Painting with enamels and praise for starfighter decals

[JohnFalk68]

Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with painting mini's with enamels. It seems like pretty much everyone on the board is an acrylic user and I was curious to the outcome and results people have had with enamels and if there is any pros and cons between the 2. I favor enamel only for the reason my local hobby store carries lots and lots of them

My second point is that I recently ordered several sets of starfigher decals from Mark T and I have to say I am really impressed. On my 2 sets of Federation Commander Squadron box 1 every Fed ship had different names and ship numbers. That attention to detail is really a nice touch.

Thanks,
John F

[djdood]

I started using acrylics for my basecoat, but abandoned that approach after some mishaps with washes. They seem to work fine for a lot of people, but gave me problems - granted, I was under a time-crunch and was only giving them 24hr dry-time.

I'm using airbrushed Testors Model Master enamels for my basecoat now, with very good success.

I use Tamiya acrylics for the detail painting after the enamel has dried.

I've never seen a bad word said about Mark Tutton's decals. He does fine work. I have bought quite a wad from him as well and have been more than pleased.

[Scoutdad]

John, I use acylics exclusively. I used to use the TEstors enamels for models (cars / tanks / air-craft / ect.) and even usedthem on the first few Dungeons and Dragons minatures I painted - waaaay back in the late 70's and early 80's. Then our local hobby shop began carrying the Floquil and Polly S line of arcylics. I tried them and have never looked back.

I've seen some truly great work done with enamels (Aaaron Staley - www.awwwdrat.com uses only enamels), but for me, they just don't have teh flexibility that arcylics do. I use the "craft store" arcylics for 99% or my work. They are Folk Art brand, Apple Barrel brand, and Delta brand and can be found in such hard-to-find places as Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Michael's, etc. They come in a million different colors, are easily blended, easily thinned, clean up with water, and if my puppy gets a bottle and spills and laps it up - it won't kill him.

But that's just my preference. Painting minis is truly a personal touch, so if enamels work best for you - then by all means carry on. And feel fre to drop a few tips / tricks that work well for you so that those of us unfamiliar with enamels can successfully use them should the occasion arise.

[Starfury]

When I started way back (early 80's) doing fantasy miniatures I was using Testor's model enamels. After a while I moved to the PollyS brand acrylics and mixed in a few Tamiya paints also. I prefer the acrylics to enamels; don't have the chemical smell/solvents to deal with. I haven't tried the craft brand paints yet; I'm still using the ones I've had for the last 10 yrs.

[John Schneder II]

John,
Here in Cincy we use a mixture of acrylics and enamels as well. The big downside to enamels are what has already been mentioned: toxicity (I have small children), clean-up (solvent), and one other not mentioned: the solvent really beats up your brushes. But, one of our guys here does some awesome work in enamels with blending/washes since the enamels take longer to dry.
But, when I airbrush, I always do it in enamel (Testor's Model Master almost exclusively).

[JohnFalk68]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the advice and information. I can't wait till I can actually start to paint a few.
I have been picking up what I need over the last few weeks, paints, brushes, tools and such. I have buying what I need piecemeal so to keep domestic harmony prevailing in our household here. I still need to order the mini's, I am going to get squadron box 1 & 2. When I get them done and if they come out decent I will be sure to post a few pics

Again, thanks for all the help

John F

[djdood]

Please do post pics. It's always great to see what other people are doing. It seems everyone has their own unique take on things like how to paint the Fed CA - always something new to learn.

[Steve Cole]

I cannot speak highly enough of Mark Tutton and Starfighter decals.

We are often asked why we don't carry them, and the answer is that to make any money off of them we'd have to charge more than people would pay. It's better for us to just give Mark free advertising and let customers buy directly from him.

[Jiraiya1969]

Wouldn't acrylic + varnish work as well?

I ask because I have heard enamels might obscure detail on small metal minis as opposed to larger plastic models.

That and I have a mess of GW acrylics

[djdood]

That should work fine, just be sure to give the acrylic a good long time to dry/cure before going over it with the solvent-based enamel (or with anything else, to be honest).

I had problems with acrylic basecoats coming up when I did washes, detail painting, etc. over the top of them, but I'm pretty convinced that it happened because I only gave them one day's drying time. Lots of other folks seem to have great success with them.

[Mazza]

GW paints seem to dry quite quickly, I've never needed to wait very long at all before doing washes or detail painting over the top of them.

[Starfury]

I generally like the GW paints and use several of them on my ships. The Boltgun Metal is an excellent base for my Gorn ships. Paint them that, then wash with black. A little drybrush, details and decals and a very nice mini.