Lars Porsenna Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 Browsing around I saw that testors has a fantasy acrylic paint line. I've never seen these in stores (if it ain't GW it ain't available...I have to MAIL ORDER Reaper paints!) so I have no experience. Story time... Once upon a time there was a paint line. This paint line was called Polly S. And all was good. It covered very well, took washes extremely well, and made the finest shade of Feldgrau on the market (skip the clearcoat and it almost looks like wool!). However, the Evil corporation Testors bought out Polly S, and cut the paint line. Now, they had also brought out Polly Scale, which was designed for airbrushing and model building. With both paint lines, all was right in the world. But with Polly S gone, painters had to use poor substitutes (even Vallejo is not as good as Polly S IMHO!). Everyone lamented the loss. My question is, if RPM/Testors owns the Polly S property, what's the possibility these are it but under a different label? I quivver with anticipation that they are! Damon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerridwyn1st Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 I've heard this story before. I can't tell you if the Testor Fantasy Acryls are Polly S reserected. I can tell you they are fairly nice paints. They have a nice consistancy and cover well. The finish is very smooth looking, if a bit shiney. I used them for my dragon (except the dark green underpaint, which is Tamiya). http://wolfbar.servemp3.com/cerridwyn1st/ebay1/dragon.jpg I don't know what the Polly S colors were like, so I can't compare them. I have used Vallejos, Reaper, Citadels, and Tamiya. I only have a few bottles of the Acryl, but it is on par with the other paints. Where it really stands out is the metals. They are beautiful! The metal particles are extraordinarily fine, which gives an unsurpassed luster to the paint. These are by far the best metals I have used. But those fine particles settle like crazy; you really have to shake the stuff to get it mixed again. Good luck in the paint hunt. You know, you could always get your paints from teh Reaper online store. Not as good as the immediate fix of walking in a store and walking out with paint, but we do what we can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooding Paladin Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 I, too, lamented the loss of Polly S paints. When they were discontinued I bought up a bunch of them from a discount bin somewhere at about 50 cents a bottle. I still have many unopened, stored upside-down pots of them...but I use Reaper paints now. Unfortunately, I haven't tried Testor's acrylics. I have use Testor's enamels in the past though and like them pretty well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lars Porsenna Posted March 10, 2004 Author Share Posted March 10, 2004 Thanks for the replies. Seems they definitely are NOT the old Polly S paints <sigh> I buy my reaper paints through special orders at my FLGS. They won't stock them as they don't want to stock another product line (to make a long story short, the store is incorporated, and the previous manager/owner mismanaged it tremendously. THe current leadership is trying to dig it out of the hole; I'd rather spend my money there than on the Reaper store to keep them afloat. In the past couple months I've dropped a couple hundred dollars there to keep them going, rather than going for the better price/more stocked/more convenient source). I may check out the Testors stuff anyway (again I have to mail order it, but their site allows me to!) but the REAL question is do I want to invest in ANOTHER paint line? Probably! Damon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerridwyn1st Posted March 11, 2004 Share Posted March 11, 2004 If you really have your heart set on supporting a floundering store, then keep ordering your Reaper paints through them. It might be better than starting on a whole new line of paiints. If you REALLY want to go there, Reaper is supposed to come out with Master Paints sometime soon. Probably not until after they relocate, but soon. I can sympathize with wanting to help your favorite store. I managed a small store that went belly up. It is very difficult to recover from bad management. My old boss, the owner of the store, offered to give it to me. I thought about the money owed on the store and the product that it had for sale, and came to the conclusion that even if my boss GAVE me the store, I couldn't keep it afloat. So I bailed and got a job as a secretary. It isn't as much fun being a secretary, but it's less stressful, my hours are steady and I'm better off financially. I hope things work out. If there is anything I can do to support you, let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lars Porsenna Posted March 11, 2004 Author Share Posted March 11, 2004 I hope things work out. If there is anything I can do to support you, let me know. Hp on a plane and go shopping with me at the store? Really, normally I'm a proponent for Retail Darwinism, but these guys were always pretty cool to me (and know me by sight...scary...) so I want to keep them in business so I have someplace to go game at... Damon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerridwyn1st Posted March 11, 2004 Share Posted March 11, 2004 Lars: I'd love to hop on a plane and help you shop - want to buy me a ticket? Have you got time to run some demos? That would help them a lot. Seeing other people doing stuff helps create demand for the items among the customers. You don't have to do a game, either. If painting is your thing, then demo painting. God knows, a corps of hard-core painters could keep just about any store afloat. Ahem (cheap plug here) there's always Black Lightning. Cerri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hells_Clown Posted March 12, 2004 Share Posted March 12, 2004 I haven't used the fantasy line of paints, but I have used some of their Acryl line of paints and found them to be really nice, though a bit glossy. I'm not totally sure but I could swear that I've seen Polly S paints at one of the hobby shops around here... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lars Porsenna Posted March 12, 2004 Author Share Posted March 12, 2004 I think probably what you saw are Polly SCALE paints. Different animal with different formulation. Works great in an airbrush, some colors are adequate for brush painting (I like their feldgrau for late war Germans), some aren't. Not a huge fan of Acryl, but I use them when I can't get other colors (like British Gulf War Sand, or even Field Drab). Do not perform as well in an airbrush, and I have to thin them down so far that I have to use multiple coats airbrushing (unlike Polly Scale or even Tamiya). Damon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digital [email protected] Posted March 12, 2004 Share Posted March 12, 2004 I still have some Polly S paints and I bought them when I was in HS, over 15 years ago and I think after years of neglect they have finally died. I can't comment on quality though because I did not know about any advance painting methods back then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creeping jaw Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 Browsing around I saw that testors has a fantasy acrylic paint line. I've never seen these in stores (if it ain't GW it ain't available...I have to MAIL ORDER Reaper paints!) so I have no experience. Story time... Once upon a time there was a paint line. This paint line was called Polly S. And all was good. It covered very well, took washes extremely well, and made the finest shade of Feldgrau on the market (skip the clearcoat and it almost looks like wool!). However, the Evil corporation Testors bought out Polly S, and cut the paint line. Now, they had also brought out Polly Scale, which was designed for airbrushing and model building. With both paint lines, all was right in the world. But with Polly S gone, painters had to use poor substitutes (even Vallejo is not as good as Polly S IMHO!). Everyone lamented the loss. My question is, if RPM/Testors owns the Polly S property, what's the possibility these are it but under a different label? I quivver with anticipation that they are! Damon. These paints are indeed the same Polly S fantasy colors. I have an old Polly S fantasy color chart and all colors listed have the same color names as the labels on the new Testors paint jars. Damn good paints! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pae Posted September 5, 2008 Share Posted September 5, 2008 This thread smells funny. Probably the fact that it was dead for 4 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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