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Kurt Konrath
Kurt Konrath
I can't say anything about use of oil based paint, I have never used it.
I do know that proper prep is needed to include a good sealer coat and primer on open poor woods to get a good finish with normal hobby paints.
I do know that proper prep is needed to include a good sealer coat and primer on open poor woods to get a good finish with normal hobby paints.
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Our resident paint expert is Bob Cleek. Look up his posts using the search function.
The Rolls Royce of non acrylic model paints was Floquil. Other than buying old stock on EBay it is no longer available. There are companies that make substitutes. I have never used these and don’t remember specific names.
Roger
The Rolls Royce of non acrylic model paints was Floquil. Other than buying old stock on EBay it is no longer available. There are companies that make substitutes. I have never used these and don’t remember specific names.
Roger
I use Vallejo and "Warpaint fanatic" from "Army painter". Both acrylic. Works fine for me.
I use it on wood, metal (after cleaning) and resin.
I use it on wood, metal (after cleaning) and resin.
Hi Billy,
The proper surface preparation is the foundation of a good finish. If you’ve got a clean, sanded (or otherwise keyed), well-sealed substrate, many different paint media can/will work.
However, switching to an oil‐based (or enamel/alkyd) paint may bring different working properties, advantages, and drawbacks compared with water-based acrylics. Before jumping ship, here are some thoughts and suggestions.
Here are some things to keep in mind when comparing acrylics (water-based), enamels/alkyds (oil-based), and other media in the context of scale ship modelling:
1. Surface preparation remains critical
If you properly seal or prime the substrate (wood, plastic, or metal), ensure no contaminants (oils, mould release, silicone, dust), and key the surface (sanding, scuffing), then many paints will adhere well. For example, any of the modelling paints would be fine. Seal the wood with clear ("white") shellac and then paint.
- Enamels / oil‐based paints often have longer drying/cure times and may produce harder finishes (which can be good for parts that will be handled or subject to rigging), but also require solvents/cleaning and more ventilation.
- Acrylics dry faster, are more forgiving for fast work, have less odour, but may not level or sand as well in some cases.
Because you’re working on model ships (wood, maybe plastic, lots of fine detail), you’ll likely use primers, sanding sealers, maybe shellac, etc. Some oils/enamels play nicer with certain primers than others. Some acrylics may raise the wood grain or shrink slightly when cured, which can affect fine detail.
4. Scale suitability
At the scales you may work, you want outstanding detail, ultra‐smooth surfaces, and minimal texture. Oil/enamel paints often level out nicely (good for large hull surfaces), but for ultra-fine detailing, you may prefer acrylics (for fast work, less sag) or a hybrid.
5. Colour, gloss, durability, environment
If your model will be in a display case, less handling, maybe acrylic is fine. If you anticipate some handling, rigging friction, glueing or contact, the tougher film of an enamel/oil may be attractive.
Have you ever considered using the Testors brand?
- Testors Flat Sea Blue Enamel Paint: A classic hobby enamel (oil/alkyd based), good for large surface areas (hull sides) with a mature finish.
- Testors Enamel Paint Flat Green: Same series, good for accent surfaces, rigging boxes, etc.
- Testors Enamel Paint (All‑Purpose): A more general-purpose enamel, good to have in your drawer for tests and contrasting colour work.
- AK Interactive ABT035 Oil Paint – Buff: This is more of a true artist-oil/hobby hybrid, may require different thinning/handling, but great for very fine detail or accents.
- Testors Enamel Paint Light Yellow: Another enamel option for your palette; lighter hues often show brush/airbrush handling more, so useful test.
- Testors Flat Tan Enamel Paint: Flat tan is a useful background colour for wooden deck work or weathered surfaces.
If you’re currently dissatisfied with acrylics, switching to enamel is a valid path, just be aware of the trade-offs (ventilation, cleanup, slower drying).
But most importantly: Your surface prep, primer/sealer, and finishing technique will likely have more impact on the final quality than switching from acrylic to oil by itself.
He said it, not me!
The selection of paint and other coating options is a matter of personal preference. The two primary choices are oil-based and water-based.
It seems to me that most experienced painters favor oil-based coatings over water-based. While water-based paint is easier to clean up and has little or no aroma, water will soak into wood and "raise" the grain, making obtaining a perfectly smooth surface difficult to obtain.
With the demise of the Floquil brand of oil-based paints, modelers were left with a wide selection of colors in a number of "model paint" product lines. Experienced miniaturists these days seem to avoid "hobby paints," perhaps for reasons of cost and quality. (I have no data on which, or both.) Instead, they use high-quality artists' oil paints which are sold in tubes and have the consistency of toothpaste. Oil colors with the highest pigment content and the most finely ground pigment are the best. Depending on the quality and the pigment color, artists' oils can be seemingly expensive, although they last a very long time in the tube when well-capped and a little bit goes a long way. Artists' oils may be brushed or sprayed, depending upon how they are conditioned by the artist. Gum turpentine, linseed oil, and Japan dryer are the basic conditioners used for thinning and flow control. Note that if raw linseed oil is used, a Japan dryer must be added to accelerate the polymerization of the oil and speed the "drying" of the paint. If boiled linseed oil is used, a dryer may not be required because the dryer has already been added to it at the factory. Artist's oils do not contain added drying agents so that they are very slow to polymerize (become hard or "dry." Oil painting artists favor this property because the work on paintings over a long period of time and sometimes wish to mix colors directly on the canvas or other surface.)
Artists' oil colors, properly thinned and conditioned, may be brushed or air brushed no differently than the already diluted bottled hobby paints.
The advantages of artists' oils are:
1. Archival quality. Good oil paint will be dependably color-fast and will not crack, peel, and flake if the model is properly cased and kept out of the sunlight.
2. Scale thickness: as explained in the text below, finer pigment means less paint is required to "cover" the surface adequately. A thinner coating avoids the loss of crisp detail on the model, whether spraying or brushing.
3. Economy: Anything with a boat on the label is going to automatically cost you 25% more. The 1- and 2-ounce bottles of "model paint" that are everywhere can and will dry up in short order once the bottle is open. Fortunately, most ship modeling does not require a large number of colors or very critical color accuracy. Most models won't require more than three or four colors and any color required can be mixed from primary colors, if necessary. Think of artists' oils as concentrated paint that the user thins to suit the task and environmental factors of the moment.
4. Easy sourcing: Artists' oils are available online and in art supply stores, which today are far more numerous than hobby shops.
Remember that wood to be coated should be sealed beforehand. I prefer Zinnser Bulls Eye brand clear pre-mixed shellac for all sealing tasks. Shellac is thinned with denatured alcohol. Shellac is very quick drying. It provides a strong moisture barrier, and which is a good thing for a lot of reasons. (A small touch of shellac can also be used to seal rigging knots and stiffen rigging to form catenaries. Thickened shellac is also a useful adhesive.)
If you are interested in acrylic paints, there are artists' acrylic paints in tubed paste form which use alcohol as their primary solvent, rather than water. They are usually identified as such on their labels. The use of alcohol as a solvent seems to negate, or at least greatly reduce, the grain-raising effects of water-based acrylic paints.
It is critical to always use compatible coating formulations. Do not mix different coating types or even different coating brands or apply them one on top of the other, without first testing for compatibility. Coating compatibility issues result from antagonistic chemical reactions that produce things like "crackle finish," "orange peel finish," cracking, peeling, and failure to polymerize ("dry.") It is, in fact, a wise practice to always maintain a coating schedule test "chip" as you proceed with a model. A "test chip" is simply a piece of the base material, be it wood or metal, that is coated exactly as you intend the model to be coated before you commit to applying the coating to the model! If you are using concentrated paste artists' oil colors, it is worthwhile to keep meticulous color-mixing records and measure your mixtures by the length of extruded paste and chemist's measurements for liquids using a graduated plastic syringe and applying a sample of the color to an index card with the recipe on it. Such recordkeeping will make it much easier to replicate colors later if you want to use them again on another model.
While Floquil paints are no longer made, their product literature lives on and their excellent manual on painting scale miniatures remains available online in PDF format. Every serious miniaturist would do well to download the PDF and save it for future reference. It's the best painting instruction book for models I've ever seen. Painting miniatures is a bit different than painting board fences, so it's a well-invested bit of time to study and learn its contents. See: https://www.paulbudzik.com/tools-techniques/floquil-paint/Floquil Painting Miniatures.PDF
Here's a video on how to work with tubed paste oil paint. There are lots of them on YouTube now because the miniature figures modelers and the plastic planes and armor guys have rediscovered artists' oils in the wake of Floquil's discontinuation. (Sorry about the guy's accent. Bear with it. He knows his stuff!)
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