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Primer, varnish, anything.

I'd rather not have ice crystals hitting my models.

Get a garage.

 phatonic wrote:
Get a garage.

Have a garage... don't want paint all over my car and tools

As for how cold is too cold, don't know really, keep the cans warm inside the house helps, I've sprayed down to, I dunno, about 40F I think... but it doesn't get much colder than that here so I've never tested.

Varnish, I dislike varnish rattle cans, they are too variable and I don't like putting hours of work into the hands of a finicky varnish that might cloud up. I just apply varnish with an airbrush or by hand before I bought the airbrush.

 phatonic wrote:
Get a garage.

Got one. Ambient temperature is still low (it's not connected to the house) and the winds get through.

Test the paint on some sprue or a sacrificial model. As long as the cans themselves have been kept inside I've had success at freezing temps.

Keep the models in a tray you can bring inside if it's below freezing or there's a chance the paint will freeze before they dry. It really all depends on what paints.

Humidity seems to effect my paints more than the temp does.

Can't say I've tried can varnish in the cold though so ymmv.

I live in norway and its about 14- celcius atm, sprayed some models quickly yesterday and it covers well, you have to be fast and get the models innside to dry.
Also the spray cans.. Try keeping them innside but not to close to the fireplace

I've sprayed in 14 degrees before, and 90 degrees with stupidly high humidity before. So long as you immediately bring them back inside and let them dry in a room temperature place, you should be fine.

It's fine if you just walk outside and quickly spray everything, and then bring it inside to dry.

My rule of thumb is around 45 degrees, with metal models needing more ideal temperatures then resin or plastic.

As Brother SRM noted, priming outside and bringing them into room temperature helps as well.

 Brother SRM wrote:
I've sprayed in 14 degrees before, and 90 degrees with stupidly high humidity before. So long as you immediately bring them back inside and let them dry in a room temperature place, you should be fine.

I find anything much over 90-95 it's really hard to spray because the paint dries in the air. You end up with a really rough finish. In hot weather, I find I'm best off doing short bursts at close range, starting my spray off to the side of the model and whipping across the model (never starting on the model itself, that's just asking for trouble). Spray from too far away and the fact the paint starts to dry in the air gives you a poor finish.

I sprayed last week at -18F. You should let them dry for a few minutes then move them inside.

And varnish?

Rule of thumb between 45 & 80 degrees. Any less or more can be bad. Like others said spray indoors if you can. Also reduces partical dust from outside getting onto or under your paint.

Same deal with varnish or paint. There really is no "too cold". You have to store the paint and models both at room temperature, go outside and spray, come back inside to dry. You will have no problems that way due to cold.

 Sammoth wrote:
Rule of thumb between 45 & 80 degrees. Any less or more can be bad. Like others said spray indoors if you can. Also reduces partical dust from outside getting onto or under your paint.

If you spray indoors make sure you have REALLY good ventilation and make sure you spray in to something. I often just spray through my model in to nothingness, but if you're spraying indoors, make sure you spray the model inside a box or something to catch the fumes. Otherwise after a few sprays of white primer you'll notice everything in your house is slightly more pale coloured than it was before, lol.

That's why I won't spray in my garage, I have a car in there that is worth too much to me to risk getting powdery white paint on it.

Get an airbrush and then you can control yor spray and do it inside

I've sprayed plastic, metal, and resin with both primer and varnish as low as -20'C/-4'F without issue. That's base temperature; doesn't include any wind chill.

Have everything warm inside, walk out, spray, bring back inside to dry. It smells a little but if it's too much for you just put it either in the bathroom or on the stove and turn on the vent fan for either. Should be fine in 15min or so.

If I am leaving the models outside to dry I aim for 15'C/59'F.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Sammoth wrote:
Rule of thumb between 45 & 80 degrees. Any less or more can be bad. Like others said spray indoors if you can. Also reduces partical dust from outside getting onto or under your paint.

If you spray indoors make sure you have REALLY good ventilation and make sure you spray in to something. I often just spray through my model in to nothingness, but if you're spraying indoors, make sure you spray the model inside a box or something to catch the fumes. Otherwise after a few sprays of white primer you'll notice everything in your house is slightly more pale coloured than it was before, lol.

That's why I won't spray in my garage, I have a car in there that is worth too much to me to risk getting powdery white paint on it.

Sorry I assumed he took the right precautions. Like wearing a respirator as well.

Temperature of the can is more likely to cause problems than the ambient temperature - as mentioned, keep it warm and you should be fine. Minor tweaks in technique (spray distance, especially) may be needed, but I've both primed and varnished successfully in freezing temperatures, before.

Thanks all!

I pull my car out of the garage, and spray in there if I can't go in the back yard.

I have a large fan in the garage, have if pointed in a direction away from my car. So, when I am sparying, any mist in the air is blown away. If its exceptionally windy, I just go in the backyard, or use airbrush primer.

Regarding varnish, I prefer airbrush varnishes so this has yet to be a problem (I have vent system in my painting area, which is good enough for airbrushing, but not spray paint can painting).

best of luck!