Painting on Acrylic render.

[JackEb]

Totally new to all things AB and I want to paint 3D effects onto render. Am i correct in thinking that the waterbased paints would do the job ? I've found a great supplier but the range is mindblowing. they do offer the createx paints but i dont want to get the wrong thing.

Any and all input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Hinddee29]

Hello, Could you go into more detail on what it is that your painting? Not sure what your meaning. What is the material that your wanting to paint made of? Createx can be used to paint on many different supports. I however find it very hard to work with not sure why I just can't get it to spray right. I like Comart, but that's just me. Once the material is known I may be able to help more.

Was going to welcome you in your other thread, but I'll just do it here. Welcome, this seems to be a pretty nice site. I'm new here as well..

Shane

 

[JackEb]

The paint is being applied to acrylic render, the same stuff they trowel onto houses, so its a cement type of product.
In an attempt to make it clearer what i currently do and the type of end result i'd like to achieve, here is an example of what i do by hand, I'm hoping the airbrush will be of use for the base and heavy shading and i'll do the highlights by hand if i have to, . In the future i'd be happy to have a lot less physical 3D if I can perfect the airbrush, although there will still be ledges around the place for the residents to 'hang out' on

.........

And this is how the above started in life .. $50 from a garage sale



Thank you Shane for taking the time to ask questions

 

[Hinddee29]

Your welcome. Sorry I some missed the acrylic part in my first post. I have some more questions. What paint are you using now? Do you put some type of protective coating over these?
Really an acrylic paint should work on this ex. comart, golden, createx paints. The only thing com art and golden would need a water proof protective coating sprayed over the paint or any any type of water will re-activate the paint. Really createx may be the best for this. Once dried it turn rubbery and if you heat set it, it become permanent, but I still would spray something over it.

I do think an airbrush would help a lot in places, but you might not want to buy a brush for fine painting. My opinion a Iwata eclipse or a Paasche VL would work well. If you are in the States you can find both of these in a Pat Catans. If you really plan to stray paint in large section you might want to invest in a touch up gun or something as well. Spraying large areas with an airbrush would take a long time to do.

 

[JackEb]

Thanks again Hinddee,

I currently use water based acrylic paint and do use a clear waterbased pond sealer over it. once dry it is non toxic so is safe for the inhabitant.

Newbie question: how would i heat set the paint in a situation like above ? would a heat gun do the job, ?

I do have a spraygun but i use that for the polyeurethane on the exterior. My base colour is laid down via oxide in the last layer of render, it gives a good even coverage and saves painting the whole thing (the opening is 42" or 108cm for the metric amoungst us) so you get an idea of how vast the 'background is.

 

[FirePanther]

A heat gun will work great, keep it on the move tho.

Really like your work there! An airbrush will give you much more options to do different kind of stuff.

How do you make it work now? With normal brushes?

 

[JackEb]

Thank you fire panther , I'm use to using a heat gun, I use it sometime to get the "rock look" to the foam, so I know to keep it moving
I currently drybrush (a favorite technique of 'war game' modellers.) shadows, crevices and highlights on. Lots of patience, lots of time and lots of 'stepping away' and coming back the next day, it very easy to overdo it. So do you also think the waterbased paints are the way to go?

 

[Hinddee29]

Ok I see. Yes an airbrush would help you out a lot then. Yes, a heat gun would do the trick you could use a hair drier, but a heat gun would work best. As FirePanther said. Keep the
heat gun moving. Stay in one spot to long and you'll have problems.

Are you able to thin and spray the paints your using now? Most of the time it will say on the can or bottle if you can spray it or not. Really you can spray just about anything through an airbrush if you can thin it down enough. I would bet you could use the paint you have now if you can thin it enough without losing the quality of the paint.

 

[JackEb]

The paint I use now is just the tubes of hobby paint, the sort you buy for kids, they do water down, I've used it in a $2 spray bottle to do a wash over some parts to age it, I will give it a go though, after I strain it well

 

[FirePanther]

Most hobby paints like that have particles that are to big, maybe straining can help but dont be surprised when it clogs up the brush
You will find out fast enough then...

I dont think you can get the same effects when only airbrushing, maybe if you wipe alot of again... Dunno if that will work.
What I mean is on below picture, the top of the edges are light and the edges capture the darker paint and look dark. If you get the airbrush it will all look the same.
(this is a closeup detail of your second picture posted earlier)
How do you get it now that the top ridges of the texture stay light?

 

[JackEb]

LOL, I'm not expecting my hobby paints to work but in the interest of all things experimental I'll give it a try.
I'm also not expecting the airbrush to do the whole thing, happy to do 80% with AB for the crevices etc and still drybrush highlights by hand (they're the easy part) I'm thinking the airbrush will allow better blending / softening of the areas.
I'd like to experiment with the perspective side of AB, it will allow me to have less physical 3D while still adding dimension to a piece, as a side note the enclosure pictured is a one-of and not something I do regularly.

If you're not sure what drybrushing is then google it, it's a very simple technique used by modellers, makes things come to life

 

[FirePanther]

I am sure you can do ALOT of it with the airbrush, especially getting more depth in it without the need to pre-craft it. Like making cracks and stuff.
Fun thing on the airbrush is that you can also use it to splatter a bit, many make stone like stuff with it like that, as in the below vid

A subtle stone effect with cracks in it:
[video=youtube;SyXzsAx7o7E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyXzsAx7o7E[/video]

Our member Zuf also made a pretty cool stone skull!! Found here: http://www.airbrushforum.org/showthread.php?393-other-work&p=3430#post3430

 

[JackEb]

Great video, thanks for sharing that will definitely be useful, I'll have a good look through his others later and see how he got on with the snake skin effect
The stone skull looks like a fun project too

I find it amusing that "splatter" for most people would be a problem, but I think that is a technique I'll use often