I have finished my Tiger in camoflauge with Tamiya acrylic, clear coated it and brushed it with Future to protect the acrylic. I have done light oil detailing. I plan to do an alcohol/pastel (4/1) wash. Do you think the alcohol/pastel wash will harm the underlying acrylic paint??? I plan to follow the alcohol wash with oil drybrushing?
Thanks for your opinions,
Leddy
Yes, the alcohol will eat into the acrylic. Use water with a drop of Woolite soap.
What will the Woolite do? Should the water be distilled water?
Thanks!
Leddy
The soap will negate the surface tension of the water. Otherwise, your wash would bead, not flow, and dry blotchy. Not sure if using distilled water would make a difference in regards to a wash…it might. I use it to thin my Pollyscale acrylics for airbrushing.
As ruddrat says, the Woolite breaks the surface tension. I use it because it is a very mild, gentle soap. Detergent will do the same thing, but is potentially more aggressive to the coating beneath, and some are harder to rinse off. As an aside, do not use other true soaps such as Dr. Bronner’s. While they are true soaps and rinse well, they are very aggressive to some acrylic coatings.
As for distilled or deionized water, those are the only types of water you should ever use with a water reducable paint. Tap water is okay for cleaning, unless you have very hard or sulpherous water.
I’ve had great results with isopropyl alcohol/pastels over well-cured MM Acryl, with no apparent problems, not even a tiny blister. Is this damage something that shows over time?
—emphasis mine, RAM.
One key, here, is the underlined phrase. The other is dwell time. Some formulations (Apparently MM Acryl is one; Polly Scale is another.) will be more resistant than others. Low dwell times for the wash reduce the amount of time the solvent has to affect the substrate. Try an alcohol wash with Tamiya or Gunze and let it sit more than a very few seconds = ruined finish when you try to remove excess. Try it over Future and it’s a little better. Polly Scale will resist for several minutes, but after that, you aren’t going to remove any excess, even if the base coat remains intact. The wash will have become part of the base coat.
The easiest thing to do is to use different systems for the base colors and washes. Yes, I’ve done otherwise with success—but I was deliberately experimenting on the “Test Bed.” YMMV.
The difference here as you mentioned is that you Futured your model. Future can be stripped from floors with alcohol. Some acrylics have a good resistance to abrasion and chemicals, but they are not totally protected against them in certain concentrations. Future is very resistant to abrasion, but not to chemical influences.
With my methods, weeks or months pass between initial base coats and final weathering (pastel dust & crud is always last or next to). And I use isopropyl because it evpaorates fast. I’ve also used MMs Acryl Thinner as a carrier, too, but still over well-cured paint. Simply blowing gently on the alcohol/pastel wash- like a spoonful of soup- makes it evaporate almost as quickly as I can describe it.
Then again, my house is kept at low-humidity year-round and, maybe, I’ve just been lucky. I’ll have to bear your comments in mind.
Pappy,
YMMV: Your mileage may vary. [;)]
Is there no ‘non-water’ type carrier out there that is safe enough to use on acrylics? I just hate the hassle of screwing around with soap and water. Not that I don’t bathe, or anything . . . .
Mineral spirits. But if you also used oil paints for weathering, it will dissolve them.
I’ve never found water (with a drop of soap) to be a hassle. Flow on, wipe off. Wipe unwanted portions with damp cloth or paper towel.
If it’s slow evaporation you don’t like, just put it in front of a fan.
I’d like to revisit this, if I may. I’ve been experimenting a little, trying to get a handle on technique with all this stuff that is still new technology to me. I’ve read how alcohol and ammonia (a la Windex) will eat acrylics, so I set out to see if I could make this work for me. The idea was to see if I could lay down a bit of silver enamel on the floor plates of my Marder, cover that with red oxide acrylic, top that with acrylic elfenbein and then gently “wear” away the paint in a realistic manner by means of alky-hol or Windex, on a dampened q-tip or medium-stiff brush. The results have been . . . intriguing.
I’ve found that Tamiya acrylics melt away like snow on a hotplate, with either isopropyl or Windex, and even after curing for three weeks or so. But the MM acrylic, as I previously stated, ignored the alcohol and Windex, loosening slightly only if fairly fresh and under brisk scrubbing with a toothbrush. PollyScale is even more durable, resolutely defying any erstwhile corrosive effect of either isopropyl or Windex. The PollyS I attacked was utterly unaffected- I not only could not scrub it off, I couldn’t make a dent in it. And it’s only cured for three days.
So, the question is: what does affect Model Master or PollyS colors? Is the alcohol/Windex danger limited pretty much to Tamiya? I have no access to Lifecolor, or Vallejo, etc, at any of my LHS’s, so I have no data on them. What does the collective experience of you guys tell you?
Simple Green will attack Polly Scale, and the few MM acrylics I’ve used. A better solvent is “Magic”—25% Windex, 25% Simple Green, 50% distilled or deionized water. This can also be made with ethyl, denatured, or isopropyl alcohol substituting for some of the water.
I’ll have to grab some. Over the weekend, I found that MM and PollyS not only laugh at alcohol and windex, they positively sneer at Kaboom, Mr. Clean, Lysol Disinfecting Spray Cleaner and Orange Clean. Haven’t tried sulphuric acid or model airplane fuel, yet. It’s gone way beyond technique- now it’s personal. At least I feel confident that my alcohol/pastel weathering washes are safe, at least over MM Acryl or Polly Scale acrylic.
BTW- does the Simple Green react aggressively with MM, or does it need to sit on the finish for a while?
Soaking and an old toothbrush, vigorously applied. Warm (not hot) solution helps. Just mix it using warm tap water.