Hi I'm new to the modelling scene and am interested to know what people think about brands of paints, paintbrushes, glosses etc..

Im mainly drawn towards WW2 fighters at the moment and am wondering would you guys recommend using enamels or acrylics,
if i was going to bulk buy say 15 colours, what colours should a modeller never be without? Are humbrol worse/better that revell/tamiya etc...

are there fillers that you would never touch again? or ones that you never stop using?

any help would be appreciated!!

Welcome to modeling. WWII aircraft are great and offer lots of variety. As for paint, are you brush painting or do you have access to an airbrush?

As for color, it depends on nationality. You should be able to get the basic colors, such as the RAF tricolors, interior color, black, silver or aluminum, and clear colors like red, amber, green and blue for lights.

If you are brush painting, my experience is with Vallejo and Testors Model Masters, which generally go on well. You will need top quality brushes for best results. For me, Tamiya work great for airbrushing, but not hand brushing. In spray cans, again, Tamiya have gone on best. As for filler/putty, I have used Squadron, which I liked, and Testors, which I didn't. Stretched sprue and styrene plastic stock also work great, especially for larger gaps.

For weathering, I use artists oils and plain old hard pastel sticks ground down, and I make my own colors. Look up weathering techniques in the forums, and also look at this build https://aeroscale.kitmaker.net/forums/109919&page=1 for good assembly and weathering techniques. You can go through the features and see a lot of other articles on assembly and painting.

Ask a lot of questions. I have and it has helped me tremendously.

You've opened the proverbial can of worms with this question
Ask a dozen modellers this and you'll get a dozen different answers, but there are some basic common points.

Whether enamels or acrylics are preferable is one of the imponderables. Acrylics are generally non-toxic, and thin with water, so they're much less stressful to use, especially if domestic harmony is a consideration. They are much more widely available than they used to be, making them a viable alternative. It's a matter of individual preference more than anything else these days; neither one looks or works worse on your model as long they're used the way they're designed to be used.

As for colours, it's a matter of what themes you build in, but the basics are always needed: black, white, grey, green, red, yellow, silver and blue will find themselves being used in pretty much any model, so you should always have them at hand. Camouflage colours are all over the map depending on what you like to build. So far you've done RAF subjects, so Dark Green, Dark Earth, Sky, Ocean Grey, Light Aircraft Grey, and RAF interior green should be in your possession. If you want Luftwaffe, US Army, Jappanese, Soviet and other nationalities, you'll need dedicated colours to do them unless you want to mix them from primary colours. IPMS Stockholm maintains a couple of excellent paint cross-reference charts which detail national colour schemes and matches them to available hobby paint ranges. Don't forget to use proper thinners which match your paint; all too often thinners for one brand will react very badly with paints from another.

Your paintbrushes should be the best you can find, and they should be kept as clean as you can get them. Once you feel adventurous, an airbrush can help your models look very much better.

For filler I use automotive glazing spot putty. It's easy to work, dries quickly, sands well and is far less costly than dedicated modelling putties from the hobby shop. However having said that, there are many different kinds of filler which do many different kinds of things. Milliput, superglue filled with microballoons, gap-filling superglue, Mr Surfacer (500 and 1000) and many others are available to do the jobs they're best at. There's a fantastic article about filling called reading the Seams in the Aeroscale Start Here forum. In fact, I recommend that you amuse yourself reading as many articles in that forum as you wish. Chances are that someone else once asked the very same questions you find troubling you

Just wanted to say thanks Jessica for the link to the "reading the seams" thread. It's full of great solutions for problems we've all had to tackle. Now the next time I encounter one of these problems I'll be better able to successfully deal with it. Plus quite a few of the suggestions are good tips for modeling in general so it's an altogether great article.

thanks!
Jim
Large Scale Armory

Thank Gerald, who spent the time to pass along his expertise in such a clear and easy to understand way

I personally like the acrylic paints only because there easy to clean up. No smelly paint thinner! I'll use enamels from time to time, but its rare. Humbrol are decent. I like the testors model masters acryl paints. Tamiya as well are really good, there hard to find in my area though. Vallejo seemed to be the choice for most modeler's but I find them expensive and my LHS do not carry them. Brushes I use Tamiya HF brushes. For rough work, like adding washes, highlights and weathering, I picked up some cheap brush sets at my local craft shop. Weathering you cant go wrong with MIG or AK...pricey though but worth it.
Glues, I use the testors liquid mostly, and the CA glues I have a brand thats made by Hobbytown. Any CA glue will work. Putty, I use Perfect Plastic Putty made by Deluxe. Easy to work with and if you mess up, it comes off with some rubbing alcohol.Not a big fan of squadron. I paint my faces with Winsor/ Newtown Oils. Ive tried the acrylics, but they dry too fast for my liking
I always say "what works best for you, thats all that matters" But its nice to explore other options..... happy modeling!

Choices are somewhat limited by what you can get your mitts on, and personal preference. I used to use all Humbrol when I brush painted and never found any problems, it can be thinned with white spirit. When I got an airbrush I changed to Tamiya acrylics And they have been fine too, but use Tamiya thinners, they seem to work better than anything else I can get hold of in the UK. Vallejo paints were not so successful for me. Brushes, best you can get in a variety of sizes and always clean them immediately after use. Airbrushes, a good basic setup can be bought at reasonable cost from airbrush_pro (Yorkshire Clock Builders) and their service in excellent. You can buy better brushes but these are good enough for basic modelling and to see if you can get away with the technique. Tools: Scalpels,blades, drills, Under 1mm, nail and needle files, nail buffer, small wire snips good masking tape. I like Plastic Weld plastic glue if I can get it, using MekPak at the moment and not so happy. For materials other than plastic, Wilko Superglue is ok and comes in a brush bottle (convenient), keep it in the fridge. Filler I have no particular favourite apart from I always keep Milliput in stock. Future/Klear I got from the Wilkinsons web site and I haven't seen it anywhere else, a bottle lasts forever. Maplins are good for small tools but not always the cheapest.