It depends on your area, but I have a moisture trap hooked up to my compressor. Edit: I'm in San Francisco so I get to deal with a lot of moisture in the air depending on the time of year.
anyone know of a place to buy soft vinyl paint please dm me (not mr. color). i'm almost out of stock in a lot of colors and gunnzo/mad ape ninja webshops seem to be depleted.
It's an ok alternative, but it's an acrylic paint and it doesn't bond to the vinyl as well. Their metallics have a very nice finish and vibrancy, but again scratches off easier than v color silver and gold. With the unavailability of V-color and mad ape ninja these days, maybe we should start an alternative to V-color thread.
I've been using thinned out CS coatings vinyl fishing lure paint with pretty decent results. Thinning it is a pain though but it's cheap and works for me.
I was going to try a project using some Mr Color because I don't have space for an airbrush, and I'm doing something where brushed color should look good. I was planning on doing a few coats of Monstor Kolor clear (spray can) over the Mr. Color. Should that be enough to help deal with scratches/scuffs?
Mr color is better for brush painting then vcolor. You can also heat treat acrylic with a hair dryer to help it bond better, you should be ok after clear coat, but if you have paint around joints it might scratch off when joints are twisted, but that is kind of unavoidable even with vcolor as well.
Yes I've used CS before, some colors are better than others like the white is pretty good, others after thinning just spray on super transparent and it can take a lot of layers just to get a solid color coating. I'll also warn you the CS coatings paint hardens and becomes unusable rather quickly so don't buy in bulk, only buy what you will use in the near future.
You can mix Mr.Color or Gaia (or similar lacquer paints) into the CS coatings clear and essentially make your own Vcolor. It's what I've been doing for a year or two now and I've had really good success with it.
It’s been awhile since I painted vinyl but Ive always used Mr.Color and used a V-color clear coat and haven’t had any issues. I’m not a pro painter though so that’s why I was curious why people didn’t like Mr. Color.
Oh interesting. I've seen people mix raw pigment into the CS coatings clear and use that to paint vinyl, but never heard of people just mixing other paints into it. Might have to try that.
I have 2 things to add: Mr. Color is NOT acrylic paint. It is a solvent-based lacquer paint (similar to Gaia). You might see some sellers call it a "solvent-based acrylic" which seems confusing but it actually means that the paint pigment is a type of acrylic (irrelevant), but the solution itself is a solvent-based paint, and the solvent is a lacquer. Try using anything but a lacquer thinner to thin Mr. Color and watch what happens. IMPORTANT SIDENOTE: There is a different Mr. Hobby product called Mr. Aqueous Color which IS a water-based acrylic paint. I've also used Brandon's recommendation and mixed Mr. Color with CS Coatings Clear + Thinner with pretty great results. Mr. Color + CS Thinner without the clear will work as well but if you add the CS Coatings Clear it will bond to the vinyl much better and has a slightly shinier finish. There's a serious shortage of all these paints right now because they're all made in Japan: VColor, Mad Ape, Mr. Color, Gaia, Tamiya. Not sure exactly why though. Shipping issues? Production issues? People being home more / demand increasing? All 3? I know Japan has had a lot of shipping issues due to the pandemic. Hopefully things improve and we see stores get more stock again soon.
I didn't see it mentioned here but James Sizemore- WonderGoblin- is making a legit vinyl paint that should be debuting hopefully by Springtime. He's invested in milling equipment, chemists, etc, the whole works. This essentially will finally be the answer to having to worry about import problems in the US for these things. Contact him for more info!
I spoke with James today. He said he still working on color mixes, and he wants to make the best possible product for us he can. I’m excited!
Has anybody worked with vinyl paint at lower (Northeast Winter) temperatures? How low can we go? Related question, does anyone store their vinyl paints at low temperatures during the winter?
I painted in my garage today, it was 16 degrees out. Not sure the temp in the garage? Maybe in the 40s, definitely Not below freezing. But I’ve left my paint in the garage all winter long with no issues.
Finally upgraded to an Iwata (HP-CS) from a beginner Badger and WHAT A DIFFERENCE! I've found that I need to remove and clean the needle each time before I paint because it is stuck in place. Any tips? Am I just not cleaning it good enough after painting? Works like a dream after a quick wipe with thinner, just annoying. Also, how do y'all paint for extended periods of time without your hand cramping up?
I generally add a drop or two of airbrush lube after using the air brush and spray it through and I haven't had it jam up on me since.
Maybe try a gun with a trigger. You can get a tamiya with a trigger that costs about 100 bucks and sprays just as well. A lot of the parts are interchangeable too, if you ever run into an issue where you need to replace a needle or tip or something.
Spray two full cups (airbrush cups not the measurement) worth of acetone through after your session. Its cheap and available and cleans much better than thinner. Just dont let it mix with your paint. I rarely have my needle get stuck in place unless I'm painting really heavily.
Acetone is your friend when using lacquer and vinyl paints. Using thinner to clean your brush is a waist when acetone is better and a less toxic VOC. I use a round brush and acetone to clean my cup and blow a1-2 cups through the brush to clean. Learn how to break your brush down because you’ll need to clean it every couple months and replace the seals every 6-7 months. I pull my needles and clean them before and after every session
How do y'all do your paint splatters? I've tried a few methods with varying and inconsistent results. Anyone want to share their secrets??
