For a start your 12 tubes for £2 will be quite low quality so may have coarse pigment, not be colourfast so may soon fade, etc. even a half decent student acrylic from the likes of Daler or W&N would cost several times that.

Then there is the thickness issue, to get tube paint smoothly onto a model it will need thinning with the correct medium (water is not ideal) and this will make it less opaque, may get away with a colour on a white primer but they will not work well over a dark base coat.

The other liquid acryliks mentioned by PGK will again work best on a white background and even the so called "opaque" ones will need several coats to get solid colour.

If you want to go with acrylics then there are many small bottled ones available specifically for models though the colour range tends to be more aimed at military and fantasy subjects so you will have to gloss laquer them if on an engineering model. Makes like Andrea and vallejo do both brush and spray versions

I use these on plastic models & have tried the artists type for basic colours for similar reasons to your thinking.

I mainly airbrush & the thick, pasty tube type paints require a lot of thinning, which is where you find that the pigments are very coarse compared to the dedicated model variety. There is also the issue of the acrylic binder being diluted too far, so adhesion & coverage is poor & drying time considerably extended. This can be aleviated in part by using an acrylic thinning medium, which is a thin clear acrylic base, rather than a thinner – but more cost, hassle & the results still were not great.

Vallejo do two ranges – Model Colour & Model Air. The "Colour" paints are thicker & more suited to brush painting, but will thin to airbrush. The "Air" paints have finer ground pigments and are thinner to be used in an airbrush straight from the bottle, though I usually top up a new bottle with Vallejo thinner when I get one.

I've not had much luck Humbrol Acrylics, which are thick & require a lot of thinning. I got better results using an acrylic medium to thin these, but they are still hard work compared to Vallejo.

Revell acrylics get good reviews, but although I have a couple of specific colours I have not tried them yet.

You don't say what you want to paint, but non of the acrylics don't adhere too well to plastic & require a primer – I use Vallejo polyurethane primers. Airbrushing them also requires a different approach to enamels, as the paint is applied very sparingly in thin layers & should never appear wet. It took me along time to apreciate this – a Vallejo YouTube video on application techniques finally sorted me out. Those expensive little bottles actually go a very long way when used as intended – with the dropper bottles I can just put a couple of drops in the airbrush for small areas, so minimal wastage & easier clean-up between colours. Brush painting is also different, as the paint dries very fast & can drag if overbrushed – retarders are available to slow the drying time if required.

HTH

Nigel B

Just a thought – if you painted the model in one of the Royal Navy's blue or blue/grey paint schemes, using less colours than RAF camouflage, it may save some money. Or maybe consider a "just built, pre-paint" bare metal or zinc oxide primer scheme, as the aircraft was at the factory?

Another thought – there may be a chapter of the International Plastic Modelers Society near you somewhere. One of their members may be able to share some paint. I'm in Canada but if I were closer you would be welcome to share some of my old stock, still perfectly usable. I'm sure many modelers in the UK have usable paint surplus in their shops. Maybe put up an ad at your local hobby shop asking for surplus paints from other modelers.

Dek, Hi,

As someone who spends too much time plastic modelling at the expense of ME can I assure you that the Acrylic tube paint is not the path to take for spraying your model. As has already been said the pigment is far to coarse for it to be thinned to the viscosity required for an airbrush.

There is an absoute myriad of (acrylic) paints out there to bewilder anyone new to the hobby – Humbrol, Hannants, Revell, Tamiya, Gunze Sanyo, Mr Paint, MRP, Vallejo, AK interactive, Mig Ammo, Hataka etc etc There are two kinds of acrylic too – Polyurethane based and Lacquer based. Either work fine but it's best to stick to one or the other when spraying a model – for the first time

As with anything, all who participate in this great hobby will advocate one paint over another – another myriad of choice. Personally I would not say one is vastly better than another though I do have my preferences – like most it's down to individual choice. That said, given this is your first attempt I would suggest you consider using Tamiya Acrylic paint and Tamiya thinner for the spraying. It's readily available in the colours you will require, sprays exceptionally easy and dries quickly. Lacquer based, unfortunately it does not brush paint that well but is okay for very tiny parts – the Vallejo or similar paints are ideal for this.

What I would strongly recommend however is that you practice on something before spraying the model itself.

Priming is important – I prefer a lacquer primer to the Acrylic ones mainly do to drying times – Tamiya do an excellent one in an aerosol – another is Alclad 2 'Fine Grey Primer and Micro Filler'.

I'm afraid what you have discovered is that plastic modelling is not such a 'cheap' hobby as many think – buying the kit is the first stage – what and how far you go with it after that is very much how much extra one is prepared to pay. 'Drip fed' it can drain a wallet very quickly indeed !

Good Luck with your model whatever you choose

Regards – Tug

Edited By Ramon Wilson on 24/02/2020 12:19:50

I have used both types of paint, even though they are both acrylic does not mean they are the same it is just the that they tend to be water-based paints but the mixture is totally different.

As Jason mentioned artist acrylics need a flow aid or reducer. If you use water it will quickly make opaque paints transparent.

I use airbrush paints, artist paints and also the model paints in acrylic and would not consider artist type paints for a model.

It is all down to how each is manufactured and for the material they are designed to work on.

So as you can see from the many posts here they are not all made equal.

Would they have come out the factory in bare metal? Would have thought that green/yellow zinc chromate colour etch primer more likely.

How they came out of the factory is not relevant to the particular aircraft mentioned – from the book linked to :

Following the D-Day landings, Battle of Britain hero Tom Neil was assigned as an RAF liaison to an American fighter squadron. As the Allies pushed east, Neil commandeered an abandoned Spitfire as his own personal aeroplane. Erasing any evidence of its provenance and stripping it down to bare metal, it became the RAF's only silver Spitfire.

From limited reading, Spitfires seem mainly to have been primed light grey, but the extent of the priming applied seems to have depended on which factory made it and when it was made. Some American manufacturers stopped priming later in the war as it reduced weight, reduced build time and, as the priming was mainly for corrosion resistance, the aircaft didn't last long enough in action for corrosion to become an issue.

Nigel B.

Dek, I have seen a suggestion for shaky hands.
Take a length of non-stretch fabric, something like an arm sling, tie the two ends together, put round neck then insert hand in the loop and take several turns round wrist. This gives something to 'push' against and gain stability.
I imagine a length of cord would work, if not so comfortable on the wrist.
DaveD

I really used to be big on plastic modelling, and over the years I still do the odd model here and there. I have a few stacked up, mostly WWI aircraft, but also others like a de Haviland Comet, for example.

I like the Tamiya paints but for airbrushing the Lifecolor paints have proven easy to use. I also like their weathering products. Not many models to show off, but I did this one using airbrushed lifecolor paint.

I also weathered Southam using lifecolor: