The solvent based medel paints like Floquil scare me, so I’m planning to give the Badger Model Flex acrylics a try. I’ve got 2 airbrushes- A Badger 200 and a Testors Aztek with multiple tips.
Anybody got any tips on how to spray the Model Flex- which airbrush, air pressure, how to dilute the paint, etc.
Thanks,
Doug
Might be worth while to check Badger’s website, I’m sure they can offer some help.
Bob Boudreau
Check the websites but generally you can spray ModelFlex between 25 to 30 p.s.i and get decent paint atomization.
Always good to practice on a sample first.
ModelFlex requires no thinning. Yes, a few modelers that like their paint more “watery”, will thin this paint slightly more with distilled water.
Just be sure to clean the airbrush right away !! Acrylic paint dries in minutes (if not seconds) and can really gum up your airbrush if it dries inside there…so clean up (with soap and water) immediately. I eventually gave up using an Aztec and Badger double-action internal airbrush and went with a cheap external mix airbrush.
save money on the airbrush cleaners, use windex or a mixture of 20% household ammonia and 80% h20. beats paying $6-7 for a pint
No thinning required. Just stir it and shake it up REALLY good so it doesn’t clog your brush. I’m useing about 35psi.
I used ModelFlex to repaint the roof, front, and back of an HO Busch transit bus. The paint went on smoothly after I raised the air pressure to about 28 p.s.i. I used a medium sized needle on my Paasche VL airbrush.
I love the Model Flex paint but it clogged up my Aztek brush really quick and really bad. I switched to an external mix brush. I also had limited success using the little gravity feed paint container and thinning 50% water, or 10% alcohol (even though Badger does not recommend this). If you thin with alcohol throw the left over paint away as it will ruin it if left sitting, or the whole bottle if poured back in with fresh paint.
I’m not a big fan of Model Flex paint. It dries too quickly and easily clogs my airbrush (Badger 200).
I had to use Model Flex because of the color I wanted for my G scale speeder, D&RGW Orange. The end results were nice, but I plan to never use Model Flex again. Of all the many model paints I’ve used, Model Flex is by far the hardest to clean. There is still a lot of orange on the caps of my mixing jar and the airbrush jar. And when I opened up the airbrush to clean it after a recent job I could still see traces of that blasted D&RGW orange [xx(]
Plus you can’t use Model Flex for anything but airbrushing. It’s just too thin to brush paint.
My favorite paint is Scalecoat II (the one for plastics), followed closely by Floquil and Polly Scale. These all work wonderfully in my airbrush and never clog. They clean up well too.
A visit to my website will show some of the things I’ve painted. Look for photos with MOW equipment, the business car, and Silver Vista for Scalecoat. The San Juan cars for Floquil. And the water tower for Polly Scale. Unfortunately I don’t seem to have a photo of the infamous Model Flex speeder.
I recently used Model Flex paint on the interior of a PS Pleasure dome with dismal results. I had to brush the paint instead of using an airbrush because the interior was still in the car. The paint just runs off the plastic and pools in corners. Now that I have the interior out of the car I might try an airbrush, otherwise I will use Polly S. Jeff
My first rule of successful airbrushing is to always point the airbrush in the direction of the object which one is desirous of being covered with paint. I once attempted to see what the paint looked like when it came out of the nozzle and for six months I looked like a character out of a Batman episode. This is twice as much fun if one wears peepers. It do give one a strong sense of humility, however!!!
So far, I have no complaints about ModelFlex.
JDD,
On some plastic surfaces oily or waxy residue from the casting process may still be left on the surface. A pre-thinned paint like ModelFlex will not “bite” or adhere to surfaces that are contaminated. In cases like these, it’s helpful to use a wax and grease remover or even isopropyl alcohol to clean the surface. Then, followed by a light scuffing with a scotch pad or toothbrush and a warm soap/water rinse.
IMHO, a number of modelers that spent years painting with solvent-based paints encounter a bit of a challenge when switching over to acrylics. They expect it be a 1-2-3 go process and are forgetting that there is a learning curve. Air pressure, mixing and cleaning recommendations are slightly different. It’s like a school bus driver switching over to driving Greyhound coaches. A lot in common, yet significant differences.
There have been a number of posts on other threads with modelers stating that their Modelflex paint dried up in just two or 3 months. Yet, some of mine are over 3 years of age! Simple Secret: Clean the lids and jar tops after pouring out paint material. Just a tiny amount of air seeping into the jar will cut down its shelf life.
After airbrushing with an acrylic, if the job is finished, flush out the airbrush with distilled water or alcohol. WIPE OFF the needle and aircap (yes, that includes removing the needle and wiping it off). I’ve stated this so many times because I’ve seen painters blast out their airbrushes or paint guns with cleaning material…and that’s it! But they’re the first ones to complain when problems occur.
With practice, acrylics are a piece of cake to use.
I use ModelFlex and PollyScale and greatly appreciate the fact that I no longer h