The Ship Model Forum

You also need turpentine as a solvent!

i will check prices at what art supply shops and hobby shops i can find nearby, then i think i will buy one tube and try out how oil paint is to work with.
that would be the best for a start i think.

I would disagree with your comment on pricing. Art-supply shops tend to be cheaper per weight/volume in general. However, there are many different quality levels in oil- and acrylic paints, and of course, different brands may have different price levels. Another advantage is that paints from art supply houses usually have identfied pigments with associated common names for the colours, while the wargaming community in general uses fancy names for their colours.

Depending on where your are based it can be worth checking out the local wargaming miniatures shop or wargaming miniatures club. They use the same pigment and paints as us modelers and they do not make you wallet suffer from the rather outrageaous pricing policies of art supply shops.

You are right, oil paints 'dry' by oxidation. Before using oil-paints, it is a good idea to read up a little about the practicalities of their use. There is also a plethora of medium that change the behaviour and properties of the basic oil-paint as it comes out of the tube. This is not the place to write a treatise, so I would really advice to read up on this and to not rely solely on YouTube modellers' video by people who may be knowledgeable or not.

In general, when you apply 'lean' washes, i.e. oil-paints highly diluted with a solvent, typically a turpentine substitute these days, they dry faster and more matt. There are also so-called 'drying oils' that contain oxidising agent and thus speed up the process. In general, I would expect to wait for several days between washes in order to make sure the process of oxidation is well advanced, reducing the the risk of smudging of earlier work. Leaving the model in front of a window to absorb UV-radiation also helps.

Some traditional artists' paint suppliers, such as the Spanish Vallejo, have branched out into the modelling realm with their products. Thus one should expect that their products are of good quality (which I can confirm for Vallejo's acrylics).

Oh! Keep in mind that these do take several days to set up and are susceptible to fingerprints, smudging, other nastiness until they dry.

If I recall correctly from my high school art class, oil paint set due to oxidation and not evaporation of their oil base so you get plenty of working time. Perhaps a little too much!

Squeezing them out onto a paper towel or a piece of cardboard can help absorb any excess oil. Start with just a few dots. A little goes a long way.

I agree with the above. Nothing wrong with dedicated weathering oil paint, and although they claim to be formulated to dry a little quicker and have fine pigments, I really don’t notice the difference between the high-end modeling brands and artist paints.

I would recommend getting a cheap starter set and some turpentine from your local craft store and then practicing on a scrap model to work on your technique. Any mistakes can be cleaned up with a little turpentine which shouldn’t affect most acrylic or enamel modeling pants.

If you recall what you learned about colour mixing at school, you would get away with a basic set including white, yellow, red, blue and black. With this you can mix up any colour you like. For convenience, I would add burnt umber and if you are thinking of algae/fouling some sort of olive green might come handy. All these colours are typically contained in beginners' sets of (oil) paints, so that may be the most economical option to look for.

i saw some videos on youtube for oil paint weathering and think its a process i can follow. what is unclear to me is what colors i should use for ship weathering. i want to avoid buying 30 colors i dont need, and get a few 3-4 colors instead.

I gather good artist's oil paints would be the best choice. As they can be mixed, there is no need to buy fancy colours, but to stick with the basic palette.

Personally, I would rather go for washes in acrylics that can be built up very quickly without disturbing work already done.

i will be trying oil colors for weathering, but im not sure which to buy.
the project is a Yamato which is to be lightly weathered. im looking at the oil paints from Abteilung.

im guessing something along these; sepia, raw umber and faded white.
are these good choices or something else i should consider?