ACRYLIC DRYING RETARDANT GEL

When acrylic is to stay pliable longer

Quick drying is an advantage and an obstacle at the same time with acrylic. The coat holds within a moment, but the modeler has no time to spread it, to blend it directly on the surface and to fine-tune a transition the way oil paints allow. This additive deals with exactly that: it extends the time for which the paint stays workable on the piece by more than fifty percent.

Its consistency is a gel and the container holds 60 ml. It is added to the paint on the palette, blended with it there, and only then does the brush come into play. The time gained pays off everywhere a boundary is to stay soft: on the faces and hands of figures, when modulating extensive areas of armor, or at a smooth division between two fields of camouflage.

The gel form has one practical advantage over a liquid. It does not run off the palette, it holds its shape where it is set down, and it can be dosed in small pinches with a spatula or the end of a brush. A supply on the palette therefore lasts a whole session without bleeding into the other shades.

What the additive can do and what not to expect of it

A longer open time allows two neighboring strokes to be joined while both are still wet. That does away with the step which otherwise appears as soon as the second stroke is laid onto an already stiffened first. The shade can also be adjusted right on the model, so it does not have to be right the first time on the palette.

It has to be paid for in patience. Until the coat stiffens, even a passing touch will disturb it, so the piece has to be set down carefully and the next step not hurried. And one distinction is worth remembering: this is not a thinner. The additive changes the consistency of the paint only marginally, and anyone who wants to spray has to thin separately.