Barney
Well-known member
There is something you must know. I Hate Acrylic Paint. I was raised on Testors and Pactra (Remember those little ¼ oz. bottles that we got at Grey Drugs?) and Humbrol tins. I had been modeling for 15 years before I had even heard of an Airbrush, and until I stopped, to raise a family and have funny people in strange countries shoot at me, I used enamels.
After returning from my 6th deployment and retiring from the USAF, the doctors recommended that I get something to do, as a hobby, to take my mind off of what I had seen and done over multiple deployments. So of course, I chose to return to model aircraft.
I was using MM and Humbrol and being miserable until I figured out the proper mixtures for them. Well, that was fine for a while, but my daughter and grand-daughter who were living with me had headaches from the solvents. I, being a child of the Atomic Era had no trouble, after all I spent years in the basement with Orange Tube Testor's! So, like a good grandparent I switched to Acrylics. MM sucked. I was OK with Tamiya and Mr Color, but they were hard to come by up here on the North Coast. A guy from Matt Swan’s old site recommended Agama paints. They were very good, but hard to come by. Then there was Vallejo. I never could get them to work. Then I tried Hataka Orange Line. If you haven’t tried them they are a pretty good line of lacquers that I have had some success with using.
This past summer whilst in Chattanooga I ran across MCW. But wasn’t looking for paints and passed them by, even though they are manufactures 50 miles from me! (OK, I’m old, crippled and have brain farts, don’t blame me, blame my wife) This fall, at the Cleveland Model Show, I again ran into MCW and stopped to take a gander. Pre-thinned? Hmmmm… This might just be a solution for which I have been looking. I bought three bottles and began painting old junk kits that I use to test paint. Covered well, dried fairly quickly and was hard as a rock. Plus, since they are gloss lacquers you don’t have to clear coat for decals and wash and then dull coat to get the finish you desire.
I have several kits in the works, but decided to pull out a kit and do it using (mostly) these paints. As I have been futzing around with these paints for 2 months I have a handle (kinda sorta) on their capabilities. They are easy to clean (using lacquer thinner), dry hard and fast (I taped them after 10 minutes and over sprayed and the tape came up clean) and cover well. You do need to use a wet coat. You can handle it almost immediately! I sprayed their aluminum and even it was good to go… not rubbing off, no pulling off with tape. Hog Heaven!
So for the next, how ever long it takes…
Here we go…
The Kit: Does it look like a Westland Whirlwind? That is all that matters
The finish:
Shall we have a poll to see what finish I should do?
The Paints: MCW Lacquers... I forgot to take a picture
First Run:
Sorry for the poor quality of the pics, ya work with what you got. Any suggestions to improve quality with low or little cost is very welcome
This MCW stuff does paint like a dream. 2-3" from the object and one coat. They don't make an RAF interior green, but I'll contact them to see what they can do.
Any questions, comments and silly notions are always appreciated. Keep it nice as my fragilly (That's a CLE word) ego just cannot take it! :frantic
When you change paint brands always remember to clean that sucker and run the thinner for the new paint through it to remove any residuals of the MCW. I have found that is doesn't play well with Hataka Orange, not terrible, but not great. Lesson learned.
After returning from my 6th deployment and retiring from the USAF, the doctors recommended that I get something to do, as a hobby, to take my mind off of what I had seen and done over multiple deployments. So of course, I chose to return to model aircraft.
I was using MM and Humbrol and being miserable until I figured out the proper mixtures for them. Well, that was fine for a while, but my daughter and grand-daughter who were living with me had headaches from the solvents. I, being a child of the Atomic Era had no trouble, after all I spent years in the basement with Orange Tube Testor's! So, like a good grandparent I switched to Acrylics. MM sucked. I was OK with Tamiya and Mr Color, but they were hard to come by up here on the North Coast. A guy from Matt Swan’s old site recommended Agama paints. They were very good, but hard to come by. Then there was Vallejo. I never could get them to work. Then I tried Hataka Orange Line. If you haven’t tried them they are a pretty good line of lacquers that I have had some success with using.
This past summer whilst in Chattanooga I ran across MCW. But wasn’t looking for paints and passed them by, even though they are manufactures 50 miles from me! (OK, I’m old, crippled and have brain farts, don’t blame me, blame my wife) This fall, at the Cleveland Model Show, I again ran into MCW and stopped to take a gander. Pre-thinned? Hmmmm… This might just be a solution for which I have been looking. I bought three bottles and began painting old junk kits that I use to test paint. Covered well, dried fairly quickly and was hard as a rock. Plus, since they are gloss lacquers you don’t have to clear coat for decals and wash and then dull coat to get the finish you desire.
I have several kits in the works, but decided to pull out a kit and do it using (mostly) these paints. As I have been futzing around with these paints for 2 months I have a handle (kinda sorta) on their capabilities. They are easy to clean (using lacquer thinner), dry hard and fast (I taped them after 10 minutes and over sprayed and the tape came up clean) and cover well. You do need to use a wet coat. You can handle it almost immediately! I sprayed their aluminum and even it was good to go… not rubbing off, no pulling off with tape. Hog Heaven!
So for the next, how ever long it takes…
Here we go…
The Kit: Does it look like a Westland Whirlwind? That is all that matters
The finish:
Shall we have a poll to see what finish I should do?
The Paints: MCW Lacquers... I forgot to take a picture
First Run:
Sorry for the poor quality of the pics, ya work with what you got. Any suggestions to improve quality with low or little cost is very welcome
This MCW stuff does paint like a dream. 2-3" from the object and one coat. They don't make an RAF interior green, but I'll contact them to see what they can do.
Any questions, comments and silly notions are always appreciated. Keep it nice as my fragilly (That's a CLE word) ego just cannot take it! :frantic
When you change paint brands always remember to clean that sucker and run the thinner for the new paint through it to remove any residuals of the MCW. I have found that is doesn't play well with Hataka Orange, not terrible, but not great. Lesson learned.
