discussion Pre thinning paints?

[Guest]

Hey guys, pretty new to this.
Bought myself a couple of Airfix Starter Kits.
Just wondering if there’s any reason not to water down the entire 5ml pot provided.
Will it keep ok as long as I give it a good shake/mix before using again?

 

[slupanter]

Welcome!

I have found that if you pre-mix then the paint separates in storage and never quite mixes as well the 2nd, 3rd and 4th time.

Share some photos of these kits :smiling3:

 

[Guest]

Ok thank you.
So what is the best way to mix small amounts? I have pipettes but the paint gets stuck in them so I end up wasting. Is it better just to pour some out & add drops of water until the ratio is right?

First kit was the Cromwel Starter Kit. Didn’t thin the paint at all & had some nightmares along the way.

Currently attempting the Curtis Tomahawk. Painting in progress

 

[Guest]

What you can do is put a little paint onto a palette (an old glazed kitchen or bathroom tile will do) using your brush, then mix in a little water on the palette. If it’s too thin now you can add more paint, if it’s too thick you can add more water. Beware, though, that a little water goes a long way for thinning acrylic paint. But you’ll soon discover how much to thin your paint, I think

 

[Guest]

Yeah great I’ll give that a go.

Thanks.

 

[Dave Ward]

Sam,
I bought a pack of disposable plastic shot glasses - you can get them from Pound shops, or Amazon - I paid £1 for about 50! Not only useful for mixing paint, but keeping small parts together - similarly I bought 50 disposable bulb pipettes from Amazon, they'll last you ages!
Dave

 

[zuludog]

Welcome!

I have found that if you pre-mix then the paint separates in storage and never quite mixes as well the 2nd, 3rd and 4th time.

Share some photos of these kits :smiling3:

Thanks for that advice
I have always used enamel paints, but tried the small pots of Humbrol acrylic that came with a couple of Airfix starter kits
I thought they were a bit thick, and considered transferring them to reclaimed 14ml tins, and diluting them
So now I'll try Jakko's advice, and use a palette. I brush paint.

Perhaps I'll try some other makes of acrylic paint. I was thinking of Vallejo Model Color, but I'm open to other suggestions

 

[Guest]

I have always used enamel paints, but tried the small pots of Humbrol acrylic that came with a couple of Airfix starter kits
I thought they were a bit thick

My experience with Humbrol acrylic paints is that they thicken with age — a lot. The other week I took the plastic wrapper off a pot of it that I had bought some years ago but never used, and found a solid block in it that had about half the volume the paint had when the pot was filled. In other words: the solvents evaporate even from a fully closed and supposedly sealed pot.

Perhaps I'll try some other makes of acrylic paint. I was thinking of Vallejo Model Color, but I'm open to other suggestions

My experience is that any acrylic paint that comes in a fully plastic container will dry out faster than ones in a glass jar with a plastic lid, and nothing beats tinned paint like Humbrol or Revell enamels. I have tins of Humbrol from the 1970s that are still perfectly usable (after a lot of stirring), yet Humbrol, Revell, or Games Workshop acrylics dry out within a few years. (One exception seems to be Rackham paints, that are in all-plastic pots but remain usable for ages. However, they have a different problem, namely they cover about as well as tinted varnish does )

My recommendation would be for Tamiya or Gunze-Sangyo, but OTOH many people seem to find them impossible to brush-paint. I have no problems with them that way, though.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Jakko, low density polythene (which a lot of plastic paint containers are) is actually porous at a molecular level so will allow very slow evaporation to occur. Chances are the Rackham paint in a higher density polythene or polyethylene container. Agree about zhumbrol though, I have some from about 1972 that I still use occasionally.

 

[Guest]

Plus the lids usually don’t seal as well as a cap on a glass bottle or a metal lid on a metal tin. The Humbrol acrylics are worse than most in that respect because they not only have a flip-up lid but the whole top of the pot can unscrew from the bottom, so that’s two possibly poor seals.