A better way to thin oil paints?

[Kisatchie]

Depends on the quality of pigment used.

Hmm... pigs is pigs...

[Sokramiketes]

With alcohol when I first brush it on it will look great. Then as it dries it sort of shrinks up around all the details and ends up with a ring around everything. To hide this I always blot tissues as it's drying. It is like a big fight till the alcohol evaporates.

When I used the oils they seemed to stay where I put them while drying.

This is the number one reason to stick with regular oil paint versus the water soluble stuff, or straight acrylic washes. 

I use odorless mineral spirits so don't have any other suggestion for a thinner.  I only had problems with it eating into paint when I applied washes before the paint (Pollyscale) was fully cured.  Factory painted stuff, and straight dullcote, I've never had an issue.  I don't use the small bottle enamels much, but if they weren't fully cured on the building, that may have been part of the issue.  Enamels seem to take a while to cure.

[Chris333]

OK next question 

How long do they take to dry? I did this flatcar deck


The wetness went away and the surface is flat, but if I touch it there is a smudge and then paint on my finger. This is after an hour.

[Bendtracker1]

If I do a car or loco with oils, depending how much is left on and the room temperature, could take upto 24-48 hrs per application.
Not as heavy and warmer, might be less time.  If you have a hair dryer or heater, which some guys will use, it will shorten the drying time, but of course, be careful how close you get to it.

[Bendtracker1]

This car was done first with a sealer coat, then a white wash followed by two brown washes.  After each wash had dried, I applied a sealer coat before the next wash.



Doing it this way, I will line up 5-8 cars and do them all at the same time, which may take an hour or two per wash each night and about a week total to do all of them.  I let this car and this batch just dry overnight before the next coat of sealer or wash.

[Bendtracker1]

That deck looks good!

[Chris333]

Thanks. I wanted to put more grey over it, guess I have to wait... tick tick. I usually spend maybe an hour weathering a car including taking the trucks apart and all that. I give a car the ink wash and then drybrush on some dirt colors. Nothing special. So these oils will certainly change that.

[Bendtracker1]

Yep, that is one drawback to using oils.  Time.
But it also allows you to manipulate the coat for quite awhile before it dries, giving you time to make adjustments.
Also be sure to seal each coat before applying the next, or the colors will blend.

[Hyperion]

I don't even touch oils for 24hrs after using them.  And they can be 'worked' with spirits even many days later.

There is a product that I haven't used from Uschi van der Rosten called 'Blitz' that speeds the drying time of oils up exponentially.  From several days down to just one hour.  It's not cheap at $15 for a little dropper bottle, but apparently the stuff goes a very long ways.

http://shop.lastcavalry.com/uschi-van-der-rosten-blitz-dry/

(And, if you're interested, I can't say enough good things about Dave who runs/is Last Cavalry that I linked to above).

[Chris333]

Oh I guess I can wait. Just have to learn a new way to do things with using oils.

[peteski]

Isn't there something called "Japan Dryer" which speeds up the drying time of oil paints?

[Hyperion]

Isn't there something called "Japan Dryer" which speeds up the drying time of oil paints?

There is.  AFAIK, it's the same thing as the product I linked to above from Uschi.  Getting Japan Dryer, for whatever reason, was apparently not always an easy thing all across the globe.  So Uschi started making his stuff so it'd be more widely available, but he never claimed it to be any different.

[tom mann]

It'll take two or three days for that wash to dry, Chris.  It's too bad you don't have any other projects to work in in the mean time

[sirenwerks]

Admittedly, I haven't tried much weathering with oils yet, but I'll throw out my use of oils in the arts knowledge - you might consider linseed oil.  It's a drying oil, doesn't shrink, and , since it's a health food product as well, not hard to find.  Primary disadvantage is it yellows over time.

[Chris333]

I have linseed oil in the basement