craft paints

I haven't had good luck with them.

You have to thin them with their airbrush thinner, since reducing them also reduces the binder, you can't really use water. Also, the cheap craft paints seem to have a lower pigment ratio in them, I wasn't able to thin them to far before they became transparent.

That said, I've had excellent results with the higher end acrylics as Michaels--Liquitex, Winsor & Newton, and Golden. You still have to thin them with their airbrush thinners, but they have a much higher pigment ratio, and can take it easily.

HTH,
Dan

is there any way i can grind up the pigments moer? tamiya ones are too coarse, imho. can i put the pigment into a ball mill, add tons of thinner, and spin it for like 20 minutes, let the thinner dry, and put it into the bottle?

QUOTE: Originally posted by Jonas Calhoun I haven't had good luck with them.

I'll offer another data point - which will add to the confusion, I'm sure ;-), but I've actually had really good luck with these. The do require a lot of thinning - on the order of over 60% thinner, and I do so with windshield wiper fluid, not water - but I've had good results. I've used Delta Ceramcoat as well as Apple Barrel. They dry dead flat, so if you want any sort of sheen, you'll need to do so via a clear topcoat like Future. I've coated plastic, metal and cardboard.

It is important, however, to note that I *always* prime - which may play a big role in how well these paints perform. Good primer promotes adhesion. Also, I don't do a lot of ultra-fine-line detail work.

Thanks for the input guys, I guess I will just have to try it out and see what happens. Today I actualy found a bottle of Folk art laying around when I was doing some packing. I think it was my moms, but I tried brush painting it straight from the bottle and it looked ok but left brush strokes. So I thinnned quite a bit and it went on great. Much better than Tamiya for brush painting IMHO.

QUOTE: Originally posted by 1337 is there any way i can grind up the pigments moer? tamiya ones are too coarse, imho. can i put the pigment into a ball mill, add tons of thinner, and spin it for like 20 minutes, let the thinner dry, and put it into the bottle?

You couldn't mill them finer--they are already in the binder and wet. Now if you could get them in powder form....and there are a couple of artist supply stores that have the raw pigment.

Dan

QUOTE: Originally posted by caseyn5 Thanks for the input guys, I guess I will just have to try it out and see what happens. Today I actualy found a bottle of Folk art laying around when I was doing some packing. I think it was my moms, but I tried brush painting it straight from the bottle and it looked ok but left brush strokes. So I thinnned quite a bit and it went on great. Much better than Tamiya for brush painting IMHO.

I'm glad they worked for you. When I used them, I had to thin them so much as to make them almost transparent--some of the colors I could start to see pigments! So, I figured the buck I saved on them was spent in the time to make overcoats, and the time to mix them, etc.

Although, I'd probably still use them in a diorama or something that doesn't need to have the paint so thin--maybe overcoating styrofoam or such.

Dan

Dan, yeah the craft paints definately need a couple coats. The thing is they dry so fast that the wait time is not so bad.