#Curious about very long drying time for current oil paint project

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short ether
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Currently working on some scatter horror cemetery terrain for the gaming club. For some reason the drying time has been really long (1 week+), and I'm not sure why. It's been painted on a normal primed surface. Did a quick preglaze using perylene black and mars black, some asphaltum and van dyke brown. Then wiped it off with sponges and drybrushed some Gamblin radiant violet mixed with radiant green onto the models. That's more or less it, without the exception of a bit of details. Also used some brilliant yellow pale here and there. The radiants and the yellow are pretty white-ish colors, so really light. Not sure if that might have something to with it.

I tried picking one of the pieces up today to fix a minor thing, and got a kinda of dryish dark paint on my fingers. That really surprised me! I've never had stuff not dry after more than a week.

I'll add some pictures later. Any ideas on this? Climate, humidity or something?

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elder crescent
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I've not used these pigments before, but some pigments take a lot longer to dry. My cadmiums take more than a week if I don't add alkyds.

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Here's a link to Williamsburg drying estimates. Brands can vary bc of the base oils they use, but this could be useful to see if any of the pigments you might have used fall into a slower dry

short ether
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It's pretty hard to tell, especially with them being different brands and all. Also some of it isn't really translatable, as the radiant colors from Gamblin is a mix of several, the Perylene black isn't on the chart. I guess it's probably just a combination of different paints and other factors that have made the stuff so slow to dry compared to what I'm used to. I'll give it another week and see where we are then. I did put on some W&N Terra rosa today, and a bit of asphaltum, to do some weathering on the cemetary gate and some fences. It will probably dry eventually, so the problem will solve itself 😄

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I did notice that Egyptian Violet is on the slower side to dry. I've only used it on minis, but I only think I've ever waited a week for it to dry, if not less.

elder crescent
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Right it's not a 1:1 but I did a quick Google search and it's what came up to illustrate what I was referring to. Also a lot of times the pigment is the same if not the name. You could do a little more homework if you wanted, and look up the pigment codes of the Williamsburg paints to compare with the pigment codes of the Gamblin or others that you use. But it won't account for everything.

short ether
# elder crescent Right it's not a 1:1 but I did a quick Google search and it's what came up to il...

You're totally right Jatbi, and thx. I did consider trying to do more extensive research into the matter, but came to the conclusion, that it would be a bit wasted work. I might figure out all the different pigments and drying times, but it won't account for everything that's affecting the drying time anyways, so I'll probably end up with something that's not making a lof of sense anyways. If you look at the different paints in a vacuum you will ofc get some idea about the drying time, but I would probably end up with something inconclusive 🙂

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I did just do some weathering on some of the pieces yesterday, so I figure I can check back on it in about a week and see how it looks. Should be easy to tell if the darker colors are dry by gently touching it somewhere. The rust I did shouldn't take too long to dry. Did something similar back in October and that was only like 2 - 3 days. If it's more this time, it might just be something with the weather 🙂 let's see what happens. And thx again for your input @elder crescent !

elder crescent
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I noticed my Cad red deep had a very long drying time, so I used it one day with walnut alkyd, one day with VMS Oil expert, and also without any additive. No additive took maybe 10 days to dry. Using alkyds/VMS took anywhere from 1-3 days.

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So I usually use an alkyd. Walnut increases gloss a lot, VMS has a matting agent that can settle if you use too much.

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For comparison to cad red, my iron oxide browns didn't take anywhere near as long.. but I didn't test as extensively to be fair

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I want to say I can count on those to be good next day

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I also want to say the terrain looks really good and I like your color choices.

short ether
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I think my problem here with figuring out the drying time is mostly that it's hard to pin point exactly what is causing it. The process was as follows: primed them with airbrush using only primer, then some white ink on top as I recall, or coul probably have been white primer. Not sure. If I used ink I would also have given them some varnish. After that, I painted up some parts using contrast paints and all the metal got a quick metal color. Then oils:

preglaze using W&N perylene black + Gamblin asphaltum, might have used some Gamblin van dyke brown also. I know it was on the pallet, but I think it was mostly for a darker wash like thing for the fences. Then a whipe off using make up sponges and then dry brushing. This was done using mostly Gamblin radient colors violet and green mixed together for a nice greenish gray. Didn't thin this down at all, so just mixed it together. Then highlights to top it off using the same greenish gray with some added Williamsburg Brilliant yellow pale, also right from the tube.

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I'll probably never know, but I guess it will dry eventually 🙂

short ether
# elder crescent I also want to say the terrain looks really good and I like your color choices.

Thx so much, I really think they turned out great too 🙂 It was my first try with oils for terrain and I really think it was a good exercise. The highlight step really made me understand some things about highlighting cracks, that just made them pop super nicely 🙂 I wanted to try out the Pereylene black, that's like a super dark green that's good for preglase, and I thought it would be a perfect fit for a kind of greenish marble like surface on the cemetery elements

lament seal
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Do you usually thin the paint with Liquin or some quick drying oil?

short ether
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no I've never used stuff like that

short ether
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Usually drying time is not a problem. I'm just curious since this stuff I just painted has taken longer than normal. I've never experienced longer drying time than a week.

lament seal
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Yeah I see what you mean, I’m just asking as I’m new to oils and been experiencing the same here so wondering what I did differently than the YouTubers I watched 😅

short ether
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Might just be something with the weather/humidity honestly. Where are you located? I did use some paint I haven't tried before, so could of course be something about that. I don't think so though.

short ether
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Strangely enough, it seems to have not fully cured yet. I just touched some of the terrain to check on it, and while it wasn't exactly wet, a light rubbing made some of the paint stick to my finger. This might have been some of the pinline washes I put on the the terrain, but it still doesn't make sense to me. Could it have something to do with the materials of the terrain or the primer used perhaps?

I was under the impression that when oil paints are dried, the paint job would be completely dry to the touch, with nothing rubbing off. Am I wrong on this?

elder crescent
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Are we talking like its rubbing off with you touching it normally, or are you actually rubbing it?

short ether
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I tried lightly rubbing. I'll try to just pick up the various pieces and see how that goes

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not sure if it's super visible, but this is the result of me just holding that mousoleum between my thumb and index finger

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a bit of dark color came off as well as the very light pastel green color

elder crescent
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Some oils can take months to cure. But you can and should just varnish the piece now.

short ether
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you think that will be fine with the varnish? Will it cure underneath the varnish?

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I suspect that color on my finger there, is mostly consisting of Gamblin Radient Green/Violet perhaps mixed with a bit of the preglaze, which was mostly W&N Perylene Black. The Gamblin Radients are very light pastel colors. I've used them like this a couple of times, where I do a dark preglaze, take most away with makeup sponges, then come in with a mostly dry filbert brush of Radient colors right out of the tube, and just do a dry brush kinda thing over most of the model. Last time I used this approach was with a preglaze of indigo and some with Egyptian Violet. Those models were dry to the touch within like 3 or 4 days, so still... I'm a bit puzzled. You think it could be the Perylene Black having a hard time drying?

elder crescent
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Possibly. From what I can find it is slow drying

short ether
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which one of the paints are you referring to here @elder crescent ?

elder crescent
short ether
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ok. Thx, I'll see what I can find about it's drying time

elder crescent
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But that looks dry, unless it feels tacky to you

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when it's try you can varnish it. I've not had any problems

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dry

short ether
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it feels pretty dry. No tackyness to the touch like I would imagine wet-ish oil paints would feel like. That paint I got on my finger is also pretty dry. I didn't even feel it got on the finger, I only noticed when I looked at it after touching the house.

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Is there like a rule of thumb with this? I might run into this problem again at some point. Tried to touch some of the metal parts from the various cemetery gates. They are weathered using a kind of rusty pinline wash, consisting of mainly W&N Terra Rosa and a bit of Gamblin Asphaltum here and there. The lightest rubbing took off some of that paint also. That paint is not as old as the others. Put it on like a week or so after doing the other parts

patent linden
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Two things you can do… 1) try not to dilute too much. But if you do not want to have very intense look of the thick wash, you could wipe out some right after you applied with sponges or qtip.

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  1. you can add some oil medium like liquin, neo megilp or galkyd on your wash. Not only these medium can make your wash dry fast but also add more strength to the paint film. All oil mediums increase the glossiness. Depending on the amount of medium (or solvent) you might not realize but if you put too much then later the surface will be satin or gloss.
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Anyway, oil wash create always weaker film as it has less oil on the surface compared to the full oil painted surface, so I recommend varnishing the surface.

short ether
# patent linden If you don’t feel any oil on your finger then perhaps it’s already cured. But i...

That might be the problem yes. I don't think I diluted the midtones at all actually, but at this point it might be hard to figure out. It's something like 3 - 4 weeks since I gave the terrain the first layer. I will of course do a vanish on everything, but I was planning on doing it once everything was totally dry. Now it seems I might just have to varnish it like it is right now. I always varnish everything, but I've never had paint rub off like that before.

short ether
patent linden