Dulling down cloth

[Gary D]

Hi, I was wondering how you guys dull down cloth. I am painting a 90mm metal figure and after priming it, his tunic has been base coated with acrylic and now I want to shadow and highlight with oils. (I am a lousy acrylic painter). I am concerned however that the result will have too much shine to it. Is it acceptable to use a dullcoat such as Vallejo matt varnish after the oils have dried? How about using MIG pigments instead or in addition to the varnish?


Thanks

Gary

 

[megroot]

Gary,
You can reduce the shine as follows. ( i use it to)
Let the oilpaint sit on a card for 10-15 minutes. You will see that the oil goes into the cardboard.
Then pickit up to your palette, thin it with whitespirit a little bit and paint.
After finish your painting session you put the figure in a drybox or crockpot. I let it there for overnight and it is totally matt.
I only use MIG pigments for dusting up the shoes etc.
Marc

 

[Gary D]

Thanks Marc. I will definetely try this for the next figure. This figure (Andrea 90mm French Cuirassier) has the figure sitting on a horse. I don't want to dull down the horse as it looks good with a bit of sheen and might look funny dull. The base though is resin. Would that be o.k. in the crockpot? Do I need to stand the figure on something in the crockpot or just as it is on the floor of the pot?
Also, I have other resin and metal figures that I had painted a couple years ago and now that I look at them, the cloth is shiny on them as well. Is it too late to try dulling them in the crockpot? Back then I had mixed my oils with a little linsead oil. (I won't do that anymore).

Thanks again,

Gary

 

[megroot]

Gary,
I think you must allowed the shine on the horse. There are no dull horses (that was a comment of the judge last weekend at our show,,,,my horse was to flat).
With resin i had once problems into the drybox. But i used a 100W bulb those days. Today i use only 60 W. You have to try with some mouldblock. If it feels soft after one night into the crockpot, don't do it.
The older figure's you can do the job with Dullcoat (Guy use it ). The crockpot doesn't work anymore.
You can mix your paint with linsead, but you gotta take alot of attention that you don't overdo it. Just, a tiny,tiny,tiny drop will do the job.
I think you better use white spirit, but just a little to let the paint flow.

Marc

 

[Gary D]

Thanks very much. I really appreciate you taking the time to give me your comments.

Gary

 

[Gary D]

Marc, sorry I forgot to mention that I will try the mouldblock. If it is too soft, I will use the dullcoat.

Thanks again,

Gary

 

[Einion]

Hi, I was wondering how you guys dull down cloth.

IMO the best way to do this is to aim for it to dry the way you want as much as possible.

I am painting a 90mm metal figure and after priming it, his tunic has been base coated with acrylic and now I want to shadow and highlight with oils. (I am a lousy acrylic painter). I am concerned however that the result will have too much shine to it.

It could do and some colours are far more prone to this than others.

In addition so soaking out excess oil (many oil paints these days are more than adequately supplied with binder!) I would recommend heat-drying your oils to help ensure a consistent matt finish - only where this is appropriate of course, you don't want the skin, leather, painted surfaces to be matt normally.

There are a few prior threads on using crockpots, putty ovens or a hotbox for this purpose.

Is it acceptable to use a dullcoat such as Vallejo matt varnish after the oils have dried?

You can do anything you want, the Art Police aren't going to come knocking But the simplest solution is often the best way to go. Lots of figure modellers use Dullcote for example to matt a figure down and/or as a protective layer before weathering.

Einion

 

[Paul Kernan]

Is there not a trick employed that drabs a given colour? I seem to remember reading sometime ago, by adding certain colours (raw umber?, greys?, etc) to (and depending on) your base tone, that this would result in a less vibrant colour and therefore a more realistic/earthier effect. Anyone else remember this?

 

[Einion]

You can dull down nearly all colours with the addition of dark browns, greys or a mixing complement. But this is in regard to the colour, not the finish.

There are one or two oil paints which tend to dry very matt naturally and adding a bit of one of 'em will tend to help things dry matter, but it's not the best way to do it.

Einion