Acrylic Tips Help Cut Modeling Expense

Acrylic paints have added a lot to scale modeling whether your venue is model railroading, warship modeling, race car modeling or airplane models and it is almost a universal axiom in all of these areas, the paint job makes the model.

can remember when model railroading was the sole paint domain of Floquil, Model Shipways was the source for ship modeling paints, Testors was responsible for most car paints and Pactra esd the one to call on for plane modeling paints.

Many of these gained a foothold in ntheir venue by offering a selection of colors germain to their field. Hence the names like Burlington Northern Green, Caboose Red, Conrail Blue and boxcar red were the only options for serious modelers. And how could you finish a boat without Bulwarks dark green, hull tallow, deck house cream or iron cannon black.

This specialization, among other things like chemical moss-match, saw prices for hobby paints rise dramatically..

I rememb er the days you could buy a quarter-ounce bottle of Testors enamel for 19 cents. Today it is 10 times that price.

Craft stote acrylics like American, Apple Barrel and Folk Art offer two-ounce bottles of their acrylic paints for a about the same price.

Here are some tips on painting with acrylics:

1. Acrylics dry fast. If you are involved in a lengthy project, keep your paint pallette moist.

2. It applies thickly so mixing in a few drops of water will make it more workable.

3.Get in the habit of blotting your brush after you rinse it. This keeps water from blotching your work.

4. When an acrylic wash dries, it's permanent and, unlike a watercolor wash, is insoluble

5. Think thin if you want a glaze. If you want transparent glazes,build them up in thin layers.

6. Because acrylics dry rapidly, you need to work fast if you wish to mix colors. If you're working on paper, dampening the paper will increase your working time.

7. Masking tape works with acrylics. This makes it easy to produce a hard or sharp edge.