All my paints refuse to dry!

[ea0863]

I am having a problem like I've never had before in my life, and am beyond frustrated. Anything I paint - whether it is brush on enamel, spray on lacquer, with or without primer - refuses to dry, even a week later. I live in the desert and my hobby room is at 70 degrees and 30 percent relative humidity. I have never needed to use a blow dryer, dehydrator, heat lamp or anything else before. Have I lost my mind? Someone please set me straight.

Edited March 14, 2022 by ea0863

[peteski]

Your room temperature and humidity is ideal fr painting (it actually seems a bit dry, but that would be ok).  I suspect that by "won't dry" you mean that the paints are tacky to the touch (not still in liquid form on the model surface).

What brand/type/color of paints?  Have you used successfully them in the past, or is this first time you are trying them?  Are they maybe fresh bottles or cans of paint?

Sounds like you have no problem with primer drying, correct?  Maybe you started using new brand of primer, or the paints don't dry even over bare plastic?  

Edited March 14, 2022 by peteski

[charlie8575]

How bizarre.

What brand of paint are you using?

Are these new paints, or were they ones that all of a sudden started acting up?

If they're new paint, I'd suggest contacting the manufacturer. It sounds like they may have gotten the mix of chemicals wrong, and they're not catalyzing. You might be able to get replacements.

If they're old paints, try adding a little hardware store lacquer thinner to them as you use them. That might help kick over drying.

As to the spray lacquers, I have NO idea what to do with that. See if you can get the humidity checked in your house to be sure the humidity is what you think it is, because that's the only thing I can think of that would cause the problems you're describing outside of poor application process or defective materials.

Charlie Larkin

[ea0863]

7 minutes ago, charlie8575 said:

How bizarre.

What brand of paint are you using?

Are these new paints, or were they ones that all of a sudden started acting up?

If they're new paint, I'd suggest contacting the manufacturer. It sounds like they may have gotten the mix of chemicals wrong, and they're not catalyzing. You might be able to get replacements.

If they're old paints, try adding a little hardware store lacquer thinner to them as you use them. That might help kick over drying.

As to the spray lacquers, I have NO idea what to do with that. See if you can get the humidity checked in your house to be sure the humidity is what you think it is, because that's the only thing I can think of that would cause the problems you're describing outside of poor application process or defective materials.

Charlie Larkin

Thanks much for the tips Charlie. The brush on ones are run-of-the-mill Testors paints - some old and others brand new. The spray paints are Rust-o-leum and Tamiya. Tomorrow I'm going to buy a dehydrator for painted parts and see if that helps. I'll also get another humidity gauge to double-check the house.  I'm also going to try your suggestion and add a little lacquer thinner on the next batch of painting. 

[charlie8575]

16 minutes ago, ea0863 said:

Thanks much for the tips Charlie. The brush on ones are run-of-the-mill Testors paints - some old and others brand new. The spray paints are Rust-o-leum and Tamiya. Tomorrow I'm going to buy a dehydrator for painted parts and see if that helps. I'll also get another humidity gauge to double-check the house.  I'm also going to try your suggestion and add a little lacquer thinner on the next batch of painting. 

One clarification:

For the brush paint, you'd be smart to get a little well-type paint palette at an art supply store. Add paint to that, and add the lacquer thinner to that paint. More than a few people have reported some of the newer Testors paints not being friendly to lacquer thinner in the bottle, so add as needed.

Charlie Larkin

[Dave G.]

The enamels I can see taking their time, the lacquer is a puzzle. If your house had high humidity the lacquers probably would fog but still dry. I seriously doubt a house in Arizona would have humidity or dew points that high ( dew points 60's and 70's or more unlikely. )

For brushing enamels I use a little odorless mineral spirits to get them flowing nice. Testors has a lot of oil in them,they are slow drying, the dehydrator will quicken that but think a few hours not minutes. Still better than days to weeks.

Edited March 14, 2022 by Dave G.

[DRIPTROIT 71]

The only time that I have had such a thing happen with lacquer was on a resin cab that didn’t have the resin mixed properly and I guess the paint reactivated the resin. It would literally never dry.  Is this only on one particular project or on multiple models? Could it be such a reaction in your case? Is it on resin or styrene? If only it is on only one project, maybe try the same paint on something else and see if it reacts the same. Just a thought.

[Dave G.]

I brushed some newer generation Testors copper enamel this morning with a bit of odorless mineral spirits in it and it dried to touch surprising fast. I live in New England, we do have a low dew point today for us, 27 deg dew and 44% humidity. Dried to touch in about an hour, course it's not cured yet but I can handle it. This bottle is about two years old.

I shot some lacquer a couple of weeks ago, was dry to touch in 10-20 minutes, then I baked it in the dehydrator @ 110f for 30 minutes. That was Tamiya LP-1 black gloss thinned with Mr Leveling Thinner not quite 50/50. By the way it sprayed and came out awesome.

[Zippi]

Like Brian mentioned, it may be what your painting and not the paint.  What are you actually painting?

[ea0863]

40 minutes ago, Zippi said:

Like Brian mentioned, it may be what your painting and not the paint.  What are you actually painting?

A 1968 vintage MPC model (Astrovette) which was NIB

[ea0863]

On 3/13/2022 at 8:39 PM, peteski said:

Your room temperature and humidity is ideal fr painting (it actually seems a bit dry, but that would be ok).  I suspect that by "won't dry" you mean that the paints are tacky to the touch (not still in liquid form on the model surface).

What brand/type/color of paints?  Have you used successfully them in the past, or is this first time you are trying them?  Are they maybe fresh bottles or cans of paint?

Sounds like you have no problem with primer drying, correct?  Maybe you started using new brand of primer, or the paints don't dry even over bare plastic?  

 

On 3/13/2022 at 10:45 PM, charlie8575 said:

How bizarre.

What brand of paint are you using?

Are these new paints, or were they ones that all of a sudden started acting up?

If they're new paint, I'd suggest contacting the manufacturer. It sounds like they may have gotten the mix of chemicals wrong, and they're not catalyzing. You might be able to get replacements.

If they're old paints, try adding a little hardware store lacquer thinner to them as you use them. That might help kick over drying.

As to the spray lacquers, I have NO idea what to do with that. See if you can get the humidity checked in your house to be sure the humidity is what you think it is, because that's the only thing I can think of that would cause the problems you're describing outside of poor application process or defective materials.

Charlie Larkin

 

On 3/14/2022 at 2:39 AM, Dave G. said:

The enamels I can see taking their time, the lacquer is a puzzle. If your house had high humidity the lacquers probably would fog but still dry. I seriously doubt a house in Arizona would have humidity or dew points that high ( dew points 60's and 70's or more unlikely. )

For brushing enamels I use a little odorless mineral spirits to get them flowing nice. Testors has a lot of oil in them,they are slow drying, the dehydrator will quicken that but think a few hours not minutes. Still better than days to weeks.

 

On 3/14/2022 at 3:32 AM, DRIPTROIT 71 said:

The only time that I have had such a thing happen with lacquer was on a resin cab that didn’t have the resin mixed properly and I guess the paint reactivated the resin. It would literally never dry.  Is this only on one particular project or on multiple models? Could it be such a reaction in your case? Is it on resin or styrene? If only it is on only one project, maybe try the same paint on something else and see if it reacts the same. Just a thought.

 

On 3/14/2022 at 12:00 PM, Dave G. said:

I brushed some newer generation Testors copper enamel this morning with a bit of odorless mineral spirits in it and it dried to touch surprising fast. I live in New England, we do have a low dew point today for us, 27 deg dew and 44% humidity. Dried to touch in about an hour, course it's not cured yet but I can handle it. This bottle is about two years old.

I shot some lacquer a couple of weeks ago, was dry to touch in 10-20 minutes, then I baked it in the dehydrator @ 110f for 30 minutes. That was Tamiya LP-1 black gloss thinned with Mr Leveling Thinner not quite 50/50. By the way it sprayed and came out awesome.

 

On 3/14/2022 at 1:23 PM, Zippi said:

Like Brian mentioned, it may be what your painting and not the paint.  What are you actually painting?

Thank you all for your input on the issue I was having with paint. I came to the realization that there was some kind of substance on the raw red plastic. I'm not sure if it was a 50 year old releasing agent or oils that had come out of the plastic itself, but a good scrubbing of all parts in the sink with dishwashing detergent did the trick and the paint held just fine thereafter. The Astrovette is now posted on the WIP and Models pages.

[peteski]

Thanks for the follow up.  The whole thing made no sense, and now we know why.  Strange substance on the plastic affecting paint's drying/curing.

[slusher]

10 hours ago, ea0863 said:

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you all for your input on the issue I was having with paint. I came to the realization that there was some kind of substance on the raw red plastic. I'm not sure if it was a 50 year old releasing agent or oils that had come out of the plastic itself, but a good scrubbing of all parts in the sink with dishwashing detergent did the trick and the paint held just fine thereafter. The Astrovette is now posted on the WIP and Models pages.

I had a Corvette kit the paint would fish eye no matter how much you washed it or trid too stop it. Another was the only thing to fix it. It was molded in red. Glad it worked out…

[Dave G.]

Thanks for getting back, puzzle solved !

[Bainford]

12 hours ago, slusher said:

I had a Corvette kit the paint would fish eye no matter how much you washed it or trid too stop it. Another was the only thing to fix it. It was molded in red. Glad it worked out…

I'm curious to know if this was the Monogram Tom Daniels Street Vette.  I had one in the late 70s on which part of the driver's door just would not take paint, no matter what I did.

[slusher]

15 hours ago, Bainford said:

I'm curious to know if this was the Monogram Tom Daniels Street Vette.  I had one in the late 70s on which part of the driver's door just would not take paint, no matter what I did.

almost the same a Revell 69 Corvette..