Tom Setzer Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 I Still Use Testers Enamels thinned with Cheap Lacqre thinner from WalMart, for shinny finishes, but I also use a lot of PlastKote Primers, and DupliColor paints. PPG Paints Made for sale in California is water based so I also use it. When I use Acrylics I use a lot of Floquil and Valejo AirBrush paint. I also use Createx Acrylic paint for finishes. For detail paint I use a lot of Craft Paints. I chose my paint based on the finish I am working for. I'm afraid I don't think much about the Cost, because the paint job is the thing that most people judge you models by, and with all the work I do on the majority of my builds(some I have well over a year invested in building), I don't want the paint job to be less than the best I can possibly Do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodneyBad Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Ya want to hear about a Outrageous price on a can of Tamiya paint? $17. for the small Rattle can of TS84 Metallic Gold :o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danno Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Wow, Harry! That Mack is sure nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr cheap Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 the time has come to truely consider a mixing cheat sheet and buy our paint by the quart the 3 primiry colors and mix our own ...................................(((((hey im mr cheap)))))))) i was born that way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Cranky Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 I agree, that Mack is wonderful. Where are you hiding your builds, Harry? Where can we go see more of them, you rascal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sport Suburban Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 That's 256 1/2 ounce bottles to make a gallon. 256 times $4 = $1,024 a gallon!!!! Yeah yeah..I know. I's the small packaging and handling etc etc. Still seems awful expensive! That is not bad!! I just painted my car and the basecoat was $815 a gallon and the clear was $400 a gallon. I wonder how much those glass bottles cost x 256? Glass isn't cheep and those bottles use alot of it for what they hold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Johnston Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 There are so many alternatives. At Wal-Mart you can buy color place flat black, gloss black and many other colors for 93 cents a can... Krylon makes an excellent semi gloss black that I use somewhere on virtually every model I build. They also have all shades of semi gloss tans for interiors, etc... I'd love to find a non Testors non Tamiya aluminum paint. I have yet to find one that looks like the metalizers or Tamiya aluminum. Any suggestions ? I bought a large can of Duplicolor Whimbledon White maybe 4 years ago or more. I've painted at least 4 bodies with it, and the 5th this weekend. I've painted many interiors base color (2 tone) with this. I paid less than 5 bucks and its still going... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 I agree, that Mack is wonderful. Where are you hiding your builds, Harry? Where can we go see more of them, you rascal? I posted that one already. I post models all the time. I've probably posted more than 20 at least. Obviously you haven't been paying attention... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 I'm afraid I don't think much about the Cost, because the paint job is the thing that most people judge you models by, and with all the work I do on the majority of my builds(some I have well over a year invested in building), I don't want the paint job to be less than the best I can possibly Do! There is no direct correlartion between the cost of paint and the quality of the paint job. You can get excellent results with cheap paint, and you can get lousy results with expensive paint. Paying through the nose for paint isn't going to assure you a good paint job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemodeler Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 It shouldn't be a big surprise to see paint go up, afterall the kit prices are getting up there too. I was in a Hobbytown USA last week and they had new releases from Revell that stickered at $28.99. Like many others, I remember cheap gas, paint and model kits but everything has gotten sky high (except wages!). Went to Wal Mart this morning because the Mrs. has a few favorites she likes to buy there. Got tricked into doing "a little grocery shopping" and $105 later, we walked out the door! I would be fine with the cost but other than some lunch meat, it was mostly pantry filling items and not meals we bought. Bottom line- we all must be smart with our money and be on the lookout for deals. Use the weekly coupons from Michaels and Hobby Lobby to buy paint and use Harry's tip to use cheaper craft paints. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaronw Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 I wish more paint companies would offer the larger 1 oz bottles. A huge expense is the packaging, Floquil (another Testors brand) comes in 1 oz bottles and is nearly the same price (I think it is about $0.50 more) as Testors Model master and Pollyscale despite being twice as much paint. They could even add a little more profit into the price to offset us buying 1/2 as many jars and we would still come out ahead. I would need to build a new paint rack though since I only included 2 shelves for the larger Tamiya / Floquil / Glue bottles. The craft paints Harry mentioned do work pretty well. I don't use them much on plastic models (mostly out of habit) but I do use them on figures, and other projects. Micheals also carrys them if you are like me and don't have a Hobbylobby. I've also come to appreciate artists oils (the stuff in a tube). Used over acrylics they can be used for wood graining, weathering or just as a contrast (panel lines and such). Used alone they can be easily mixed and used as paint. The drying times are long, but that can be used to your benefit allowing some interesting options. They are expensive up front being about $8 for a 2 oz tube, but they go a long way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
my66s55 Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 All of these except the black Mercedes were sprayed with Liquitex Professional in the tube for $8 and change. Use a 40% coupon and it's in the $5 range for 2oz. of paste. The Merceddes was sprayed with Apple Barrel gloss black that cost $1.19. Only the 40 panel & 65 Dodge have Future on them. The rest are just paint. All paints were bought at Michaels. There are 2 posts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
my66s55 Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 (edited) Edited November 13, 2011 by my66s55 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 As you can see, there are a lot of alternatives to hyper-expensive "model paint" out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Cates Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 It is all dependant upon the price of oil and the price of labor, Yesterday at our local club meeting we discussed this, paint comtinues to go up as well as prices on kits. Prices on paint and styrene (both oil products) will probably continue to rise according to oil prices. Also, there is an issue with wage increasment in China, workers are getting less productive and demanding more salary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Anderson Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 With hobby paints, it's not the paint itself that is so expensive, but rather the little glass bottles! I just looked up, for reference, the list price for a Badger 3/4 oz glass bottle--$1.82, and that's with a plastic cap! Now, the production cost for a 1/4 oz glass bottle can't be all that much different--just the cost of the glass material itself--many other factors to consider here. In short, just as with many other liquid products, it's not the product in the package nearly as much as the packaging itself. Also, take into account the weight: The little bottles of paint we use are shipped generally in either dozens or half dozens, depending on the size of the bottle of paint. In the scope of plastic model building, paint is the heaviest by weight/carton volume of anything we buy for our hobby. Weight affects shipping costs more than volume, given the weight limits necessarily imposed on individual shipping cartons, and the trucks & other conveyances used to deliver those products to the stores we buy from (the same thing comes into play when ordering by mail, phone or online--weight is a major factor in the shipping cost to you as well. The enamels and lacquers we all like using are also petrochemical based (even the waterborne stuff relies on petroleum for at least some of its feedstocks), and I've been noticing for years that the price of petroleum has trended upward dramatically in the years since I bought my first bottle of model paint, certainly since I bought my first gallon of gasoline to fuel the lawnmower which provided a few $$ with which to buy model kits back in the late 1950's. Ever wonder why returnable glass bottles disappeared from the soft drink and dairy industries? The same thing, the cost of those heavy bottles, both in manufacture and in the cycling the empties back through the bottling plants and dairies. Also, think of the sheer weight of those Coke bottles, the pint, quart, half gallon and gallon glass milk bottles--the added weight made for shipping considerations to and from the bottling plants. I can still remember the first 1/4 oz bottles of Testors I bought--from a neighborhood Five & Dime store--ten-cents----back in 1957! It took only about 2 years for those bottles of Testors to go up to 15-cents each, and then about 1971 or so, 20 and then very quickly, 25-cents due to inflation at that time. A rattle can of spray paint? Well, in the summer of 1959, I bought my first AMT '40 Ford Coupe kit, and right there was a rack of Pactra 'Namel spray paints. The price of that first rattle can of Pactra (Testors was a year or two away from introducing their spray cans)? 59-cents, which price held for less than a year before they went up to 69-cents. Now, that was a time when that first AMT '40 Ford kit cost me $1.49, and no sales tax--but still, for a 15yr old kid, that could be a major purchase back then. Imagine the sticker shock, when in 1962, AMT Corporation introduced their line of spray lacquers formulated for use directly on styrene: 5-oz spray can would set you back 89-cents, fully 20-cents more than the smaller cans from Pactra and Testors. It wasn't until 1964, when AMT changed their packaging down to the 3.5oz size the others were selling. In short, the costs of model kits and the supplies we use, absent uncontrollable shifts in the prices of raw materials, is, and has almost always been, relative --shifting upward right along with everything else. Art Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Sumner Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Art, That price you quoted for the Badger bottles is quite high and is their retail price. You can buy those same bottles with lids for 62 cents a piece here... http://www.specialtybottle.com/salvejarsclearmi.aspx And that's retail. I would imagine that Badger's cost is considerably lower. Anyone can buy the regular 1/2 ounce bottles with caps for 79 cents a bottle from Floquil here... http://www.hobbylinc.com/airbrush/supplies.htm I would imagine Testor's cost on buying thousands of these jars would be a LOT less than that...maybe 10 - 25 cents a bottle with the huge volume they must buy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbwelda Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 >My G/F thinks it funny that I go to the auto parts store to get paint for models what is she gonna think when you tell her you go to beauty shops for fingernail files? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
High octane Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 I picked up a 1/4 oz. jar of Testors Flat Black yesterday at my LHS and it was priced at $1.39 + tax. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr cheap Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 i have may be 30 raddle cans (testers) im going to empty them to use them in my air brush /// raddle cans do have some value Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermodel Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 workers are getting less productive and demanding more salary. Thats what happened in north america.thats why jobs went to asia.in the future with limited fuel the jobs will come back because of shipping costs I use the cheap big cans whwn ever posible.If a guy uses a air brush do you use less paint?I was spray bombing some small parts a couple days ago and think more paint went in the air than on the plastic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
High octane Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 While I don't know if you guys do any other shopping except for models and hobby supplies, it seems as though EVERYTHING is going up except my income. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermodel Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 While I don't know if you guys do any other shopping except for models and hobby supplies, it seems as though EVERYTHING is going up except my income. YEAH THINK?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychographic Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 Thats what happened in north america.thats why jobs went to asia.in the future with limited fuel the jobs will come back because of shipping costs I use the cheap big cans whwn ever posible.If a guy uses a air brush do you use less paint?I was spray bombing some small parts a couple days ago and think more paint went in the air than on the plastic You are absolutely correct, with a dual action airbrush, not only can you control the amount of paint you are spraying, you can control the amount of air pressure. The air pressure plays a huge part in equation in keeping most of the paint directed at the part and not just blowing into the air. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperStockAndy Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 . Also, there is an issue with wage increasment in China, workers are getting less productive and demanding more salary. That's the problem with today's generation. Nobody takes pride in their work, except for the people that were born on the 70's. I swear, you can't hire anyone under 25, and get a good job out of them. It's sad. It really is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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