Oh boy, yea.

I tried to put together a helicopter (probably an Apache) a few years ago, and got a couple of those classic Testor paint bottles to help finish it.

I had to put it all away. The fumes from the paint, my reaction to it was nothing like I remembered. I had no issues with them as a boy. But, today, yea they were making me loopy. I’m surprised the AQMD in California still allows these.

I’d like to try again with some modern acrylic, but the only place in my orbit is a Michaels, and they really don’t cater much to plastic kits. So opportunity has bumbled my way yet.

The other trick is to keep it me and not be intimidated by the YouTube experts. Easier said than done.

The michaels and hobby lobby near me both have a fair amount of acrylic paint for what it's worth, but have you looked for any gaming stores? Lots of them carry warhammer and thus carry model acrylic paints.

If you don't have anything near you, I would look for acrylics designed for models online. Games Workshop sells them, but there are other brands (Vallejo, Reaper, etc) which are also quite good and generally cheaper. And they will, as a rule, be more pleasant to work with than the acrylics you get at Michael's/Hobby Lobby.

Generally I would recommend Vallejo or Army Painter paints over GW ones. They are cheaper, better quality coming with a much better bottle.

It’s an eternal war and I agree with your points. However, I found that for people without much experience with acrylics Citadel paints are much more consistent and forgiving, and are generally of very good quality (there are problematic colours, but then Vallejo or Army Painter are not immune either). They are also easy to source. And honestly if all you paint is a couple of models, the price difference is not that much (not all of us are painting several different armies).

I use personally a mix of Citadel, AK and Vallejo, but for newbies or light uses I still generally recommend GW, or Army Painter for the rattle cans.

Enamels vs acrylics. Brush vs airbrush vs air gun (not to mention sponge, cloth and even toothbrush). Your air brush can have one or two controls - one for the amount of compressed air and one for amount of paint. For models like airplanes and tanks, a single control is enough to get a flat smooth finish.

Then you discover washes and other techniques and it goes on 8)

I still have a scar in the side of my thumb where I stuck an Xacto blade into it, 45 years ago.

Enamel, Xacto,... Memories !!!

I used to make the ww2 models as a teenager and loved painting them with the oil paints (you need the right brand but I can’t remember the name).

I got really good at weathering them using the watered down paint cleaner/thinner that runs into the folds and produced tiny cracks in the paint and then drybrushing lighter colors over areas.

I know I got it right because a shop in England selling those Tamiya models would give me a few of the kits for one painted and showcased them. good times

Ye I might also have been to young to use them properly. But I remember cleaning brushes was a big hassle. And the fumes ...

My theory is that we adults feel bad when we know we are going to feel bad soon. Be it cold or thinner fumes. But children don't feel cold before they are cold.

> I used to make the ww2 models as a teenager and loved painting them with the oil paints (you need the right brand but I can’t remember the name).

I had a conversion chart for Revell, Humbrol, and Tamiya colors (which were the ones around when I was building models as a kid). It was good enough for me. Perhaps if you were really good or picky about the exact color it wouldn't do.

And there's been great improvements in usability in the last decade. You still want to use oils in models that try to look like cars, with semi transparent layers and clear coatings on top, but now you can get a coat of acrylic that will do reds or yellows well without being super transparent or covering details. Even paint from 2008 has much worse formulations than what we have now for painting by brush