I have a need for some tutorage

Has anyone found that with time, the white oils seem to reabsorb into the base coat, leaving your figure without highlights? This is what I had observed, and it caused me to switch to Windsor & Newton acrylics.

I use Vallejo and Citadel acrylics and have found that by using light washes and drybrushing, my results look just like figures I have seen done with oils and the crockpot method. In my model club, there is a group of figure painters who do marvelous work with oils, but the time and different liquids needed to accomplish their work, is in my opinion, much easier done with good acrylics like Vallejo, Andrea and Citadel...and good ol' water.

I use oils quite extensively. It does dry slow, but the results are quite nice when dry. My method is to paint the subject with a base coat then the main colors using acrylics. I use oils to shade, highlight and tone the subject. Because the oils are opaque, they make very nice tones which you may not be able to achieve with acrylics or lacquers. I also use a crock pot to dry my figures (metal and resin - not styrene) on LOW heat, just be sure to keep your eye on it as drying times vary on how much oil you use. It takes practice and patience, but I like the results I can achieve with oils.

Tim

ajlafleche wrote:

I used oils for a while. Among the drying agents is Liquin which is also supposed to make the paint smoother. I didn't find that to be so. You can use regular thinner to thin the paint, and it is said by leaving a bit of paint on an index card, some of the oil will elach out, reducing drying time. The beauty of slow drying times is the ability to blend colors better for better trasnitions between highlights, base and shadow. You can certainly just do flesh in oils and use other paints for the rest of your builds. To eliminate the sheen, I'd airbrush a coat of Dullcoat as my final step. To speed drying time, some guys place their METAL, not resin or plastic, figures in a crock pot over night. All that said, a few years ago, I retired from oils and used Andrea and Vallejo acrylics alomost exclusively on my figures.

In the book I bought they show you how to use acrylics much like oils, but with a retarder to slow down the drying time instead of speeding it up. May want to do some experimenting just to see what happens. What is the best primer to use with oils?

gary

I used oils for a while. Among the drying agents is Liquin which is also supposed to make the paint smoother. I didn't find that to be so. You can use regular thinner to thin the paint, and it is said by leaving a bit of paint on an index card, some of the oil will elach out, reducing drying time. The beauty of slow drying times is the ability to blend colors better for better trasnitions between highlights, base and shadow. You can certainly just do flesh in oils and use other paints for the rest of your builds. To eliminate the sheen, I'd airbrush a coat of Dullcoat as my final step. To speed drying time, some guys place their METAL, not resin or plastic, figures in a crock pot over night.

All that said, a few years ago, I retired from oils and used Andrea and Vallejo acrylics alomost exclusively on my figures.