Model Acrylic Paint

[Harag]

Hi all

I've done some tooling over the weekend and now I'm looking at purchasing some acrylic paint and Resolene pack as well as some antique (links below). It got me wondering, would normal "model" acrylic paint be ok? the type you can use for painting models, like, trains, tanks, aeroplanes etc. or is the acrylic paints for leather a special type of paint?

http://www.leprevo.co.uk/photos/acrylic_pack.htm

http://www.leprevo.co.uk/photos/antique_stain.htm

The reason I'm asking is that model paint is more available in craft shops, and the leather one isn't.

Cheers

Alan

[Cyberthrasher]

I was just talking to someone the other night who uses a lot of acrylics for stuff and he recommended GameWorks Citadel paints. Apparently, if you know of anywhere that sells those games, they usually have the paints available.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/landing.jsp?catId=cat440136a&rootCatGameStyle=paints-tools

If that's not an option, the other one that was recommended to me was Golden Fluid Acrylics, available in many craft stores.

http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/color/fluid/

The Angelus acrylics are specially formulated for leather though - designed to hold better and be more flexible while offering the best coverage for the medium it's being used on. I don't know if Fiebing's has done anything special for their leather paints or not.

[Harag]

A shop 5 minutes walk from home sells the citadel paints, and I think the golden fluid ones but can't remember the 2nd one to be sure. I talk it you're saying these paints are ok for leather. I've read that you can water down the fiebings one 50/50 - can you water down the other paints ? Sorry for the questions but I've never done anything like this before.

[Hibernicus]

Hi, I'm new to leatherwork, but I'm pretty familiar with acrylic paints. The brands made for general arts and crafts, and the Games Workshop paints, will work fine on most surfaces that are not too glossy. I recently tried some Inscribe brand craft acrylics on a leather piece and they work very well. I've used them in the past on fabric and they can crack and flake as it bends, so maybe avoid them if you're making something very flexible. The Games Workshop paints are excellent in terms of the range of colour and they have a very nice consistency, but they come in tiny pots and are comparatively expensive. Another issue with that particular brand is that some colours are designed to be layered over different undercoats, so you may not get a true colour match on bare leather. You can dilute the other brands with water but the more you dilute them the less adhesion you are likely to get.

[Cyberthrasher]

I was told that the Citadel paints can be cut and that will make them last a lot longer - somewhat making up for the heavy cost. He also told me to try for the "base" colors since they can be applied as is, where the "layer" colors will require a base to get good coverage. I know that "most" acrylics can be cut with water, but I just don't want to guarantee that.

[Harag]

Thanks for the advice, I will certainly keep it in mind as the pack from leprevo only contains 11 colours, and since they charge for delivery I have to make sure I order other items at the same time to bring the cost down.