Best Of Fading fast...

[central.vermont]

I am looking forward to trying this line of high-flow Golden colours. They have a number of transparent colours, but no zinc white, specifically.  The transparent grey looks interesting though.  See also this thread.

-gfh

I can't believe this thread is 7 years old...

Gary,
The second link you provide takes us to the same thing as the first. Got a good link? 

I can't believe I still haven't finished this boxcar 4.5 years later!

Philip,
Hope you at least have a second coupler on it. 

Jon

[Scottl]

I've used http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/colors/fluid and they work well with some thinning.

[basementcalling]

I've used http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/colors/fluid and they work well with some thinning.

I have a tube of the heavy acrylic, not the high flow. I may be thinning more than others.

[GaryHinshaw]

Gary,
The second link you provide takes us to the same thing as the first. Got a good link?

Doh!  Fixed it above.  Here it is again.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Amazing to think this thread is almost 8 years old!

After playing around with high build Acrylics in tubes, I was wonder if this might be a better solution for fade and dirt washes:
http://www.dickblick.com/products/golden-fluid-acrylics/

From the description, the paints are have extremely fine pigments which should work well when reduced. And no fillers that would "glop" up like I had been experiencing before.

[Scottl]

I've used these with success.  Zince white and transparent red oxide so far.

[GaryHinshaw]

Good to know.  Feel free to post some examples.   I myself have not had the airbrush out in probably two years now.  Someday...

[GaryHinshaw]

Reopening this 13 year old thread to post a brief update on materials.  I've been on a tank car kick lately and I've always been a bit frustrated with acrylic zinc white for fading black tank cars.  It seemed that no matter how careful I was, it would end up looking a bit like snow when viewed from an oblique angle.   So I decide to try water mixable oils in their place and the results are quite pleasing.  I'm now using Windsor & Newton's line, but there are others as well:



The base colour is zinc white as before, but I find it's helpful to add a hint of raw sienna to it to take the edge off the white.  (The siennas and umbers are pretty transparent pigments.)  You can see the resulting tan mix in the bottle on the right.  I thin it with distilled water to about the consistency of whole milk, or a bit thinner, but I don't add matte medium at this point, just water.  I then spray the car until I have about the level of fade I'm aiming for.  This stuff sprays like a dream and it goes on very smoothly, so I don't need to be nearly as cautious about using numerous light coats, as I was with the acrylic.

The downside is that you can't handle the model until it dries, and that takes a few days.  So I'll do a batch of cars and stick them on a closet shelf and come back for them later.  Even then, I try not to handle them until I've sprayed them with a matte (acrylic) clear coat.  After that, you can continue with any additional weathering steps you like.  In the example below, I just used some pigment powders followed by a final matte clear coat (Vallejo Matte Varnish).  I think the fade is quite effective (to my eyes, at least), even viewed from an oblique angle:



-gfh

[ednadolski]

Looks good, Gary!   What spray settings (PSI) do you prefer for this?

Water-mix oils are based on a linseed oil that is modified to make it water-soluble, but they are still oil paints at heart.  As such I'm not sure how well a water-based overcoat will bond or hold up to handling in the long term.  I typically will use a lacquer-based overcoat such as Dullcote or Model Master.

Sometimes what I will do to reduce the frosty effect of a zinc white is to mix in a bit of the car's base color, tho if a car has white lettering or graphics then the tint of the color can show up.  In that case I rub the color off the white areas with the tip of a toothpick.

A hair dryer can be useful to accelerate the drying time, but be careful about getting too close with it.

Ed

[GaryHinshaw]

Thanks Ed.  (Not nearly as impressive as your code 40 turnout though!)

For the spray I use about 18-20 PSI, which is pretty much what I spray all my stuff at.  Interesting point about the acrylic topcoat.  I kind of assumed that since the oil paint was water soluble that it would be fine with a water based top coat.  So far I haven't noticed any issues, but I'll keep an eye out for any signs of unusual wear as I handle them. 

As far as accelerating the dry time, I have so many cars in the pipeline that I have no trouble stashing a bunch of them in the closet for days at a time.  It's not at all a rate limiting step in the process (for better or worse).