Acrylic paints - too soft to wet 'n dry?

Acrylics need to be babyed a bit, though the results are worth it. Especially when you consider the ease of cleanup. I find that they need 24-48 hours minimum, and sometimes up to a week depending on the colour and finish.

I'm assuming you mean Wet Ones pre-moistened towelettes. I have no idea what they put in them to keep them moist, but I'm betting it's not just water. Get hold of some tack cloth for dust removal, and I'm sure your results will improve dramatically!

The names of the paints say it all .... Enamel (ceramic-like, hard); Acrylic (plastic). Enamels do cure harder than acrylics because acrylics are basically a coat of plastic around the parts.

Thanks MusicCity and Bgrigg. I'm in the U.K. Wet 'N 'Dry is what we call the grey (gray?) abrasive paper sold in auto spares shops for rubbing down car (automobile?) paintwork between paint coats. It may go by a different name your side of the pond (Atlantic).

Ah, then you're using an abrasive that is far too coarse for acrylics. Properly sprayed acrylics shouldn't need any sanding between coats. I've never felt the need.

If you are painting car models, then stick to lacquers! I use acrylics almost exclusively. The only time I don't is on car bodies, then I use Tamiya TS series rattle cans, which I understand is a synthetic lacquer. Then I do a light wet sanding between coats.

A great subsitute for wetndry for acrylics would be paper coffee filters. You can buff acrylics with them and hopefully get the same results that you were getting with wetndry on the enamels. They are softer and require more gentle abbrasives.

Try using the tamiya acrylic thinner for your tamiya paints. you'll get a better finish rather than just using isop. alcohol.

Try using the tamiya acrylic thinner for your tamiya paints. you'll get a better finish rather than just using isop. alcohol.

Try using the tamiya acrylic thinner for your tamiya paints. you'll get a better finish rather than just using isop. alcohol.

Try using the tamiya acrylic thinner for your tamiya paints. you'll get a better finish rather than just using isop. alcohol.

I've noticed no difference between their thinner and 99% isopropynol. Now the 70% or 55% ispropynol does predouce different (worse) results.

That's a lot of posts!

I tried lacquer thinner to thin Tamiya acrylics and loved the results. I have made the switch to Tamiya exclusively and when I finish my bottle of Tamiya thinner I will go back to lacquer thinner. Oh and by the way for some reason everyone asks if they can still clean their AB with Windex (or any other acrylic clean up metthod) and the answer is yes.

Luis, there is an edit button. Please use it.

ryan - it's either the forum or the net connection. the same thing happened to me the other day and I didn't realize it till later when I read it. He probably hasn't come back in and seen that it posted multiple times..

I have been tinkering with acrylics a bit as well, and have recently finished a model entirely with Tamiya paints. The paint scheme was day-glo red and white for a T-45A Goshawk. Being that my base color was white, It would have to serve as a primer for the subsequent red areas. For the base white, I thinned the Tamiya with laquer thinner and airbrushed the model as normal. The paint airbrushed very well, at a ratio of approx. 2:1, compressor at between 15 and 18 psi. I allowed the white base color to cure for a day, but I noticed that the paint had cured in half that time. As someone had metioned above, I had a few rough areas I wanted to lightly sand as well. I was able to gently sand these minor rough areas with a Squadron fine sanding stick with no problems, as long as I went lightly. After sanding, the offending areas were smooth and no paint came off. This is the method I use when airbrushing acrylics, especially when laying down base coats for subsquent colors for a very nice finish. After airbrushing base coats, thinning with Laquer thinner, I thin subsequent colors with denatured alcohol and airbrush as normal. Check out the finished model below.

Italeri 1/72nd scale T-45A Goshawk

wow!!! that's spectacular! I went a different road when dealing with acrylics... I chose to start using Vallejo made acrylics and fell in love with them. You have definitely put a home run in for the Tamiya acrylics!

In my experience, Tamiya acrylics should never be sandpapered. You will scuff the paint. Just try to thin the paint a bit more and apply more coatings.

Another tip: avoid dust! Dust is one of our worst enemies.