Testor's enamel Paint

[Titan87]

Hi everybody, I am looking for some advice on what to do with some paint I was given as a gift. Testor's enamel paints. Does anyone have any suggestions, do's and don'ts, or general advice on how to use these paints for my models (got a few metal and the rest plastic to paint.

 

Thanks in advance.

[GhostLegion]

generally i recomend against the testors paints on this style of mini...sure its paint and it works like others, but the need for paint thinner and the general flow of the paint just doesnt work...for me anyway...

 

If youre going to use those paints, well make sure you ALWAYS clean your brushes completely...even a little bit of paint left can ruin the brush and too much thinner left can melt the brush or loosen the head.

[Iron Father Rik]

I used to use enamels when I was younger and built Airfix kits, but only because that's what the instructions said and I didn't know any better. In my experience, they really are unsuitable for miniature painting, certainly compared to acrylics like the Citadel and Valejo ranges and such like. I have never used enamels properly mind you, but I do know they require different techniques and a different skill set than "normal" miniature paints, particularly involving the use of paint thinners such as turpentine and other such harmful chemicals. Also, as far as I can tell from my experience, they are much harder to paint fine detail with.

 

I would suggest shelving them, or selling them on, and using acrylic based paints such as Citadel, or Valejo, or whichever other brand you prefer. Alternatively pop down to your local model shop (not GW or other miniature wargames, I'm talking about model aircraft, cars etc) and ask them for some advice about it. They should know how to use enamel paints for plastic model kits and should be able to give you some pointers.

[AngryJohnny]

@Titan87: I actually use Testor's paints almost exclusively. I use the Model Master Acrylics as well as the Testors Enamels. The Enamels are actually really good paints, especially their metallic paints. There is just a trick to using them. You have to make sure that you use the brush cleaner / paint thinner. You need to use the paint thinner to thin the enamels before use - you can't get away with not thinning the paints like you can in some cases with acrylics. The paint is much thicker & has to be thinned down. You also need to make sure you clean your brush thoroughly after each use wit the brush cleaner. Then after using the brush cleaner use a normal water rinse to get the excess cleaner off.

The other trick is they take longer to dry. During the drying phase, if your not careful you'll end up leaving a nice very clear thumb print. The enamels get pretty sticky & tacky while their drying too so it's easy for dust & stray hairs to get stuck on the paint & mess it up. I mostly use the enamels for my metallic colors now & what I do is paint my metallic colors as the very last thing then let it dry over night before applying any washes. This way it's completely dry & won't smudge.

I did this miniature for the DIY Swapping Project - the majority of the paint is Testors Enamels (all the metallic colors, including the PA)

I hope this is helpful to you.

[averykess]

Enamels are a different beast. All of the above advice on their use is good; I wont repeat that. There are some subtleties in their use though. If you make a wash from them, you have to use thinner. The thinner will always attack the underlying layers. If used sparingly, you can get a great blend, but you can also ruin previous work if your wash has too much thinner. Premixed inks seem to work better with enamels for this kind of thing. If you are doing weathering, you usually have to gloss coat the model, apply the basic weathering, perform a technique using thinner, then gloss coat again. It can be tedious, but the results can be amazing.

 

There are reasons scale model builders use enamels over acrylics. When properly applied you can get an incredibly smooth finish. They are also much harder to chip than acrylics.