Traveling with oilpaints on a plane, any tips?

[timpaatkins]

So I'm going back to Sweden tomorrow, and im bringing my oilpaints in my check in luggage. Ive read the threads here about having the MSDF papers with me, and not mentioning the word paint etc, but has anyone actually done this?
Do i need to print out an MDSF for every single tube of paint that i have?

Anyone know?

Cheers Tim

[Seedling]

Ugh. Start with the assumption that they may require you to throw away all of your paints. Call the airport. Get the info you need from the horse's mouth. (And then let us know what they tell you, pretty please.)

[DeadlyFreeze]

You can't check "flammable" paints, not sure if your oil paint is "flammable" or not but it will be on the package if it is.

[fooxoo]

well, i dunno how what works, but i travelled from riga to stockholm with my oil paints in my suit case in checked in luggage, no prob whatsoever, nobody told me anything, doubt they even knew they were there :P

i wouldnt suggest taking them on board in your hand luggae though...

[DeadlyFreeze]

Probably not an issue anywhere else in the world, but remember we have the TSA in the states.

[lefran]

well i had some expensive pens and a pencil taken off me at the airport out of my handluggage :S, so i wouldnt take the chance of putting it in hand luggage if thats what you mean by check in luggage, especially since the whole liquids scare, i couldnt imagine a problem if its in your suitcase

[k4pka]

Phew, good luck is what you need. As has been said, you may be fine, or you may have the lot confiscated.

Definately have safety sheets for them all, and stress that the paints are artist colours made with vegetable oil. Oil paints are not flammable, and have flash points above 550, meaning they are perfectly safe.

Leave any solvents at home. A couple of the odourless ones have flash points just above the limit, but the word solvent will get you into trouble regardless. Any medium you may use that has solvent in it will also not get on the plane, regardless of the proportions involved. Its best not to even try.

Make sure to check it all, as even brushes in hand luggage will be considered potentially dangerous weapons. (Don't even try it with palette knives :P)

Finally, remember that the hold on a plane is not pressurized like the cabin, and so any air inside a paint tube can potentially cause problems. Squeeze the paint right to the top of the threads before replacing the cap to try to minimize the amount of air in there.

If there is enough air in a tube, it can cause it to split, and/or the caps to burst off. As such, its best to have tubes wrapped in say sandwhich bags to isolate them from anything else in your luggage that the paint can get on to in such a scenario.

[Spiralfish]

Ive traveled with oil paints, water colors and acrylics alot.

Wrap the oil paint up and check them in your luggage, you should be fine.

In the times ive traveled Ive had alot of other art paraphnelia with me and it was obvious what I was going to use the paints for.

They usually do open my luggage, but they have never taken anything, not even jars of medium and oil.

In fact I have a larger problem with tubes of paint popping due to luggage mishandleling.

Maybe I'm just lucky.

[Seedling]

Hehe. . . just remembered. This isn’t oil paint, but never carry filled rapidographs on planes. If you do, you’ll have a handful of ink. ;-)

[stephen]

just like others have said, put them in a ziplock bag and it shouldnt be a problem, i put mine in a ziplock and a cardboard box so they didnt get mangled in the luggage and had no problems.

[CaptainInsano]

i put all my paints in a ziplock bag and carried them in my backpack when I moved to go to art school.

But with todays safety standards, I don't think you'll be able to take the oil paints with you. not sure, tho.

Perhaps you could just UPS them to yourself?

[fishw]

well, within europe you're not alowed more than 150mls of any liquid/gel etc in your hand luggage. but you can put them in your checkend-in luggage no problem at all

[sweetoblivion314]

call the airport like others have said, and remember, they would have to be smaller then 3oz tubes and in a 1quart ziplock bag, and you can only have one bag.

[Spiralfish]

they would have to be smaller then 3oz tubes and in a 1quart ziplock bag, and you can only have one bag.

Isnt that only for carry on?

[Joshua Fountain]

Put them in large baggage to be checked. Make sure you don't leave any other supplies like X-Acto knives with your paints (I did this). They ended up taking my knife blades (left the handles though) and looked at my paints and smiled. They asked if I was studying art... bla bla bla... then they let me get on the plane.

[Retroboy]

When I read the title I tought you wanted to paint a plane with your oils...

...oh well.

[timpaatkins]

Hi guys, thanks for the tips! I did it all, ziplock bags, MSDS's for all my tubes, wrote on them, and had...

No problem at all. Even though i carried my halfbox on my shoulder as a carry on. But I felt that I got lucky, maybenext time i get some asshole lunchlady type and get it all confiscated.

[Seedling]

Excellent! Happy painting!

[timpaatkins]

Thanks, it is! No scanner here though and VERY dodgy netconnection makes me not be able to post them for a while...