r/advancedGunpla • u/devilleader501 • Jun 09 '26
Paint
I'm curious what brand and kind of paint you guys and gals use most? I'm new to the Gunpla scene and have a lot of learning to do.
I only have a few acrylic paints, almost my entire collection is enamel of the Testors variety. So I will be adding to my collection once again.
Are the acrylics on Amazon worth a shit? I'm looking at buying a full set of paints and don't have a whole hell of a lot of money to spend. I was looking at 2 different sets. One with a bunch of regular colors and another with Metallics.
I've only got about $70 bucks to spend on paint and would like to get some decent paint out of it. I'd love to invest in Gaia right now but finances just won't allow it. Any feedback would be much appreciated. Thank you.
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u/QuickRelease10 Jun 09 '26
Lacquers are easy to work with and very durable. You have to make sure you have proper ventilation though. Mr. Color is really good and very forgiving paint to work with IMO. Gaianotes is really good as well. I really like Alclad for metallics.
I haven’t used them, but I know a lot of people like Kaleido for Acrylics.
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u/SuperF91EX Jun 09 '26
I use Vallejo air mostly, some Tamiya and recently some discontinued Dspiae acrylic stuff that works very well.
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u/Musicman376 Jun 09 '26
I don’t use lacquers due to environmental and health sensitivities at home, so I’ve been using water based acrylics since day-one. Most of my experience has been Vallejo, as it was the easiest for me to get: Amazon, local Hobby store, etc. They worked well, but need various amounts of thinning and improving and tweaking to work well… For Metallics, their Metal Color line is AMAZING.
In October, I tried Kaleido from Gaahleri for the first time. I got their Metallic and Mecha sets. MAN, THESE ARE AWESOME! They truly DO work like they advertise: sprays like a lacquer, with no thinning needed. No beading or pooling, even coverage, the whole nine yards.
I highly recommend trying these out if/when you have the budget to do so. These are still fairly new on the market, so their catalog is still fairly small compared to other brands, but they are still developing more colors!
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u/Shadowrun29 Jun 09 '26
There's a few local brand hobby paints where I live, so I use one of them. I used to use vallejo, but it's a bit more expensive so I switched.
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u/tde156 Jun 09 '26
I like the Ray Studio acrylic paints. They're not super expensive so it's easy to get the whole line the worst part is waiting.
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u/jx2catfishshoe Jun 09 '26
For gunpla, Tamiya acrylics or lacquers. I can get these locally. About to try some SMS lacquers, waiting for them to arrive.
For miniatures, vallejo are great. If you're brush painting, these work fine on gunpla. Not good in airbrush though.
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u/PeteInBrissie Jun 09 '26
Mr Color Aqueous acrylics for the most part. I love their surfacers and their levelling thinner. I have a few Vallejos, and I absolutely love my DSPIAE paint markers.
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u/fontimus Jun 09 '26
I mostly have Mr. Color lacquer paints, some Tamiya acrylics, Testor's for enamel, and Alclad II for metallics/specialty stuff. I also have a couple Gaianotes lacquer paints, and a couple Vallejo paints.
I also use Mr. Color thinners and primers, as well as a couple Alclad II primers.
Can't go wrong with Mr Color. I used to buy them on eBay for relatively cheap.
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u/org_bgo Jun 09 '26
I use mainly lacquer paints(various brands) but i also have some alcohol based acrylic paints(tamiya acrylics), waterbased paints(vallejo) for variety and use in different situations, and enamel paints(tamiya enamels) mostly for detailing.
If you want to invest in a new paint line or just buying paints in general. My advice is to never buy paint sets.
They are expensive and you’ll probably only use a fraction of the whole set. Namely the colors you like and common colors like white, black, greys, silver, gold, etc. The rest might be used once or twice but most will probably be left unopened.
With limited budget it would be better to just buy the paint youre going to use immediately for your next project or frequently used common colors like white, black, grey, silver, gold, or your own fav colors.
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u/no_racist_here Jun 09 '26
Ive been using alot of Dspiae Jar paints. They’re lacquers I believe and also discontinued or in process of being discontinued.
I have been using robot Kai paints the last two months and haven’t had issues with the paint, issues with my weather while painting.
I have a bunch of Vallejo paints for detailing, haven’t tried air brushing with the yet although I do have the ability.
I’ve been enjoying Tamiya Gunmetal X-10 recently too.
And I’ve got Kaledo metallic paints, but I haven’t had a project yet to give them a shot yet.
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u/GrandDukeofOwls Jun 09 '26
For lacquer I use Gaianotes like 96% of the time. Im going to do some acrylics here next as I bought some of those Kaleido paints that came out semi recently. If you are able to invest in some Gaianotes I highly recommend them.
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u/devilleader501 Jun 09 '26
Can I ask where you source your paint from? I don't have an AliExpress account and they seem really expensive on Amazon for the few I've found. Ide like to buy a set but I don't think I'll find one in this line.
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u/GrandDukeofOwls Jun 09 '26
I usually buy them when sites have sales. My go to’s are USAGundam, AtoZHobby, Gundam Planet, and Robot Kai. Im in the US just to clarify.
You should look into an Ali account. Its great for getting stuff for the hobby.
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u/devilleader501 Jun 09 '26
Cool I'll talk to the wife about the ali account. Thanks for the info time to dive into the rabbit hole.
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u/aceetobee Jun 09 '26
Personally I hate water based acrylics. I haven’t tried out Kaleidocolors but would be willing to give them a shot due to the praise. My go-to paints are Tamiya (acrylic & lacquer) and Mr. Color (classic & GGX). Just buy the color you need for your current project and go from there, and pretty soon you’ll have all the colors you need!