This is my experience with Vallejo.
Tamiya I have not used but if it "smells" then it is not going to get even a sniff in my house.
Vallejo say that Vallejo Model was essentially marked as a brush paint whilst Vallejo
Model Air was designed as an
airbrush paint. Vallejo add that Vallejo Model can be used but with thinners & in my experience a lot of it.
Not found any significant smell to either Model or
Model Air either in paint thinners or air brush cleaner. Nor is Vallejo Toxic.
Found with a .4 nozzle (Evolution H & S
airbrush) that
model air worked perfectly even with short intervals where the brush stood unused. That was without the use of thinners. Vallejo Model I had to thin down dramatically.
But with a .2 or .15 nozzle trouble occured. Namely blockages after a very short time. Tried Vallejo thinners & Vallejo
airbrush cleaner but hardly any noticeable difference. Mentioned this in passing to the
Airbrush people I use & he said use & supplied Wicked Colour thinners & that cured the problem about 3 to 1 mix. Mix by placing thinners followed by the paint into the
airbrush bowl using as Vallejo recommend a paint brush to mix in the bowl. Works perfectly & little wastage & easy to top up with dropper bottles counting the drops during a painting session.
As I have a stock of Vallejo thinners tested both thinners in two airbrushing sessions last night hoping I had misjudged Vallejo thinners. Vallejo lost & Wicked won hands down.
Application & not sticking. Not had any problems at all over the five months producing 4 models including the present massive even though 1/72 Lancaster. What I do like about
Model Air is the thinness of the coating, compared to enamel which I discarded, which gives for me a very nice smooth coating. I have used
Revell Acrylics but only long enough to find my
airbrush & I did not like it.
I do however always wet & dry the plastic before airbrushing with a 1800 gauge paper. Also always on the large parts I use one of the latest primers by Vallejo. Again it gives a thin coating not to lose the detail. On a discarded model I use to test I tried rubbing off the Vallejo
Model Air & it is very resilient.
I think sometimes we may blame the paint but seems from reading about this subject on a number of forums that it all comes down to the combination of paint
airbrush & we fickle humans.
Yes & how fickle can we the model fraternity be !
Laurie