How long for oil paint to dry?

Fotheringill Oct 24, 2011

  1. Fotheringill

    Fotheringill TrainBoard Member

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    A really dumb qestion from someone who has been painting little things for years-

    I have always used acrylic paints. Always, until this weekend. I used oil base paint for plaster retaining walls. I used a diluted mix. It was still not dry after eight hours. Am I in for a two week drying period? I need to repaint since I didn't like the shading after doing ten sections.
     
  2. N-builder

    N-builder TrainBoard Member

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    Oil paint takes about a day or two to dry. I just had to seal one of my bathroom walls and I used oil base cause its better against moisture and it was dry by next day.
     
  3. Fotheringill

    Fotheringill TrainBoard Member

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    As long as it is a day or two. Otherwise, I will kicking myself for doing something without knowing all of the answers first. Thank you for the response.
     
  4. LOU D

    LOU D TrainBoard Member

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    Probably a stupid question,but what do you mean "oil paint"? You mean like Floquil? Floquil is dry enough to handle in a few hours,Scalecoat usually 24 hours or so.
     
  5. HOexplorer

    HOexplorer TrainBoard Supporter

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    If you mean 'real oil paint from a tube' then two days to the touch. If it is thinned and not a thick coat then then 24 hrs. Tubed oil paint in model railroading is probably best left to artists who know their color wheels and blending techniques. The upside of acrylics, of course, is it is water soluble and dries very quickly. Jim
     
  6. Seated Viper

    Seated Viper TrainBoard Member

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    Over here, the usual gloss paint for models is HUMBROL brand. The tin suggests 6 hours between coats.

    Regards,

    Pete Davies
     
  7. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    Me thinks he was referring to oil base house paint for those retaining walls.
     
  8. Mike C

    Mike C TrainBoard Member

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    Watching paint dry , my favorite pastime!! LOL I've used oil out of the tube B4 and remember it taking as much as a week to dry......Mike
     
  9. LOU D

    LOU D TrainBoard Member

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    Even oil based house paint doesn't take too long.Should be about the same as Scalecoat..

    I was wondering if that was what he meant.Artist's oils are painfully slow,days to dry since they're meant to be used to build texture,and aren't really meant to be handled..
     
  10. steamghost

    steamghost TrainBoard Member

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    So is it dry today?

    Next time, I'd use spraycan primer over the plaster first. Raw plaster can be good at drinking paint and changing the color you thought you were putting down.
     
  11. Fotheringill

    Fotheringill TrainBoard Member

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    Artist's oils from a tube thinned out a LOT with non smelly mineral based turpentine under brand name Mona Lisa. I ain't smiling, though. Still rubbed off some pigment this morning and it is about 72 hours now. I think I am going to go out tomorrow morning before work and watch dew evaporate from the grass in the back yard for excitement.
     
  12. HOexplorer

    HOexplorer TrainBoard Supporter

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    Intstead of watching the morning dew go down to the art store and buy the cheapest tubes of acrylics you can find. Result? Problems over. Jim :tb-biggrin:
     
  13. SilentCartogrphr

    SilentCartogrphr TrainBoard Member

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    I just started using Winsor & Newton "Artisan" water-mixable oil paint. I was using Tamiya before that, but my LHS didn't have many colors to choose from. The really nice thing about oil paint, which I didn't like about the acrylic I was using, is you can tweak your paint job over and over, then when you like what you see, set it aside and don't touch it for a week! With the acrylics it seemed like I had one chance to get it right, then the paint would dry, or start to peel if i immediately went back over it.

    I got the idea from Tom Mann's weathering book, and have been using the oils to detail some of my resin MT loads.

    I was really surprised with how long it took to dry. It was thinned a bit with water and 2 days later I left a fingerprint on the bottom! Another downside is the glossy sheen it tends to have after it dries. Maybe I'll post some pics when I get a chance.
     
  14. Fotheringill

    Fotheringill TrainBoard Member

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    I just wanted to try something different from acrylics. I have two shoeboxes and a wooden wine crate (for 12 bottles) filled with acrylics.

    Another lesson for the owner of the Lessons Learned Lines
     
  15. steamghost

    steamghost TrainBoard Member

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    Artists oil paints? Give it a week or two to dry. If thickly applied, it can still be smudged at that point. The stuff does not just dry by evaporating all the solvent, it "dries" by having the oil in it turn solid. The oil part doesn't evaporate.

    Some oil paints never dry solid by design. The idea with oil paints is that you have a l--o--n--g working time blending colors and adding detail. There are retarders to add to acrylic paints if that stuff dries to fast.

    But I always thought using many thin washes (diluted) acrylic let you do blending. The thing with acrylics is that, when wet, it may look weird/not as expected until your work is dry. That doesn't take very long for painting plastic. You have to be careful adding washes since you can disturb what is already down. You are just laying a wet coat on top of what's already there, called "floating a wash". Look for watercolor technique instructions if you need specifics.
     
  16. mikelhh

    mikelhh TrainBoard Member

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    I speed up my oils drying time by thinning with turps. It partially strips the oil from the paint and also reduces gloss. The risk is that turps will damage some plastics, so I always test first.
    Although I use oils in very thin amounts when weathering stock the paint still takes days to dry. That's really the beauty of them, if you can make yourself wait that long. I admit I struggle to do that :tb-biggrin:
     
  17. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    Okay a poll is in order for When Will Fotheringill's Paint Dry. I vote for December 25, 2012.
     
  18. PW&NJ

    PW&NJ TrainBoard Member

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    What, so soon? :tb-tongue:
     
  19. Fotheringill

    Fotheringill TrainBoard Member

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    Mr. Moore (#4000):

    Put me in the pool for $1.00 for Labor Day 2012.

    Last night, I used turpentine and a rag on two of the pieces. It took some of it off. The other eight pieces were still somewhat wet to the touch. I am aware that everything will need to completely dry before using a sealant and then repainting with either acrylics (or oil, if it is true that Mrs. Fotheringill truly did raise an idiot). What I think I am going to do instead is forego the price of the two packages of retaining walls so cavalierly purchased and buy two more and start fresh with a sealant and then paint with acrylics. It will be neither the biggest nor the smallest loss I will chalk up to experience. Did I really say the word "Chalk". I was saving that little tidbit for the final weathering of the wood.
     
  20. mtntrainman

    mtntrainman TrainBoard Supporter

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    December 21, 2012 DOOMS DAY ! Then it really doesnt really matter if it's NOT dry by the next day...LOL
     

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