"Coating spray outdoors" Topic

Anyone else waiting for the first nice 75 degree day with very low humidity to spray coat figures outdoors? I have done it in my basement before but get yelled at for the odor. So while painting is best through out the winter awaiting the first nice day to clear coat them. Have about 200 already to go and another 25 on the board.

Anyone else waiting for the first nice 75 degree day with very low humidity to spray coat figures outdoors? I have done it in my basement before but get yelled at for the odor. So while painting is best through out the winter awaiting the first nice day to clear coat them. Have about 200 already to go and another 25 on the board.

Double tapped, two posts. Didn't wait long enough

I am. Well actually I'll be happy with 50+ and low humidity. I've 38 figures waiting and a few that need a recoat because I didn't wait last Fall :-(

I am, but to do more spraying of terrain. My airbooth handles most of the figure spraying I do, but it's an all day event to keep the amount of spray low.

In se Pennsylvania winter just keeps hanging on, was at best low 40"s today.

I am waiting also but have been using the garage when my wife is gone for the day. It has been working for me.

I was spray-painting outdoors in February. It cooled off again after that for a while, but it's been warm for weeks.

Not that I've gotten any painting done since then, but I totally could have.

Perhaps I've just had good luck, but I spray during the winter. I wait for weekends when I can spray in what passes for the heat of the day (40-50 degrees Fahrenheit on warm days). I'm in Colorado, so the low humidity requirement is met easily enough. Another option has been to wait for my wife to go to work on my alternate Friday off, and spray in the garage after I warm it up. Since she retired in January, that's probably not an option any longer.

Grelber

I have done it in my basement before but get yelled at for the odor.

"Done it" = spray painting, you pervs.

My older brother taught me by example. He dusted the model railroad layout in the playroom. Dust tends to travel far and wide. Then a while later he built an electric guitar. It needed spray painting. In the downstairs garage. Hanging from the garage door rail. Right next to the clothes washer and dryer.

I never spray painted anywhere but the middle of the yard and even did my best not to paint any grass.

I do outdoor spraying all winter long. Usually low humidity and dew point, so it's perfect.

I'm sick of the cold. It needs to be warm, dang it! (Maine)

If I waited for 75+ and low humidity I would have only 2 days out of the year I could do so. 50+ is a possibility in Spring and Fall.

Since I finally tried Winsor & Newton Professional Matt Spray Varnish, discounted from Dick Blick, I have been spraying in my garage with an outdoor temperature of 45 degrees F with perfect results.

I could not find anything on the label about humidity limits, but so far have not been in a situation to test it.

link

Tom

Living in the deep South I've found that it is much better to use brush-on rather than spray final coatings. It is rare to have a "perfect" day here with moderate temperature, low humidity, and light wind.

Jim

First I have to flock the figures that have been waiting two years for me to get around to it…

Still expecting another 3-5" by the end of the week here in Minnesota. Winters are simply too long to hold off priming until Spring. I rigged up an exhaust fan and collapsible cardboard hood with ducting through a basement window as one would a dryer vent. Works a treat. I'm not spraying so much VOCs that I worry about explosions from the un-shielded motor. I leave it on for about 20 min as the paint drys. Dry winter air otherwise great for spraying.

I duck outside quickly spray then bring them back in, closed up in the spare room. Around 40 degrees here on the west coast of Canada.

I just remembered that the nature of spray can propellant can cause frost to form outside the label even in hot weather after excessive use.

At any outdoor temperature, a can may be made warm by standing it up in a pot of hot water. The hottest from the tap could be enough to help. Or heat the pot (with water only) on the range. Not boiling, and never with the paint in the pot. Your significant other would likely appreciate using only an obsolete pot or cheap one bought for the purpose, not cooking food.

Get some painting done, then swap unpainted for painted wherever you've been working as you reheat the water.

Winter storm predicted for Sunday 4 – 8" My outdoor stuff will be shoveling – not spraying.

I know people will frown on this in some regards, but you can spray indoors and do it in a way where you ventilate it out. I use a spare room upstairs. I'll go in and spray a small group of models, hold my breath for a few seconds while spraying, and immediately open the windows and leave room, closing the door behind me. I also have a fan that is pointing outward which carries the vapors out.

You'd be amazed at how fast even a small window fan can remove the vapors from a small room.

But of course you don't want to ever just sit there and spray prime models while standing in the cloud and just breathing it in with a room all closed up, that's just not smart.

But having to wait for the seasons to change to prime I just find maddening. Now last spring I did spray prime outside, but that was when doing a mass priming of several hundred models. However I also combined that with spraying some of those in the basement. Again, sprayed and then immediately opened the basement doors to ventilate. And of course immediately left the basement and closed the door to the upstairs.

"Well ventilated" doesn't necessarily have to default to mean outdoors only.

This topic is one reason why I have slowly but surely given up on sprays whenever possible, especially varnishing. I use brush-on varnish for entire armies now. It doesn't take as long as some would suppose. I even use brush-on varnish on larger plastic models, takes a little more time but it avoids the spray vapors.

And of course, my spray varnish of choice is Testors Dullcote which has GHASTLY vapors, that stuff you don't want to spray indoors, it's horrific.

With all the garbage and issues that can happen with sprays, I have found it not worth it have to dance around all the requirements to use it successfully. Even on totally perfect days where the conditions were ideal for priming and varnishing, I've gotten frosting on models.

And even on perfectly low-humid and mild temperature days I've gotten horrific priming results at times, that dreaded, hard-encrusted fuzz. I don't spray too close, I don't spray too much primer, I do it exactly as it says to – and it still happens.

Brush-on products are 100 x more forgiving, with regards to general application, and also with multiple coats, etc.

Friday finally had my day, high 70's, clear coated probably 150 figures. Alas most were repainted maybe a scant 1/3 were new.

I would suggest trying Artist's Gesso: acrylic, comes in White, Black, and Gray colors; shrinks as it dries, forming a tight, "skin", over the figure. Takes paints beautifully. No smell, no fumes, no hassles. Here is one example: 32 oz. bottle of White Gesso, for $13 USD + S/H, on Amazon.com. Can use acrylic, oil, and other types of paint on it; it can even be tinted with an acrylic paint of your choice. When dry, it is flexible, so it will work on metal, resin, or even soft plastic figures. Cheers!