Anyone else have problems with Vallejo?

[MillenniumFalsehood]

I have been trying to get used to Vallejo acrylics for a while now since apparently the world is moving away from enamels and lacquers, and I am thoroughly disappointed by them. I can't get this stuff to cover properly when I hand-paint with it no matter how many coats I apply (no, I'm not using the "Air" variety, before you ask). I shake up the bottle as much as possible, brush it on, and at best it looks like a wash was applied. I have many bottles now because I thought maybe it was just the one batch, but so far every one of them has been like painting with milk.

I really want to like them because I seem to be the only person with issues applying them, but every time I paint with them it feels like I have to apply a dozen coats to get it looking good.

Here's a model I'm working on and this is what the first coat looks like:



The bottle I have:



Just... am I crazy here or is this paint just... not good? I never had this problem with Model Masters.

[Bellerophon]

Vallejo model color covers well for me. You show white, which doesn't cover as well, but I never had it come out that thin. I presume you shake the living daylights out of it. Even so, I never had to shake Vallejo as much as other paints.

I did have trouble with adhesion of Vallejo model color once, but I think it was on unprimed plastic.

[MillenniumFalsehood]

I genuinely don't know what to do about it. Vallejo just seems hit or miss, and mostly miss.

[JonD]

I use Vallejo almost exclusively, both the Model Air and Model Color (with an airbrush and brush - the Color paints thinned for the airbrush). When hand-painting I find that I have to just be patient and allow the colour to build up over multiple thin coats - the 'thin' being important to avoid blobbing and to preserve the detail on the parts. It is disheartening at first when you see the thin streaky finish of the first two or three coats (like your first coat) but I find that if you keep going you end up with a very nice smooth consistent look. It usually takes at least four or five thin coats to get the finish I want, sometimes more in the case of notoriously translucent colours like white and yellow.

Counter-intuitively, since it feels like further dilution, adding a drop or two of flow improver can also help minimise the streaking. Also, Vallejo paints can react nastily to some thinners, even acrylic ones. They make their own thinner, but I just use water, sometimes with a drop or two of matt or gloss medium.

[geck]

Keep in mind these paints were designed...first and foremost...with the figure painter in mind. They are meant to be applied in thin layers and built up. The lighter colors (white and yellow) can be especially thin. Using a primer under these paints is pretty much mandatory. Acrylics just don't stick well to anything but wood.

I have noticed that over time Vallejo tends to separate and form a sludge at the bottom of the bottle and some colors can be difficult to get mixed back without very thorough mixing (read...mechanically like with a Badger mixer for instance).

Honestly I've found that Life Color paints are somewhat better for general applications and to me they are the closest thing we have to the old Polly Scale paints from years past.

Vallejo is excellent paint nontheless, but consider...if you can...experimenting with other manufacturers. There are quite a bit of them (Army Painter, Life Color, Scale75, Andrea).

[Lt. Z0mBe]

It looks to me as though you’re fighting at least one of two problems. The first is white always being a problem with regards to opacity. Secondly, as others have stated, is how badly Vallejo needs to be shaken. The Model Air variety is not nearly as problematic in this regard but the basic Vallejo Color paints settle out like clay on a lake bottom. What you can do is pop the nozzle off by just pushing it over at an angle, back and forth, until it wriggles free. Then, take a Tamiya paint stirrer, or small flathead screwdriver to the contents. I say this from experience, having been using Vallejo and the other Spanish acrylics for about 10 years. It’s really no different from the other acrylics I use, insofar as settling and mixing go.

I hope this helps.

Kenny

[ulvdemon]

I've switched to using Vallejo Model and Model Air and for the most part, I have found white being the most pain in the butt to use. If you are thinning it down, make sure to use Vallejo's airbrush thinner as I have found that works (at least for me) when it comes to brush painting, but it will take multiple layers to get good coverage.

[Kylwell]

I usually add a drop of flow improver as it helps my ham fisted painting. Shaking will not properly mix Vallejo as had been stated. I modified one of those immersion style paint mixers to fit through the neck of Vallejo bottles to get them mixed well. Basically I shaved it down to diameter then filed it to a propeller shape. Works awesome now!

[southwestforests]

When hand-painting I find that I have to just be patient and allow the colour to build up over multiple thin coats - the 'thin' being important to avoid blobbing and to preserve the detail on the parts.

I'm making progress on some model train projects today instead of space stuff, but I did space models stuff yesterday, some repairs after The Attack of the Giant Cat Tail, and this strongly brings to mind some partly-remembered 1950s and 1960s articles in Model Railroader magazine about brush painting steam locomotives and freight cars.
Paint chemistry was different, solvent instead of acrylic, but paint behavior was the same.

While I do have the patience for a lot of things in model building, applying multiple thin coats of paint is Not among them!

(even though it is in fact how the yellow wings of that game ship in my avatar thumbnail thingy were done)

[Ant]

... Acrylics just don't stick well to anything but wood.

And me. And the inside of my airbrush

[seam-filler]

I got myself one of those shakers for nail varnish and tattoo inks - largely to preserve my increasingly arthritic wrists. As far as Vallejo Model Air paints are concerned, a couple of minutes in this shaker works well. It definitely needs longer with the Vallejo Color paints, but it is still not thoroughly mixed.

I'm now experimenting with one or two shaker balls (5mm dia. stainless steel ball bearings) dropped into the bottle - then I use my shaker. Early results seem to be good - I'm definitely getting more of the sludge mixed in. These shaker balls are readily available on evilbay.

I strongly suspect now that Humbrol have moved to dropper-bottles I will have to do the same with them.

[sbaxter]

I got myself one of those shakers for nail varnish and tattoo inks - largely to preserve my increasingly arthritic wrists. As far as Vallejo Model Air paints are concerned, a couple of minutes in this shaker works well. It definitely needs longer with the Vallejo Color paints, but it is still not thoroughly mixed.

I'm now experimenting with one or two shaker balls (5mm dia. stainless steel ball bearings) dropped into the bottle - then I use my shaker. Early results seem to be good - I'm definitely getting more of the sludge mixed in. These shaker balls are readily available on evilbay.

I strongly suspect now that Humbrol have moved to dropper-bottles I will have to do the same with them.

There are products designed to strap down and hold a spray can and then be mounted into the blade slot of a reciprocating saw. Shakes the living crap out of paint very quickly. I'm sure there may be enterprising DIYers who have created similar solutions that would accommodate the small hobby paint bottles we use.

Just a thought.

Qapla'

SSB