Thinning Craft Paints With Windshield Washer and Future?

[Rock Waterman]

I was reading an old thread over at FineScaleModeler.com and someone recommended thinning with a mix of Future and Windshield Washer Fluid 25/75. Except it wasn't clear to me which product gets 25% and which gets 75.

Anybody know?

I only brush paint, by the way, I don't airbrush, in case any of it matters.

[btbrush]

Don't know about Future. I've heard many people talking about it. I started out using Polly S thinner many years ago when I read the label and found it was pretty much windshield washer fluid. Now I just buy it by the gallon at Lowes and use it to thin all of my acrylic paints. If it works, don't fix it. I make a 50/50 mixture of windshield cleaner and water.

[JJCap1]

I frequently add Future to reduce the opacity and make it flow better when airbrushing. I use Windex to thin paints for brush work.

[Rock Waterman]

Thanks guys. Sounds like maybe if I use 25 percent water, 25 percent future, and 50 percent Windshield Washer fluid, I might be on to something. Then I could use a few drops of that in my craft paints and see what happens.
Do you think the Future adds some gloss, to the paint, or what? I never did understand how future figures into the thinning process.

I do have some Acrylic thinner on hand, but I'm not sure if that's the same thing that's meant when "acrylic Medium" is discussed, as in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKNpKUK4lMc

I like to start with a very thin coat on my models at first, then more coats after that. If I start with a thin wash-type "base" coat, according to this chick, if it's thinned with just water, the molecules are too spread out and can't grip the paint onto the surface. So she recommends an acrylic "medium" and I'm not sure what that is. Unless it's this home-made WSH, Water, & Future mix.

[JJCap1]

Future will add some gloss. I have never mixed it with Windex.

[rayphoton]

Future floor wax?

[tay666]

I never did understand how future figures into the thinning process.

I imagine that thinning with future would give you more of a transparent effect.

[scuzzfink85]

I just use water or buy a thinning agent for acrylics ..
Doing that seems a little silly.. David Fisher, use to use rubbing alcohol and water mixture..
I don't get this obsession with floorwax?

[AZ]

I airbrush my figures using craft paints almost exclusively. Some craft paints work better than others. In some cases, by the time you have thinned the craft paint to the consistency of milk so that it will spray, it is so watered down, that the paint does not cover well. I have tried thinning just with water, but that did not work very well for me. I never tried windshield washer fluid.

I generally use Golden's airbrush medium for thinning craft paints with a few drops of extender added which I find helps reduce airbrush clogging. I know the paint is thin enough to spray when is will drain through the strainer funnels I use (available from Micro Mark).

When spraying flesh tones, I use the dark to light method advocated by the figure painting gurus. I use Future for thinning the lighter shades, as is makes the paint somewhat easier to work with, as the color builds more slowly. Craft paints use pigment, not dye, so adding Future does not truly make them transparent, but it does reduce the amount of pigment so more of the previous coat may show through.

While Future does add gloss, that can easily be adjusted with matte or dull clear coats.

Just my 2 cents.

[sivousplay]

I only handbrush ... I do a 75/25 water/future mix to thin my acrylics.

jim

[Soldaten6]

For more information on the uses of Future one could not do better than "The Complete Future" put together by Matt Swan and available at http://www.swannysmodels.com/TheCompleteFuture.html .

R/

Bob

[scubasteve]

I have started using 75% water to 25% Windex. The Windex should be ammonia free so it does not hurt the airbrush is what I was told. I then use windshield washer fluid to clean the airbrush. I believe I got this info from the Vince Vell youtube channel.
When I am handpainting I just use my 75/25 bottle for thinning also. This is the first I have heard of using Future to put in the mixture. I thought future was for after effects. Seems like the Windex and Future would fight, one to break up surface tension and one to cause it.

[Notophthalmus]

Thanks guys. Sounds like maybe if I use 25 percent water, 25 percent future, and 50 percent Windshield Washer fluid, I might be on to something. Then I could use a few drops of that in my craft paints and see what happens.
Do you think the Future adds some gloss, to the paint, or what? I never did understand how future figures into the thinning process.

I do have some Acrylic thinner on hand, but I'm not sure if that's the same thing that's meant when "acrylic Medium" is discussed, as in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKNpKUK4lMc

I like to start with a very thin coat on my models at first, then more coats after that. If I start with a thin wash-type "base" coat, according to this chick, if it's thinned with just water, the molecules are too spread out and can't grip the paint onto the surface. So she recommends an acrylic "medium" and I'm not sure what that is. Unless it's this home-made WSH, Water, & Future mix.

Acrylic medium is basically clear acrylic paint. It makes your paint more transparent without thinning it. It's about as thick as artist's acrylic straight from the tube (so, a bit more viscous than craft paint). It comes in matte and gloss formulations. I don't know if it will be useful in your application. I've used gloss medium to put a thick, shiny clear coat on some of my figures' eyes, but haven't used it in figure painting otherwise - I mostly paint pictures, and I'm still new to this hobby.

[Rock Waterman]

I thought future was for after effects. Seems like the Windex and Future would fight, one to break up surface tension and one to cause it.

That's what I was thinking, which is what piqued my curiosity. Windex is often recommended to remove Future Floor Wax. So it seemed odd to come across someone recommending combining them. But who knows? Maybe there being so much water in the mix offsets it somehow.

[Jesse321]

I never did understand how future figures into the thinning process.

I imagine that thinning with future would give you more of a transparent effect.

Contrary to popular belief adding FFW to opaque paints doesn't make it transparent it just adds more medium to the paint and spreads out the opacity by spreading the pigments out over a larger space. Opaque paints are made colored pigments in a suspension fluid, if you continue to paint over something long enough with opaque paints suspended in FFW (or any other added medium), you will eventually cover up whatever you're painting with the pigments in that, it will just take longer for the pigments to build up coverage.

True transparent paints are made with dyes which contain no pigments.

[Jesse321]

I thought future was for after effects. Seems like the Windex and Future would fight, one to break up surface tension and one to cause it.

That's what I was thinking, which is what piqued my curiosity. Windex is often recommended to remove Future Floor Wax. So it seemed odd to come across someone recommending combining them. But who knows? Maybe there being so much water in the mix offsets it somehow.

You have to make sure that the Windex or washer fluid is ammonia free.

[btbrush]

I've been thinning my acrylics with windshield washer fluid (the cheapest I can find at Lowes) and water for many years. If it works, don't fix it.

[Nalissa2]

I never did understand how future figures into the thinning process.

I imagine that thinning with future would give you more of a transparent effect.

Contrary to popular belief adding FFW to opaque paints doesn't make it transparent it just adds more medium to the paint and spreads out the opacity by spreading the pigments out over a larger space. Opaque paints are made colored pigments in a suspension fluid, if you continue to paint over something long enough with opaque paints suspended in FFW (or any other added medium), you will eventually cover up whatever you're painting with the pigments in that, it will just take longer for the pigments to build up coverage.

True transparent paints are made with dyes which contain no pigments.

So, does that mean that True Transparent paints will never completely cover up an area?

[Jesse321]

So, does that mean that True Transparent paints will never completely cover up an area?

Well, if you put twenty or so layers of any transparent color over a lighter color (for example red over white, flesh or pale yellow), eventually all you'll see is the built up red ... it's not that the red covered the lighter color, it's just the red overpowered the lighter color underneath.

Where as if you try to paint a lighter transparent over a darker base (for example yellow transparent over black), you'll get a reflective hue of the lighter color, but no amount of transparent will over power the black. If the base color is a mid range brown, it will change the hue of brown, but not cover it.

Hope that makes sense.

[JJCap1]

Opaque paints are made colored pigments in a suspension fluid, if you continue to paint over something long enough with opaque paints suspended in FFW (or any other added medium), you will eventually cover up whatever you're painting with the pigments in that, it will just take longer for the pigments to build up coverage.

That's why I love those Semi-Transparent skin tones!