It is time to say goodbye to one of the paints I actually really liked to use and that is, Mission Models.
With one of my recent projects, I wanted to go back and use them again as I was spoiled by Ammo’s new ATOM paints and AK 3rd generation acrylics. So I went ahead and took out the thinner and the poly additive as usually I mix those together before I add in the paint itself.
Little did I expect for the polyurethane (poly for short) to go bad and clump up in the thinner instead of dissolving properly. I had that poly less than a year and I just don’t want to buy another one, just to paint a bit again.
Digging around on the internet, did reveal to me that this is nothing new and many people have experienced this. In fact it is so common that a lot of stores don’t even bother to sell these paints due to the short shelf life of the additive and that it can go bad even during transportation.
So was I just putting my head in the sand?
Was the paint even that good?
Haven’t I had problems with it?
Why did I stick with it in the first place?
All of them are valid question. So why did I like those paints?
Well, it felt like science a bit. Mixing and experimenting with the ratios of thinner and poly additive.
Having really nice level results, with a beautiful eggshell finish.
And one time even liking the fact that the paint can be rehydrated, if no poly was added.
So what’s the problem then?
Well, science sometimes doesn’t do what science needs to do and there were numerous occasions when not adding enough poly, overthinning and just bad mixture caused a lot of problems. Paint peeling, uneven coverage and getting the paint rehydrated even by using masking liquid made me dread every step of the painting process.
A lot of times I had to handle the model with extensive care, so I don’t accidentally nick the paint job. Which happened quite often.
Overall the effort I had to put in to caretaking and then having the anxiety of paint peel every time I did masking, just took out all the fun of that part of the hobby.
Writing all of this down really makes me feel like I was lying to myself. Forcing myself using something that is mediocre at best.
What’s next then? What are the alternatives?
In terms of what will happen to the Mission Model paints, I will still keep the paints and will use them whenever they are appropriate.
The paints themselves are just pigments in water, so they are not going to go bad and be unusable and besides, these are beautiful paints, so if there is a use for them in the future, it will be good to have them at my disposal.
But I am not going to buy any more of their primers, varnishes, polyurethane and thinner from them. Although it is tempting to get their thinner as it is quite aggressive and dissolves everything quite nicely, which does make it great for cleaning the airbrush.
In terms of paints, I think I fell in love with the new ATOM lineup from Mig.
I hated their old paints, but these new ones are fantastic. I goes on well, the coverage is great and overall it’s just easy handling.
And you can thin it with pure isopropyl alcohol and when you do that it’s like spraying lacquer.
I also will use AK 3rd Gen acrylics and recently bought some Hataka blue and red line paints to see how good they are.
So there are alternatives…
Anyway, let’s not keep dragging this out for to long.
Goodbye Mission Models.
We had some fun time, but I think there are better options for me.
Don’t cry now, we can keep in touch.
And who knows, we might meet again someday.