"paint drying time and magic wash" Topic

Hi All,

I am new at this so please forgive if this is a stupid question how long do need to let my painted model (Vallejo paints) dry for before I can apply magic wash.

Thanks

A couple of minutes ought to do it. Vallejo dries very flat. If you see any shiny spots, it's not dry yet.

Thanks I tried my batch of magic wash and it has stripped some of the paint of the model. My mix consisted of 1 part Johnson's Klir to 4 parts of water, I used distilled water. I mixed a few drops of Windsor and Newton Black artists ink in to a small amount of the mix. The model had been allowed to dry for 48hrs before I paintedd on the mix. Any suggestions as to what I have done wrong ?.

Any help or advixe greatfully recieved.

You can give your figs a light coat of varnish to protect them. I have no idea why it would strip away the paint. It may be obvious, but, did you prime the minis?

I found with Vallejos, they have a 2-part drying process. I painted a 120mm knight (primed black) with Vallejo flat flesh, then started adding washes. The washes reactivated the vallejos, creating a muddy mess. Giving them some time (like 24 hours) seems to do the trick for me, what's the humidity like where you're at???

Damon.

I have found that Vallejo paints need at least an hour to dry before giving them a wash; to stop the paint reactivation issue.

EE

I've noticed certain Vallejo colors seem more susceptable to being stripped by 'magic' wash than others. For me, Saddle Brown has been a problem. I give it 12 -24 hours between painting and wash.

I, like others, have found over time that the only way to ensure you won't run the paint is to give it 24 hours.

I love Valejo paints, so I'm willing to give them that time :-).

Don.

Yep, I'd agree. You can paint over Vallejo almost immediately but leave it a few hours before washing over it. More so if you use thinned colours.

Tony H

I've always given figures 24 hours after the last color before doing a wash. An arbitrary amount of time, I'm sure, but I like to be sure I'm not going to undo a lot of hard work by rushing things.

I've never had that problem. I know for sure I haven't waited 24 hrs on some occasions and sometimes as little as 10 minutes.

You might try a less watered down future wash…perhaps the excessive water is "reactivating" the Vallejo. I usually use 1:1 Future to water (distilled), then add color to that in usually 10:1 Future mix to color.

Why add water..? Future is cheap..

So I had responded that I haven't had this problem. I use a very soft, very large brush (an artist's paintbrush). Normally I only paint metal these days.

The last couple of nights I have been playing with some old airfix 1:72 stuff I have been sitting on for years, and painted some samples up with Valejo. (I'm waiting on one Sherman to arrive for the next review, the rest are done… needed something to do and was tired of painting my knights)

Last night when I put the magic wash on them, it took paint and primer off.

Odd that it should dovetail with this thread.

I'm thinking that I can't positively say that they were ever washed before priming (about 1/2 of them were painted more than a decade ago, and I assumed I'd washed them then), so I'm going to try some new Airfix that I picked up today the same way (picked up a set of Gurkas!).

I'll post back when I'm through with them and let you know how they washed.

Don.

Hmmm… I guess I'm a little old fashion, as I still use oil paints. I and just stick them in an old toaster oven that I have for this purpose at 300 deg. for about 15 minutes, if I need a sure and quick drying….

How well does this work with Airfix & other plastics?….. ;-)

Seriously – that's a good tip for metals. I've always fancied trying oils for horses, but been put off by the long drying times. I may try this.

Just remember that the melting point for lead is a little over 600 deg. I remember some years ago, I young fellow who was painting his micro armour and put them in moms oven and he must have just cranked it up, as they all melted!!

Sgt Ironsides, I just finally put away the last of my oil paints for good. The newest water-based are every bit as good and more readily available. But oils are still my favorite – particularly flesh, which acrylics seem to struggle with.

Don.

Assuming the Vallejo paints contain mostly an acrylic binder, then they probably go through the same stages of drying that acrylics go through. Acrylics may not be completely dried even when they feel dry. Between the point where the paint is no longer workable, and the point where it has cured into a continuous film over the object, the paint is especially vunerable to being lifted up. This curing period, depending on the thickness of the paint, can take several days. but much less time for the thin films used on miniatures. I would agree with all of the above who recommend at least 24 hours.

Plastics sometimes need washed to remove the grease that is on them, something to do with mould releasant. Metal sometimes has a powder on them so this needs washed off as well.

You might try spraying with a gloss coat first. Really aids the wash and protects the finish. Depending on how much the wash tones down the final product you can consider or not a spray of dullcoat.

My understanding is it works best with disimilar paints. You are using acrylics to paint, then sealing with an oil based gloss coat (spray cans work fine), then washing with an acrylic base like Future and finally sealing again with the dullcoat.