Has anyone tried using the apple barrel (or similar) acrylic paints that sell at walmart? They are slightly cheaper than the Tamyia paints and I wondered if they might work well if sealed afterwords?

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I use almost exclusively Apple Barrel. I seal it with the plaid clear coat, never had a problem.

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I used them quite a bit in my early days. And I still use them occasionally, but I find that even when I seal them, they tend to chip more than unsealed Tamiya or Model Master Acryl.

Still, as long as you have a good sealant they're not too bad (especially for the price.)

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They're pretty much all I use (Folk Art, Delta Ceramcote and Americana paints are also in my mix, but not as heavily as Apple Barrel.) Most of the colors are pretty good at covering/holding, especially when sealed, while others are iffy, such as the browns, which tend to take a few coats to get an even color. Avoid any of the gloss colors, they dry very tacky and stay that way; if you need a "gloss" look, best to use a flat version of the color and go over it with gloss sealer.

I've found primering a figure first goes a long way toward helping these stay on (in some cases you won't even need sealer afterward). When sealing I've used Plaid Matte (which PoetFlint mentioned in his post), which is one of the best and lately have been using Americana Matte Sealer for Acrylics; it provides a flatter seal than Plaid but I've had hit or miss luck with how well it prevents chipping so I can't recommend it wholly if you plan to do more than just pose a custom on a shelf.

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Thanks alot guys, that helps. I think the local walmart has mostly folkart and some apple barrel paints, and only the folkart sealer right now. I do plan on using just flat paints, at the moment, and most of the customs will just be posed, but would be nice to be able to repaint some corps! figures for my son to play with.

also have a 1:10/1:12 scale 'model' I'm working on that I want to paint. mostly made of sculpy.

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My entire stash is Apple Barrel Colors, with a handfull of Delta Ceramcoats here and there. That being said, I only have about 20-something bottles.
I used to have a thread for cooking up (newer, not-on-the-wiki) near exact matches to Hasbro/Joe colors, but I may have to redo it from my last printout. Speaking of which, I still need to paint something after finding all these matches.

I will tell you that Apple Barrel's Pool Blue is the exact same as Steel Brigade sky blue. I also found one (of several) near matches to 1982 Cobra (Officer) blue.

-- Cybertronian.

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