Paint Thinner Transfer

I use a lot of Tamiya paints.

Getting a couple drops of primer out of the bottle can be a pain.

So I got some Pipettes from Hobby Lobby.  I put a couple rubber bands on my bottle of thinner and one is always ready for some work.

Two sizes, big and small, pretty cheap.
 

 

Stick the pippette into the bottle and withdraw a few drops, put it into the paint and return the rest to the bottle.  More control than an eyedropper, the shaft is smaller. 

Paint and Organization

These are the most common liquid paints in my collection, Tamiya acrylic paints.

I like that they have a wide range of military colors, and clean up with water.  Although I use their paint thinner to clean the brush after it has been water cleaned.

Naturally the State of California has a mandatory warning label on them because leftists don't like you to have fun.

Because the tiny warnings on the side of the jar are not enough.

Testors are my oldest continuous use paints.  I probably first got them in abut 1965.

These are enamel and require paint thinner for clean up.  

The Flat Green, 1164 is my standard WWII US Army canvas color.  Although not all that accurate for the job, when I started using it at age ten it seemed okay to me.  I kept using it rather than change so the Army would be uniform, that seemed more important than being right.  Not unlike the real army.

1165 Flat Olive is my WWII US Army color and the jar paint is a perfect match to the spray paint.  And it has matched perfectly for 60 years!  I have used enough of this stuff to not only paint my whole house, but probably pay for it as well.

It looks pretty nice on this Paul Heiser Sherman tank with Aunt Jemima mine roller.

I put little stickers on the lids of these paint bottles.  The serial number tells me the contents of the jar, after 50 years you get to recognize these things.  The serial number and the name of the color tell me the jar has been opened.  I store my paints inside drawer and I want to be able to see them from above and recognize what has been opened.

The Tamiya paints have a jar lid in the color of the paint.  And so do the Gunze Sangyo paint on the right.  Open jars get a black marker O around the rim to signify an open jar.  Some paints that have a special purpose get a sticker with extra data.  Gunze Sangyo paint in number 302 is the paint I use when I do flocking, either as a base color or as a touch up color.  It's also the same color as Imex and Revell US Army WWII troops and Korean War troops.  So I use it when other figures are added to those so they look uniform.  That's important because most of my armies are composed of units of troops of a single color.
 

Painting Little Trucks

Paul Heiser Models 2 1/2 ton truck with tires behind the cab show it is an artillery prime mover.

Overall it gets spray painted Rust-Oleum 2X primer, then Testors Olive Drab spray paint.  Most of the details get painted with Tamiya, like this winch cable.

Gloss black for the windshield.

And then flat black for the tires.  Testors 1164 Flat Green for the canvas, lots of touch up around the tires and canvas.

Painting the spare tires is a chore.

Each jar of paint gets a little sticker on top with the name and sometimes the number of the paint inside the jar.  I also include other information such as US Army Troops if it is a color I use for uniforms.  The jar lids get a black marker circle around the rim once it's opened.  I often have multiple jars of the paints I use a lot, so it's helpful to prevent me having multiple open jars of the same color.

Testors 1164 Flat Green and Testors 1165 Flat Olive.  I have probably used this paint for more than 50 years, and could have painted my house with all of it I have used.  It was about 5 cents per jar when I started using it.

 Their Flat Olive is a perfect match for Testors Olive Drab spraypaint.

Space Men

Robot to assist my Space Men.  I selected the largest and most robust looking figure for the task.

This Red Space Men unit is Rust-Oleum Gloss Apple Red.

Naturally I had to include the GI Joe Adventure Team in any space adventure.  Here is there yellow robot.

Rust-Oleum Sunburst Yellow gloss spraypaint.

This rather retro-color is Tamiya Coral Blue.  You can see a few of the Space Men on the right side of the photo getting some touch up paint.  The figures are 1/72nd scale figures from Dollar Tree from about 20 years ago.  They are pretty good copies of the 1/32nd scale Airfix WWII USMC and WWII British Paratroopers, all with US M1 style helmets and rather generic weapons.  Sadly only a few poses.

The white figures are more technical troops, supply, maintenance and others.  The are in a semi-gloss white by Rust-Oleum.

This last group is what I call my US Army Astro-Rangers.  These started as MPC 60mm troops in gold.  I use the gold figures because MPC made a space set and the figures were gold plastic.  Also one of the official colors of the US Army is gold, the other is black.  So when I started doing Space Men in 1/72nd scale I included the Astro-Rangers.  They take the name of Ranger and spread it throughout the solar system.  The are elite troops in space as they are on Earth.  I named them Astro-Rangers because it had a 1950's retro sound to it and combined astronaut and Army Rangers.
 

Paint Thinner

 

Working further on my James Bond project.  I am using Tamiya paint thinner to remove paint from this helicopter bubble.

Also the Bat Insignia from this fuel tank.

Just dip it into the paint thinner and rub it on the tank.

Comes right off the fueltank and right off the canopy.

Good stuff.

Robot Samurai

I have been painting some of the SCS Direct Robot Fantasy Sci-fi Action Figures.

I am using Tamiya spray paints.  I tried Model Master but the paint never dried, it stayed sticky.  I think it reacts to the rubbery plastic.  So the paint remover when on and the paint went off.

These three robots have a Japanese / anime / Samurai look to them. 

So they got selected as my first robots to paint.  I am using high gloss black, chrome silver, and a tan color.  The plan is to next paint the main parts of the robot leaving the nooks and crannies the base color for contrast.  This will enhance the Samurai look as they wore clothing and mail under their armor and had a two-tone color scheme.