Vallejo Paint: Model Color, Model Air, Sets and Airbrush Gear

What Vallejo makes

Vallejo is a paint brand. In our Amazon US data, every Vallejo listing is paint, a painting helper or an airbrush. No kits.

The Vallejo paint lineup in the grid:

• Model Color: 17 ml singles, 18 ml bottles in sets of 6 to 80
• Model Air: 17 ml bottles, singles, sets and a 72-bottle case
• Game Color and Game Air: sets for tabletop miniatures, up to a 64-bottle Game Air case
• Premium: 60 ml bottles, including fluorescent colors and a matt varnish for the airbrush
• True Metallic Metal: an 18 ml sterling silver
• Airbrush helpers: thinner, cleaner, flow improver, a cleaning station and bundles
• Airbrushes: three dual-action, gravity-feed models

Most model kits in the model kits section need paint that isn't in the box. Vallejo is one of the brands you'd shop for that.

The notes below go range by range, then cover the airbrush gear and how to pick. Where our data leaves a field empty, so do I.

Vallejo Model Color

Model Color is the largest range in our data by set count. The bottles in sets are 18 ml; the single blacks and golds are 17 ml.

Sets in the grid:

• Allied Forces WWII: 16 bottles
• WWII American Armour & Infantry: 6 bottles
• Medieval Colors: 16 bottles
• Face & Skin Tones: 8 bottles
• Effects: Rust, Stains & Streaking: 8 bottles
• Effects: Wood & Leather: 8 bottles
• Wargames Basics (70260): 8 bottles
• Model Color Basic Case and Military Case: 80 bottles each

The theme sets do a job you'd otherwise do with a color chart and a lot of squinting. Face and skin tones in one box means figure painters don't have to match flesh colors by eye. The rust and streaking set is for weathering, which means making a model look used.

Who suits Model Color: brush painters doing figures, armor details, and anything with small areas. Who should skip the 80-bottle cases: anyone who hasn't finished a few kits yet. You'll use a dozen colors for months before you need the other sixty-eight.

Vallejo Model Air

Model Air is the range whose name points at the airbrush. In our data the bottles are 17 ml.

Sets in the grid:

• WWII Allied: 16 bottles
• Basic Colors (71178): 16 bottles
• Basic Colors: 8 shades
• German Colors 1940–1945: 8 bottles
• USAF Colors Grey Schemes (71156)
• WWII USN Aircraft colors
• US Modern Desert Colors: 6 bottles
• Basic Colors Model Air Range Case: 72 bottles

There's also a single Model Air Chrome, 71064.

Aircraft schemes are where these sets earn shelf space. A gray scheme for a jet can use three or four close grays. A set with the right ones saves you from mixing, which is fine once and tedious the fourth time.

Who suits Model Air: builders with an airbrush, or planning one. Who should skip it: brush-only painters who don't want to thin. Check each bottle's label for how it's meant to be used before you decide.

Vallejo Game Color and Game Air

The Game ranges in our data are aimed at tabletop miniatures:

• Game Color Introduction Set: 16 bottles
• Game Color Starter Value Set: 10 bottles, with a brush and a miniature
• Game Color Inspiration Color Set: 48 bottles
• Game Color Orange Color Set: 4 bottles
• Game Air Range Case: 64 bottles
• Game Air Face Painting Set: 8 bottles

The Starter Value Set is the only Vallejo listing in our data that includes something to paint. That's useful. A first painter with a miniature in hand learns more in an evening than one with a bottle and a plan.

Who suits Game Color: painters of fantasy and tabletop figures. Who should skip it: someone painting a WWII tank to match its real colors. The Model ranges have those sets.

Vallejo Premium and metallics

Premium in our data comes in 60 ml bottles: a five-color fluorescent set and a Premium Airbrush Color matt varnish. A matt varnish is a clear top coat that takes the shine off and protects the paint under it.

The True Metallic Metal sterling silver is an 18 ml bottle in the grid, with "airbrush" in its title.

Vallejo airbrush thinner, cleaner and the cleaning station

These are the helpers:

• Airbrush Thinner, 200 ml
• Airbrush Cleaner, 200 ml
• Airbrush Flow Improver, 60 ml
• Airbrush Cleaning Station
• Bundles: cleaner plus thinner, and cleaner plus thinner plus flow improver, 200 ml

Thinner makes paint flow through the airbrush. Flow improver helps it keep flowing at the tip. Cleaner gets it out afterward. A cleaning station is a pot you spray into while you flush the airbrush, so the mist goes in the pot and not across the bench.

Lucho looked at the cleaning station for a while and said, "That's a parts washer that went to finishing school." I can't fault the description.

Vallejo airbrushes

Three Vallejo airbrushes are in the grid, all dual-action and gravity-feed:

• EasyAir
• Innovator
• Profinish

Dual-action means one trigger does two things: press down for air, pull back for paint. Gravity-feed means the paint sits in a cup on top and falls into the brush. Our data doesn't list their nozzle sizes, so compare those on the listings. All three need a compressor; check whether the listing includes one.

For airbrush kits and compressors from every maker, see airbrush kits.

My one opinion, and it's about the whole category: ventilation isn't optional with an airbrush. An airbrush makes a fine mist on purpose. Even water-based acrylics put paint into the air you breathe. The EPA's indoor air guidance says to add fresh air and follow label precautions. The paint maker's label decides the mask, not your patience. In Bay Two that means the window open before the cap comes off.

Vallejo vs Tamiya acrylic paint

Both brands sell acrylic model paint. Here's what our data and Tamiya's own pages state.

Field	Vallejo (our data)	Tamiya (maker page)
Base	acrylic	water-soluble acrylic resin
Brush or spray	separate ranges: Model Color, Model Air	one range for either brush or spray
Single bottle size	17 ml	10 ml (Acrylic Paint Mini)
Sets in our data	many, 4 to 80 bottles	none in our Tamiya grid
Airbrush helpers	thinner, cleaner, flow improver	cleaner (Tamiya grid)

The plain difference: Vallejo splits its paint into ranges by tool and subject, and sells a lot of themed sets. Tamiya describes its acrylics as good for either brushing or spraying, in smaller bottles. If you like buying a matched set for one subject, Vallejo's grid has more of them. See the Tamiya page for its kits and cement.

How to pick within Vallejo

Start with the tool, then the subject.

1. Brush only? Model Color or Game Color.
2. Airbrush? Model Air or Game Air, plus thinner and cleaner.
3. Historical subject? The WWII, German, USAF or USN sets.
4. Figures and miniatures? Face & Skin Tones, or a Game Color set.
5. Weathering? The rust and streaking or wood and leather effects sets.
6. First set ever? An 8- to 16-bottle set, not a case.

Entry-level painters need fewer colors than the boxes suggest. Black, white, a few base colors, and a gray. Mixing teaches you more than a case does, at least at first.

If you also need enamels, cements or car paint, see Testors. Acrylic and enamel don't share a thinner, so keep them on separate shelves, labeled.

Reading a Vallejo set listing

Vallejo set titles in our data follow a pattern. Once you see it, the grid gets shorter.

1. Range name first: Model Color, Model Air, Game Color, Game Air or Premium. That tells you the tool and the subject family.
2. Theme next: WWII Allied, German Colors 1940–1945, Medieval, Face & Skin Tones. That tells you the job.
3. Count and size last: "16 x 18ml", "8 x 17ml", "72 x 17ml". That tells you how much paint and how many colors.

Some titles add a set number, like 71178 or 70260. Those numbers help when two sets have nearly the same name. The Basic Colors Model Air set with 16 bottles and the Basic Colors set with 8 shades are not the same box, and the number is the fastest way to tell.

Multiply the count by the size and you get the total paint in the box. Sixteen bottles at 17 ml is 272 ml. Eighty at 18 ml is 1,440 ml, nearly a liter and a half. That's a lot of paint to store upright, out of the sun, with lids tight.

Building a paint shelf over three kits

Nobody needs the whole grid at once. Here's a path that grows with the builds:

• Kit one: a small set in one range that matches the subject, plus a thinner if you airbrush. Add a matt varnish if you want the finish flat.
• Kit two: the singles you ran out of on kit one. Usually that's black, white and a gray.
• Kit three: an effects set, if you want weathering. Rust and streaking for armor and trucks. Wood and leather for figures and old ships.

After three kits you'll know which colors you reach for. That's the point where a 72- or 80-bottle case makes sense, because you'll use what's in it.

I keep a running list on an index card taped inside the paint cabinet door. When a bottle runs low, it goes on the card. The card has a better memory than I do, and it doesn't argue about which gray was the right gray.

Store bottles away from heat, and keep them in a cabinet or on a high shelf if there are young kids in the house. My paint cabinet has a latch for exactly that reason.

Safety at the bench

Work with good ventilation and follow the paint maker's label for masks and gloves, especially when airbrushing. Keep paint, thinner and cleaner away from young children, and close bottles after each use.

Pick the range by the tool in your hand. Then pick the colors by the model on the bench.