I need help removing an artist's oil wash from my beautiful base coat! I painted the model in Tamyia acrylics, color modulation and all, then sealed with Future to apply the decals. Future again over the decals to seal them. This is the best paint job I've ever done. Then, after drying a few days, I began to apply an winsor newton oil wash (pin wash, if you like). My usual method is to go back about a day later and remove the excess with odorless mineral spirits (the white bottle with mona lisa on the cover). However, life happened and it's been nearly a week. When I try to remove the excess, it won't budge!

What can I do? I know I can scrap the whole finish and start over again, but I REALY LOVE THIS FINISH!

Any ideas? I REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR HELP!!

Have you tried leaving the Min. Spirts on for a period of time to let it soften the oils? That's the only thing I can think of. You're propably going to have to get a bit agressive on the pin wash to clean it up.
How about doing a very focused touch up where you want to remove the pin wash instead. Cover vs. remove?

Hi

If the Mineral spirit soak doesn’t work you could try something a bit stronger like Enamel thinners that should remove the oil without touching the acrylics underneath.

Paul

I agree with Paul

You should try this way

Like Paul said, try some stronger thinners. You could also give it a shot with a toothbrush.

Good luck.

Unfortunately, the min spirit didn't work, no matter how long the soak. Enamel thinner worked, but then took the acrylic (tamyia and future) off! I need to learn more about paint chemistry! Oh well. Lesson learned. I'm gonna strip the whole thing and start again. Thanks to all of you for your help, though!

Hi

Sorry you lost your base coat. That shouldn't have happened as Acrylics are not touched be enamel thinners, that why we use enamel weathering products like AK Interactive over acrylic base coats without problems and like wise acrylic weathering products over enamel base coats.

Sounds like you future coat didn't have 100% coverage which allowed the thinner to leach through it.

I know it also shouldn't have touched the Tamiya base coat but I have found Tamiya paint to be one of the weakest bonding paints out there, I use their white over enamels to give a whitewash effect and because it is so weak I don’t need to use the hairspray method, it just rubs of with a wet brush, so that might be why it came off, or you scrubbed it too hard.

Paul

If you let acrylics get damp enough for long enough (regardless of the nature of the liquid making it damp) they will start to disintegrate and come off sadly. Its just the nature of acrylics.