How long will it take for enamel smell to go away? If at all.

[FunkyBrush]

Ok, I am painting a 28mm building. For the tiled roof I wanted to try out something new and used a Revell enamel paint. When I was a youngster I used to paint my tanks etc. with this stuff, so I knew about the bad odour. But I don't remember the smell being permanent. After 3 day the building still stinks like chemical warfare. I was wondering if I'm just not patiant enough or if the smell is permanent and I should just rip the roof of and make a new one?

Experiences?
Opinions?
Tips?

PS: F*ck enamels and the devils who make them!
PPS: Yes I'm pissed

[Connectamabob]

Enamel smell usually fades as it dries and cures over a couple days. It should only be really proper fumey for the first few hours while the solvent is still evaporating though. After that it should only smell if you're within workbench distance or so. After a few days, it should only smell if you sniff it, or not at all. Enamels are technically a kind of oil paint so they do cure rather slowly.

If your room(s) are still fumey this much later, either the enamel isn't curing properly (could be bad paint, or undermixed in the bottle/can, or the material being painted has chemicals in it that are interfering with the paint chemistry), or the area isn't well ventilated enough for the "old" fumes to circulate out.

You say you painted a roof, how much surface area are we talking? Brush or spray? How thick of a coat? What material is the roof made of?

If you want to speed things up, you can try putting the model/part somewhere hot like an attic for a day or two. This depend on the climate where you live through: where I live, attics get pretty hot during the day, but If you're someplace cold this won't work of course.

Enamels are more durable than acrylics in theory, but in practice that gap has been closing over the years, and these days which is more durable varies by brand or product line. IMO as long as your primer is good, you usually don't have to bother with enamels these days unless you're doing something that deliberately exploits the long cure time in some way.

[FunkyBrush]

Hmm, the roof is polystyrol with some wood parts. About DIN A4 big. Painted it with a brush. I don't know about the age of the paint. Got it from a friend some time ago. It was never opened and had a smooth consistency.

The smell is noticeable from about a meter distance. Unbearable from a working distance.

Would it help if I seal it with a varnish of some kind?

[gnomehome]

Hmm, the roof is polystyrol with some wood parts. About DIN A4 big. Painted it with a brush. I don't know about the age of the paint. Got it from a friend some time ago. It was never opened and had a smooth consistency.

The smell is noticeable from about a meter distance. Unbearable from a working distance.

Would it help if I seal it with a varnish of some kind?

The polystyrol is not affected by the solvent in the enamel paint ? Maybe that's the source of the odour.

[FunkyBrush]

Polystyrol like in plasticard. Not like in foambord or Polystyrene.

[SBRPearce]

It will continue to out-gas until it cures. Put it somewhere warm with good air circulation and forget about it for a week. Ventilate your work space - you may be getting additional smell from your surroundings.

I feel your pain - my Bride has the olfactory capacity of a canary in a coal-mine - even opening a modelling-size bottle of solvent-based paint in the cellar will bring her down from the second floor to complain about the smell. I practically have to go to my friend's house 10km away to spray-paint...