Gold NC-Acrylic Professional Spray Paint VS Liquitex Professional Spay Paint Review

Lately, I have been hammering into my You Tube Channel getting everything updated and all the information to a better quality because man does it stink when you don't know how to do all the Tagging stuff properly. So I have been having my head in You Tube fixing land lately. I also have been recording some Alien Isolation game play, so be sure to check that out! Now to spray paints.

Gold Vs Silver

Today I am reviewing the spray paint Gold NC-Acrylic sprays, more specifically the Gravel colour and I will be putting it up against my last spray paint can Liquitex: Iridescent Rich Silver.



Liquitex

Liquitex: Iridescent Rich Silver 400ml

I first came across the Liquitex spray paints last year whilst preparing for Toy Solider 2014 for my Iron Warrior themed list. This spray paint did both my Rhinos, Maulfiends, some Obliterators, some Marines and my Fire Raptor Gunship. I will happily say that this is a good spray for the price of £8.99 all round and has some brilliant qualities about it.

The Liquitex at first glance has an eye catching cover, with the branding "Liquitex Professional Spray Paint" stood bold and easy to see with the paint name in majestic writing. This spray paint stood out to me as a high quality branded spray, as many of the other pray logos were either far to bright and the term I use 'un-serious' or had something like a garden chair or a lamp cover on the front of it, not what you want when painting 2" high models really, this is what made me pick it up from the shelves and part with some good money for, a good paint.
One small downside to this individual paint colour is it was hard to see what colour it actually was, as most of the can it, you guessed it, silver and I had to look at the other colours to find where the band of 'example' finish was. As you can see from the photo above, there is a sweeping line of a different colour silver to the rest of the can, quiet hard to notice if I am honest.

The Maulfiends base coat, neck and head area show the finished colour

As you can see above, the Maulfiend shows the Liquitex's finishing colour after a black wash was applied, the beginning colour was a little lighter, closer to what Mithril Silver used to be, but a good wash knocked it down into a nice steel silver dark enough for the extra highlights of scratched metal work (Neck area). The use of this spray was like any other, a few shakes and let rip. The coating of the colour was even and didn't clump or bubble, which was extremely pleasing and wasn't a pain to paint over in different Citadel colours.

Unfortunately, this spray can unfortunately and unexpectedly broke during the painting of my Fire Raptor. I believe it was the thin straw just below the cap that cracked, allowing the air pressure to escape and the paint to clump. This meant I had to spray my Raptor quickly, before the clumping became an issue, within minutes it lost it's even spread and the pressure it had with my last models but luckily I managed to complete a full coat.

After that I left the can outside until it depleted itself of all it's gases and now I am waiting to dispose of it properly unfortunate for such a good spray paint to have that flaw. The Liquitex also did not come with a top, and there were no safety features stopping it from going off accidentally. I would prefer a good solid cap to stop me slipping and setting it off accidentally, it would also help with storage and stopping it from leaking everywhere if it did leak out paint.

Over all I would rate the Liquitex a 7.5/10, as it is a brilliant spray paint. Nicely portrayed as a professional spray paint, which I guarantee you it is. Good, even spread over the model at a standard distance and only takes 1 coat. It's down side is the standard paint can and the can braking does knock it down a few points, professional paint but standard can.

Gold NC-Acrylic

I also came across the Gold NC-Acrylic paint can in Hobby Craft to find a new spray can to paint my Chimera's and my Artillery platforms. I originally was looking for a replacement Liquitex spray can to replace my old one, but unfortunately they were out of stock on the colour I wanted, looking round for an alternative I could only see the bright 'un-serious' cans or the ones with the garden chairs in, didn't want those. Then I came across a stack of Gold NC-Acrylics sat close to the tills. Ah, I see Mr hobby craft, snagging me in on my way out are we? well it worked! From the colourful selection of the paint cans I picked probably the most bland colour there, Gavel.

Gold NC-Acrylic: Gravel 400ml

For the same price as the Liquitex, I think the Gold NC-Acrylic is the best form of professional spay paint I have used so far throughout painting, this is going back to when I used to use the garden bench paints whilst my mum supervised. I have to say this piece of kit is impressively labelled and branded, also surprisingly as "Professional Spray Paint". The golden can cover is a very different approach to spray cans, but it is affective as these did stand out like a saw thumb in the store, mind you that could of been due to the large "NEW PAINT STOCK" stand they were on, but I like the colour of the can anyway.

Preparing the can to use it was actually a lot different than your standard paint can, I even had to look up on youtube on how to prepare this thing. As you can see above, the Gold NC-Acrylic does not come with your standard covering cap, in store I was worried it would go off in the bag and paint the inside of my girlfriends car, something she wouldn't be impressed about so I sat with it on my lap in the front because paranoia.
Anyway, under the cap there is a rubber band stopping the cap being pushed down and setting off the spray accidentally. This needs to be removed, obviously, to allow the can to work and it also shows off a aspect that is different and a vast improvement to the Liquitex, there are no plastic tubes. Well, at least none you can see, instead there is a metal plate where the cap goes, and the tubing looks all metal to me, good. This can also holds multiple ball bearings within it to mix the paint rather than the standard one, which shapes it up to be a healthy contender indeed.

Gold NC-Acrylic single coat on unwashed Resin.

Using the paint was, well basically, the best time I have had with spray cans. Don't worry, I was not getting high on fumes. Above shows my Artillery Crawlers, which are full resin cast models. More importantly, the "Grenade Launchers" on the turret were not washed properly, this showed up on my single undercoating layer of Black spray paint as it came through and the paint ran off. However, a single coat of the Gold NC-Acrylic stuck strong and fast without losing an inch of detail. (Actually, in 40K Inches are huge, so more Millimeters)

I also coated my Chimeras in the same colour and left them to dry outside. One thing I will state is that the Gold NC-Acrylic paints smell whilst drying, so keep them in a very well ventilated (not in your house) place to dry as the "pong" (girlfriends exact words) is quite huge. Once finished with the spray can, stick the rubber band back in place and it is safe for next use.

I will also say for this spray can, What is wrong with the can top? Although it does not do much for this paint as it already has its own intricate safety feature, its a small rubber band, at some point someone will lose theirs and it will be constantly stuck on the 'On' settings and a top cap would keep it safe from going off. Also, it's king of the thing with Spray cans, they all have lids. Going against it to me feels wrong, or perhaps that's just me hating on a trend change.

Over all I will give the Gold NC-Acrylic an 8.7/10. Brilliant paint, good spread, only one coat needed. Again the thing about the lid, doesn't hurt to have one, and having to look up how to use the thing on You Tube knocks a few points off this one. If I were to pick two brand new sprays I would definitely take the Gold NC over the Liquitex, as the quality of the can mechanics and the paint are both superior. Don't worry, there are more interesting colours in their selections than Shade 48 of Gray, that's the colour, not the kinky guy.