling scene at first he was puzzled since he didn't believe I was an "airbrush noob",then asked me where and from whom I had bought the colors and I've discovered I've bought a batch that was either old or badly stored!He's going to send me a few fresh bottles of ModelAir and a few more of the "brushable" colors and as soon as I'll get them I'll start practicing with them.I'm a little shy using them on aircraft but I've seen AFV models painted with them whose weathering was jaw-dropping!| Cheers Lou Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Ray Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 I've heard that the Vallejo paints (not the Model Air variety designed for airbrushing) are among the best acrylics out there for brush painting. Anybody had any experience with that? For my airbrushing I normally use Gunze and Tamiya acrylics, but they're both terrible for brush painting (the Tamiya especially so). I was brush painting with some Humbrol enamel the other day, and it was a stark reminder about how inferior most acrylics are when it comes to the hairy stick, so I'd love to find an acrylic paint that comes close to the performance of regular enamel paint. Vallejo is it, yeah? Kev I like both Vallejo Model Color and Games Workshop paints for brushing. The Games Workshop stuff is expressly made for one-coat brushing wargames figures and has very good coverage, even their white. Good metallic paints, too. Their color names are bizarre but since I only use them typically for detail painting, not a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peterpools Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 (edited) Hi Guys I just finished doing the figures for my Big Beautiful Doll vignette using 100% Vallejo Acrylic paints. They are just tremendous when thinned and laid down perfectly in layers. I have also airbrushed them with little or no problems. But as far as matching FS colors or any lifesize color, no two manufactures are the same. Whose right; everyone and whose wrong; everyone. It's the look we want to achieve. The most important point to remember is: scale effect. You can't reduce say a Mustang or Tornado from life size to model size and use the same colors; it doesn't work. Colors have to be adjusted for scale effect.Straight black and straight white should never be used but toned down for effect. So if a FS number color doesn't match the paint chart perfectly, it isn't that important, it's how all the colors blend together for the impression we are trying to replicate. Peter Edited October 27, 2012 by Peterpools Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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