Acrylic Paints

[Super Ron]

Guys, I was at Wal-Mart and bought a couple 97 cent bottlesbof acrylic paint bottles. I figured try and see. I thinned the paint with pledge floor shine and water. Painted my base white, heat set then used a purple with a stencil.

I found that the acrylic paint sprays a lot better than the airbrush paints I use. It sprays smoother and cleans up way easier. (I seem to have issues thinning and cleaning when I use createx opaque white)

My question is on long term. Any of u want to share your experiences using acrylic paints?

Thanks

Ron

[Travis]

Have used many of the lower priced stuff from various stores over the years but Createx and other airbrush paints easily win out in the long run.  Simply they are designed  to perform with airbrushes.  Particles smaller, additives to aid in use in brush, etc....  The cheap stuff can give good results, I still use some, but the time I spent getting them to work such as thinning , straining, always having to mix  disassemble my brush to get a clog out, etc.... got old quick.    My airbrush paints are in comparison ready to go with nothing more than a little shake.  

[gliders]

Try wicked opaque white, also cheaper acrylics might not have u.v protection.

[BobP]

I think you'll find a lot of differences in how cheap hobby acrylics shoot. Some work OK, some won't shoot through even the largest tip airbrush. That's because there's no need to mill the color particles to any specific size. I started out with them years ago but eventually switched to airbrush paint when the modest savings did not equal the hassles I was having with them, especially when I tried to shoot them through a brush with a small .3mm tip size. Acrylic paint of any description lasts a long time. As a hobby builder, I order paint maybe once a year so buying good paint seems justified. I generally don't thin airbrush paint. I also use a lot of pre-mixed taxidermy acrylics that don't need thinning and I buy them in 4oz bottles. I've tried the Pledge floor finish and it works well but if you fail to clean your brush thoroughly afterwards, it will weld the needle of the brush to the packing nut in the brush, which I don't like. That's my experience. Your's may differ and it's certainly player's choice.

[Super Ron]

Thanks for the responses.     The reason I tried the pledge and acrylics was strictly because I have issues with white.   Either I think I'm good and it spits or I get a lot of tip dry.    And it's a pain in the butt to clean my airbrush after white.

 

I might consider some paints from vandykes maybe next time I order some paints.   My goal is to be able to be able to paint individual bluegill type patterns to be proud of.   I don't care about painting 5 of the same paint color all the time kind of thing.

 

Ron

[BobP]

The white I use most is Polytranspar Superhide White. It covers very well and dries fast to a hard smooth coating, compared to Createx.

[bassdude41]

I have been using acrylic paint for 1-2 years. I have collected over 50 colors because they are affordable. For base coat stuff it works good but anything with detail I much rather prefer actual airbrush paint. Testors, createx etc. Sprays nicer on low pressure and doesn't run as easy.

[RayburnGuy]

   And it's a pain in the butt to clean my airbrush after white.

 

 

Ron

 

Maybe you need to alter the way you clean your airbrush if your having so much trouble. I use Createx opaque white for a base coat and have no trouble cleaning the airbrush. I rinse the bowl out with water and then fill the bowl with water and backflush. After backflushing with water I backflush again with a partial bowl of acetone and the brush is clean and ready to go. I can clean the brush faster than it took me to type this.

 

Ben

[northrivergeek]

If you have older bottles sitting around they tend to get little bits and pieces of dried paint in them .. and that clogs the airbrush .. I spent 40 mins cleaning one of mine today  .. found this nifty tip   ..go buy some panty hose, or raid your wife/girlfriends stash.. unscrew the cap, and place a piece of it over the bottle, one layer all that is needed.. clean the inside of your cap good, and screw back down the cap.. now you have a filter to block all the boogers from getting in your paint cup! 

[Eyectcher]

Maybe you need to alter the way you clean your airbrush if your having so much trouble. I use Createx opaque white for a base coat and have no trouble cleaning the airbrush. I rinse the bowl out with water and then fill the bowl with water and backflush. After backflushing with water I backflush again with a partial bowl of acetone and the brush is clean and ready to go. I can clean the brush faster than it took me to type this.

Ben

hey Ben u don't mean to intrude on the conversation regarding the paint I use mostly the wicked and auto air I really look at how much I pay to own a boat and fishing equipment so what's a couple extra bucks for good paint it will save you in the long run anyway as I don't want to get into that but for cleaning your brush I used acetone when I first started airbrushing till one day I'm a masonry contractor and we were building concrete block walls in a factory which I do work for and there were two big barrells of acetone about twenty feet away we were building the walls so the walls were for dangerous chemicles and all over the big drums were those triangle caution decals so I asked the engineer why they had them taped off with so many of those stickers he explained that even breathing the fumes of acetone were very highly carcinogenic so I told him about how I clean my airbrush and he really insisted I use something else so a friend who paints also suggested cleaning vinegar it's a lot stronger than the stuff we put in our salad I tried it and to be onest besides the smell it works great just my two cents I'd hate to hear of anyone getting sick

[SW Lures]

I like the idea of cleaning vinegar as a cleaner (thinking outside the box). I honestly don't use acetone except for cleaning out clears and brushes (hair type) for the sealer. I wonder how this vinegar would work on them. Although I have respirators set up for these chemicals.

While I'm here on this topic, different chemicals need certain filters. Ask or get the Material Safety Data Sheet for chemicals like these and read them. Your soon see why and what equipment to get.

As far as Auto Air and Wicked flowing and cleaning up, I have no issues with just a brush cleaner liquid and water, water mainly. Spraying sealer/primers through a .30 needle I go up to 30-40 psi. Wicked pearls (15-20) need a little pressure to. Normally I don't go over 15 -20 psi. Most of the time I'm down to 5-10 psi. I mainly spray light layers. Yes this takes time but gives great effects.

Teaching my Grand to spray at the lower pressures. She is getting it quick, she has no apprehensions. She just try to do it and do it right. She is doing so well that I'm trying to figure out how to get around the Child Labor Laws.

Hope this helps,

Dale

[mark poulson]

Whenever you are painting or cleaning your brushes, or using super glues, be sure to have plenty of ventilation.  I have a box fan at one end of my work bench, blowing past me toward the open garage overhead door.  And I have a respirator for the days when it's too cold, or too hot, to open the big door.

[RayburnGuy]

The following is copied and pasted from the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry.

 

What is this substance?

Acetone is a manufactured chemical that is also found naturally in the environment. It is a colorless liquid with a distinct smell and taste. It evaporates easily, is flammable, and dissolves in water. It is also called dimethyl ketone, 2-propanone, and beta-ketopropane.

Acetone is used to make plastic, fibers, drugs, and other chemicals. It is also used to dissolve other substances.

It occurs naturally in plants, trees, volcanic gases, forest fires, and as a product of the breakdown of body fat. It is present in vehicle exhaust, tobacco smoke, and landfill sites. Industrial processes contribute more acetone to the environment than natural processes.

 

How can acetone affect my health?

If you are exposed to acetone, it goes into your blood which then carries it to all the organs in your body. If it is a small amount, the liver breaks it down to chemicals that are not harmful and uses these chemicals to make energy for normal body functions. Breathing moderate- to-high levels of acetone for short periods of time, however, can cause nose, throat, lung, and eye irritation; headaches; light-headedness; confusion; increased pulse rate; effects on blood; nausea; vomiting; unconsciousness and possibly coma; and shortening of the menstrual cycle in women.

Swallowing very high levels of acetone can result in unconsciousness and damage to the skin in your mouth. Skin contact can result in irritation and damage to your skin.

The smell and respiratory irritation or burning eyes that occur from moderate levels are excellent warning signs that can help you avoid breathing damaging levels of acetone.

Health effects from long-term exposures are known mostly from animal studies. Kidney, liver, and nerve damage, increased birth defects, and lowered ability to reproduce (males only) occurred in animals exposed long-term. It is

 

How likely is acetone to cause cancer?

The Department of Health and Human Services, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have not classified acetone for carcinogenicity.

Acetone does not cause skin cancer in animals when applied to the skin. We don't know if breathing or swallowing acetone for long periods will cause cancer. Studies of workers exposed to it found no significant risk of death from cancer.

 

Has the federal government made recommendations to protect human health?

The EPA requires that spills of 5,000 pounds or more of acetone be reported.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set a maximum concentration limit in workplace air of 1,000 parts of acetone per million parts of air (1,000 ppm) for an 8-hour workday over a 40-hour week to protect workers. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends an exposure limit of 250 ppm in workplace air for up to a 10-hour workday over a 40-hour workweek.

 

 

I'm not a doctor or chemist, but don't believe that using acetone in the small amounts that would be used to clean an airbrush is going to be harmful or life threatening. I will leave that up to the individual to decide for themselves. To read the full report just clink on the link below.

 

Ben

 

https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tf.asp?id=4&tid=1

Edited September 25, 2016 by RayburnGuy

[SW Lures]

Well that helps with that, thanks to Ben.

And denatured alcohol you could drink it until they put a chemical in it to make sick. But until they did it was my main stay. I couldn't afford the good stuff.

What???

Dale

[Lurenerd]

I had problems with my Iwata brushes not spraying up to par after several months of use.  I made every effort to keep them clean, but still found that they lost some consistency after a while.  I broke down and bought a bottle of Createx 5619 air brush restorer.  The stuff is awesome.  Just a short 15 minute soak followed by a rinse with tap water made a huge difference.  Cleaned out all the old paint and gunk that I could never get with my normal cleaning process. Its reusable, too.  I highly recommend the stuff.

[SW Lures]

That's what I use Lurnerd and I agree 100%. I also use brushes for cleaning, a rinse, wipe down and lube where the airbrush needs it.

The nozzles normally cleans up with the cleaner. I don't do a thorough cleaning every time either except for clears. No problems here.

Dale

[RayburnGuy]

Not sure what's in the airbrush restorer, but it's definitely reusable. Been using the same batch for 4 or 5 years and it still works just as well as the first day I opened it.

 

I normally do a pretty thorough cleaning of the airbrush after each painting session so the restorer only gets used a couple times a year or as needed.

 

One way to tell if your airbrush needs attention is to hold your finger over the nozzle while pulling back on the trigger. If you see bubbles in the cup the needle is not seating properly. This can be caused by dried gunk in the nozzle.

 

Ben

[gliders]

Happened to check what's in it- 1-methoxy-2-propanol ? And proprietary h20 upto 97 percent. Some sort of Biodegradable solvent in water ?

[aulrich]

I had been thinking about trying TSP from the paint isle. 

 

Though mostly I just use non-ammonia cleaner. and I must admit to plain old window cleaner too but I do flush that with water.

[RayburnGuy]

Be careful with anything that has ammonia in it Aulrich. It will take the chrome off of your airbrush. That might not sound like such a bad thing, but the chrome is much slicker than bare metal and paint won't adhere to it as easily which makes cleaning the brush easier.

 

Ben

[gliders]

I use alcohol and have no problem. Also heard about ammonia issues, however I have also seen email from badger saying ,in dilution as shoot through cleaner as opposed to complete soak then no issues. He even says he's done it for 30years and seen no damage at all !

[Chuck Young]

I have a bottom feed airbrush (Badger 150). The fist thing I do is remove the paint source and blow the paint out of the brush ( cover the tip and spray. A nifty trick for such brushes is to keep one bottle of water. Rather than back-flushing, raise your pressure and just touch the tip of your feed tube to the brush while spraying. Use just quick touches - stop as soon as water comes out then remove. Repeat 5-10 times. This takes no time at all and removes every trace of paint from your gun. This is a great first step to cleaning your airbrush.

 

Some cleaners will clot the paint in the brush if mixed directly with paint.

 

Pledge and water mix has never worked for me as a reducer. If you premix the whole bottle with this mix, it will curdle your paint over time. Createx has a great reducer designed to be compatible with their paint. reducers are best applied just before painting. There is a home brew reducer that some use. I mixed some up myself, but have been so pleased with the performance of the manufactured product I still have not used it.

[Richard Prager]

I use Createx white for my base coating and whenever needed elsewhere. I don't thin the white but I use a .5 tip to base coat. Detail work I still don't have a problem with .35 or .3 as long as I am not spraying allot at a time. You are ALWAYS going to have white and createx black on your needle when finished. i always pull the needle spray with water and wipe it off. I also remove the caps and run the wet little brushes through it. As far a Pledge, i have tried it years ago and found that it dries real quick and makes the gun harder to keep clean. The RC guys have been using it for years to give a harder finish on their cars when painting. I spoke with the guy in charge of tech support at iwata last week and he tells me never soak my gun and never use restorer. He is a bit well, maybe eccentric and has a video on You Tube showing how to clean the gun. he actually tells you to rough up and old needle (for gripping) and twist the cotton from a q-tip around it and clean out your nozzle with that. I was kind of shocked because that would be the last thing i would use to clean my gun. He does use Dentek which I bought and works real well. He also uses nail polish remover (acetone) to clean 

 

Just shot the bottom of two baits and this is what was left on my needle. If not wiped off it will dry as well as in the nozzle. This was not thinned and using .3 tip compressor is at 28 psi but once I start shooting it goes down to about 14 psi

Edited September 27, 2016 by Richard Prager

[Chuck Young]

Invest in some Createx airbrush restorer. I couldn't begin to count the number of times I had a clog that all but stopped the flow of paint.Blowing back the paint, a rinse with water, and the restorer cleared it right out. Then it was on with the paint job. 

[Super Ron]

Thanks for all the advice.   My brush is clean  and new.    I did put pantyhose under the bottle lid.   I think that helped a little.    Again it's only white.    I can shoot any other paint or color I have without reducing it with only adjusting my psi between 8 and 15.   So maybe the couple bottles I have been on the shelf a long time before I got them.  White I have to shoot at 25 or up regardless of how thin I make it.

 

I've decided I just do not like Createx Opaque White.    So time to move on to another brand for white.