Model Railroading > Vallejo Paint

Has anyone used Vallejo Paint?? Hints??? Tips??? Suggestions???

I used to to airbrush track the other week and it worked well. I think PSI was at 30 and I used a little thinner in the mix. The colors are flat, which is what I was looking for.

Vallejo Acryllic paint has become almost a "standard" for the military modelling community.  I have used it quite a bit for my model railroad projects also.  I haven't used it via airbrush yet, but I find that it is a wonderful paint to use for brushing.  First off, one of the advantages of Vallejo is the finely ground pigments.  That being a given, I also find that the fine pigment "clumps" in the bottom of the vial and instead of just shaking the container like many people do with their model paints, the best results will be achieved after stirring the paint well.  For brush painting I find that many of the colors work best with just a touch of thinning.  I mostly use Model Master Acryl thinner, b but others have used Windex or alcohol or water.  Experiment and see what gives you the best results.  Vallejo can be a bit expensive, but you can get a lot of HO scale projects done with just a little paint if you are caeful.  As far as use with a brush, I have had no problems mixing Vallejo colors with Model Master Acryl and/or Pollyscale.  If you count the military colors, the weathering colors, the "railroad" colors and fantasy colors, etc there are over 280 different shades of colors.  They also make a "primer" paint in various colors (keyed to the military guys), plus they have Vallejo Air which is pre-diluted for airbrushing.  Vallejo looks at their paint as a "system", so the line is extensive and compatible.  Somebody once had a site with the various mixes required to make model RR colors, but I find mixing by eye can give me good results when doing touch ups or adding details to pre-painted RR models.

There are numerous articles on Vallejo on military modeling forums and in Fine Scale Modeler magazine.  FSM is a Kalmbach publication, and their staff has done some really nice articles comparing brands of paint or adhesives, etc. over the tears.

Obviously, how you need to use the paint will affect your opinion, but I think you really should give Vallejo a fair tray.  I have been quite happy with my results.

Gary B.
Waverly, NE

i sprayed my signal bridges with Vallejo acrylic flat aluminum thinned with Windex until it sprayed nice.
covered well at 28 psi and it looks great. drying time is longer than Pollyscale was. I used Passche H3

tom



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/17 15:23 by globalethanol.

I've never tried it, but there seem to be mixed opinions on it for airbrush applications.

See these videos for starters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PM0C4xCu_4&t

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0sft8myRRI&t=24s

KIt does brush really really well....I have used it on many occasions recemtly and posted images here..........leaves virtually no brush marks....very nice paint.

Bob
 

Vallejo is my go to brand. Within their range there are two brands of paint I use. For brush painting I use their Model Colour range of paint. There are literally hundreds of shades of paint, all of which can be hand brushed with zero streaking (practice to get the correct paint / thinner mix). Thinning is required as these are what I would call heavy acrylics, the pigment is extremely effective in it's coverage. Model Colour can also be used through an airbrush providing it is very heavily thinned (again practice to get the right combination of paint / thinner / psi).

 For airbrushing to get a Matt high coverage finish I use their Model Air brand, mixed to provide the correct colour, thinned 90/10 paint to thinner sprayed at around 25 psi matched to the finish I want. Sometimes I may add more thinner and spray at a low pressure, say 15psi up close to a primed model to get a sem-gloss finish.

I use Iwata airbrushes which definitely effect the final finish I get. A friend uses exclusively Badger equipment and gets very different results if he follows my technique.

The answer is the same as above - practice, practice, practice until, you known if you like the brand or not.

Cheers

Chris