I repaired two antler tips and used oil artist paints to blend the colors back to the original antler color. Staining the tips did not work. I used epoxie sculpt to make the repair. I obtained the paint schedule off of the "How To" section of taxidermyreferance.com. My question is why won't the oil paint dry? I've repainted it twice and it just won't set up. Thanks in advance for any help!
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Oil paints take a long time to dry, reducing them to a wash speeds up drying but can still take a day or two before you can topcoat. If you've ever painted in oils it takes weeks to dry right out of the tube. Check the search icon, lots of options on antler repair and staining...Paul
I use oil paint after making repairs with Magic Sculp. Mine dries fine. Oil paint does not dry as quickly as water base or laquer if that is what you are thinking. It will dry, just be patient. One question did you thin the paint at all? I use a paint schedule I got from Erich Carter. It is thinned and used like a wash. You will need to paint more in the darker areas and keep going over it until you get the color you like.
Todd B
Dan, Apoxie Sculpt will do the repairs but is not easily stained to look natural. The oils will dry but it takes several days and then the repair often will be noticable. Antler tip repair is easier to hide and looks more natural if you replace the tip with a real antler tip cut from a "parts" antler. Then repair the smaller joint and finish with the oils and the repair will look great. In your currant situation you can leave it to dry a week or so then if it needs more work touch up with a little light airbrush work. The challenge is to finish with something that doesn't look painted. I recolor a good many antlers each year and for me it's a put it on, wipe it off, reapply process till I like what I see. I often mix the oils, stains and airbrush colors. One more thing- the Apoxie has a real slick look to it which also causes the repair to stand out. After working up the repair area touch the Apoxie surface with some fine WET sandpaper to just slightly texture the surface cuts down on the glare effect. Good luck, Aaron Honeycutt
Thanks for all the help. Very much appreciated!
DAN
In the "How-To" that you referred to, I used that paint schedule over
TECHNIFILL body filler. As has already been pointed out, use your oils as a wash, meaning thin them down as much as you can get away with. This will allow for quick drying, and repeated build-up of paint with out yielding a painted look. If you use body filler for your repair, you will get a re-action initially with the mineral spirits involved, that will help to create a "primer" like base to build from. Painted over epoxies, oils will dry from the surface and
slowly cure (dry). Once you learn to hold your mouth right, repairs like that can be any where from "good" to invisible to the naked eye.
I hate to 'fess up to this, but it was four decades ago this year that I did my first oil painting. With applied practice and experience, you can pull off some really neat tricks with oils. I encourage every one to bother to learn them. There is a ton of literature available on the uses of oils. A bunch of the guys that contribute here on the Forums also use oils, and they'll probably tell you the same thing, "Go for it!."
But that's because I have a gasoline ass and I'm always in a hurry. You can buy a drying agent to add to your oils from any good art supply store. I think the catalogs I used to have were Dick Blick or something. He carried it. (Where's Cur when you need all this totally useless information, anyway?)
oil paints thinned with lacquer thinner dry quicker. works better than everything else i've tried, and i think i've tried them all.
Why use oil paint in the first place? I have been painting with fine oils since I was 10 years old and have a studio full of the best available materials. Even with that background, oil paint would be the last medium I reached for your purpose.
If I had only oil paint to use, I would use it with mineral sprits and a pile of Japan Drier or Colbalt Siccative to accelerate the drying. Oil paint applied directly from the tube is called "alla prima" and it is a constarnation at it's very best.
The Windsor Newton "Liquin" medium will accelerate and properly thin oils for the purpose, but it is a waste of time and money to do even that.
I have been in this business for five decades and there has never been an antler repair product to equal Epo-Grip Seam and Repair Putty......none, zero, zilch, never! I have recently used it to rebuild, tips, tines, and even a couple of entire beams that were broken off at the brow tine on one antler set and at the base on another.
The best method of repainting antler tips, tines and all of the above is by mixing Golden Acrylic paint to match the base or mother color of the antler and appling it over the repair, blending it to match the surrounding natural material. Golden Acrylics are translucent to a proper degree, UV resistant with a pigment fade of AA, making them more resilient than the antler pigmentation God gave the deer family. Following the application of the base color, a stain can be made from Winsor Newton Alkyd resin paint from black, burnt umber and burnt sienna in varying ratios to replicate the deep tones on the antler itself. When mixed with mineral spirits to create a stain and applied to the repair, it will perfectly reproduce the surface color.
Repairs are best prepared for paint applications by texturing with a jeweler's wire brush in a foredom tool employed to replicate the fine veining and surface fissuring seen in nature. I have often had poor success matching tines and tips with other antler bits since only the bucks bred by an immediate sire and in a famialia gene pool have similar antler formation and pigmentation. Sometimes it is more difficult to match shape and color with real antler pieces than it is with resin and pigment.
I will present a demonstration in photograph and text for the Taxidermy Reference Web soon on this very subject. The two key words to remember are Alkyds and Epo-Grip! (No, this isn't a paid commercial, I could receive a boatload of Steve's product tomorrow, free of charge, and if it was S**T, I would say so......LOL!)