Ivory Black

Ivory Black — oil paint from AK Interactive

An oil artist's paint in a tube from the Abteilung 502 modeling range. The most important thing first: this is not an acrylic paint. The binder is oil, so it is not thinned with water but with mineral spirits or an odorless thinner for oils, and it dries incomparably longer — not minutes, but hours to days. That long drying time is exactly why modelers reach for oils: the paint stays open for a long time and can be blended out, softened and wiped at leisure until the result is right. Acrylics cannot be worked that way.

Ivory Black is a deep, rather warm black. It is softer than a cold lamp black, so it suits places where a hard black would read as a hole: shadows, recesses, grime, and darkening other shades without letting them slip toward blue.

Use

• Before working, squeeze the paint onto absorbent card and let the excess binder soak away; the paint then does not leave greasy halos around itself.
• Oil dot technique: place small dots across the surface and blend them out with a clean flat brush lightly moistened in thinner, until only a fine darkening remains.
• Deepening shadows, soot around exhausts and gun barrels, oil streaks and grime in panel gaps — anywhere the transition should be soft.
• Darkening other oil shades: add only very little, the black is strong and quickly overwhelms the tone.
• Work on a cured surface, ideally sealed with a clear coat. Thinner for oils can damage an unvarnished acrylic layer — test it first in a hidden spot.
• Excess can be removed even after several hours with a brush moistened in thinner; that is an advantage acrylics do not offer.
• Apply matte varnish only once the paint has dried through, not when the surface has merely set.

Who it is for

For modelers who finish vehicles, figures, ships and dioramas with oil techniques — filters, highlighting, blending and grime streaks. Black is a basic shade in the oil palette, because it is used both on its own and as a component in mixes.

Thinners for oil paints are flammable and volatile: work in a ventilated room, keep out of the reach of children and away from open flame. Do not pile up rags and paper soaked in thinner; let them air out spread apart. Close the tube carefully after use.