Acrylic painting/thinning.

Cool. You can then save a little for yourself too. May come in handy if you're building a dragon kit...lol!

Patrick,

Here is a time tested method of mine that has worked for 15 years or more; acrylic based craft paints that were originally made for ceramics and they work on all plastics as shown on my "Hobbies in a Barn" and "Building Historic Dioramas" Facebook pages as well as the kit reviews I have published on Amazon and Hobbylinc websites.

1.) First these paints work for all military, aircraft and railroad colors with reference charts, "Anita", "Creamcoat", and "AppleBarrel"

2.) Airbrush with a 50/50 mix of blue tinted windshield wiper fluid as the paints blend with the alcohol and come out very smoothly and nearly dry which is what you want to have happen, secondly dry them thouroughly with a hand hairdryer set on LOW heat and the paint layers will set up.

3.) Hand brush either straight from the bottle or thin with a little water.

4.) There are no strange odors and the stuf won't kill you, although paint in an oper air place anyway.

5.) These brand paints come in gloss as well as flat and mixing one brand with another won't matter.

6.) For my 1/35th scale military kits I use a thinned black wash of acrylics to coat the entire figure or vehicle and dry the whole thing before drybrushing for detailing.

These are only suggestions for price saving, and odor free hobbies.

I am also published on www.Panzerart.com so check out my work when you can.

All the best,

john

Just to add to what John has posted - and from my experience, craft acrylics labeled as "Gloss" or "Enamel" adhere well to styrene without a lot of additives. And, I'm delighted to learn that someone else likes craft acrylics. I really am not alone.

Hi, John

I only tried art store acrylics once before, for brushing, not airbrush. It was their top brand, but I found it to be quite "gritty" and unsuitable. It was a flat type, so maybe like Bick say's use glossy or enamel. I'm giving my Tamiya acrylic the first attempt by me to airbrush acrylics, later I'll go by Michaels and see if they have the gloss type.

Fun to explore new stuff, once the learning curve is past I'm sure I'll like the medium, so many top modelers can't be wrong to like it when they get such premium results.

Thanks very much for the info, I'll go have a look at the site you referenced.

Regards

Patrick  

Patrick,

Branded acrylics (Tamiya, MM, Polyscale, Gunze, Vallejo, etc) are certainly convenient to use and work well but don't be afraid to try craft acrylics. Here are a couple of pics of models (1 micro RC, 1 Plastic scale) that I've done entirely with craft acrylics. The Waco is with Anitas and the FW190 with mixes of various FolkArt acrylics. Without prior knowledge, I don't think one could tell what brand of paint I used - though my less than professional skills with an airbrush might be apparent.

Looks great! As I mentioned on my other sites acrylic craft paint are the way to go. The key to the whole process starts with prepping for the paint. I use a green plain scouring pad, the ones that are 3 to a pack and about 3x6". These work really well to lightly scratch up the surface of any parts and not ruin the details such as rivets, etc. I've used the technique for years now and along with rinsing the parts in warm water prior to painting works well.

Keep up the great work and thanks for looking at my other posts. One other website I have to mention as the webmaster has really cited my work dedicating a specific page for what I published, a 1/32 scale UDT Boat by Revell with a fully detailed water scene.  www.stormthecastle.com  by Will Kalif.  

I use them also but I mix mine with 70 percent rubbing alcohol as you can buy two huge bottles for around a buck and they seem to last forever as I still have a bottle and a 1/4 left.  The only thing I do is refill my smaller bottle that has the squirt top so i don't use to much.  Plus the alcohol is what causes the paint to dry so much faster then water or thinner.

I agree and after buying a gallon of blue tinted windshield wiper fluid that is mostly alcohol I too saved lots of $$ as the cost is about $1.50 or so. The blue tint as I read somewhere years ago actually had no effect on the color of the paints and this is a fact as well. What I don't put in the resivoir for the windshields of my vehicles is what I put through my Badger 200 series airbrush. And I clean the a/b by filling an a/b bottle with the wiper fluid and spraying all the loose paint out, this initial cleaning really works well. And yes the drying of the paint is almost complete as it hits the model leaving a very smooth finish. OTB; the oldie but a goodie, Revell's 1/48th Black Widow to be modelled as one of a handfull of bomber types in OD/gray.

All the best and be sure to check out "Hobbies in a Barn"

johncpo

I agree and after buying a gallon of blue tinted windshield wiper fluid that is mostly alcohol I too saved lots of $$ as the cost is about $1.50 or so. The blue tint as I read somewhere years ago actually had no effect on the color of the paints and this is a fact as well. What I don't put in the resivoir for the windshields of my vehicles is what I put through my Badger 200 series airbrush. And I clean the a/b by filling an a/b bottle with the wiper fluid and spraying all the loose paint out, this initial cleaning really works well. And yes the drying of the paint is almost complete as it hits the model leaving a very smooth finish. OTB; the oldie but a goodie, Revell's 1/48th Black Widow to be modelled as one of a handfull of bomber types in OD/gray.

All the best and be sure to check out "Hobbies in a Barn"

Windshield wiper fluid!?  Brilliant! That's cheaper than the bottle of Windex I bought and you say the blue tint does not effect the color?  Even white?  Thank you all for the great advice.  I am using acrylics too and I was not sure about the hobby acrylics at first.  I brushed some on at first to see how they worked and I was a little worried, but with the advice you guy s have given, I think this is going to work!  Thanks everyone!

Eagle90

If I may peak my head in and ask, how essential is it to use the hair dryer?  Would it be OK to just the parts air dry?

The hair dryer dries the paint more evenly and yes air drying works but the paints were actually first used on ceramics and still are so for some reason the heat actually sets the paints to a hard finish which from my 15 years of experience with them works well. Thanks for the questions which are always welcome.

johncpo