Recap.

Trying to get some decent lacquer paints for my airbrush, I had initially planned to get the Mr. Color range of paints from Japan. Apparently, though, it seemed the online stores there are no longer able to export the paints to customers directly for some reason. No luck on the first attempt.

So, I tried contacting the company that makes the Mr. Color range directly to ask for a distributor that could ship to Belgium. Apparently there is one. But… they don’t stock the Mr. Color range, because supposedly there is no demand. Eventually I got a pricelist of the Mr. Hobby items they do stock, containing only a few of the items I was looking for, but since then I have got no more response from them on my further information requests. Try two.

Next, I found out about a UK-based small business, called Plamo Colour, who’s making paints which he claims are compatible with the Mr. Color range. A one man operation. While I’m still aiming for authentic Japanese paints for the more delicate parts such as the skin tones, I decided that these should be good enough for the basic colors, and if they don’t live up to the expectations at least serve well for practising. So a bit more than a month ago I ordered them. Initially some of the paints were apparently out of stock, though, and he said they were going to be ready for shipment the week after. After the shipment date he gave passed, I mailed him a few times with no response, eventually to be told that the carrier had delayed the pickup to Tuesday, this week. Tuesday passed, I sent him a few more mails, no response.

End of recap, back to today.

So this morning I sent him another mail, to both his support addresses, and decided to wait until the evening before opening a PayPal dispute.

Meanwhile, as I was searching for any recent comments about them on Google, I spotted this interesting video on YouTube about Plamo Colour. Which lead me to this video about some mysterious clear fluorescent paint from a Japanese brand, which for some reason I had not heard about before, called gaianotes. They have a really nice looking website.

They appear to be a relatively recent brand, and there are claims online that the quality is even better than Mr. Color. So trying to find a supplier for that, I stumbled onto this nice looking blog with very some very helpful information, called KenzBuilds.

Anyways, back to Plamo Colour, I had not received any response again, so I opened a PayPal dispute. Within 10 minutes, I get a response from Plamo Colour, saying again that FedEx has rescheduled the pickup date once more, and that he’ll put in some extras to apologize for the delay. At least he did give me a tracking code this time. It’s still not shipped, though. I am hopeful. Third attempt.

Number four. In KenzBuilds’ handy shopping guide, he recommends some sellers in Hong Kong for the gaiacolor range of paints. I picked the Speedpost shipping option, I heard it’s fast.

Here are some random videos I found related to gaiacolor.