i’ve finally gotten around to painting some figures to go with my armor. i’ve noticed though that even though i use acrylics, the clothing i’ve painted still looks glossy. how do you make sure they come out drab? i use tamiya and gunze sangyo acrylics. i’ve tried using tamiya thinner, isopropyl alcohol and even water to thin my paints. i also make sure to mix the paint well before pouring them out of the bottle. what could be the problem?

One of the likely causes as far as matt acrylics going gloss is handling. Tamiya acrylics turn gloss pretty easily even if the figure was handled a couple of times. Best way to prevent that is to temporarily mount your figs wihle they're being painted.

Its has nothing to do with your dilution agent (water, IBA, etc). The only possiblity is that the paints in the bottles themselves have not been thoroughly mixed/stirred before using them. I usually use coffee sticks or bamboo skewers to mix the paint thoroughly in the bottle before taking any out and diluting it.

Best bet now would be to slap on a coat of matt. The one from Vallejo is pretty good. Avoid using the Tamiya matt cote as it has to be mixed in with the paint rather than applied directly. Tricky to use and using too much causes the fig to go white.

As a last alternative, super diluted washes with a basecoat color applied like a filter will also tone down the glossiness.

hmmm...i did try my best to mix the paint well before i took it out of the bottle. i tried this precisely because previous coats turned out glossy. guess i'll need to stir it a bit longer next time.

tamiya paints turn glossy with handling? that might explain it. i did glue the fig on an empty paint jar, but i accidentally bumped it off and i was too lazy to glue it back on. hence the handling problem. i'll try your advice with both the matt coat and the thinned base coat. see which one works better. i'll post the results just in case someone else has been the same problem. thanks for the tips.

Hello

I have had similar problems with Tamiya acrylics. Often after using a jar for an extended period, there is definite gloss / sheen appearing, especially on small surfaces eg. figures. I have found, as indicated by the other member, that a base coat, preferably Desest Sand or Dark Yellow enamel, thinned a little, works well for a base coat. Then overlay with the Tamiya Acrylic, thinned slightly in the bottle with the Tamiya Thinner. Go for a thin, wash-like coat (the pigment is quite durable).Let the base coat dry overnight.

P.S As an aside, the Desert Yellow is an ideal base for flesh tones too, so coat the entire figure. Finish flesh tones in artist oils thinned with white spirt and you get very effective flesh tone indeed.

I hope this helps!
Garth

Just spray the whole thing with Testor's Dull Coat.

thank you both garth and al. i'm almost finished with the dragon king tiger and tamiya js-3 and will probably be focusing on the figures this coming week. i wish i could try al's suggestion but i haven't found any hobby shop selling testor's products here. i have a bottle of desrt yellow (tamiya) though so i'll check if garth's suggestion works.

Well Gunze range are semi gloss to start with, so that is probably part of the problem.

Just use a good matt coat to finish. I like Humbrol Matt 49, but most products are pretty good.

really? then that may have been it. you see, i didn’t want to paint the uniform black since it’s too stark so I used gunze sangyo dark grey and added a bit of tamiya black. while we'reon this issue, i noticed tamiya has three kinds of black: black, flat black and semi-gloss black. does anyone know if tamiya paints are flat only when it says, “flat red”, “flat black”, “flat white”, etc.?

If it says flat then it's flat. If the Tamiya number statrs with XF then its also probably flat. Though I think their semi-gloss may also start with XF.

got it! thanks. and of course, next time, it probably won't hurt to ask the saleperson at the hobby shop if the particular paint i'm getting really is flat, right?

Hi there,

Personally I'm not keen on the Humbrol 49 matt varnish as a final matt coat. If you can get hold of the Humbrol range rather go for the Matt-Cote or Satin-Cote products. They are sold in glass bottles as opposed to the std Humbrol tin.

Pavehawk is right about the XF numbers though. If you're unsure, always ask the sales person for help that's what they're paid for

Rudi

yeah. that's what i thought. now that i think about it, its really common sense and i wonder why i didn't think of it before. must be all the thinner vapors I’ve been inhaling lately.

:-) :-) :-) LOL that's one of the reasons when I decided to start using acrylics for figure painting I decided to go with the Acrylicos Vallejo range of colours. Thinning and clean up can be done with normal tap water.

that sounds like the answer to my wife's prayers! not sure if its available locally though. mental note: after asking the LHS salespeople if paint is flat or semi-gloss, ask if they have acrylicos vallejo.

Hi There,

If a paint supply is a problem I use the acrylic craft paints quite a bit (Americana, Cremecoat, apple barrel). They are very good paints with a high pigment content so for figure painting you should thin the paints with water. Clean up is a snap with water and for the stubborn paint windex works (also a great stripper for this paint).

The price is right and the paint drys to a nice flat finish. There has been quite a bit of discussion I think on this site about those lines of paints. The colour selection is endless as well.

Cheers

Ray

rovik,

supply is a problem for me too. the LHS (LOL, if you call 50km away local ) that keeps AV near me doesn't keep the full range. Therefore I buy my AV from Modelsforsale.co.uk, although Colorado Miniatures in the US comes highly recommended as well.

BTW, have you checked out Armorama's historical miniatures sister site? Historicus Forma

Rudi

yes rudi, i've checked out historicus forma. its amazing! its actually part of the reason i got inspired to start working on the rest of the figures i have. i wish i had read the features before i started on my first figure though...the guys who build and paint those figures are artists if you ask me.