Today's Paint Tip

[JTFazz]

Courtesy of Rick Dale of the History Channel show American Restoration.

If you can't find a paint color in a flat finish, you can simply mix some corn starch in with any type of paint and the result is a nice flat finish.

[rogerbee]

Interesting!

CHEERS!

[Deathasylum]

Originally Posted by JTFazz

Courtesy of Rick Dale of the History Channel show American Restoration.

If you can't find a paint color in a flat finish, you can simply mix some corn starch in with any type of paint and the result is a nice flat finish.

I guessed right on that trivia question yesterday. I was gonna post that info about the paint too, but you beat me to it. Lots of interesting items on that show.

[dadrab]

Cool tip, and damned useful.

Thank you, sir.

[highwayman57]

You can also use talcum powder-- that's an old model builder's trick.

David

[erechoveraker]

Acrylics, oil, watercolor? Does this work on everything?

Interesting if true, def had cases where I couldn't find flats before.

[JTFazz]

Originally Posted by erechoveraker

Acrylics, oil, watercolor? Does this work on everything?

Interesting if true, def had cases where I couldn't find flats before.

He said "all types of paint"

I am sure it would work well with acrylics and enamels that most of us use. Watercolors are intended for a paper or other absorbent media and usually don't have a "finish" like these other paints, so I am not sure there.

[highwayman57]

Originally Posted by erechoveraker

Acrylics, oil, watercolor? Does this work on everything?

Interesting if true, def had cases where I couldn't find flats before.

I know that using talcum powder as a flattening agent works in enamels and acrylics because I've successfully used it before-- I'm not so sure about corn starch.

Also, I've read that many flat paints use waxes as flattening agents-- they're dissolved in the paint by the thinner and crystallize as the paint dries, giving it the lusterless finish.

David

[highwayman57]

Originally Posted by JTFazz

Watercolors are intended for a paper or other absorbent media and usually don't have a "finish" like these other paints, so I am not sure there.

Watercolors are also transparent/translucent and adding a flattening agent of any kind to them would make them opaque & pasty in appearance. I had something similar happen many, many years ago when I tried painting the Tamiya flattening agent for their acrylic paints over an already painted surface, thinking I could use it as a clear flat finish-- boy, was I wrong! The flattening agent dried into a whitish, semi-opaque finish and I had to repaint all over again!

David

[erechoveraker]

This is a great tip. Storing away into the mental banks. Thanks guys!