IPMS/USA Reviews

This part 2 of a three-part review of Mission Models paints.The Clear Coats

Shortly after releasing their second round of paint colors Mission Models released three clear coat products to protect the paint once it has been applied to a model. The Clear coatings are Flat Clear, Semi-Gloss Clear and Gloss Clear.

All clear coats are mixed with the Mission Models thinner and depending what you use the clears coats for, the thinner proportions mix is varied, I found 30% thinner to the clear worked best for me. The Polyurethane may be used with the clear coat as it is with the paint products. Let the clear coats dry for minimum 3 hours and they are ready for applications of any masking material.

Spraying the clears are done by setting your airbrush air pressure to 10 to 15 psi and applying the clear coats in light multiple coats.

The clear coats are compatible with all the decal settings solutions that you would normally use on your projects.

Thank you to Tru-Color Paint for providing an assortment of their Military Ships Series paints to review. Thank you to the IPMS Reviewer Corps for allowing me to test out some of this excellent paint line. This review focuses on product application and ease of use.

Tru-Color Paint describes this product line as a solvent-based acrylic paint. What this means for the modeler is that the same safety precautions required for enamels and others must be used with these paints. The Tru-Color website describes acrylic component as the polymer for surface bonding.

This will be the third of a three-part review of Mission Models paints.

The Metallics

Mission Models has four new metallic paints, White Aluminum, Dark Aluminum, Duraluminum and Silver.

For this paint test I sprayed Mission White Primer after cleaning and degreasing the test surface. If you use gray or black primer you can get a variance of tonal quality for each of the metallic paints making them very versatile.

I decided to paint the White Aluminum and Dark Aluminum for this review. As you can see in the accompanying pictures the paints are very durable. Once laid down they will not pull up with masking tape and have a nice metallic sheen.

To test the ability of the paint to cover an area that's been scratched or damaged, I started with a scuffed area and was able to almost cover the damage with 6 passes of the airbrush. What that means is that this metallic paint can be touched up after application as in the case a scratch, which is usually not the case for most acrylic metallics.

All of us, at some point, have finished a model after many weeks or months of work, and realized that it needed a display base of some sort to enhance the piece. But creating a base can often be just as time consuming as the model, and if you are ready to move on to another project, it may get put on the back burner or never get done. Coastal Kits is working to provide a solution to this problem with several premade, two-dimensional bases that allow you to quickly and easily enhance your model. For this review, I will be looking at the one of these bases, which is called Sci-Fi 4.

The base measures 250x250mm (approximately 9.84x9.84 inches) and is made of sturdy plastic board material that is 3 mm thick. It has a little flexibility but does not bend easily. As an experiment, I tried to make an indention in the top of the display with my fingernail with a moderate amount of force and was unable to make a dent in the material. If this base can withstand this, it should be able to withstand the weight of most styrene or resin models without compressing.

Company Overview

Mission Model paints - a new way to think about painting.

This review focuses on using Mission Models acrylic paints. I will present a ground up approach to the steps I follow to get the best finish from this new line of primers and paints.

Mission Models Paints is a relative newcomer to the model paint market with 118 custom colors for armor, ships, aircraft and cars in the line. An additional 75 colors will be added soon.  

What are Benefits to using the paints?

They have a high pigment density, no chemical odor, are easy to work with, and have great opacity with little tendency to run, sag, or spider when sprayed. And, they're environmentally safe. An additional benefit is that when sprayed, more paint is concentrated on the area being painted with less overspray.