Iâm an acrylics airbrush guy who uses Vallejo Model Air for 90% of my airbrushing (Mig Ammo, Mission and AK Real Gen 3 for the rest) and I brush with Vallejo Model Color mainly.
The thing about VMA is that because it is finicky at first if you are used to enamels or Tamiya etc, and most donât have the patience or perseverance to stick with them to learn them and be able to use them properly. They try them a couple of times, donât get the same results they get with Tamiya and so on, so bin them off as a bad idea.
There are a few reasons why VMA is amazing (in my opinion):
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it is more consistent across its colour range than the likes of Tamiya. What I mean by that is there is less difference in how the high pigment colours like white and yellow behave vs the lower pigment colours like your greens and browns and so on, than you get with enamels. Tamiya white behaves very differently to Tamiya dunkelgelb etc, for example - it requires a totally different thinning ratio and needs mixing a lot more. Vallejo has a small difference but its much less.
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You can thin VMA with water just fine, same for VMC.
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It is advertised as being sprayable from the bottle and it is. You can use it that way for small sprays, though it will tip dry fast if you try it for bigger sprays. It is really easy to clean if you use water and Vallejo cleaner. Not a problem at all. This means for big builds, particularly aircraft, where you have sessions with the airbrush needing to put down several colours etc, VMA is really easy.
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It isnât especially toxic and will not give you cancer. Neither will the thinners or cleaning fluids. I love Tamiya paints but the various thinners and cleaning solutions are NASTY and will do genuine harm to you if you arenât using a mask and spraying in a well-ventilated place.
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The colour range is massive and it is available everywhere pretty much. It is considerably cheaper than Tamiya or AK as well.
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once down and dried, VMA is amazingly durable for an acrylic and cannot be washed away with water or chipping fluid like Mission Models does sometimes.
The thing to understand about VMA is that a couple of drops of retarder and around 20% thinner in the cup relative to the amount of paint in there will go a long way provided you mix it really thoroughly. The amount of guys I see on Youtube who bung the paint then the thinner into the cup and then give it two stirs with a cocktail stick or whatever is astonishing - this will (obviously) not work and create problems for you. Mix it in the cup thoroughly. If you think youâve mixed it enough, mix it some more. If you find mid-spray half way down the cup the mix changes then youâve not mixed it enough - this is simply the (lighter) unmixed thinner rising above the (heavier) paint in the cup. It goes without saying that having a poorly mixed thinner / paint mix in the cup will not spray properly. Same for the retarder: if you donât mix it properly then its not going to work as advertised, is it?
I do use Mig Ammo sometimes and find these a lot more difficult to predict because sometimes they are pointlessly thin out of the bottle (no matter how you shake them) and sometimes they are so thick they need a lot of TLC before you can put them anywhere near the cup. What I like about them is you can use Vallejo thinners and retarders, brush cleaners and so on with them with no issues - they are seemingly very similar to VMA chemically speaking. Not having to carry a separate set of thinners, cleaners, retarders and so on for MiG is helpful. And I will say their colours are more accurate than VMA - their dunkelgelbs especially are really nice. That they fit nicely into my VMA-dominated workflow is the main reason I have them.
Another thing to understand about VMA is that there isnât an ideal pressure to spray at - some other paints donât like going over 25 or under 10, but as long as youâve really well mixed it in the cup, the paint will work for what you want to use it for. I tend to stick at around 20 and it will do as it is told, but as I say, you can push it up or push it down quite dramatically. I like to mist my base coats on over a black and pre-shaded primer layer and build up the layers. VMA with retarder in will give you the time to be able to put three or four layers down in one spray if you take your time. It will crack if you spray on top of wet paint but if you are misting it down, keeping the airbrush moving the whole time and not allowing it to concentrate it dries in ten seconds flat. The retarder is there to stop (delay!) it drying on your needle. So I mist on the base coat and build up the layers until I am happy and want to let it dry so I can move onto highlights. You can spray (correctly mixed and thinned) VMA up to 30psi with no issues. It goes down uniformly and levels off like an absolute dream. I have yet to find a paint, acrylic or otherwise, that levels off like VMA does.
For the close in work where you need to get the needle tip in within an inch or three from the model, you can drop it to 10 or 12psi and it behaves just fine as long as youâve mixed it properly and thinned it properly. Iâm not saying other paints donât do this, but I am saying that I have not got to the level with any other paints that I am confident of it staying with me it very high or low pressures. As with all things it is a case of experience and using that to be able to judge things consistently. I put the time in with VMA and it works for me.
I also think the Vallejo âecosystemâ is nice as well - something that doesnât get enough credit. I use Vallejo primers almost exclusively because I like the colours (their red oxide is really great), I like how hard wearing they are, I like how hairspray doesnât hurt it, and I like that they level off like a wonder. I know that when I spray VMA or brush VMC over Vallejo primer, I will not have any uncool surprises. I also know that Vallejo chipping fluids when I donât want to use hairspray will work similarly nicely. I know that no matter how much or how little Vallejo thinner, retarder or whatever will behave predictably and I wont get any nasty surprises.
I donât use much Vallejo varnishes just because I prefer rattle can clear coats and Mr Color/Gunze cans are excellent, but if I did airbrush clear coats I would likely use Vallejo. Knowing everything you use will play nice with everything else is good for the old stress levels.
I have a feeling one of the main things that folks complain about is airbrush dramas, clogging, stubborn sludge, difficulty to clean etc, and this is common theme when discussing VMA. It goes without saying that you have to use Vallejo thinners and retarders and airbrush cleaners. Using products that are optimised for a different brand of paint (which is chemically different) will create problems. Tamiya X-20 and VMA does not play well together, for example. Then you get the indignant âI didnât thin it with a different brand!â and they are probably telling the truth.
The problem is, I think, is that folks clean their airbrush down after spraying enamels or hybrids etc with Tamiya X-20 or IPA or whatever and donât flush it out properly with water afterwards. Then you have a lovely shiny clean brush but with a layer of IPA or X-20 or whatever inside and when you add the Vallejo paint into it it reacts. You may not even remember what you cleaned it with last time but the residue stays in the brush even when it has dried. That is more than enough to give you major headaches when the VMA goes into the cup. All things being equal it is just smart practice to not leave cleaner in the brush when you are putting it away after use - rinsing it through with water is a good idea for a lot of reasons.
VMA reacts nicely to being cleaned with very hot water when you are cleaning the brush down in a way that enamels donât. Any residual little bits come out nicely and I almost never need to use the pipecleaners or cleaning brushes that came with the Iwata cleaning set if I am spraying VMA. Again, I do think thinning the paint properly does help a lot here too.
Something else to bear in mind is that, because it is an acrylic, VMA will dry faster than most enamels and is more susceptible to tip dry. That is a fact of life for all acrylics. I believe this is only a problem if you are using a âcrownâ or âflowerâ style nozzle guard on the tip of your brush. Flat tip guards are simple to just gently wipe on a wet sponge when it starts to spot and will go a long way to solving this tip dry issue. Another helpful hint Iâve learned is to always have a nicely oil lubricated needle and to spray water through the airbrush before you put paint in the cup just to ensure everything is nice and wet. It really helps with tip drying.
To summarize -
VMA is fine. You just need to know how to use it and not treat it like Tamiya or whatever and expect the same results. Lots complain about it but once you suss out that the key is a couple of drops of Vallejo retarder and 10-20% of Vallejo thinner and that you really really really need to mix it properly in the cup, youâre away. I maintain that used properly with the aforementioned points in mind, you can get world class results with it that are as good as anything you can obtain with lacquers, enamels, hybrids or whatever else.
Sorry for such a long post.