Acrylic clear over India Ink

[ChrisSC]

23 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

 I don't think so either.

 IMHO, I think you have to attack by painting the frames white first and then sealing. Once the sealant is dry paint the panes black and let them dry. Once they're dry, because the frames stand proud of the panes, you should be able remove the black overpaint from the frames with the moist Q-Tip. Once happy with that effort, then add a second coat of sealer. That's the only way I see to do it...........did you ever consider working on something in a larger scale? 

Thanks for the tip. The only issue with that is that some of the frames are actually missing in a few areas. I may just leave it be.

 

There are a couple of reasons I'm working on this scale. I am waiting on some parts for a 1/350 ship and figured while doing that I would try my hand at a few of these 1/600's. I also really like ocean liners and there are more in 1/600 than any other scale. I have a 1/350 Lusitania, 1/350 and 1/200 Titanic, and a few others in 1/400 and 1/450. I meant these to be quick builds but I wound up putting a lot more into them than I originally planned. They are a lot harder to work on than the larger scales IMO. I prefer 1/350. These are just kind of filling up some time but I would still like to do as good a job with them as possible. I've only been modeling for a few months so all of these techniques are kind of new to me. I am still learning from mistakes. I guess I would rather learn from these so I get better for the larger scales. I have completed a Titanic and have a Lusitania on hold, both 1/350's.

[wefalck]

One could try to apply acrylic paint pre-diluted for air-brushing with a good old drawing pen or with one of those funnel-like 'pens' that was used in the old days for technical drawings and lettering (some time ago there was a thread here on MSW on these drawing instruments). Both tools would require frequent cleaning, as the acrylics dry very fast, of course.

 

The problem of diffusion into the white paint may remain, but is likely to be less grave for acrylics than for the much finer pigment particles in India ink or let alone dye-based inks. The white acrylic paint layer remains slighly porous, sucking in some of the black ink due to capillary effects. One should let the white paint dry for several weeks to give the acrylics molecules time to cross-link properly and for the residual water to diffuse out (it becomes trapped in the acrylics to some degree, which is why acrylics stay relatively soft for quite a while).

[ChrisSC]

Thank you wefalck for the detailed explanation, and for the tips.