General Modelling

Paints and Glues etc.

Paints

Most of our paints come in tiny tins or bottles because they are mianly used for painting plastic kits.

Humbrol do enamel paints in small tins and we have a huge range of colours.  Revell also do enamel colours and we sell those too. Humbrol make an acrylic range of railway colours.  They also do acrylic paints in spray cans.  Tamiya makes acrylic sprays and they also do a range of colours specifically for painting Lexan bodyshells.  The colours of the ordinary acrylic sprays begin with TS before the colour code number and the Lexan spray paints begin with PS before the number.  It is important to buy the correct paint for the job, so if you are in doubt its always better to ask.

Sending aerosol paints to customers now is difficult since Royal Mail  will not now allow sellers to send pressurized items i.e. aerosols in the normal post. Some Couriers will still allow them to be sent, but the costs involved are much higher.

Paintbrushes.

In the same way that a workman is only as good as his tools, an artist is only as good as  his brush. Modellers have to be artists whether they are painting a model railway layout or backscene, or an Airfix or other plastic model kit.  Flat brushes are useful for painting large areas, whereas fine haired round brushes are needed to paint the detail on a model face or uniform.  There is a huge range of sizes and materials  from best quality sable hair brushes, to artificial hair  or cheaper natural hair brushes. We even sell glue or dope brushes made from stiff bristle.

Airbushes

If you are willing to spend some time going through a learning curve, then an airbush is a very useful skill to acquire.  Pricewise these begin at a modest sum, usually under £20.00 and are used with a can of pressurized air.  They usually come with a single nozzle for general purpose use. This is suitable for larger areas of paint, but if you need to do more detailed work, you will need a selection of nozzles. You can use a variety of paints in your airbrush, as long as it is thinned to a suitable consistency.  We usually suggest the consistency of milk is ideal.  Problems usually arise with blockages in the nozzle so frequent cleaning is required. Applying thin coats of paint which will dry quickly is preferable to trying to do it all in one thick coat, as there is a danger of paint runs.

For the more experienced airbush operator, different kinds of airbrush are available including some which are used with a compressor.The more expensive airbrushes usually come with a selection of nozzles which will enable you to paitn considerable detail with accuracy.

Glues.

We counted up how many glues we stock one day recently and we were amazed that we actually had approximately 90 different glues on our database!

It makes things slightly complicated when a customer comes in asking for "some glue" as we have to ask them what they are gluing. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised when we get requests for "something to stick the gear lever back into my car"( i.real car) or for the fridge door, or the trim on the oven.

There are different glues for plastic kits, or wooden models.  Some glues have different setting times such as Epoxy glues and others stick straightaway such as superglues. Special glues are needed to stick foam together .  Its always advisable to check the composition of the things you want to stick before you come and ask for some glue as we then stand a much better chance of getting the right glue for you.