Food Dehydrators & Paint Dryers

[Dave G.]

On 12/23/2024 at 9:46 AM, Modelbuilder Mark said:

I see a couple guys on hear mention they use hair dryers. aside from not know how hot it is, I would also assume this would/could stir up a lot of dust in the area and blast it straight into the paint.  I have used a dehydrator for a bit now, and for the price of admission on this hack, it is well worth it. 

That hasn't been my experience at all. With Createx, I flash off each coat with a hair dryer out in the middle of the kitchen, hand held. Low to medium heat, you don't need it real hot or real close to the body, but heat seems to make a difference.. You can watch it flash off and level out, ready for the next coat. And in so doing, my opinion is I get a smoother , more level finish for top coat ( clear). Then the whole thing goes into the dehydrator at 105-110f for 30 min to an hour. Createx likes heat anyway. The opaque colors, when not using 4030 balancing clear, but used for it's original intent for graphic or airbrush art work on fabric, you put in a heat press to set it into the cloth @ 350F for 10-12 seconds. So it likes a heat set, it's made for it. 4030 converts the paint for use on hard surfaces, effectively turning the paint from acrylic fabric paint to to poly acrylic hard surface paint. And in small % of 4030, 10-20%. 4030 takes out the rubber feel people have complained about with Createx, and it's scuffable.

My dehydrator is a combo air fryer, dehydrator, front load. It effectively is more like a cabinet style paint dryer. When my former wife of 47 years passed on, I inherited it so to speak. It will easily fit a 1/16 body, and dry it shot in enamel, accurately at what ever temp I want. But I'm really getting to like the Createx and their auxiliary additive line of paints.Even craft paints with 4030 work great, and bone dry in 30 min.

I got more dirt in my paint jobs using a 28" wide spray booth than any other way in my 60 years of painting models (and 1/1), including spraying outdoors. It's like a funnel chamber drawing dirt to it/ through it to collect on the paint. I actually like a room for paint, a shrouded exhaust fan in a window ( not even the fan for createx, I just shoot into a trash can with liner in it). The shrouded exhaust fan started back in the days of using Floquil paints for model trains.