I have been out of the model building scene for some time now. I wanted to try using acrylic paints instead of enamel paints on my next model. The problem I am having is that when I try to brush on the colors white, yellow or red, they seem to go on runny ( hope that makes sense). I am primming the pieces before I paint, but that does not seem to help. Is there a mixing ratio, I should be using? Any comments or advise, will greatly be apprciated. [:D]
Thanks,
Painklr
Houston, TX
There is no magic to the white and yellow as those seem to be different because of the pigments. Air brushing or paint brushing those two colors takes patience, practice and many coats. As for the red, I have had the same problem depending on the brand. Maybe a different brand may help.
Kurt
I would recommend staying with enamels if you are going to brush paint. Acrylics, especially in the colrs you mention, just don’t have the tension when applied by brush, to cover plastics well, regardless of primer application. I use acrylics exclusively, but confine my brush work to small touch ups, when applied by airbrush, acrylics are fantastic IMHO. Since the aquisition of the double action airbrush, by hand brush work is confined to figure painting and the occasional cock pit insturment panel or something like that.
Steve
My experience has been that the acrylics dry too fast for the paint to flow off of the brush when trying to cover large areas. The result is that you get brush marks in the paint. When thinned correctly the acrylics flow well when used in an airbrush. The acrylics work well for detail painting with a brush.
Welcome to the forum!
Check out this article from the May 2002 FSM on brush painting. It’s geared toward using acrylics and it’s available free from FSM:
http://www.finescale.com/fsm/objects/pdf/basicsofbrushpainting.pdf
It may answer some of your questions.
What are you using as your primer? I’ve found that a good light-colored enamel from a spray can makes a good primer for acrylic paints. I’ve also found Future Floor Wax is a great primer.
Regards,
-Drew
I use either MM light grey primer or just plain Krylon white primer in a can to prime for light colored acrylics (or enamels)… the coverage isn’t great with the colors you listed so a primer helps a LOT!!! If you can get your hands on Color of Eagles Acrylics or Vallejo Acrylics, they brush on like champs! but still the colors you mention benefit a LOT from a primer…