Each modeller uses an acrylic thinner when painting a model. Usually the native solvent is used. In our province, you can buy paints and thinner for them Star and Tamiya. Accordingly, native X-20A Thinner is used for Tamiya paints. No other solvent was needed. But as a rule, the palette of modellers begins to expand with paints from different manufacturers, and the coming crisis has raised prices for chemicals from a Japanese manufacturer. Tamiya paint and thinner became expensive.
Modelers began to look for a replacement. I want to paint the model with pleasure without saving every drop. The network has a lot of information about the composition of the solvent for acrylic paint. It is claimed that the basis is Isopropyl alcohol and various additives. Therefore, "Isopropyl alcohol" was purchased in radio components for testing.
Some domestic manufacturers offer solvents for acrylic paints: Aurora Hobby and MHP.
It's time to start testing solvents for acrylic paints.
The test is attended by:
- Tamiya X-20A
- Acrylic paint thinner from Aurora Hobby
- Thinner for acrylic paints from Modelkhimprodukt
I prepared for the experiments a polystyrene rectangle from Aurora Hobby. I pasted small rectangles on it (Then I will apply decals with a break).
I also applied stripes and rivets with a scriber - we will compare washes.
For the test camouflage, I chose 3 colors: XF-15(Flat flesh), XF-67(Nato green) and XF-68(Nato brown) without historical reference - just for contrast.
We will apply XF-15 (Flat flesh) as the first layer.
Solvents under the brush
The first as a reference will be a solvent from Tamiya.
I tried to add the same amount of paint and solvent to the blister: 1 brush completely dipped in paint and 3 drops of solvent from a measuring pipette.
Everyone already has an idea about this branded paint and thinner. The solvent is almost odorless. Dissolves paint well. Tamiya diluted too much and the brush did not work out a homogeneous layer. But you can see that the paint dissolves completely.
Solvent AH2044 from Aurora Hobby - Smells weak. Alcoholic smell prevails.
Paint XF-15 dissolved easily. The paint is applied with a brush in a good uniform layer.
Solvent from MHP - also smells like alcohol, but the smell is more "bitter". The intensity is weak. Distinctly if you sniff directly from the neck. Although in chemistry lessons they taught not to do this.
The paint also dissolved well and the brush was evenly applied to the polystyrene.
Isopropyl alcohol also smells like alcohol (Amazing, isn't it?).
Thinned the paint well. But the paint has changed its shade to a lighter one. And the brush smeared too much. It probably needs a bit of experience when diluting.
(indicated by numbers in the picture below)
2. Aurora Hobby
The paint has dried up. Here is the result (left to right): Tamiya, Aurora Hobby, MHP and alcohol
After half an hour, the paints in the blister began to dry out. The paint is ok. She did not curl up and did not precipitate.
Solvents performed very well. You can use them right away. They smell weak. Pure isopropyl alcohol slightly changes the shade of the paint. But with some skill, you can probably use it.
Airbrush Solvents
I also tried to take the same amount of paint and thinner: 1 brush with a slide of paint and 10 drops of thinner. Pressure 1.5 atm.
I washed the airbrush after each solvent.
First to speak Tamiya. Only applied two coats of paint. So it shines a little. Blew out the top right corner. As you would expect, the paint puffs up nicely and adheres well to the primed polystyrene.
Solvent paint Modelchemical product blew out the bottom left corner. The paint was also blown out well, lying on the surface tightly and evenly.
I will cover the lower right corner with paint diluted with Isopropyl alcohol
The paint diluted with alcohol did not change the shade and pouted from the airbrush as well as the rest.
The paint layer is thin, so it is a little translucent. It will be necessary to cover with another layer of paint.
Solvent test results
In recent years, prices in stores have risen sharply, not all types of products. Acrylic paints from Tamiya have risen in price from 80 to 160 rubles. Thinner X-20A with a volume of 250 ml from 250 to 500 rubles. And now you have to better plan each purchase of paints and thinners.
Domestic manufacturers of chemistry for modellers Aurora Hobby from Moscow and Modelkhimprodukt from Vladivostok offer modellers thinners for acrylic paints for brushes and airbrushes, similar to branded ones, but cheaper. According to the results of the test, the Aurora Hobby solvent seemed to me a little better than the other participants, the MHP Solvent is a complete analogue of Tamiya. Isopropyl alcohol can also be used with some dexterity if you can't buy branded alcohol.
Aurora Hobby: Thinner for acrylic paints (250 ml) - 330 rubles (For registered users - 310 rubles)
ModelChemProduct.
Good day, my dear readers!
In touch Dmitry Ignatychev is your guide in the world of large-scale modeling.
The new article is a great opportunity to add another section to the information structure of my project. This section will be called PAINTS. Coloring the model is one of the most interesting and time-consuming steps in creating a scale model. It requires not only the desire to paint the model, but sufficient practice in time. Painting a model requires precise scientific knowledge of the composition and characteristics of the painting material. Maybe not in-depth and professional. But even a general understanding of the chemical-physical properties will greatly facilitate the work. You will begin to understand how the components of the material affect the process of painting the surface. You will begin to understand how different types of paints interact with each other. What and how to combine.
YOU WILL STOP ACTING RANDOMLY.
And you will move forward in mastering the science of modeling systematically and consciously.
Today we will talk about the basics of understanding the properties of model paint. Whatever paint by type or manufacturer you use, it will consist of the same components.
PAINT COMPONENTS
Pigment
Pigment is the base of paint. It gives it color, creating opacity. The main qualities of pigments specified by manufacturers are: significantly lower density compared to ordinary art paints. and light fastness. For example, some cheap paints can fade quite quickly. And when painting, give out a thick paint layer, behind which thin lines of jointing will hide.
Binder (glue, binder)
This substance determines the possibility of a strong connection of the pigment particles to each other. It also causes the paint to stick to the work surface. In general, binder is a multifunctional substance. Determines the speed and quality of polymerization. How much paint will be resistant to abrasion and other traumatic effects. In essence, the binder defines the difference between paint types. The main binders used in the production of model paints are acrylic resins and linseed oil.
Vehicle (solvent, thinner)
If the paint consists only of pigment and a binder, it will turn out to be extremely thick. And it will be completely unsuitable for work. It is the solvent that gives the paint flow properties, allowing it to be applied in the thinnest layer.
Additive
Paints can also contain specialized additives. They are used to enhance well-defined paint characteristics. Each manufacturer develops its own system of additives. Therefore, you can see with the naked eye that paints from different manufacturers behave differently. Often, the following elements can be additives:
- Drying Accelerator/Retarder
- Additives that give the paint a glossy/matte property
- Special preservatives
After we have learned (albeit superficially) the structure of the paint material, we can distribute them by type.
ACRYLIC PAINTS
Acrylic paints use acrylic resins as a binder and water or alcohol as a solvent. They are easy to handle and safe to use. Non-toxic and dries quickly. They have a low odor and are suitable for both brush and airbrush. This is probably the most popular type of paint currently used for painting scale models.
Since acrylic can be thinned with water and equipment can be cleaned with alcohol, they are very easy to use. However, care must be taken with acrylics because they can dry very quickly and are difficult to remove from the airbrush once dry. Most manufacturers make thinners to work with their own ranges of paints, so it's still best to use them. Water and alcohol will also work as a thinner with most acrylic paints, but they won't always give the same good results.
Many acrylics come in metal tubes similar to oils or watercolors. They are made for artists and are not as good at modeling as paints specially made for modellers.
Although acrylic paints are very different from enamel paints, they are no worse and that is why they are so widely used today. However, acrylic paints are not very good where you need to mix different colors, for example, when painting faces on figurines. Many modellers use acrylic for clothing and oil paint for faces.
ENAMEL PAINTS
Model enamels use oil as a binder, and white spirit or turpentine as a solvent. Model enamels are air-dried paints and can be glossy or matte. Model enamels are very similar to oil paints, and in some cases can be mixed with them. They are usually sold in small metal cans. Color rendering is done exactly in accordance with the colors of military aircraft and vehicles, so a huge number of modellers use enamels when painting their scale models.
Today, a large number of manufacturers produce enamel paints in a huge range of colors, comparable only to the range of acrylic paints. Enamel paints give a fairly durable layer, but are not as convenient to use as acrylic paints, because they must be diluted with white spirit. They are flammable, toxic and smell bad, but this disadvantage should not be overestimated. Use enamel paints in a well-ventilated area and you shouldn't have any odor problems. Their advantage is that they dry slowly and even after they have become non-sticky to the touch they can be softened again or removed with a solvent. This makes working with them less stressful, especially when using airbrushes.
OIL PAINTS
Oil paints have much in common with model enamels, and also use oils as a binder and white spirit as a solvent. Oil paints have been used by artists for many hundreds of years, and are generally sold in all art stores, not just model stores.
Oil paints are sold in metal tubes and look like a thick paste. You will need to add a large amount of thinner to the paint in order to achieve a modeling consistency. You can dilute them with white spirit, or linseed oil, which will make them more glossy.
In modeling, oil paints are practically not used for application with a brush or airbrush when painting the entire model. Their main application is the creation of filters, washes, smudges and rust effects. Also, many modellers use them to paint figures. They are quite expensive, so always buy only quality paints, the pigments will be smaller and denser, and the paint itself will have more durability.
TEMPERA PAINTS
An adhesive material, such as egg yolk, is used as a link between pigments in tempera paint. It has a very limited use, and can be used for painting figurines.
At the moment, we have considered the basic characteristics of model paints. Of course, too superficial. But I did not set myself the task of explaining them to you in depth. We are not chemists, we are production workers. And we are not going to produce paint in the near future.
The next step with us will be the analysis of paints by manufacturers. Every modeler (especially aspiring to become a master in this business) should know the properties of paints from major manufacturers. But we will leave this for future articles.
In preparing the material for this article, the data from the site http://www.world-model.ru
For today, I say goodbye to you.
P.S. If you have any questions, or you have better knowledge on this issue, write to me. Comment or email.
Any paint consists of at least a base and a colorful pigment. Additionally, a thinner is included in the composition of liquid paints.
The simplest option is oil paints. The vast majority of oil paints are a pigment (for example, for black it is soot) ground with linseed oil until smooth. Sometimes a different type of oil is used. Natural metal oxide pigments are often used in oil paints: ocher, umber, sienna, titanium oxide, zinc oxide. Being natural, these pigments are very well suited to mimic natural rust, sand, soil, dirt. The problem is that the pigment used in the paint can vary greatly in grain roughness, so not every oil is suitable for modeling. The principle of choice is extremely simple: expensive paints from well-known manufacturers have the thinnest pigment. I most often use Windsor & Newton oil, but paints from manufacturers such as Hansa, Schminke and Jacquard are in no way inferior to them, and the domestic Gamma is quite decent in quality.
Oil paints in modeling are used only in auxiliary roles: to perform washes and to work with a dry brush. The consumption of the paint itself is negligible - a 30 ml tube will last for many years, and it costs much less than branded model enamel, there is more pigment, the paint is thicker. The solvent for oil paints is white spirit or turpentine. However, there are subtleties that are unknown to many modellers, but are well known to artists.
The colorful base of oil paints is (surprise!) oil. When working with highly diluted paint, the oil is washed out by the solvent much faster than the pigment. Therefore, at the beginning of work with an oil wash, it has a very good spreadability, ideally seeps into small cracks, fills the lines of the panels. As the oil is washed out, which occurs after 15-20 minutes, or after 20-30 dipping of the brush into the mixture, only the solvent and pigment remain in the palette. The spreadability of such a suspension is significantly worse, it tends to break up into fractions, it must be constantly mixed. A wash without oil in it concentrates on the surface in such local flakes, not very evenly. Therefore, when working with oil, you should regularly add a drop or two of linseed oil to the mixture, which you need to have on hand. Linseed oil is also useful in working with enamels to improve flow, so it's worth buying sometime. Enough of a small bottle of 75 ml for many, many years.
In dry brushing, the addition of linseed oil to the paint increases gloss, but also greatly increases the drying time.
Enamel paints(the word "enamel", strictly speaking, cannot be used; this is a different type of coating, but we will not find fault) as a base, they use not oil, but alkyd varnish. In enamels for models, a pentaphthalic base is most often used, an analogue is the common household paints of the PF series. Pigments are often used synthetic, finely dispersed. Actually enamel paint for models is an emulsion of an alkyd base and a thinner. As a diluent, the same turpentine or white spirit is used with the addition of about 10% toluene to improve spreadability. Branded solvents for alkyd enamels and domestic solvent No. 651 have approximately the same composition.
Enamel paints give a durable finish with very good hiding power (i.e. a thin layer covers the previous one well), but is not resistant to various oils (including fingerprint fats) and various non-polar hydrocarbons. Therefore, the enamel coating must be covered with a finishing varnish. Enamels take quite a long time - 4-6 hours - to dry, but a completely dried coating is resistant to water and alcohols of typical concentrations, including acrylic solvents. Absolute alcohols and dehydrates dissolve the enamel coating, be careful! Solvents with a high content of toluene or dichloroethane (640 series, airbrush wash fluids) will also dissolve enamel paints. Acetone in typical concentrations has almost no effect on the dried coating, but with pressure it can remove the surface layer, as well as matte the surface, which can be used.
A feature of enamel paints is a very finely dispersed pigment that integrates well into the emulsion of the base varnish, which is typically finer than the pigment of acrylic and oil paints. The concentration of pigment in enamel paints is almost 2 times higher than in acrylics. This makes the enamels particularly suitable for dry brushing with metallics. The resulting strokes are visually almost impossible to distinguish from, say, graphite; they are very thin, the grain is almost imperceptible. You can get a glossy finish. The spreadability of enamel paints is significantly higher than acrylic paints and is comparable to oil. Unlike oil, alkyd emulsion is not washed out by a solvent, although separation into fractions is present in all enamel paints, they must be thoroughly mixed before use.
Enamels can be used with equal success for any purpose: as the main coating, or for auxiliary tasks. I use enamel metallics both on their own and for drybrush work, as well as for local glossing and occasional washes. As the main tone of the enamel, it is highly not recommended to put it on bare plastic, they do not hold in the best way. The surface must necessarily have some roughness: cleaned or primed. For this very reason, I don’t use enamels as basic coatings: I’m too lazy to prime again.
Acrylic paints in modeling are more common than any other for a number of reasons, and one of the main ones is the short drying time. In the household, water-based paints are known to everyone; Acrylic paints are one of their varieties.
Acrylic paints for models are a homogeneous mixture of an acrylic polymer emulsion (most often polymethylacrylate), a pigment and a thinner. Please note that the pigment in them is separated from the colorful base, this is an important feature. The thinners used are extremely varied, from plain water to complex mixtures of alcohols and esters for better spreadability and quick drying. Tamiya likes to use isopropyl alcohol. Acrylic paints almost always also contain a retarder: an additive that slows down the evaporation of the thinner. Various glycols are most often used as a retarder; for paints intended for indoor use, non-toxic propylene glycol is typical. At home, it can be completely replaced with glycerin.
Branded thinners for acrylic paints are 60-70% solutions of alcohols in distilled water with the addition of a retarder. Acrylics can also be dissolved with plain water, but this impairs the drying rate and has a bad effect on spreadability, which is lower for water than for alcohols. In fact, any polar solvent will work (see the difference between polar and non-polar solvents). Ordinary vodka works well as a home-grown solvent, if it does not contain a large amount of fusel oils. True, acrylic diluted with vodka will dry faster than diluted with branded solvent due to the lack of a retarder, spreadability will also deteriorate slightly. This is easily treated by adding a small amount of glycerin.
A large percentage of the retarder is needed to obtain high-quality gloss on acrylic paints, so that the layer has time to "calm down" before drying, forming an even film. Without adding a retarder, the layer is fixed in 15 minutes maximum, and the total drying time rarely exceeds an hour.
Tamiya recently began shipping the branded retarder separately in 40 ml bottles. What it is, I have not yet found out, but it works as it should: it slows down drying, gives more time for the paint layer to lie flat, spread, fill the gaps. By itself, it is a clear, almost odorless liquid. However, artistic retarders for acrylics work in the same way with model paints, but are sold for significantly less money.
A feature of acrylic paints (with the exception of the high drying speed) is the pigment that exists separately from the particles of the acrylic emulsion. In addition, in acrylics, the share of colorful pigment is lower than in enamels and in oils, they have worse hiding power. This does not cause problems for typical tones, but negatively affects metallics. Acrylic metallics are typically coarser in grain than enamels, and when cured they form a characteristic looking "two-layer" coating, which is a layer of metal powder and a layer of lacquer on top of it, rather than a uniform film like enamels. The gloss of such a coating is very specific: if the layer on which you put it was uneven, then the layer of metallic powder will be just as rough, although the layer of varnish on top of it may be completely glossy. This can be partly combated by using acetone (or Lacquer Thinner, a proprietary thinner for varnishes and metallics) as a solvent. Acetone, as it were, "accelerates" the particles of metal powder, contributing to the uniformity of its distribution. For a more or less adequately even coverage, acrylic metallics are recommended to be applied on a glossy surface so that the metallic layer is as even as possible. But with a coarser pigment, nothing can be done. A realistic metallic coating on acrylics is most often not possible.
Using acetone or a proprietary Lacquer Thinner as a thinner, acrylic paints can be applied over bare plastic without a primer, which allows you to get a thin coating while maintaining all the details of the jointing. The surface of the plastic before this, of course, must be well cleaned by washing in warm water with dishwashing liquid, or by wiping with any pure alcohol. True, acrylics have worse hiding power than enamels (less pigment), so the coating will be slightly thicker than a similar enamel, but still thinner than enamel + primer. Acrylic with acetone does not "weld" to plastic, as many people mistakenly claim. It's just that acetone in the composition of the paint mattifies the surface to which it adjoins, thus adding to it the roughness necessary for good adhesion of the paint. And all this in one pass.
The spreadability and hiding power of acrylic paints is much worse than that of enamels and oils. Therefore, they should not be used for flushing even with the addition of a retarder. Gloss can be obtained, but several layers are required, with intermediate drying, it is recommended to add a retarder. As a result, such a gloss will hide subtle details, so it is better to use enamel paints for a glossy finish.
An obvious area of application for acrylic paints is basic tones. You can work without a primer, or use the actual paint (matte) as a primer for subsequent coating. Acrylics can be used for fine brushwork, but specialized emulsion grades such as Citadel are better for this than typical Tamiya branded jars. Typical brushed acrylics do not produce the most even layer of paint, which can be partially overcome by using acetone as a thinner.
Concluding the first part of the presentation, I would like to note an important fact: both enamel and acrylic paints belong to emulsion. The fundamental difference between them is that enamels use non-polar solvents as the basis for the emulsion, while acrylics use polar ones (again, see the difference).