AARRGHHHH

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Bingy99

Guest
Can someone help my sanity.

I seem to have issues with using 'blacks and greys' through the brush.

I am using wicked and detail paints. I have been doing a piece using Grey, Detail Paynes Grey, Detail Smoke Black. All three are giving me flow problems. I just cant seem to get them to flow on detailed stuff like other colours do.

Is it me ? or are blacks and greys just worse than others?
 
I use Wicked all the time, and have always found black the worst colour. Most people have issues with white, but to me black is the worst for paint flow.

I don't have those particular colours , however I love the look of the regular black, its a real rich deep black. To get this look though it is very heavily pigmented, the pigment settles, and if you are not careful can become more concentrated.

If you don't shake it well enough, or if you filter over the neck of the botttle, then gradually what is left becomes concentrated. To counteract that add a couple of drops of transparent base. It does not reduce the paint as such, but as it is the paint carrier without pigment, disperses the pigment which should help it flow better. Then reduce as usual - I find I have to reduce more than other colours.

Next time you get a new bottle to help avoid this, give it a super good shake, then pour the entire bottle through a filter, into a clean empty bottle,(I dont stir it, any residue that gets left on the bottom after a hard shake gets left there) you will waste some paint this way, but before I did this, I was ditching the last 3rd of a bottle anyway. Then each time you use it, thoroughly shake it, some colours I give a half hearted shake, but black needs the full monty.

I find doing the above helps, but adding trans base should help too. You may just need to experiment and find how much too add. If you add to much it could affect the colour density.
 
Squishy, Thanks for that help. I too do not seem to have much issue with white. Its always the black that seems to ruin my pieces.

Yesterday I did reduce quite a lot, and that did seem to help. Its interesting about the filtering. What do you filter through ?
 
What brush and PSI are you running? White is considered the worst and I personally do NOT like any Createx white.

Also what additives are you using?
 
I love the Wicked white, I find it flows great and with the 4012 reducer get almost zero tip dry. But the black ...... I know most people would say the other way around lol.

To strain you can just stretch some pantyhose over the bottom of a funnel, and decant to another bottle, but I use proper paint filters too. You can just stretch some pantyhose over the neck of a bottle for other colours which aren't so pigmented and get away with it. But black just becomes too concentrated.
 
I am using a Harder and Steenbach infinity 0.2 set up
Normally around 30 to 35 psi

I have tried from 10 psi upto 40 psi

I reduce most paints with 4011 or 4012 usually around 50 % varies according to the amount of detail needed

I find when doing smaller details I tend to keep the air less full on and that gives me control to very thin lines

With the blacks and greys that just does not seem to work and I either get spidering due to thin paint or no paint then suddenly a squirt. Just no flow with it

For example trying to paint a black line around a skull tooth line would be a disaster, but if doing a white line, it would flow so much smoother i would be able to fine line all around the teeth

So, so frustrating as I have messed up so many pieces and just lost the will to carry on.

I find myself avoiding anything with much black much black in which limits what I do
 
I know its not an answer but thats the reason I swapped to Etac...coz Im lazylollol,Do you mix your reducer and paint in the brush?,I found mixing wicked in a small cup and letting it sit for 5mins helped..and one important thing is the more you reduce the less air pressure is required:thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
When you say 50% do you mean 2 drops paint to 1 reducer - as 100% (in my tiny mind anyway - I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer lol) would mean 1 paint 1 reducer? If so then that's an issue. Through a .35 I will reduce black 1 paint to 4or 5 depending on conditions. Through my .23 micron I would go 1 paint up to 10 reducer - with psi anywhere between 10 and 15.
 
Ok
I have to think about this as I do the paint without really thinking about it.

I would put 10 drops of reducer in my brush and then add 2 or three drops of most paints. sometime a bit more, sometimes a bit less.

By the sound of it I am not reducing enough.

Does your paint spray quite thin an transparent and require many passes to get any level of solid colour.

I think I need to experiment further.
 
Depends, not through the .35, but I guess a little through the .23 - but cos its such a dense black its not really an issue. For fine lines the black looks great through the smaller nozzle, and I would use the larger nozzle for larger areas anyway. Other colours would def be affected more, and some like detail yellow I find need very little reduction.

Its well worth taking the time to experiment and get the flow and coverage you want, IMO. It's such a vibrant versatile paint which works on virtually any surface. Some people don't get on with it, but then I didn't click with E'tac which is another favourite. If you find it too much of a struggle, you could try contacting suppliers and asking if they have samples of other paints, just to see if there's anything else that might suit you better.
 
oh the joys of reduction lol

The more you reduce, the less pressure you need, the less colour you get on your paper.
Reduction will reduce the viscosity and make the same amount of pigment disperse in a larger volume of liquid, so you paint now more transparent than before which means more passes to get the required saturation of colour.

there is no magic formula for reduction, what works today may not work tomorrow. I've had tip dry even with high reduction. but the weather was 35C+ and I had two fans going in the shed. . . . just one of the joys.
 
Had an hour doing some last night, so reduced my grey more than have done before and reduced the air pressure to around 15 to 8 psi. This seemed to be much more successful and definitely flowed better. Slight issue with the paint not looking smooth and even but I think that will come with practice using such hugely more reduced paint. Too much wet paint leaves a funny bobbly look rather than even.
 
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