"Is paint stink bad for you?" Topic
14 Posts
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 Editor in Chief Bill   | 22 Sep 2025 6:03 p.m. PST |
Passing along a question from one of our members. Everyone knows that the odor of fresh spray paint is dangerous because of the chemicals. But what of paint that still smells, even though dry? Is the 'paint stink' still dangerous? Should you avoid the drying paint until it is completely odorless? |
| machinehead | 22 Sep 2025 7:13 p.m. PST |
No idea, but I smoke 1 1/2 to 2 packs a day so a little bit of paint fumes doesn't matter in my case. |
 piper909  | 22 Sep 2025 9:13 p.m. PST |
MMMmmmmm, paint fumes! I've been laughing about those to the wife for 40 years. A handy scapegoat! |
| Cuprum2 | 23 Sep 2025 2:08 a.m. PST |
If you paint eight hours a day, five days a week, year-round, I'd probably start worrying about forced ventilation. Unless, of course, you're using acrylic water-soluble paints…
When I paint, I have a silly habit of licking the tip of my brush to sharpen it… For 40 years now (I started with oil paints and the corresponding solvents). But I'm still alive and relatively healthy. |
 Sgt Slag | 23 Sep 2025 7:02 a.m. PST |
I started baking my aerosol primed miniatures last year, to fully cure them within 30 minutes. The odor disappears completely within hours after that. I bought a used slow cooker/crock pot, at an estate sale, to cure my miniatures in. I set it for 200 F, baking the figures for 30 minutes. I bake metal, resin, and plastic miniatures, without issue. Metal figures typically melt above 700 F; resin gets mildly flexible, but it has not melted yet; thermo-plastic figures melt at 300-400 F, they do become soft and flexible. I have baked 1,000+ miniatures coated with urethane-stain, since 2000. In all of that time, I have only had a dozen sag a bit, in the slow cooker because I baked them in my unheated garage, in sub-freezing Winter temperatures. The heating element tried to maintain proper temperature, while losing most of its heat through its metal sides to the garage space. The heating element became quite hot and this caused my figures to severely sag. These were 7'-tall Gnoll figures, taller than Human figures, initially. They were still useful, but they were hunched down, unlike the rest of that plastic figure set. I think it adds nice variety to the set as I finished them, and they are a useful part of the Gnoll Army today. Grab some plastic Army Men figures, spray paint them, cover them in oil/solvent based paint/stain, then bake them in a well ventilated, room temperature area, as a test run. Use a temperature of 175-200 F (Low Heat Setting on Crock-Pots) for 30 minutes, no longer -- set a timer on your phone. I think you will be pleasantly surprised how they turn out. Like I said earlier, any remaining fumes will be gone within two hours, for most noses. Cheers! |
| Sgt Slag | 23 Sep 2025 7:13 a.m. PST |
Side Bar: Never, ever, bake pink/blue insulation foam… At 175 F, the pink foam insulation will shrink and shrivel to 1/3 its former size. Tried making modular cavern wall pieces by applying texture to carved insulation foam pieces; covered them with paint, and urethane-stain as a wash, then I baked them to speed cure the urethane-stain… They were completely ruined as the foam armatures became so small, pulling away from the texture materials. Foam insulation pieces have to be allowed to cure at room temperatures, even it if requires several days. Cheers! |
| forrester | 23 Sep 2025 8:12 a.m. PST |
not aware of this as an issue-I use water soluable acrylics, no smell
Humbrol enamels and turps were long ago. Spray paint even acrylics are another matter but I leave primed models alone for several hours out of the house.. |
| Andrew Walters | 23 Sep 2025 9:12 a.m. PST |
Surely that's going to vary with the specific paint and smell? Given where we are in consumer product safety, I'd guess it's okay. There are so many warnings out there, and no one is warning us about this. I live in California, where every single building has a prop 65 warning. Every single building. There are still problems with product safety, I'm not saying it's paradise, but if no one has raised the issue seriously I suspect it's minor. Almost certainly there are a hundred things in your life that are more serious threats. Get your diet, exercise, sleep and stress right, see you doctor, clean your house, see your therapist, get some fresh air, maintain your friendships, that's going to do you a lot more good than avoiding a few whiffs of whatever is still off-gassing from your minis. Acrylic paint is *almost* drinkable. Almost. Don't do it. You risk stomach upset I you drink a whole bottle. But don't do it, I'm just saying. Are you sure it's paint you're smelling? Could it be 3d printing resin? Or some coating product? Those could be more serious. |
| Grelber | 23 Sep 2025 10:49 a.m. PST |
I'm with Andrew: I use acrylics, and I've never noticed a smell from the regular paint. I did buy some casein paint one time, which smelled like sour milk, but I think it was more icky smelling than actually toxic. Like Cuprum, I've also licked my brushes and haven't died. I do try to clean the brush with water, then draw it across a tissue to reform the point but sometimes forget. Sgt Slag, if I baked figures in the oven to get rid of the smell, my wife would chase me around the house with a broom! I do like to leave the sprayed figures out in the sunshine for a couple hours in the summer, because it does make the smell go away more quickly. In winter, they stay out for a minimal amount of time, then go into the garage, which is warmer, to finish gassing off. Grelber |
| The Last Conformist | 23 Sep 2025 11:48 a.m. PST |
One generation of Citadel washes (the one with Devlan Mud) tended to start smelling funny after a while. Otherwise I've never noted any smell from acrylics. |
| TimePortal | 23 Sep 2025 12:40 p.m. PST |
Back in the 1070s. It was common toget a ton of paint that smelled. Back then, it was said the fungus had tainted the paint.
I seldom find tainted paint in plastic bottles. |
| Shagnasty | 23 Sep 2025 1:38 p.m. PST |
There was one brand of Japanese paint (Tamiya?) That drove me out of the room the one time I tried to use it. Threw the bottle away and never went back. If Humbrol is bad does anyone remember Floquil? It would literally kill brain cells and some guys used respirators to paint. |
| Oberlindes Sol LIC | 23 Sep 2025 6:47 p.m. PST |
I have a silly habit of licking the tip of my brush to sharpen it Acrylic paint isn't nearly as bad for you as radium paint! if I baked figures in the oven to get rid of the smell, my wife would chase me around the house with a broom! Lucky man! My wife would be wielding the kitchen cleaver! I agree with Andrew Walters. Don't worry about hobby acrylic paints, but don't drink them. |
 Herkybird | 14 Oct 2025 3:16 p.m. PST |
To me, the smell of polyurethane varnish is nice, it means more figures are nearly ready to take the field for the first time! |
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