thinning and airbrushing artist oil paints. Anyone have experience with that?

[jpolacchi]

I was just wondering if anyone out there has ever had any experience with thinning out and airbrushing "artist oil paints"? The really expensive kinds that come in small sized tubes that need a great deal of thinning out with mineral spirits and the possible additional "curing additive" to make it dry/cure faster in a day or two and not waiting like 6 weeks to the first coat to cure. I know many use oil paints to either paint really small figurines or do detail washes and other detailed painting effects, but I am referring to painting larger scaled figure kits. Starting with a base coat of acrylic primer and it there a good acrylic primer out there with good adhesion and doesn't overfill surface details? And airbrushing and finishing a figure kit entirely in artist oil paints from airbrushing on flesh tones/detailing, hand painting eyes(airbrushing other small parts) and finishing in washes, dry brushing (your typical finishing techniques). Has anyone out there done it?

[Rocketeer]

https://ourpastimes.com/how-to-use-oil- ... 16127.html

[Bellerophon]

I recently tried something similar, thinning artist's tube acrylic and airbrushing it. I added burnt umber to clear coat and thinned it with isopropyl alcohol, to make a sort of filter coat, using a Paasche H. At first I was getting a few tiny brown clumps because of not enough stirring. I stirred the living heck out of it with a paintbrush, and then it worked fine.

Aside from using different medium and thinner (and aside from the smell) shooting oils should work just as well. Maybe better, because oils dry so slowly, so maybe you could keep shooting forever without clogging the nozzle.

[jpolacchi]

Thanks for the link. I think I had seen or read that small article. Somewhat useful. I was just wondering if anyone had ever finished a figure kit entirely in artist oils and I mean in scales larger than 1/24, 1/32, 1/48 or 1/72. I've seen plenty of examples and read articles of some who paint small figurines using "oils only", but these are really small figures. Not like the 1/6, 1/8 and 1/4 scale figure kits and busts I have acquired. My only other question really is "acrylic primer". I read that oils do best when painted over an acrylic primer or base (no problems). I don't know much about acrylics as I've shunned there use for just about everything I do except when it comes to watercolor paper. Then I'm all for the use of acrylic inks and paints. In any case, is there a specific "acrylic primer" that has good adhesion to resins that would be recommended over others, or are they pretty much all the same, or is Tamiya really "the best" out there on the acrylic market?

[southwestforests]

The only relevant thing I know is don't use oils on vinyl figures.
At least not without undercoating/priming the vinyl figure with something impervious to oils.

[jpolacchi]

No, I've no plans of painting any vinyl kits with artist oils or enamels. I was told by someone anyway that is doesn't matter if you have acrylics down as a base over your vinyl kit. It won't protect or keep the oil(or enamel paint) from reacting weird and basically effing up your project. I'm referring to "resin kits and 3d printed resin kits to use artist oils on. I was looking around and reading some bits of information today, I may look into "Gesso" if it can be thinned enough and brushed on. I can't air brush it on, but it's is said to be "the best" surface prep for oil paints second to a good acrylic primer. I think Vallejo might be the best acrylic primer to use, but I am not sure?

[seam-filler]

I may look into "Gesso" if it can be thinned enough and brushed on. I can't air brush it on, but it's is said to be "the best" surface prep for oil paints second to a good acrylic primer. I think Vallejo might be the best acrylic primer to use, but I am not sure?

Gesso can be sprayed depending on brand. Different brands can be anywhere between the consistency of thin cream to thick mud. I would, therefore, suggest using a needle-less spry gun rather than a quality airbrush as thinning can be problematic and you don't want to damage needles and fine nozzles. Thin with distilled or de-ionized water (up to 25%). There are spray-on gessos available - both Liquitex and Krylon do spray gesso.

Chemically, modern gesso is water-based acrylic primer with calcium carbonate (chalk) added. It dries much harder than a normal acrylic primer and provides a better key for top coats of paint. It is primarily used to prime absorbent surfaces such as canvas, wood, plaster and paper. On non-absorbent surfaces it help prevent beading. I've used it to prime vinyl kits successfully but I have never used it on resin (printed or cast) or the hard plastics like ABS & styrene. It does work to a limited extent on that horrible soft plastic used for Airfix figures and toys as long as it's not going to get any rough handling.

Remember that gesso is not intended for fine-detail three-dimensional model making so it will not always be suitable or the best thing to use. And experiment - gesso is cheap and a bit of waste won't hurt the pocket too hard.

[jpolacchi]

I'll look into it more. A goof acrylic primer may be best to use on "non porous surfaces" such as resin cast and 3d printed resin. I know gesso is primarily used on canvas for surface prep and the Vallejo water based urethane may have better adhesion than any other acrylic primer on the market? I've never used it before, but I do hear "good things" about the Vallejo acrylic line I've just nt practical experience using acrylics in model finishing. I've only ever used acrylics for mixed media watercolor work.