What is the best ready mixed paint in railroad colors? Would this be an acrylic opaque paint that can be used on wood or plastic? Thank you!
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Originally Posted by TrainHead:
What is the best ready mixed paint in railroad colors? Would this be an acrylic opaque paint that can be used on wood or plastic? Thank you!
Badger modelflex paints are acrylic paints designed for airbrush application. I believe right out of the bottle. There is a modelflex thinner designed for these acrylic paints. Consistency of thick milk works best.
Originally Posted by TrainHead:
What is the best ready mixed paint in railroad colors? Would this be an acrylic opaque paint that can be used on wood or plastic? Thank you!
Can't say they are the best, but I just started using MicroLux railroad paints from MicroMark. They are water-based acrylic and you can use them straight out of the bottle with a brush or spray them w/o diluting. Been airbrushing rail tonight with a combination of Roof brown, Rust & Grimy Black. Supposedly, they are mixed to the old PollyScale colors. As far as wood, I painted a laser cut wood structure this week with Rustoleum primer, then brushed the MicroLux.
When brushing, I've used a couple of coats for opaque coverage.
Badger sells sets of airbrush paints specifically for model railroads. I bought set #1713 for East Coast RRs (B&O, CSX, Conrail and C&O). Purchased on Amazon - 7 bottles for about $20. They have other sets for different regions of US - West Coast, Northwest, Mid-West, Southeast, etc. Haven’t tried them yet, but colors look authentic. Advertised as airbrush ready, but says they can be brushed on as well. Come in 1.5 oz bottles, which appears larger than Vallejo colors.
TrainHead posted:What is the best ready mixed paint in railroad colors? Would this be an acrylic opaque paint that can be used on wood or plastic? Thank you!
IMHO, any quality acrylic made for models (Tamiya is my favorite) that is properly mixed with thinner. Depending on the colors you are after, you don't necessarily have to spend money on "railroad" colors - a set of primary colors (red, blue and yellow) plus brown, black and white will pretty much let you mix whatever colors you need. The only other paint I would recommend having on hand for railroad purposes are Testors enamel metallics (silver, steel, gold and brass). Those are generally used for brush painting of detail pieces, but can also be sprayed (if you don't mind cleaning the airbrush with paint thinner),
What's Up Trainhead,
I've found that if you're going to airbrush your trains and equipment, CREATEX paints are specifically made for airbrushing, however they don't come ready mixed for specific colors but they do have an extremely large selection of colors, and they are easily mixed. And to top it off, they can be diluted with water, they're easy to clean out of your airbrush and they also come in Opaque and Transparent colors.
