Acrylic Flat stays Glossy

9 times out of 10, the paint is not stirred enough if a flat paint dries glossy. Shaking alone will not insure that the paint is completely mixed. But a good stirring will do just that.

Yup. Shaking the bottle won't break up the clumpy stuff on the bottom of the bottle. This is what I usually do. I shake the bottle for a bit then I open it up, stir the crap at the bottom of the bottle. Then I'll put the cap back on and shake it some more until I'm satisfied with the paint flow.

A lot of time I use scrap sprue as paint stirrers.

BlackSheepTwoOneFour

Yup. Shaking the bottle won't break up the clumpy stuff on the bottom of the bottle. This is what I usually do. I shake the bottle for a bit then I open it up, stir the crap at the bottom of the bottle. Then I'll put the cap back on and shake it some more until I'm satisfied with the paint flow.

A lot of time I use scrap sprue as paint stirrers.

Application technique makes a big difference- especially how thick a coat, wet or dry.  One can apply flat paints very wet, and achieve a semi-matt.  And gloss paint can be applied very dry and give the same semi-matt appearance.

And, as mentioned above, you must shake or stir flats thoroughly to get a real flat appearance.

So your problem could be either too wet a coat, or too little stirring.

I've been using this stuff for almost 3 years now and everybody is right about stirring vs. shaking the bottle. To make sure I've got a really flat coat I mix a couple of drops of 70% ISO to it and it comes out dead flat every time.

Don's right on with the too wet a coat also. It should go on with the needle barely open to allow an almost dusting coat with each pass.

Thanks everyone.   I didn't stir the acryl at all.   Come to think of it, I didn't shake it very much either.   LOL  Bet that's my problem   I'll squirt another coat tomorrow and see what happens.  

Chris

I prefer to simply stir without shaking the bottle. That way I don't keep adding more paint to the inside of the bottle cap and the top of the opening from the shaking. I use plastic cocktail stirrers. And wipe them off with a clean cloth after each use. I can reuse the same stirrer nearly indefinitely that way because the plastic is so smooth it's nearly impossible for paint to stick to it. It just wipes right off. There is a little paint loss as a result, but if you drag the stirrer across the bottle opening, a lot of it runs back down into the bottle. 50 stirrers cost a couple dollars. It's a one time purchase.

I also find stirring more effective than shaking.