Small Scale Military Headquarters

Hi all, I'm thinking of doing some customizing on some 1/18 planes, and was wanting to know what kind of paint you recomend, ie. acryilics, enamels, other. Also what brands do you prefere. Testors, Tamiya, other.
Any info would be a great help. I will be using an air brush as well as a bristle brush.
TIA
Cam

I used to use humbrol then tamiya enamels for all my paintwork, then switched to tamiya acrylic for airbrush work and am really loving it. Plus I find it way easier to clean an airbrush from acrylic work with just water. I still use tamiya enamels but just solely for small brush work.

tamiya acrylic paints work good for me

Thanks guys,
I've been hearing a lot about the acrylics and wanted to get some of your expert opinions before I went out and spent my hard earned money.

I agree, Acrylics are the way to go. Brush or airbrush, easy cleanup, fast and good drying.

The only time I don't use them is when the color I need is not available. Sad to say that happens more often than I would like, but I think this is mainly due to the model paint industry being old and slow moving. Perhaps the impression is still that acrylics are only for airbrush artists, which is by far no longer the case and it just takes them time to catch up.

I am just getting ready to start doing some airbrush work, and was wondering if there is any sort of special prep or primer needed when using water-based acrylics on plastics (e.g. models and XD)? I am mixing my own colors using Createx airbrush colors, which I would suspect are pretty comparable in composition to the Tamiya colors.

acrylic paints for me

Any special base coat or primer? Does it make a difference if painting over an existing paint scheme vs. bare plastic, such as a model kit?

I've been very happy painting over existing 21st Century paint jobs with the Model Master or Tamyia acrylics. I only use enamels if the right color isn't available in an acrylic.

Here are a few examples:

viewtopic.php?p=57697&highlight=dak#57697

viewtopic.php?p=55707&highlight=dak#55707

viewtopic.php?p=58726&highlight=stuka#58726

I've done all of my custom planes using alclad polished aluminum (which requires a gloss enamel base) for bare metal finishes. I use Testors Model Master spray can enamel for the all of the colors. I use Testors gray primer spray can as a base because it will hide the original markings with only two light coats.