Acrylic Craft Paints

Greetings all,

I have been reading numerous forum discussions posted on may hobby sites about using craft type acrylic paints and the arguments against them. It appears that few hobby enthusiasts believe the advantage over the pre-mixed hobby -specific paints. Here are my observations from over ten years of using craft paints.
First and foremost the brands, CreamCoat, Apple Barrel and Anitia's are less in price for two ounce sqeeze bottles and if one were to choose the best it would be Anitia's, although I use the first two with great success. Ranging in every possible color and as flat or glossy these paints when mixed with blue tint windshield wiper fluid airbrush onto many plastic surfaces look and wear very good. Handbrushing without thinning is rewarding as well as figure painting is a favorite of mine for military dioramas. When it comes to matching specific railroad or military colors I obtain a color chart and simply match the existing colors from my inventory of almost 120 choices. Yes the names of the colors are somewhat odd but they do in fact match against any prototype colors.
The list of advantages includes weathering with artist or billiard chalk, mixing with acrylic home repair products such as caulking and most of all they do not have too strong an odor. Additionally drying the paints with a hand held hairdryer set on LOW heat will harden the paint and the technique I use to prepare any surface is that of gently scouring the surface of parts with a green scouring pad used on pots and pans, this will leave slight scratch marks to which the paint adheres better. I can base all my observations on the fact that my father taught me about all painting as his background and PhD in chemistry was very helpful durng my first attempts at painting model cars with spray paints in the '60s.
The models shown are all painted with acrlylic craft paints and prepared and finished as described above.
More about this subject in future posts as your comments are welcome.