I dont claim to be a chemist but recently Ive been doing a spot of DIY and notices that emulsion paint costs between about £3 and £6 per litre depending on quality. Gloss is more expensive, Id guess between £6 - £10 per litre.
Tamiay 23ml acrylic retails about £2 in the Uk, this equates by my calculation to about £86 per litre!!
What is so special about modelling paints that make them so costly? Supply and demand?

I know that the real cost is quite a lot lower, but quite likely the paint manufacturers want to take the most advantage moneywise from these items that all in all are far a lot cheaper (at least in their view) than all the rest of the items we modellers use (kits, extra detail sets, tools, ecc.). On top of that I've seen that buying Humbrol enamels at arts craft stores (at least here in Italy) are something like 30% cheaper than at a scale model shop!!! Often if you buy any tool at a model shop you will pay it 20 to 30% more than a professional one bought in a shop for professionals.
Ciao

Economics

The model paints are expensive on a couple of layers. The first layer is customer demand vs. need. We "need" these paints and that means the demand can not be met anywhere else. Therefore the manufactures can set the price pretty high (to high and we find other ways).
The second layer is distribution since it is a segment niche market the channels are narrow and select (hobby shops only usually). There are not a lot of customers therefore retailers must mark up product as high as possible to get the best return for each purchase.

So two things could happen to lower prices:
1. We could find an alternate paint product for say Tamiya Sky and suddenly that would drop in price to stay competative with the new product.
2. We could find a different means of getting it - all pitching in and buying in bulk to cut out the middle man mark up.

OR

3. We could will the lottery and it wouldn't matter.

Scott,

The last large prize Powerball lottery game, I bought $30 worth of tickets and didn't win ... I think the Tamiya paint is cheaper and a better deal! Everything is relative ...

GR8Voyager

gr8voyager - I live in North Carolina
No lottery.....

Scott, that's probably a good thing. You have a better chance of being struck by the lightning (maybe even twice) than winning the big one.



Because no matter what we modelers keep buying it. Paint could be $10 a bottle and we need that super-duper-khaki-drab-green-with-a-touch-of-olive color we will dish it out.

I have been buying those craft acrylics a lot lately their cheap and easy to mix I only buy model paints now if its a 'special' the rest I try to mix myself especially for ground work.