Hope you all had a fantastic weekend. I’ve just been finnishing up some figures from a kit I built this weekend, and decided to try out some of the beutiful new Vallejo Acrylics I’ve recently picked up. (I finnaly found a place to buy them!) I’m pretty new to figure painting, but have done several kits with my Testors Oils and Tamiya Acrylics, and been very happy with the resultes. I absolutly LOVE the Vallejo colors, but to my dismay, when I applied my usual wash, all the hard work I had just put into my figure peeled right off and even washed away. I had allowed about 15 mins to dry.
I understand that the Acrylics are water-based, but I have not had the same problem with Tamiya Acrylics in the past. Is there something that i’m doing wrong? I do not usually prime my figures. I water my wash down a bit, and then paint it on, wiping away any excess with a paper towel.
15 minutes drying time? That’s barely surface dry and nowhere near cured. Add to that a lack of primer and you have a recipe for disaster. I am not at all surprised that the base coat peeled right off.
You haven’t mentioned what you used as a wash, but that notwithstanding, over an acrylic base coat, I wouldn’t attempt a wash without at least 8-12 hours drying/curing time.
Apart from the 15 mins drying time, which really is not enough, if i have read that right, you used a water based paint. If so, thats generally not a good idea. The wash should be differant from the paint its on. i.e. Acrylic paint, enamel/oil wash and vic versa. Though acrylics are not so much of an issue as they are not as harsh as the chemicals in oil/enamels.
I recently did an oil wash over figures paiinted with vallejo and had no issues, they were left to dry over night.
Whenever I do an oil wash over a painted surface (I pretty much only use enamels) I put a coat of Future on first. Then I thin the oil paint with lighter fluid and apply it that way.
Also, there is a painting and airbrushing forum down below in the Tools, Techniques and Reference Materials section. That is a good place to bring up painting problems.
As mentioned, 15 minutes is not enough time to let the paint even set up.
Where the figures vinyl? Paint has an issue sticking to soft vinyl tracks and figures.
Tamiya acrylics have excellent adhesive qualities and really do not need a primer for a better bite into the plastic.
I have noticed that when brushing Vallejo over bare plastic, it tends to sort of bead up a little on certain areas but will not happen if I use a solvent type primer giving it a better bite. I have also noticed Vallego will easily scratch off bare plastic the same as MM Acryl. Tamiya’s will not do this.
This is a tad different circumstance, but, I will share anyway. I just sprayed some road wheels with Vallejo Gunmetal. I placed them on length of painters tape to hold them in place to paint. When pulling them from the tape some small areas had peeled off. Bare in mind, I let these dry overnight. Then I placed some of the wheels in a quickwheel template, shot them with the base color (also Vallejo), then quickly pushed them out from the template. They peeled even more. Well, I really didn’t like the Gunmetal color, so I coated over all the road wheels with MM gunmetal, doing the same process with the painters tape. No peeling at all. I’m going to use this as a learning experience with Vallejo paints. I’ll be more careful of how I use the paint.
hogfanfs’ experience reinforces my point of using a solvent type primer to keep some acrylic paints from lifting over bare plastic when removing masking tape. I had the same experience with MM Acryl when removing masking tape, even when using MM Acrylic primer.
Tamiya acrylics on the other hand are bullet proof.
Thanks everyone for the input. It sounds like my first instinct was right, I need more dry time. My issue with priming is that I like to paint my figures before I assemble them, but I guess I could still prime them while still on the Sprue. I’ll try painting and then letting them dry overnight. I’ll let you know how it works out. Thanks Fine Scale Folks!