Old W500

AndreZA

Air-Valve Autobot!
I got my set of Illustration colours about 3-4 years ago. I made colour swatches and played with them on and off. I never could see the love others have for them.

So cleaning up the paint rack, I decided to try it again. It's been years and I have improved with my airbrush handling skills.

I get out the violet and the W500. Reducer first in the cup and then the paint. Mix it all up and it just gunks up. Clean it out and try with green. It does the same. I then did the test outside of the airbrush. First again the violet and then the green. Same results. I thought the paint went bad because it's a bit thicker than I remember it to be. I decided to try it with W100. This time I used a blue. And it was fine with the W100 but when I tried the W500, it gunked up again.

So the W500 is breaking the paints. I'm not gonna ask for a replacement as it has been years and it's only a 60ml bottle. Will get another and see what it does. Even in my test sprays I prefered the W100. Don't know why they don't still make it and give you an option of what to use.

So moral of the story is, it is not always the paint to blame.

Blue straight from the bottle.
01_outofbottle.jpg
with W100
02_with_w100.jpg
with W500
03_with_w500.jpg

Mixing brush before W500
brush_before.jpg

Mixing brush after W500
brush_after.jpg
with W500
green_with_w500.jpg

with W500
violet_with_w500.jpg
 
I love seeing your tests/comparisons. You always explain what you are doing and give great explanations of results.
I too have a love/hate relationship with Createx illustration by my love for it marginally outweighs my hate so I keep plugging away with it.
 
yep, the w500 is the same as the newer 4012, and it "goes off" after being open for a while. I now buy only small bottles of the stuff so that it does not sit around long....

createx break1.jpg
 
Thanks Dave and Andre for giving me yet an other good reason to stay well away from any thing named Createx :)
 
Now I get it. My hatred for Illustration could be down to the reducer I am using. Now going to experiment with other reducers, ie windex or its equivelent here in the UK, namely Halfords own brand window cleaner. Or I could just use water.
 
They did bring back the 4011/w100 it is now listed as their high temp reducer.
 
Now I get it. My hatred for Illustration could be down to the reducer I am using. Now going to experiment with other reducers, ie windex or its equivelent here in the UK, namely Halfords own brand window cleaner. Or I could just use water.
Thats very possible. It can certainly mess things up. To be fair i didnt love the illustration line when I first got it. Now i use it a lot. Mainly its handiness forced me to learn to work with it : )
 
They did bring back the 4011/w100 it is now listed as their high temp reducer.
I use all three of the reducers....
4012 is my go to first choice. When we get into the high temps here, I use 4011. And I always have 4020 on hand and add a drop or two into the 4011/4012 when it gets really cold or very humid. We have extreme temps. here in Southern Ontario. They can go from -30 to 10 above in a matter of days. We are influenced by 3 of the Great Lakes......
 
The reducer has been a thorn in my side lately, just use water.
I’ve had it gunk up and also had it make grainy sand like paint. sent the details on
 
Now I get it. My hatred for Illustration could be down to the reducer I am using. Now going to experiment with other reducers, ie windex or its equivelent here in the UK, namely Halfords own brand window cleaner. Or I could just use water.
Don’t use windex as reducer with Illustration paint as it breaks the carrier apart,
 
Now I get it. My hatred for Illustration could be down to the reducer I am using. Now going to experiment with other reducers, ie windex or its equivelent here in the UK, namely Halfords own brand window cleaner. Or I could just use water.
What Paul said... windex isn't a reducer... and you don't want to atomise that stuff... :)
 
yep, the w500 is the same as the newer 4012, and it "goes off" after being open for a while. I now buy only small bottles of the stuff so that it does not sit around long....

View attachment 61138

So a few days ago I was just about to write a post about my small "bench" bottle of 4012 turning my paint into sludge. But I didn't want to beat a dead horse too much and left it.

Well, just as I said, my bench bottle of 4012 went bad, but the main sealed up bottle was still good. Createx has got some stuff that is NOT shelf stable, IMO. 4012 does work really well, so I allow some leeway. I had a whole 32 oz bottle of 4012 that would sludge up any createx it touched.
 
Thanks for the windex tip. Years ago that is all I used. Water is working just fine with the createx Illustration, but I still find it frustrating forever having to adjust the viscosity of every single colour to the air pressure, and of course using water means that reducing runs the risk of breaking up the paint binder so much that the paint just peels off the canvass the next day. In the future I'll find a paint that is easier to use.
 
...I still find it frustrating forever having to adjust the viscosity of every single colour to the air pressure

I do that regardless.

and of course using water means that reducing runs the risk of breaking up the paint binder so much that the paint just peels off the canvass the next day. In the future I'll find a paint that is easier to use.

E'tac is 100% waterbased. They do not have a reducer in any of their ranges.
 
Back
Top