I've used Delta Ceramcoat acrylic paint for painting styrene and
hydrocal. It is cheap and seems to work fairly well. I have used
their Mudstone color which looks like older concrete color to me. But
I have a couple of questions for anyone else who has used it:
1. Does it stand up well or would you recommend that I use a more
expensive paint?
2. Can anyone suggest which of their colors ( or mix of colors) I
could use to give the appearance of aged and unpainted wood?
thanks for your help.
I've been pretty mixing a little #2090 Hippo Gray with #2404 Sandstone to
simulate concrete; straight Sandstone seems a little too yellow for me. Just
looking at a Ceramcoat color chart
formatting link
, #2488
Mudstone looks like a pretty good straight match for concrete. I will check
it out.
I think it stands up well.
The biggest shortcoming for me is that I can't get good airbrush results
(compared to true modelers paints such as Modelflex), which I guess is
understandable since the paint wasn't really formulated for that use.
For a starter point, try #2404 Sandstone. Once dried, darken it with a
thinned wash of #2506 Black. Here's the effect achieved by an artist far
better than me:
formatting link
For new raw wood
consider starting with #2435 Trail Tan.
As far as location to buy Ceramcoat, you can get 1 oz. bottles at Wal-Mart
for about $0.70 - $0.90. But I've found that my local Michael's
formatting link
craft store carries a much larger portion of the
entire Ceramcoat colors (plus it seems that every color is always available
in stock), so I've been buying them there at about $1.29 a bottle when I need
new colors. Besides, my pre-school daughters enjoy to go along on a
craft-shopping trip. You can never have enough craft supplies when you're
that age.
The greatest thing since sliced bread With Ceramcoat who needs DCC?
Seriously, the only place it doesn't work well is on metal. Resin is OK,
but the casting needs to be VERY clean (which is true of painting resin with
ANY paint.) For wood, styrene, plaster, cardstock, it covers well and is
very durable.
I have not airbrushed with it, although I know people who have.
As far as mixing colors, there is such a variety and it's so cheap just try
a bunch of different colors and experiment with own mixes. You don't need a
lot, just a squirt of color on an old AOL CD and mix it right on the
"pallet". (Thanks to the "gizmologist for that tip, I use the tops from
soda bottles, milk jugs, etc. for "paint pots" a lot too).
Don
--
snipped-for-privacy@prodigy.net
That's probably the ammonia. Most glass cleaners are water, alcohol, and
ammonia plus a few added ingredients.
Jay
CNS&M North Shore Line - "First and fastest"
I use Liquitex airbrush medium. It looks like skim milk, but seems to
have no effect on the resulting color. I get it at Michael's or Craft
Warehouse. I suspect that plain old distilled water would work, too.
Most places have too much "stuff" in the water to use tap water.
I just added a stall add-on kit to a 5 stall Heljan roundhouse someone
gave me (in pieces he salvaged from an older layout). Naturally,
every piece was a different color, plus the bricks had a sheen on them
like ceramic kitchen tile. The new roof pieces glistened. I mixed up
a mess of 3 parts oxide red and 1 part white, plus Liquitex to match
and it now looks great. The roof got a similar treatment and now just
looks black and sooty. I shot the whole thing (an 8 stall Heljan
roundhouse is LARGE) without a clog of my Badger 200, and that's after
not being able to find my filter screen. I mention that because
others have knocked Ceramcoat as being too thick to shoot and the
Badger is a finicky brush.
Several of the roof pieces were warped and were fried with a heat
shrink gun so I could bend them flat 24 hours after painting. My
fingers weren't happy at all, but the paint held up fine. I had left
the back-most roof pieces off (just laid in place) to enable the
occasional poke of a reluctant loco, so I hadn't noticed the warped
pieces until after it was painted.
Jim
--
Jim Sherman
xROADKILL snipped-for-privacy@zYAHOOa.COM < remove lower case letters,
then use what's left AS lower case
The hurrider I goes the behinder I gets; which makes sense because
the older I gets the more behind I gets. And I is gettin an old behind!
I've used the Liquetex as well and have had no problems with it. I would
caution that you want to make sure that you don't get small flakes of dried
paint into the mix. They cause problems. : (
A paint store owner friend of mine tells me that if you use a lot of water
to thin latex paint, that it will adversely affect the paint's adhesion
abilities. He said that a little will be OK, but certainly not 1 to 1 which
is about what I use for airbrush thinning. BTW, sometimes I use 5 parts
paint, 4 parts Liquetex and 1 part plain old tap water. This mixture seems
to work well and saves a little of the Liquitex; it gets expensive.
dlm
I'm not really sure just what Liquitex really is. 50-50 with
Ceramcoat seems to work fine. They sell a thinner for their paint
that looks exactly like Liquitex. I do know that regular water in
some places is very likely to leave a deposit which is visible. Our
water in Florida was so hard that a drop would leave a deposit you
could feel. I got in the habit of using distilled for decals and
anything else that needed water and would show.
--
Jim Sherman
xROADKILL snipped-for-privacy@zYAHOOa.COM < remove lower case letters,
then use what's left AS lower case
The hurrider I goes the behinder I gets; which makes sense because
the older I gets the more behind I gets. And I is gettin an old behind!
I just found this on the Ceramcoat site:
Q: Can I use Delta Ceramcoat® Acrylic Paint in a watercolor method or
with an airbrush?
Yes. When the acrylic paints are thinned with Delta Ceramcoat® Acrylic
Thinner, it reduces the paints to a proper consistency for watercolor
and airbrushing techniques. When the acrylic paints are dry, they
cannot be "lifted" like watercolors. Thinning acrylics with water
causes them to lose their vivid color and appear flat after drying.
With airbrushing, too much water can cause the acrylics to lose their
bonding and covering ability. Mix equal parts of Delta Acrylic Thinner
& Ceramcoat Acrylic Paint for use in an airbrush. Add additional
Thinner until desired consistency is achieved. Clean Airbrush
following the manufacture's directions.
So my 50-50 mix is even potentially low.
Jim
--
Jim Sherman
xROADKILL snipped-for-privacy@zYAHOOa.COM < remove lower case letters,
then use what's left AS lower case
The hurrider I goes the behinder I gets; which makes sense because
the older I gets the more behind I gets. And I is gettin an old behind!
On Fri, 27 Feb 2004 07:36:30 -0800, Jim Sherman
shared this with the world:
That or Delta's Ceramcoat thinner
formatting link
(2nd from the bottom
of the page.)
I have used both, and haven't noticed a difference in effect on the
paint.
The Liquitex medium is available in larger bottles, and is a better
price/ounce.
Liquitex Airbrush Medium is specifically formulated for thinning acrylic colors
for airbrush application. Mixing colors with Airbrush Medium will ensure that
the colors do not lose their flexibility, durability and adhesion.
...
Dave.
I use it for all applications in modeling that I have. The only
challenge is matching colors, but that's a challenge with the "name
brand railroad paints" as well. :)
Cut it with distilled water or the Liquitex thinning product and go
for it. Just bought some last night at a going out of business sales
for 50 cents for a small bottle, which is enough to paint a lot of
engines / cars. It's great for buildings and scenery as well.
Once it dries it's tough as nails.
Good luck
Greg
I've tried lots of different thinning materials while experimenting
with Ceramcoat, including water, isopropyl alcohol, ammonia, Golden
Airbrush Medium, and Windex -- based on different advice I've seen on
rec.models.railroad, all with varying levels of success. I felt I got
the best results with Windex and a 0.70 mm nozzle on my Aztek A320
airbrush. But I've only had my airbrush for a few years and people's
skill change over time (hopefully for the better), so maybe it's time
to revisit things again and see if I can get a better method for
airbrushing Ceramcoat.
As for the dried paint flakes -- that's a good point, the craft paint
bottles tend to gather a dried up glob of paint at the cap over time.
But it's not hard to remove.
That's one of the reasons I use the filter screen on my Badger - just
in case.
Another thing. The Ceramcoat paints give a decidedly flat finish
which under certain conditions (thickness and distance of spray and so
on) can give a visible "grain orientation". I try to use very light,
thin applications of this paint and that seems to prevent it. Believe
me - I'm no expert either. I also have used a hair dryer to speed up
the process a bit. It's not to actually dry the paint, just to get to
the flat look so I can see if I've goofed and produced a pattern in
the paint like I just described. Hold the brush too far away and the
paint'll dry on the way to the model (and look pretty bad afterwards
unless you like pebble grain finish), too close and you get too thick
a coat with its' own problems.
I'd really like to get a mix for aged wood, myself. I'm
color-impaired (one reason I model the C&O - I can see the colors).
Jim
--
Jim Sherman
xROADKILL snipped-for-privacy@zYAHOOa.COM < remove lower case letters,
then use what's left AS lower case
The hurrider I goes the behinder I gets; which makes sense because
the older I gets the more behind I gets. And I is gettin an old behind!
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