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Craft smart acrylic paint?


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I gave about 50 bottles of it to my granddaughter who was getting into art. I've never had any luck with cheap craft acrylics. OK for interiors but that's it. I've had luck with Createx, which isn't anything like the craft stuff. Actually, I'm not really sure that it's an acrylic.

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I use it all the time, now it's not my first choice in craft paints but they do work absolutely fine if you understand them.. They are thinner than most so you don't thin quite as much so it takes an extra coat or two and dries fine in terms of film thickness.. In the  thread on Folk Art craft paints both examples I posted were base coated in Craft Smart Rose Gold. My thinner combo mentioned in that same thread works very well in Craft Smart. You just may need an extra coat or two compared with Folk Art as already mentioned. I noticed lately that my local Micheals store is really plugging Craft Smart and the secondary line is more Deco Art and far less FolkArt than they used to have.

I did a 39 ford sedan, bought three different craft paints and once again settled on a green that happened to be Craft Smart. Then clear coated that with X-22 Tamiya. Came out quite nice. I shot 3 base color coats. Scuffed the roof and shot 2 more. When I say coats I mean I Shot a coat flashed it off, then the next etc. It's hugely affected by the color primer you use, I shot three test shots before shooting the body, one over white, grey and black. The black won and that's what I used on the sedan. If i can dredge up a photo later I will post it in this thread. It's stock so I didn't go for wet look with it but traditional 1939 finish look.

I do confess that on these old cars craft paints work but enamel is more my go to and I could do an entire thread on just enamel alone since I've been shooting it for 60+ years + 35 1/1. Craft paints and acrylics only 4-5. I took two years to learn the ways in all sorts of test shoots of various craft and acrylic paints, it became a fun and educational hobby in itself !

Edit: the photos aren't worth posting, apparently on my computer I saved thumbnails.

Edited by Dave G.
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On 12/28/2021 at 11:34 PM, Miatatom said:

I gave about 50 bottles of it to my granddaughter who was getting into art. I've never had any luck with cheap craft acrylics. OK for interiors but that's it. I've had luck with Createx, which isn't anything like the craft stuff. Actually, I'm not really sure that it's an acrylic.

Createx is acrylic. It's much like a soft body artist paint, high pigment designed originally for fabrics and T shirt artists. It remains flexible.

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Horses for courses.   Paint by its nature is subjective, depending on what you are using it for, and how you are using it.

It is good fun experimenting with different types of  acrylics, artists oils, enamel and lacquer paints. The list goes on. I love going into an artists suppliers shop who carry large ranges of other colouring mediums to use that modellers may not normally think of.

Edited by Bugatti Fan
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2 hours ago, kymdlr said:

Thanks for the replies. I only brush acrylics for interiors and small parts on motors. I was curious if this paint was comparable to Vallejo model acrylics or tamiya acrylics when brushing.

Craft paints are closer in nature to Vallejo Model Color than to Tamiya. Pigments are finer and denser in the Vallejo. I use Vallejo or craft paints for your purpose, mostly craft paints. But everything is primed on my models though fwiw. I prime all the parts but the body right on the sprue then touch up later. I put my craft paint on a painters pallet and a little water or thinner near by. A touch of water in it will help flow and get rid of brush strokes. With Vallejo you use their flow aid. And with Tamiya you use retarder for brush painting.

Craft Smart is fine for what you want to do. I've gone from spraying my engines to brushing them with craft paints myself in fact. Then weather with oil stains that are water clean up ( don't ask, it just works that way, no clue how, there are water clean up oil stains out there now and oil paints too).

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1 hour ago, Bugatti Fan said:

Regarding Art Acrylics...The better ones with more concentrated pigments are marketed in art shops only or on line from a specialist art product supplier.

Do you have any brand names? I've used Createx with some success. 

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Tom, some good brand names for you Winsor and Newton, Reeves, Rowney  all UK brands. Liquitex that is also a top notch product and manufactured in the USA. All well established brands. HTH.

The Createx that you have found to be good is a brand unknown to me. I guess that it is a US made product.

 

Edited by Bugatti Fan
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