[Review] Gaahleri Kaleido varnishes (and white primer)

[Evil Eye]

I've always been leary of aqueous acrylics for airbrushing; somehow I can never quite get them to behave, and for most airbrush purposes I find solvent-based paints do everything I need them to much better. However, varnishes are a bit of an exception to this, as lacquer clears- whilst VERY nice to work with- can damage more delicate paints. Unfortunately I've always had a lot of trouble with water-based clears and varnishes, usually resulting in beading or pooling regardless of how careful I am (Vallejo Metal Varnish being one of the most annoying examples of this).

 

However, I think I might have found a solution.

 

Gaahleri, most known for airbrushes, recently brought out an aqueous paint line that claims to spray like lacquers. Naturally I had to investigate, and so ordered their matte and gloss varnishes, along with two paints and a white primer. I tested the primer and gloss varnish through my trusty Iwata Eclipse and you know what? I'm blown away. They actually did it.

 

So first off, their products are all pre-thinned in the bottle. This may be a plus or a minus depending on your sensibilites but as a clumsy oaf with thinning ratios I much appreciate it. The bottle designs for the varnish and primer leave a bit to be desired, as the caps are basically flat with a single rimmed hole for a nozzle, which can lead to mess.

 

The primer I've tested on a few bits of scrap and whilst it's VERY impressive for a prethinned acrylic white primer, I think I need some practice with it. It has decent self-levelling properties but it does need to be sprayed at juuuuust the right PSI, which I haven't quite found yet. However, it seems a hell of a lot better than most white primers with the exception of maybe the Colour Forge's white (which I still decant to airbrush because I swear I am cursed with spray cans if I don't) and Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 White (which isn't pre-thinned, though it's pretty forgiving by white standards) so I will give it some more testing.

The gloss varnish, however? 10/10. Amazing.

 

I've only just started to use it and don't have much I can really show, but it really does spray like a lacquer; it goes where you put it and stays there. No running, no pooling, no beading and no spiderwebbing. Just spray it on as you would Tamiya or Mr. Color and it just works. And best of all, being water-based, it won't harm any delicate paints underneath. I had a plastic spoon airbrushed with a gloss blue (Tamiya if memory serves) and with some fully-cured spots of Molotow Chrome pen on it as a test piece. Molotow is an alcohol based ink and will reactivate and fog up if solvent as much as comes near it. With this however, whilst the shine was a fraction dulled just because clearcoats always do that to mega-high-shine metallics, it didn't react at all and retained the chrome look.

 

I haven't tried the matte or the two paints I got yet but I'm looking forwards to doing so. I haven't tried brushing them, and as they're more meant for auto or mecha models they all have a gloss finish that wouldn't really work on our hobby. Also I'm not sure if the formulation, which is meant specifically for airbrushing, would play nice with the old hairy stick. The white primer I need to use more before I can come to a proper conclusion on it, it's definitely got promise but I need to work out how to get the best out of it. However, I can highly highly HIGHLY recommend the varnishes at least; they're borderline idiot-proof, extremely pleasant to spray and totally safe on any and all paints. They do make a semi-gloss/satin as well, though you could probably mix gloss and matte to get a satin yourself if you want to save money.

 

Regardless, I'm extremely impressed and will absolutely be buying more of these. Seriously, Gaahleri, if you're listening? Make some clear colours this good and I will buy them all.