Dry brushing acrylics

[mollythedog]

I have been trying to do some dry brushing,using Vallejo Color paints. Due to their drying speed the classic way of loading a brush, wiping 95% of it off on a tissue and brushing appears not to work at all well. They dry so quickly.

I tried adding some Vallejo retarder (597,actually Prince August,which is the local distributor of Vallejo,and rebrands them as PA paints) which helped a bit. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions for getting good results? Does any one particular acrylic brand dry brush better than another? I am using light greys on very small parts.

Thanks in advance

mtd

[Silver Fox]

Strangely I use them for dry brushing all the time and have not had the issues you describe. I tend to remove slightly less paint than 95% to start with an build in layers. I can't do this with the Vallejo ModelAir though, it is far to thin.

Hope this is of some use.

[Anthony Kesterton]

Good timing on the question - just considering how to get a dry-brushing effect using acrylics on a small steering wheel and some other small parts. I will try Silver Fox's suggestion (using more paint than you might use for enamels).

[Mike]

Dry brushing works best on matt surfaces too, and be patient with the effect building up. You might also want to consider the shade you're working with. if it's too close to the original it might not show up. Don't get caught in the trap of always using white or silver though, as that just leads to very little remaining contrast when you've finished

I read somewhere once that drybrushing is best done with enamels, but I've never had sufficient problems to warrant trying that out.

[mollythedog]

Well I tried to get on with dry brushing Vallejo,but in the end went back to Humbrol. Luckily I have a number of very old (30+ year old) Humbrol matt enamels,that are fresh now as the day they were made.These are quite "oily" compared to the modern variety,and dry brush very nicely.

As I said,small metal models that could,and were a bit drowned out by the dry brushing I tried with the fast drying acrylics.In the end,I was happy to go back to enamels for this particular job. If you can get on with acrylics, great, but I will not be using them for this.

My own MH60S castings in 1250 scale.

MH60S open by plastichacker, on Flickr

MH60S folded by plastichacker, on Flickr

Thanks for the comments in any case,it is always nice to be able to ask a consensus of opinions.

mtd

[Anthony Kesterton]

Wow - those are very small helicopters!

I did try Vallejo dry brushing - it was hard to get the right balance between too dry and too much paint - some more practice required I think...

[DaveCromie]

Totally off topic but....those are really small helicopters! And, they look pretty darn good too - good effort!

DC

[Calum]

I dry brush Vallejo acrylics without any issues. That said it's not a technique I use often on aircraft apart from the cockpit

Edited July 22, 2016 by Calum

[mollythedog]

I guess that if you are a dyed in the wool acrylics user then there would be no "issue",you just get on with what you have to hand as that is what you are used to. I grew up on enamels,and although I "converted" to acrylics for airbrushing some years ago,still use enamels and acrylics together all the time (pertinent to another post made in this section recently,about mixing the 2 types and what can be done on top of what).

I was hoping that there might have been a range of acrylics that were better than others for this type of brushing,but probably due to impatience (or lack of skill) I went back to enamels as that is what I know. On more normal sized models probably isn't an issue,but on the titchy things I do the Vallejo was either so dry as to make no difference,or just too wet and drowned out the subtle highlights I was looking for. The photos I posted here look,under the lighting quite harsh-in reality it isn't as bad as that and I'm happy that I still have some old Humbrols that are high on the Linseed Oil and dry brush really well.

Cheers

mtd

[mollythedog]

In case any one else is interested in this subject......quite by accident I just came across this discussion. And only started a couple of days after my original posting here,so very recent and up to date. The conclusion,generally,seems to be that if you can do it with enamels then stick with them.There is a technique,but it won't work for me using acrylics,though it seems quite effective for larger sizes of models. I'll stick with the old Humbrol....

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=162906

cheers

mtd

[Calum]

I guess that if you are a dyed in the wool acrylics user then there would be no "issue",you just get on with what you have to hand as that is what you are used to. I grew up on enamels,and although I "converted" to acrylics for airbrushing some years ago,still use enamels and acrylics together all the time (pertinent to another post made in this section recently,about mixing the 2 types and what can be done on top of what).

I was hoping that there might have been a range of acrylics that were better than others for this type of brushing,but probably due to impatience (or lack of skill) I went back to enamels as that is what I know. On more normal sized models probably isn't an issue,but on the titchy things I do the Vallejo was either so dry as to make no difference,or just too wet and drowned out the subtle highlights I was looking for. The photos I posted here look,under the lighting quite harsh-in reality it isn't as bad as that and I'm happy that I still have some old Humbrols that are high on the Linseed Oil and dry brush really well.

Cheers

mtd

I first used enamels, as well, and still have them. But I switched to Vallejo for brush and detail painting and found them just as good for drybrushing as enamels. I just but a drop of paint in an bottle cap and wipe the excess off on paper towel, just like it did with enamels. They do dry faster but then you just put another drop in the cap and continue on.

Edited July 22, 2016 by Calum