Sovietwarplanes

I'm considering purchasing Akan paints for my VVS builds. I normally use Tamiya. Are the Akan acrylics like Tamiya acrylic paint (able to be thinned equally well with alcohol or lacquer thinner) or are they the water-based type acrylics likes Vallejo, Humbrol Acrylics, etc.?

For those who use them, what are your experiences with airbrushing, etc?

Hi Jon,

I use AKAN with Tamiya thinner.
I've tried half and half, paint to thinner ratio and it works like Tamiya's.

I clean my airbrush with Windex and finish the cleaning process with lacquer thinner.

All the best.

Jean

Jon,
I have been using Akan acrylic paints for a while now.  I have not tried thinning them with lacquer thinner, however Tamiya acrylic thinner works great.  IMHO they airbrush very nicely.  Linden Hill Imports is now carrying a lacquer based line of Akan paints in addition to the acrylics.  Here is an example using amt 1, 4, 7, and 12:

(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7075/6915667774_17d7bc544c_b.jpg)

BTW, Jon, are you going to have a table at the region 3 show in Marietta tomorrow?

Thank you both for the information! I think I will order some.


I'm afraid not, though I wish I could! I live in NC so it's a bit of a drive. Did we meet in 2008 when I was there? Let me know how the show goes

Nice Shturmovik, TD!  So that's what the AKAN acrylics look like on an Il-2 model.  I don't like acrylics for airbrushing, but I might have to try AKAN's, especially if they're not too hard to thin and clean up.

Regards,

Jason

Learstang,
Akan lacquer based paints are now available from lindenhillimports.com.  If you try the lacquer paints, let us know how they work.

Jon, we have met several times in atl and anniston.

I haven't been to Anniston, actually- I bet you met some of the guys who are members of my site. They had a table there representing the site. There are so many guys on the Agape forum from around there, we call them "The Alabama Gang"! :)

I really did enjoy the Atlanta show the time I went. Went over to Williams Bros. BBQ afterwards- good stuff!

Well I gave Akan a try this morning, painting the undersides of a Yak-7V from ICM. Since it was my first time spraying them, I started by first shooting them straight from the bottle. I normally do that to try and get an idea of how much they need to be thinned. After using my trusty badger electric paint stirrer to make sure it was thoroughly mixed, I sprayed on some test shots- and ended up finishing it off! No thinning. I was amazed. It did get a tiny bit of tip dry now and then, but nothing that simply cleaning the needle with my fingernail couldn't solve.

Towards the end I thinned some with 91% alcohol, and it worked great. I'll put on the top colors tonight (hopefully) so I'll try a bit of thinning with Tamiya thinners.

The paint went down very smooth, and looked great.

So far I am thoroughly impressed!

I bought one of the Akan acrylic lacquer sets and plan to use at least the AMT-7 on a Yak-1 project. The new paints smell something like Mr. Color, and they appear to behave very well. In a hair-brush comparison with the Akan water based acrylics, the new paints went on smoother and more evenly, so I'm anticipating they'll airbrush very well, probably with a bit of Mr. Color leveling thinner. I'll post more once I've done the deed. I only wish one could buy the colors individually since the two available sets are over $20 each.

Pip

Hi,
I use AKAN acrylics for all my VVS planes. To thin them I tried both Tamiya X-20A acrylics and Lacquer thinner. Better results with the second one. Plus Tamiya acrylics Paint Retarder. Same thinner and watter for cleaning airbrush.

     66misos

Hi all,
where could I find an Akan catalogue with chips commented in English (including colors other than Russian)? I have difficulty in moving in the site of Akan.
Regards
Massimo

It doesn't have color chips, but you may be able to use Linden Hill's website as a cross reference:

http://www.lindenhillimports.com/akanrussia+ussr.htm

Also, do you use Google Chrome? it will automatically translate pages to your language. it's not a perfect translation, but it's usually enough to get by.

HTH.

Thank you Jon,
there are some things onRussian andGerman paints, but I would need a complete catalogue.
I make use already of the translator of Chrome, but I don't find the pages with the lists of colors on the site of Akan.
Regards
Massimo

Here are the acrylics:
http://akanshop.ru/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=87&Itemid=2

HTH!

Thank you
Massimo

I've just used the Akan acrylic lacquer AMT-7 to paint the bottom of one of my Yak-1 projects. I'm happy to report that it sprays just beautifully -- easily as well as any other paint I've ever used -- both for general application and post-shading.

(http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj243/pnmoss/Accurate%20Miniatures%20Yak-1/Yak-1Bottom_zpsbd122a5f.jpg)

Pip

That does look good (by the way, nice Yak-1, Pip!).  Is that AKAN A-14 in the wheel wells?

Regards,

Jason

Hi Jason.
No, it's my own mix for A-14: 35237 Medium Gray and 16081 Navy Gloss Gray mixed 1-to-1 with a dollop of 36270 to lighten it. I was aiming at something like, but maybe a bit lighter than, 26187, given as a reference for A-14 both by the South Front instructions and the scalewiki.ru color chart. The Akan rendition has the same character but is, predictably, somewhat darker.

Pip

Hi,
I found this partial summary of AKAN paints used for plane painting mainly during WWII era on scalemodels.ru. Even if these scans cannot be used as absolute chips of the particular color, they gives good idea about relative darkness, brightness and hue of those paints:

(http://scalemodels.ru/images/2013/04/1366304156_akan1.jpg)

(http://scalemodels.ru/images/2013/04/1366304163_akan2.jpg)

Note two red options for stars and marking.
Not too many green options. I miss there green A-24m and greyish blue A-28m, probably due to big similarity to their nitro relatives AMT-xx.
Also no 4BO here as not used as camo paint on planes, but similar to AMT-4 as seen at http://sovietwarplanes.com/board/index.php?topic=1555.msg12418#msg12418 (http://sovietwarplanes.com/board/index.php?topic=1555.msg12418#msg12418):

(http://i1063.photobucket.com/albums/t518/66misos/Yak-1/20130512_180320_zpsc6a06e1f.jpg)
 
Hope it helps.

     66misos

Hi Misos, thank you for the note. Although, I already know these chips and they helped for the  general table of  colors at http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/colors/color-table.html (http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/colors/color-table.html)
My request of some time ago was to see what colors they produce for tanks.
About A-24m, I guess you are right, bot for the light blue A-28m (matt), the Alboom Nakrasok shows a color similar to British Sky, while the corresponding A-28g (gloss) is of a more convincing blue shade. I guess that mr. Akanihin was in doubt for these discordant shades and preferred to renounce to add this color.
Regards
Massimo