Artist's oil paints - can I take on Plane

Oil-based paint is flammable, so you’re not going to be able to check it or carry it onto the aircraft at all. Non-flammable paints are okay to check but must be in containers 3.4 ounces or less in your one quart carry-on zip bag for carry-on. These are the TSA rules.

If you are checking a bag, you can carry non-flammable paints in your checked bag. If you are doing carryon only, they must be in your 1-liter sized bag with your other liquids/gels. The oil paints can't go at all.

If you are flying from Perth, your rules may be different than the US. We have the TSA (trans. security admin.) that sets rules and policy for what can and can't be carried on or checked.

Our rules for flying to Europe aren't necessarily the same as for flying home from Europe (though they're similar enough to not worry about).

You should check with the Australian equivalent of TSA (should be available online) to find out exactly what their rules are.

If nothing else, you can always buy paints in Europe.

Even if they weren't flamable, you'd have a difficult time bringing enough to have a good choice on your pallet beacuse of the 3-1-1 (no more than 3 oz containers, all in a 1 quart bag- 1 bag per person). Do you work in colored pencils or chalk pencils or chalk pastles? I have taken those, including a sharpener, with no problem. Otherwise, I'd plan on buying them at your destination and chucking what you don't use. Watercolors (the dry kind that you moisten, not the tubes) would also work.

Or maybe oilbars? But I don't know if they'd be allowed either, as they are probably still flammable.

OK, thanks for your feedback everyone - most of my sketching is done in watercolour or pencil/ink. Basic problem is we wanted to buy some special some, hard to get, tubes of oil-paint while in Europe and the UK. Not sure how to get them back to Aussie - cannot mail inflamable items either, so not sure how we can do it.

Talk to your postmaster. There might be special ways to ship art supplies. It can't hurt to ask, the worst is they say no.