AK Or Vallejo

I use a fair amount of Vallejo Model Air and Metal Color and have had success with both.

OH Shoot! - just noticed this is for aircraft! (after posting) - don’t mean to cause any grief - maybe helpful - if not, I’ll delete! :sweat:

I use Badger Patriot and Krome airbrushes - the former for big surfaces, the later for finer work. I’ve found the Model Air works easily most of the time when using the Patriot, but can clog in the Krome.

As I recall, my compressor is by Iwata - something like “smart air”? not sure tho. I got it because it’s quiet. I have an inline water trap, but don’t know how to adjust the air pressure - or if I can? :thinking:

Clogging seems to occur with old or coagulated paint, or when I have some gunk in airbrush. I usually flush the airbrush immediately after use - but, sometimes no luck, so I’ve gotten pretty good at tearing apart, cleaning, and quickly reassembling :smile: I generally expect to do this if I haven’t used the brush in a while.

Here are some examples of results with Vallejo Model Air:

The Kraz on top received Vallejo IDF grey primer, then various shades of green, then several washes of Life Color dust. The tires are painted with Vallejo Model Air NATO Black

The F1 car and the Peterbilt have Tamiya can fine grey primer, the car is painted with Vallejo French Blue, and the truck Ferrari red, and both have several coats of Aqua Gloss II clear coats. The truck tires are Vallejo NATO Black

The race truck is painted with Vallejo Model Air only, and no clear coat, and while crisp, the colors are matte. The wheels are painted with Vallejo Metal Color

I don’t add anything to the paint. I shoot the Metal Color through the Krome airbrush because it is very fine - almost like water and the Patriot blasts it out too quickly.

Using reds, oranges, and yellows with model air often require several thin layers to be applied to build up to the desired color, and you need to be careful with the color of your primer. The car below is also Ferrari red, but with a pink primer base:

You can see it’s brighter than the finish on the Peterbilt, and, with some (tedious) effort using several coats of clear coat, and intermittent use of micro film, really fine sand paper, and eventually polish, you can get a pretty nice finish.

So yes, I’m a Vallejo fan. I used AK when they first came out, and loved it, but began having trouble with the paint doing strange things - drying with unusual ring like patterns on flat surfaces. This happened with shades of desert sand. I eventually got annoyed enough to try the Vallejo version. I am guessing that AK has resolved that by now, but I now have a pretty big variety of Vallejo colors here.

Cheers
Nick

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