Late US Navy Paint Set
Thanks to Hataka Hobby and Steven International for sending samples of this new line of acrylic model paint. Thank you to the IPMS Reviewer Corps for letting me review them! I am very appreciative of the chance to contribute back to the scale-modeling community.
Hataka Hobby of Poland produces model paints exclusively. Hataka has conveniently bundled related paint colors into 4 to 6 bottle sets at the time of this review, with larger sets expected in the future. Four paint bottles are included in the set reviewed here, and they arrived in a 4 x 3 x 1 inch colorful cardboard hanging box, with standard USN late war colors of semi-gloss sea blue, intermediate blue, dark gull gray and insignia white. Each bottle is 17 ml, with dropper tips and a ball bearing-like metal agitator inside. The agitator is apparently to help get the paint pigment into suspension and seemed to be effective. I was pleased to see that the bearing had no evident corrosion, a concern with acrylic paints. The bearing was stuck in the dropper tip in two of the bottles, but the bearing was easily teased out with a stout rod inserted through the tip.
I tested the paints with a Grex airbrush and hand painting. The paints went on smoothly with a brush and had good coverage on white plastic with no problems. Before airbrushing I put each paint bottle through 2 successive 1 minute cycles on a Robart paint shaker with 1 minute off between cycles. I did not thin the paint and I produced airbrushed test patches on white plastic as in the hand brushing test. The airbrush easily sprayed the paints at 20 PSI, although the intermediate blue did have a little bit of a tendency to clog the airbrush tip on the outside. The airbrushed paint covered quite well, with good opacity. The semi-gloss sea blue is indeed semi-gloss, whereas the others dried with flat finishes. Comparison of the Hataka paint to standard color chips showed very good color matches. Cleanup was easily and effectively done with Model Master acrylic thinner. Hand brushed and airbrushed paints were dry to the touch in about 30 minutes, with hard finish reached in about 24 hours.
I recommend these paints for both hand and airbrush applications.
Thanks again to Hataka Hobby and Steven International for sending samples for review. Thank you to the IPMS Reviewer Corps for letting me review them! I am very appreciative of the chance to report on my findings.
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