Acrysion has always been a bit of a mystery to me and everyone else in the English speaking world. It’s marketed as a safe-for-kids replacement for the Aqueous Hobby Color line, so the Lacquer purists (guilty!) tend to scoff at it and claim it’s of inferior quality to the likes of Mr. Color. At first glance (and sniff!) it seems a lot like the acrylic paint you can get from any old art store, but upon further investigation this does not seem to be the case.
Take this image below, for example! It’s an official tweet from GSI Creos that claims Acrysion is good for PS Plastic, ABS plastic (read: inner frames +_+!!!), acrylic plastic, polycarbonate, PVC, resin, polyester putty, epoxy putty, iron, non-ferrous metals, wood, and paper! And here’s the kicker: it can go on top of all of those without any primer! What?! (Disclaimer: PVC, iron, and non-ferrous metals have single circles ○ next to them as opposed to double circles ◎, meaning YMMV on those materials)
But, wait! That’s not all it can do. According to this handy dandy chart from GSI Creos pictured below, it even layers nicely with a bunch of other paints!
Now, let’s turn that all into English:
| Layer Above→ Layer Below↓ | Acrysion | Mr. Color | Enamel | GSI Aqueous Hobby Color | Other Acrylics (e.g., Tamiya, Vallejo) |
| Acrysion | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mr. Color | Yes | ||||
| Enamel | Yes | ||||
| GSI Aqueous Hobby Color | No | ||||
| Other Acrylics | No |
Caveats:
– All of these combinations assume that the layer below has fully cured.
– Painting with Acrysion on top of Aqueous Hobby Color or other Acrylics will cause the Acrysion layer to crack (since the film of paint acts like shrink wrap when dried).
Traditionally, solvent strength is defined as Lacquer > Enamel > Acrylic, meaning if you put lacquer on top enamel or acrylic, those weaker substances will curdle and disintegrate. So, how can an acrylic paint withstand all of those stronger solvent-based paints. I’ve picked up some Acrysion paints to try myself, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
In the meantime, you can check out this Japanese blog post and the few related posts. The main takeaways are:
– It’s safe to put it straight on ABS, although colors like yellow don’t have very good coverage. The writer of the blog post thinks it could it be a surfacer replacement on ABS! Alternatively, apply a layer of surfacer on top of the Acrysion and then paint your base color.
– This is great news for Kotobukiya fans, since Koto ABS parts are even more affected by solvents than Bandai’s ABS. (The blogger also has a post showing these destructive effects on Koto ABS plastic.)
– You have to thin it with Acrysion Thinner or Acrysion Airbrush thinner. (Thinning ratio from manufacturer’s website: airbrushing = 3:1 paint to thinner; hand painting requires no thinning)
– Acrysion dries into a film very fast and is likely to clog up your airbrush. Make sure to use Acrysion Tool Cleaner or Mr. Tool Cleaner R to clean it out. Mr Color Thinner won’t be able to dissolve it!
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