"Spray Painting in Cold Weather?" Topic

When is it too cold to spray paint?

When it is colder than what the spray paint recommends. Then I open the windows to heat the enclosed porch to warm it above the needed temperature. Close the windows to keep the spray out of the house. Spray and let it dry. Repeate process as necessary. BUT… You need an enclosed porch!

Well, what if you have the spray paint indoors (so it is warm), but do the spraying outdoors?

Bill two things I do.

One, heat the can of paint in hot water. Tap hot, not boiling. I put the can over the hole in the sink and let the hot water run until the can is warm to the touch. Then shake it up. The heat allows the paint to mix better.

Two, When spray painting metal, I use a hair dryer to heat the metal up right before spraying. Nice and hot.
The paint will fuse to the hot metal and give a nice even surface to paint over.

I do all of my spraying outside, whether with an airbrush or cans. Enamels or acrylics. The minimal conditions that I look for are low humidity (not raining, drizzle, or fog) and temps at least 45 degrees.
Once I cheated and did some airbrushing in the garage one December. Damn cold then, and a damned deadline for the pieces. The paint finish was very rough and almost a weathered flakey look. Maybe something to deliberately try in the future on a building or a ship, but not so convincing on a WW II fighter.
I generally prep many pieces before the winter and then do the airbrushing of the base coats. Then I have the winter to do the details and assembly indoors. That's my plan, most years.

I warm the can & the miniatures (which are on a board) by the heating vent, then go into the cold garage to spray, then bring everything back in the house to dry. Never had a problem, even below 15F degrees.

I also have found that if the piece is too warm as compared to the spraying environment, then condensation forms on the piece or paint while spraying occurs

For my airbrush I bought a spray booth with an attachment for the window. It vents most of the smell outside. For a short painting sessions it works fine.

I care naught for the temperature; it is all about the humidity. I keep my paints indoors, so I can get better results below freezing at 5% humidity than I can at 70 degrees farenheight at 80% humidity.

It's raining here in Sin City today, no Dullcote goodness for me.

I prime a lot of figures in the fall to help me through the cold days.

I like nevinsrip idea about warming the can and the metal figures. I will give that a try if need to do any additional priming.

Oh, and 50 degrees F. Is the temperature of the lowest I will paint outside. My old bones do not like the cold.

Matthew

Temperature has never affected my primers from cans so cold or hot isn't a problem for me. Now protective coats is a whole different kettle of fish as different spray cans be effected by weather with some reacting to humidity and others the cold often greying over the figure. Because of this I exclusively apply my protective coats with a liquid brush on which avoids these issues altogether.

Christopher

I live in Canada and have spray primed and base coated outside as low as -30 celcius (about -25F) with no problems. Both the can and minis are warm from the house, out we go, quick spray and then curing outside in the cold. Only time I have ever had an issue was last week when I did not let the primer cure long enough (it seems to cure more slowly in the cold). It is very dry here in the winter so humidity is not a problem.

I can confirm that low temperature spray priming is not a problem as long as the figures and pant are the same temperature (warm). Actually, I generally get better results than during the summer due to the lower humidity.

I have spray primed in the winter out in the garage and never had any problems. I keep the figures in the house until the last minute then hustle out to the garage spray them and bring them back into the house (straight down to the basement) to dry. Though I prefer to try and think ahead and have a winters worth of figures primed before winter comes. Clear coating is a bit trickier and have found that the humidity is as big as factor as the temperature.

Punk Rabbit and all the others are correct! Humidity is the problem much more than temperature. Use the hair dryer to warm the metal a bit and spray away. I have primed in -25 F with no problems.

As above. Ideally you want the figures and the paint at the same temperature. Not easy to judge so getting both warm is a good idea.

The best thing to do is to use a spray booth. Mine is a commercial one with a filter, fan, and 4" diameter accordion duct. Easy enough to set up in the garage and stick the end of the duct (which has a wide flat plastic piece) under the garage door.

Same as Bob in Edmonton. I live in Canada, warm can of paint, warm figures and let them cure outside, no problem.
Dullcoat is another matter.