"TIny Cracks Appearing In My Paint Job?" Topic

Alright, I'm working on some Knuckleduster 40mm cowboys. This is my return to painting after a many month hiatus. I left painting because, frankly, I suck, but I figured I should just slog through until I get better. Well I painted the first batch of six guys to an ok standard, I would say 4/5 out of 10. However, I started on the next mini and I now I have a problem. He has little cracks all over him. They are not major cracks, but rather little ones where I painted his coat. I'll outline my method for painting the coat below:

1. Brush on white primer.
2. Wash with new GW light brown wash to give definition.
3. Paint Reaper Nightshade Purple.
4. Paint Repear Imperial Purple.
5. Wash GW Leviathan Purple.
6. Reapply Reaper Imperial Purple.
7. Highlight 50/50 Imperial Purple and Amethyst Purple.

I have a couple of theories. First, maybe I didn't let one of the layers dry properly. The cracks only appear on the coat and show the white underneath the purple. I would like to point out that from a distance they are not obvious, but once you get close they are rather hard to miss. My second theory is that maybe one of my Reaper purples is bad? I don't think its the GW since I've used them with no other problems. I'm hesitant to think it's the Reaper paint. I should also point out that the miniature has been at a constant temperature, no priming out in the cold, so that should have not been a factor. Has anyone had this happen to them and have ideas on how to avoid it? I think I might have to repaint the coat. This really frustrates me as my first couple of paint jobs have been alright at best. Definitely what the phrase tabletop standard was made for. So can of downer to get my butt back in the saddle. Thanks.

Joey

No real idea.. but it reminds me a LOT of using
a 'Crackle' special coat.

What happens there is you put on a base coat over primer..
then apply the 'crackle' coat, then paint over that.

The paint sticks to the crackle.. but the crackle
'shatters', leaving fine lightning-like lines of the
(base) undercoat showing.

So.. if this something like what is happening.. it is
the "new GW light brown wash" that is crackling.

Hope that helps.. but nope.. never saw this..:-)

I have had the cracking problem with Reaper red paint. Didn't happen on every figure, but enough that I stopped using it.

Two thoughts – the drying time between coats wasn't long enough or the coat of paint was too thick and cracked as it dried.

I dunno… in my case, there were a couple times when I'd paint 4-5 figures same way, same process, same same, and I'd come back to find that 2-3 had the cracking problem. The others would be fine.

" Checking" on car refinish is from the sub strate shrinking ( ie primer or sub color). This sounds very similar . I would guess that the under colors or primer is not completely dry before applying upper coats .

Possibly a basecoat thing. Had a similar problem with my kitchen wall where 'size' had overlapped coats and painted over before being completely dry – I do not use brush on primer: how long had you left it? I've been using car primer for last couple of years and not had any problems, prior to that used to use spray paint/paint undercoat but usually allowed 24 hr drying.

I think you are on the right track thinking that you didn't let one of the layers dry enough. Most likely it was surface dry but not fully dry underneath.

Cracking happens when the top layer dries before the bottom layer. The bottom layer shrinks as it dries and if the top layer is not elastic enough, it separates, which is the cause of the cracks.

If you have this problem frequently, you could try putting the figures under a light bulb between layers.

Thanks for the help everyone. My guess is the first layer of purple didn't dry right. Someone else on another forum also suggested this might be a problem with the particular purple I was using, as the same happened to him. My final theory is I didn't shake the purple enough and did not give it enough time to dry. Now to try various fixes. Thanks.

Joey

It may be just a matter of letting the figures dry a little longer. If some are cracking and other are not, perhaps the last painted are cracking, the first are not because they had just a little longer to dry while painting the others…assuming you were painting in an assembly line method.

Good luck with the fixes, hope all turns out well.

Yep, i've had this problem as well when using different types of media, with different try times, esp. when I'm working 'fast' on something, and become impatient. One reason is having different drying times of different media; if lower media dries slower, it will do as others noted (i.e. creating a crackle surface with oils/acrylics…).

A great 'for instance' was a dark angels robe I was doing as a commission. I oversprayed it with an ink, which I thought was dry. I ended up using thicker acrylics over it, and it ended up splitting/running right over the knee. to fix.