Something for enamel paint users...

[matrixone]

A few weeks ago I bought a bottle of Winsor & Newton Artists Painting Medium after learning it could be used with enamel paints to act as a retarder and have been wanting give it a try with my Model Master enamel paints which don't seem to spray very well through my Iwata HP-B Plus.
So far I have not had a chance to try any of my paints treated with the Painting Medium through my airbrush yet but have tried some brush painting with them with some good results, by adding about three drops to a nearly full bottle of Model Master flat paint and stirring it up well I brush painted some unwanted parts to see how this idea would work. The paint was easier to brush paint and leveled out very nicely, it took a little longer to dry than normal and was slightly more glossy than usual, almost like Xtracolor enamel paints.
I also tried adding some of the Artists Medium to a couple of bottles of older paint that were thick and almost dried out and the Atrists Painting Medium saved them, I tried brush painting with those paints and they worked very well...so far I have been checking the condition of those two bottles of paint every couple days and the paint still looks good inside the bottles.

However I would NOT try the Winsor & Newton Artists Painting Medium in paints that are known to dry slowly (such as Xtracolor enamels) because they might not ever dry fully.

But for paints that often dry on the tip of the needle of your airbrush this Artists Painting Medium might help eliminate that problem and allow you to spray cleaner fine lines.



Matrixone

[Weaver]

Cheers - I'll bear that in mind. Modern Humbrol matt black seems to dry if you're not fast enough getting from the pot to the model....

[Allan]

Thanks for the info, Matrix, very useful. I'll see if I can get some and use it with my Humbrol and Revell enamel.
Allan in Canberra

[matrixone]

Allan,
If your bottle of paint (or tinlet) is still in good condition I would not add more than two or three drops of the Painting Medium to it, otherwise your paint might take a very long time to dry.

I bought this stuff to enable me to use my Model Master enamel flat paints through my HP-B Plus and have them spray as good as the Xtracolor paints seem to do.
Model Master enamels dry out much quicker in the bottle than they used to do a few years ago, the Painting Medium will extend the shelf life of a bottle of paint if you add a couple of drops to it and mix it up well.

Below are some painting test subjects that I will be working with to test the Winsor & Newton Painting Medium with my enamel paints.



Matrixone

[Allan]

Thanks Matrix.
I suppose one drop would be enough if you were going to put the artists painting medium in the HP-B paint bowl instead of the paint bottle or tinlet.
Allan in Canberra

[Allan]

I've bought myself a bottle. The price here in Canberra is A$7.50 or thereabouts.
Allan in Canberra

[matrixone]

Allan,
I would be very careful about adding a drop of the Painting Medium in your airbrush paint bowl with your paint, it might be too much and then your paint might not dry....ever. Just adding three drops to a nearly full bottle of paint makes a difference, adding one drop into the color cup of the airbrush might be overkill but it IS one of the things I had wanted to try.

Matrixone

[Allan]

Yes, Matrix, practicing on scrap plastic might be prudent.
Allan in Canberra

[Allan]

Matrix,
How many drops in a Revell/Humbrol tinlet and do you think it can be used with gloss enamel, too?
Allan in Canberra

[matrixone]

Allan,
No reason the Painting Medium won't work just as well in gloss paints but remember your paint will take slightly longer to dry than usual and gloss paints dry slow to begin with.
I would NOT try using this Painting Medium with Xtracolor enamels, they take too long to dry as they are!

Next weekend I will have time to play around with using the Painting Medium and finding out how it works in my Iwata HP-B Plus...I am really looking forward to it.

Matrixone

[Allan]

Me, too, Matrix. This is useful intel.
Allan in Canberra

[matrixone]

Sunday I did some airbrushing on my models and while I had my airbrush out I wanted to try some experiments with the Painting Medium.

I found that by adding two drops of the Painting Medium to the cup of my airbrush worked quite well when airbrushing enamel flat paints, the tip dry on the end of the airbrush needle was not any problem (as it usually is) and the paint DID dry on the model. The Painting Medium did not change the size of the fine lines I was able to spray before using this stuff (I had hoped it would allow me to spray even finer lines) but that is okay since I was happy with what I was able to do.

Since two drops of the Painting Medium worked with no problems I wanted to see what would happen with five drops of the painting medium added to my airbrush cup.
The paint came out looking translucent and it took several coats to get good coverage, I was not able to get the ultra fine lines like I had hoped I would but at least there was zero paint drying on the tip of needle. Another thing that was different was the area that I had painted took a very long time to dry, after six hours it was still not dry so I let it dry overnight and just checked it and it is now completely dry and has a very smooth slightly glossy finish.

I can see that this Artists Painting Medium could be very useful for getting some silky smooth paint finishes on our models and also for certain weathering effects with the airbrush, the ability (with five drops of the Painting Mediumin the airbrush cup) to make the paint translucent would be good for airbrushing exhaust stains and smoke stains from aircraft guns because you can slowly build up the effect with good control and no worries about paint drying on the tip of the airbrush needle.

I did the above mentioned experiments using Model Master enamel paints, other brands of paints may yield different results so use this Artists Painting Medium with caution!

Matrixone