Acrylic Painting...SO Frustrated!!

the Baron

 

 

I think the problem airbrushing craft store paints comes from the generally coarser grain of their pigments.  I tried airbrushing with them once, on an airplane.  It was Americana paint, thinned with water.  I had no problem with clogging the brush, but the finish was coarse, too coarse for an airplane model's finish.  It would have worked well for a cast surface, though, like the cast turrets and hulls on some tanks. 

 

In the end, it was just an experiment, because I have plenty of other paints to use for airbrushing, especially paints formulated for it.

 

The craft store brands are great to use for weathering, too.

 

Americana is a DecoArt product. I only have one color in Americana. It sprays best thinned with Testors Aztek thinner in my experience. Never tried plain water but the coarseness you mention sounds consistent with lousy leveling. Part of the reason I use retarder is to aid in leveling. I haven't shot Americana in about a year now but I cut it with Aztek and a couple of drops of Liquitex retarder as best as I recall, as it dried it leveled out well. But it's too long ago to remember the fine details of it's use except that it totally rejected my universal thinner I make up ( has alcohol in the mix and DecoArt hates alcohol, it looks like it mixed great then in about 5 minutes turns to a substance like half dried silicone bathtub sealer lol ).

Anyway, I agree craft paint probably isn't so great for aircraft exterior parts. I've used it several times in automibile modeling where it gets clear coated and they came out quite nice. It's great for interiors, engines and such. I don't think twice about it for those items.

oldermodelguy

 

 

plasticjunkie

It has been my experience that craft paints do not airbrush well. I have tried several brands and get a lot of clogging, spitting etc.

  

That's too bad, I use quite a bit of craft paints shot through my airbrush or brush painted. There are 4-5 brands that for sure work well with a thinner solution I make up and one that hates it. Two brands in particular really spray well. Proper thinning is required for viscosity of course but they spray about like any other paint for me even down to a .25 nozzle. Shoot em over primer and all goes well at $.59 - $1.40 for 2oz bottles of quite decent paints, IMO.

Well, the OP is brush painting anyway so I'll stop there....

 

plasticjunkie

It has been my experience that craft paints do not airbrush well. I have tried several brands and get a lot of clogging, spitting etc.

That's too bad, I use quite a bit of craft paints shot through my airbrush or brush painted. There are 4-5 brands that for sure work well with a thinner solution I make up and one that hates it. Two brands in particular really spray well. Proper thinning is required for viscosity of course but they spray about like any other paint for me even down to a .25 nozzle. Shoot em over primer and all goes well at $.59 - $1.40 for 2oz bottles of quite decent paints, IMO.

Well, the OP is brush painting anyway so I'll stop there....

Don Stauffer

When I first heard that Testors was phasing out their enamels, I tried using several brands of the acrylics (including Michaels' house brand).  I now believe that rumor was just a rumor, but I figure it doesn't hurt to have an alternate source :-)

 

No rumors but fact. Testors dropped certain but not all military enamel colors from their lineup. You may still be able to get some but once the stocks are gone that is it. I too ahve been looking for replacements once my MM paints run out. Frankly I'm more concerned on them going bad first than running out of them since quality control has gone down with them. 

EDIT: Here's the info direct from Testors:

Thank you for contacting Rust-Oleum Product Support.

The 9580D International Military & Figure Enamel was recently discontinued due to the lack of support for it in the marketplace, however the Model Master paint line as a whole is still available:

http://www.testors.com/product-catalog/testors-brands/model-master

If you have any additional questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

Jason K.

Rust-Oleum Product Support

It has been my experience that craft paints do not airbrush well. I have tried several brands and get a lot of clogging, spitting etc. I have a large selection of Craft Paints but they are used to tint ground work, diorama parts, etc. 

I'm an enamel/lacquer user but have tried several "acrylics" as an experiment. To get the full benefit of the individual paint the proprietary thinner must be used. These contain addives, reducers etc to improve performance. Water can be used on some acrylics even Tamiya which is an acrylic lacquer but then again, water will not give the same results as using their thinner. It can get somewhat expensive but this is the only way to determine what works for you.

I just tried Mission Models Paints which is an acrylic and I used their thinner and poly additive and I can honestly say I have not sprayed any acrylic like this one. It went on smooth as butter, no tip dry and just super impressed. One MUST follow their instructions to get excellent results.

As to the figure you are painting, I suggest shooting a thin coat of flat black enamel like Testors in the small bottle. Let it dry then hand brush your Craft Paint and you will see a huge improvement. The flat enamel goes on thin, provides dark preshading spots and gives tooth for the acrylic to bite into the surface.

I know for a fact that Apple Barrel can be thinned effectively with water. Even better is a combo of water and alcohol and Liquitex retarder. This both brushes and sprays nice with the combo. But my wife just thins that and most craft paints with water for brush painting ceramics. You need enough water to get it to flow off the brush but not run all over the place. I do things like automobile running boards with Apple Barrel or FolkArt craft paint and I thin it with that thinner combo and it brushes out well, covers in  two coats and leaves a thin enough film to not fill details.

I can't speak for the other two brands but all you need to do is try it on some scrap pieces and you will know soon enough.

I had troubles at first two.  I believe the problem is the many different types of acrylics are the problem.  With enamel, which have been around for centuries, it is pretty standard, the solvent/thinner is mineral spirits or turpentine.

There are a number of versions of acrylic.  The name applies to the vehicle, but there are many different solvents in use.  In fact, there are both acrylic enamels and acrylic lacquers.  It has gotten so that each has a unique formulation, so that you must learn the ropes for each brand.  Sometimes you are stuck with their proprietary products.

That is why I stick with just plain old enamels and lacquers. I pretty much know what is in them and how they work (avoid synthetic paint thinners).  When I first heard that Testors was phasing out their enamels, I tried using several brands of the acrylics (including Michaels' house brand).  I now believe that rumor was just a rumor, but I figure it doesn't hurt to have an alternate source :-)

bluewaterpig

 

...I'm guessing that all my issues are coming from the mix and consistency being wrong. Along with the details and contours in the plastic getting lost under the paint, I'm also ending up with an uneven texture after the paint dries. I need a nice smooth, even surface so that decals can be applied but that just isn't happening...

Thin, thinner, thinnest.

Use an appropriate solvent, eg, water, for a water-based paint, or the proprietary thinner, if there is one for the brand you use.

Apple Barrel can be thinned with water, as I mentioned above.  You could use isopropyl, too.  I don't know about the other brands you mentioned, because I've never used them.

Mix them thoroughly.

Apply multiple thin layers, and if you apply by hand, apply coats by brushing in one direction for the first coat, then at 90 degress to that for the next.  That will help to eliminate brush marks.

Sorry guys...I wasn't able to edit my opening post to add the pics and details. I'll include links to the photos below

I'm brush painting pieces from a Ban-Dai kit that I'm assuming are plastic. 

As for the acrylic paint, I'm using a few different brands...Amsterdam, MyStudio, and Apple Barrel. They sat in storage for a few years. 

I'm guessing that all my issues are coming from the mix and consistency being wrong. Along with the details and contours in the plastic getting lost under the paint, I'm also ending up with an uneven texture after the paint dries. I need a nice smooth, even surface so that decals can be applied but that just isn't happening. 

Looking forward to hearing back from you guys.

Before paint (notice details in pants): https://photos.app.goo.gl/3FJocvrDJRJRpjeg8

After paint (details lost under paint):https://photos.app.goo.gl/qA5YsAynXJY7fKBD7

bluewaterpig,

If you want help you need to provide more deatails so we can narrow it down. If yo are just venting then say so. Maybe use enamel paint.

bluewaterpig

Been building for a little while but I'm totally new to painting. What has me frustrated is mixing. From the research I've done, water seems to be the most practical thinning medium. Even though I seem to get the right consistency, I'm running into issues...

Bear in mind that "acrylic" does not mean "water-soluable".   As an example of how confusing the terms can be, Pactra used to make a line of acrylic enamels.

Not all acrylics are water-soluable, though many prominent brands are.

Andrea's and Vallejo's acrylics are water-based, and can be thinned with water.  Though Vallejo's airbrush colors are probably best thinned with the products in that particular product line.

Lifecolour's acrylics are also water-based and can be thinned with water.

The craft store acrylic paint brands Apple Barrel, Folk Art, and Americana are also all water-based, and can be thinned with water for applying by hand or with an airbrush.

By contrast, Tamiya's acrylics are not water-based, but alcohol-based.  You'll read comments from some who use isopropyl to thin them, but I got poor results that way.  I use Tamiya's proprietary thinner to thin their acrylics, both for airbrushing and for applying by hand.  They can also be thinned with lacquer thinner, for airbrushing-it doesn't work so well when hand-brushing.

As to losing details on the piece, that makes me think you're applying too thick a coat.  If you thin your acrylic paints properly, they'll be almost as opaque as a glaze, but you build up thin coats to achieve the colors, especially to apply shading and highlights.

For hand-brushing water-based paints, I recommend using a wet palette.  A wet palette consists of an air-tight container, a sponge of some kind to hold water, and a piece of permeable paper to serve as the actual palette.  You soak the sponge, put the paper over it and let the paper soak up the water, and then you can put drops of paint on the paper.  The paint will thin on the palette paper, you can blend colors on it, it helps keep them thinned to a nice consistency, and you can close up the whole thing when you're session is done.  The paints will stay "fresh" for a couple of days, and that's usually enough to cover several sessions.  I'll add water to mine to keep it going.  You can buy nice wet palettes, but you can make your own, too.  My first one was a Chinese takeout container, a kitchen sponge, and brown packaging paper for the palette.

Hope that all helps!

Well for one thing water is not always the best thinning medium,it's usually best to use the paint's brand thinner.Sounds like your brush painting,but your post has no pictures that I can see.

Are you brush painting or airbrushing ?

What brand and series of paint are you using ?