Drying mineral spirits

Modeling Subjects Armor
1

When I paint treads, I put a coat of red pastels mixed with mineral spirits on the treads – it gives them a nice rusty look and brings the colors of the treads together.

Unfortunately, the coat of pastels and spirits I put on my WWII Productions Panther treads on Saturday hasn’t dried yet! I want to move these things along, but I don’t want to stick them on the tank while they are still wet, and I can’t even finish the treads themselves until they are dry.

Any suggestions on drying those pesky spirits that won’t dry by themselves? The exact stuff I used was the Windsor Newton no-odor stuff. The WWII Productions links are resin, but they have two coats of paint over them – acrylic dust color, followed by a drybrush of burnt siena oilpaint. It’s been three full days since I put the wash on, and rusty spirits still come off on my hand when I touch the treads. Thanks.

2

Wish I had an answer for you Larry, but i dont know. I ran into a similar probem last night though. I was putting on a whash of Winsor&Newton burnt seina and mineral spirits over my IDF Tiran 5, the tank had acrylic prshading and a base coat with a coat of future over it. When I was “painting” on the whash the wash beeded up like water on a freshly waxed car and didnt flow over the surface. Has anyone run into this too?

3

Larry, I would try puting the tracks in front of a fan or a vent if your H/C is running. It’s probably a combination of temp and humidity that’s just making it evaporate very slowly. You could try a hair dryer but be careful not to get it too hot.

Swerdna, I haven’t had that happen with my washes but you could try a drop of dishwashing soap in your wash and see if that makes it flow for you.

Eric

4

Eric, I will give that a whirl – thing ism the room the kit is in is very warm and very dry these days.

Good luck with that Tiran, swerdna. Hope it comes out ok for you.

5

hi larry,sorry i don’t ever used mineral spirits with pastels, i’ve just use simple water so had no problems with drying

6

I read in a FSM article about weathering with oils about using something called Japan Dryer. It supposedly helps them dry faster. It was used with mineral spirits, so it could help in this case as well. I have never used or even seen this product, so this is only a suggestion.

Matt

Apparently it has a pinkish tint, but dries clear BTW.

7

I think I’ve seen it at Michael’s. Never used it, though.

8

Thanks all - I got home last night and they had dried! Tricky tracks. They got a rub-over with a steel pencil and now they are sititng pretty on the tank.

Unfortunately, wrestling with the Friuli treads (since discarded) destroyed several of the fragile Eduard schurzen hangers, but I was going to break and bend a few off anyway. These links are much nicer looking than the Friuli, and they don’t weigh a ton. But I digress.