The only US retailer shops that I’ve filled orders for and recognized the names of so far are Burbank House of Hobbies and Scalehobbyist. But beyond those, all the other places have not been on my radar before. A few different ‘Hobbytown’ shops, but the locations didn’t stick in my mind. I might also suggest to check with Andy’s Hobby HQ, as he usually keeps a good stock of Real Color in the shop and his warehouse is a couple of doors down from ours. I don’t think that you’ll find any shop with a stock of 25 onhand as most tend to order refills in batches of 6, how the paints come packaged from AK.
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Thank you Carlos!
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You’re quite welcome Matthew.
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I checked our stock and we have a dozen bottles of RC23 in stock as of today.
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Thanks Carlos. That’s strange, Scalehobbyist says they can’t get it. Oh well.
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if its for airbrushing that mean you cant brush paint to touch up
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what good is a paint for airbrushing only if you cant touch it up with out having to dig out the compressor and air brush just to touch up one little spot
For WW2 US armor i use RC024 faded OD
Well this is a bummer, in my opinion AK real colors had a perfect formula already. They went down very smooth and had excellent coverage. I fear this is a case of “fixing” something that wasn’t broke
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Looking at the dropper bottles, i am thinking they’re reformulating their paints, so you can airbrush them straight from the bottle, and I’m also thinking that they’re just doing it on their color sets and not on their individual color bottles. But don’t quote me on it.
I don’t really like buying paint pre-thinned for airbrushing. I can easily thin the paint myself. I’d rather have 10 ml bottle of unthinned AK 3rd Gen for ~$5 which than 5ml of paint & ml of thinner premixed in a bottle for $5.
I’ll pick up a few more bottles of the 3rd formula and skip the new and improved for a while.
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Let’s be clear here that that is AK 3Gen range (acrylic) and not AK Real Color range (lacquer).
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Opps! Thank you Matt. Edited accordingly.
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AK just posted a new brochure with information on the new Real Color paint line. Here’s a link: https://ak-masters.com/ak/AKNEWS24/APRIL/Dossier_REAL_COLORS/DossierRealColors.pdf
Bottom line, they really cut back their color range and changed the bottles, but the paint remains the same.
From the brochure: the paints still need thinning for airbrushing. Recommended ratios are in the brochure (30/70 paint to thinner for base coats). Looks like they streamlined the military/aircraft colors down from 220 to 130 (the Aussie, Spanish, UAE, and Egyptian colors, among others, are gone) and added some paints for civilian cars. Comparing AK’s 2021 catalog to this brochure, it looks like the line of basic colors and varnishes got trimmed from 31 to 26 products.
Of note, the brochure states the new line has the same formula as the old one. So the only real change is the bottle.
AK changed the numbering system, so you’ll need to figure out new reference numbers for each color.
EDIT to add: they also posted a video on the change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT5cPnqEP_0
Nothing new in the video if you’ve used their paints before, but thought I’d post it for anyone who is curious.
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No change to the paint - that’s good news!
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Subscriber Email from AK
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Considering they have added a lot of Civilian “Technicals”, like the Toyota FJs and Hiluxes, along with the Range Rovers; it was a wise choice to add civilian colors. THe ocolors removed from their collection are probably not moving as well as other colors.
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I was watching a video the other day on paints. Tamiya paint is a hybrid acrylic/ lacquer. Tamiya should be treated as a lacquer for best results. It and AK Real Color were recommended as spray only for best results. Brush work does well with acrylics. Acrylics are more temperamental to spray. Tip dry, flow enhancers and retarders are things acrylics deal with. Yes you can spray acrylics and brush lacquers but you are not playing up to their strengths. Enamels are what many companies use in their pinwashes and weathering items. It is probably the most toxic of the bunch.
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Speaking of Toxic…
Some of those old acrylic Vallejo Model Color paints with cadmium are about as toxic as it gets. Plus cadmium is a cancer causing agent.
If a Vallejo bottle says do not spray, there’s a real reason for that.
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