Fairly new to the hobby

[Malard]

Hey I'm new to the boards and fairly new to modeling, when I was a kid I had alot of the revell snap togthere kits tried a few of the more challenging ones but couldn't get into it. My father in law had some old monogram kits that he found cleaning out thierry leake house so I decided to throw them togthere, the first one went togthere sloppy. Second one I learned my mistakes but still not there. One question I do have is he gave me an unopened kit of testors enamel paints from 1985 and was wondering if the paint, glue, and putty that was in there is still useable? Thanks alot guys hope to enjoy my stay!

[niteowl7710]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that 26 year old hobby supplies aren't going to be good anymore. More than likely everything dried up 16 years ago

[mageckman]

The paint is possibly still good. I have some bottles that i use infreguently that are still good after 25 years. It all depends on how tight the caps are on.Only way to tell would be to open the bottles up and see. The glue would be iffy. I figure the putty went south years ago as the Testors putty didn't last very long when new. Hope this helps.

[Erik Smith]

Sometimes the old Testors paint can last, seemingly, forever. However, the reason it would still be "good" is that it takes an eternity (in modeling years) to dry. So, if you have paint that is still fluid after 26 years, you will probably be waiting for the paint to dry on your model a long time - enamel is slow to begin with and some of it is genetically slower than others. Your best bet for detailing and small touch up paints - if your interested in staying in the hobby - are Tamiya acrylics.

The glue - tube? Probably not worth saving anyhow. Testors liquid and superglue are much better, user friendly alternatives.

Putty - not so good to begin with. Add 26 years and it's worthless.

[Malard]

Thanks alot guys, I seem to like the acrylic paints more than the enamel they are just flat, but some gloss spray would help that.

[shatteredsoul76]

You can also use acrylics from the craft sections of hobby shops as well as department stores like Wal-Mart, they are cheap, come in a wide range of colors, can be thinned for airbrushing and come in metallics, glossy, flat, etc. Most of my paints are craft acrylics made by Folk Art, the only thing I dont like about them is they are kind of a soft paint compared to others.

[cruz]

If you are starting the hobby, the best thing to do is to start out fresh, in the long run, everything ends right if started right. Stick with it, it's really an amazing and fun pastime and you started even better by joining this forum!