Oil Painting Question
mar...@delphi.com
with these oil paints. Straight out of the tube the
consistancy is very uneven, especially between brands. So I
bought some Grumabacher oil paint medium, but now the paint
dries even slower, and no longer dries hard at all. I've got
this soft almost gooey stuff that picks up dust and finger
prints even a week after I put it on. It was great going on
however, very smooth and I felt like I was finally making
progress. I hesitate to spend another $7.00 for another
mystery bottle. And how about Cobalt Drier? Help!
TIA
Mary
Matthew Y. Hayashibara
>
>All right guys, I know your out there. I'm having trouble
>with these oil paints. Straight out of the tube the
>consistancy is very uneven, especially between brands. So I
>bought some Grumabacher oil paint medium, but now the paint
>dries even slower, and no longer dries hard at all.
There is an article reprint in the Kalmbach book "Detailing Projects You Can
Do" from FSM on using oil paints on models... it's very good, highly
recommended. (Although the topic of the article is weathering a derelict
G4M "Betty" bomber, the advice on using the mediums is universally
applicalble). Also seek Shepard Paine's book on figure painting (also
Kalmbach). Very helpful!
The hints are very good for painting figures, and my new application:
realistic-looking auto interiors.
>I've got
>this soft almost gooey stuff that picks up dust and finger
>prints even a week after I put it on. It was great going on
>however, very smooth and I felt like I was finally making
>progress. I hesitate to spend another $7.00 for another
>mystery bottle. And how about Cobalt Drier? Help!
There is a medium called "Japan Drier" available in cans... I've used this
to accelerate the drying of oil paints.. it works extremely well, and is
inexpensive. Try it!
MadMat
Scott Nelson
> All right guys, I know your out there. I'm having trouble
> with these oil paints. Straight out of the tube the
> consistancy is very uneven, especially between brands. So I
> bought some Grumabacher oil paint medium, but now the paint
> dries even slower, and no longer dries hard at all. I've got
> this soft almost gooey stuff that picks up dust and finger
> prints even a week after I put it on. It was great going on
> however, very smooth and I felt like I was finally making
> progress. I hesitate to spend another $7.00 for another
> mystery bottle. And how about Cobalt Drier? Help!
Mary,
It sounds like you might be using too much paint. Are you using an
acrylic undercoat? If not, you should. I mix up colors that are about
the same as the medium shade for an area I am going to paint, then I
paint the highlights and shadows in oils. This way the
sometimes-less-than-opaque oils cover well with very small amounts of
paint. Also, I use mineral spirits instead of turpentine or some other
paint medium. (Once in a while I use pure linseed oil to thin
particularly thick paint) Shep Paine's book as mentioned in another
post is particularly helpful, if not indispensible for begining oil
painting miniaturists.
I would be interested in knowing what material the figures are made of
and what primer you use.
Scott
mar...@delphi.com
I am using and acrylic base coat over figure primer, sometimes
grey, somtimes white. Whatever can is handy from my husbands
bench. (Tank modeller) The figures are white metal. I
haven't found Shep Paine's book to be particularly helpful as
far as the paint itself is conserned. He tends to gloss over a
lot of things. The audience for his book is the experienced
modeller switching to figures. I'll give the linseed oil a try
as well as cobalt drier and just keep plugging away.
Thanks,
Mary
NewPolaris
Cobalt drier will help a little but it's still slow. If you
want really fast results you can add a little lacquer thinner to the paint
when it's on your palette (or whatever). If you are mixing custom colors
don't thin it all at once or it will all dry before you finish. This will
give you a flat finish, if this is not desirable you can counteract this
by adding a little liquin.
Good Painting!
Sincerely,
Dennis
NewPo...@aol.com