Accelerating drying time of oil washes

Not sure what would help there, other than good ol' time. Maybe start building real slow like me and you'll be ok.

I'm surprised a wash takes that long to dry.  Ordinarily I make my washes with enamels, but washes are mostly thinner, so the washes do not, unlike the normal enamel paint mixture, take that long.  Unless you are making very thick washes, I  would think they would harden pretty quickly.  What kind of mixture ratio do you estimate you are using?

Only thing I can think of would be to add a touch of Japan Dryer to the mix.  Its purpose is to shorten artist oil drying time.

@Don

I use a paint to-thinner ratio of about 1 to 5 for oil washes. Thinner (mineral spirits) dries quickly. However, oil paints dry very slowly. That's why oil washes are fool-proof; you can correct mistakes even 24 hours later. If lots of linseed oil is added, oil paints can take weeks and months (even years) to fully dry.

Ah, okay, my washes are much thinner, which probably is the difference, maybe range from 1:10 to 1:20.

Update: Hmm...a paint dry booth seems to help. I applied oil washes to 12 road wheels last night. I put half in my dry booth (rubbermaid + 100w lamp) and the other half in my closet. I just checked them. The ones in the booth are completely dry, while the ones in my closet still show some wet spots.

Chrisk-k:

You are right about oil paints drying by oxidation and not evaporation. The thinner will dry by evaporation, but not the oil itself. Your paint dry booth should accelerate both processes as heat generally speeds up chemical reactions.

Personally, my washes don't seem to take that long to dry. I use Winsor & Newton's Winton paints with Mona Lisa Odorless spirits (10% paint to 90% thinner). I just bought a tube of Mig oil paint and I'll test to see if it takes longer to dry.

When I apply my oil paints, I like to shoot it with a hair dryer set to low for about 30 seconds. This makes the thinner evaporate faster.

Chris

I've switched from W&N Winton paints to MIG oil paints. MIG contains much less linseed oil and dries a little bit faster than artist oil paints like Winton. MIG mixes with Mona Lisa spirits much better than Winton. Linseed oil doesn't dry flat, so when I used Winton, my washes sometimes dried satin.

Anyway, I think I need to use thinner oil washes. I realize that 5 (thinner) to 1 (paint) seems kind of thick.  

I once saw a tut where the guy put his oils on a piece of cardboard to soak up the linseed oil before he used them.

Watchmann

I once saw a tut where the guy put his oils on a piece of cardboard to soak up the linseed oil before he used them.

I do that when I have a plenty of time for this hobby.

However, oftentimes I don't know when I will have time. When I do find spare time, I immediately want to work on a model. In the case, waiting several hours to soak up linseed oil from oil paints is not an option for me. 

I don't do that for washes, but always do for drybrushing.  I keep a supply of old business cards, reader order cards from magazines, etc, because I use the cardboard for several things and always have a piece of cardboard on the bench surface.

You drybrush with oils?

I make two types of washes, one with acrylic artist or even craft paints thinned with a blend of alcohol and water about 15 or 20 to one ( this even has a little retarder added to the thinner blend). And one from water clean up oil stains 20-1with water. Both dry rapidly, as in get any corrections done within minutes. I noticed at the art store last summer some time that W+N now has water clean up oil paints and wondering if they would work quickly like my stains do. My stains are fairly solid stains but I only have three bottles left and working with just those colors but once gone I believe Duncan no longer makes these and may even be folding up all together. They've been great though.But I get along with enamels or acrylics as well.The stains are just a no brainer,so easy. It's the oddest material, smells like oils, cleans up with water, truly an oximoron to my 73 yo brain.

JMorgan

You drybrush with oils?

 

Technically I use enamels,  The Testers stuff and hardware store paint thinner.  The stuff drybrushes vety well.  I do thin the mix a bit, not drastically.  But the thinner mix does affect the opacity.