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I've been having a heck of a time trying to match some paints that I had previously mixed. The "template" I was using for the previously mixed paint was a Drop Pod model upon which I had originally applied the paint without thinning at all and simply worked it with the brush until just before it began to dry as I found this saved paint, and seemed to give me a very nice consistent, opaque colour. I had been having very poor results touching up any areas of the basecoat where I had been black lining or edging with highlights and not got it perfect. I had been assuming that my mixed paint had begun to d=separate, and I had not been mixing it before use well enough, resulting in a shift in the colour. Since putting in a bunch of work, and suffering through a lot of frustration to mix a new matching batch, I have discovered this is not the case. What I have discovered is this:

Paint will vary in lightness and saturation depending on how wet and thin it is applied, regardless of how many coats are applied.

Just to be sure that this wasn't related to using mixed paint, I experimented with unmixed, straight out of the pot colours, and found the same thing:

Thinner paint will appear lighter and less saturated than the same, thicker paint, regardless of how many layers are applied.

It's a very noticeable difference. This may not be news to some, but it's a HUGE revelation for me that is going to affect just about everything I do painting from here on out.


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This really has me questioning how best to incorporate the wet palette I just bought into what I'm doing.

The transparency of the paint does vary with thinning, and it dpes affect how it will look when dried. That is why when people suggest using thin layers of paint, it always comes with the caveat of multiple layers to build up to an opaque layer.

Another thing you may not have realised just quite yet, is that in similar vain to your discover on transparency is that when using thinned paint the underlying colour will also affect the colour that you are painting.

Yes that's true, but you can apply thin layers directly on top of fully opaque thicker layers of the same paint and it's still lighter and and less saturated. It will be lighter and less saturated regardless of how many thin coats you apply (I've edited my original post to be more clear on that). Even on top of a black or otherwise darker undercoat. Regardless of how many coats you do with either method, the more thinly applied paint is always lighter and less saturated. The more thinly applied paint also looks duller when light reflects directly off of it. There's more to it than just opacity.

I encourage everyone to try a controlled experiment for themselves. The result is pretty striking. I used a number of paints I had pre-mixed, and then to be sure tried it over again with straight Macragge Blue.

What paints specifically did you test? I have noticed some paints look paler if you thin them right down, but they still dry the same colour unless they are so thin that they separate out before they dry.

It could also be an issue of sheen, whether something dries glossy or matte affects how saturated it looks and thinning can affect sheen. But that's usually fixed by putting a varnish over the top.

When you airbrush something it can be very hard to match colours though, because so many things affect how thick the paint goes on and you normally airbrush more transparent than is possible to do smoothly with a hairy brush.

I did controlled tests last night with both Macragge Blue and again with Mephiston Red. Did 15 coats. Way beyond full opacity. From the very first coat to the very last the difference was very noticeable and consistent. there is a difference in sheen, but there's much more to it than just that.

It's important to note that the thicker paint was applied in very thin coats as well, it was just used right out of the pot without being thinned down. A minimal amount was used on the brush, and it was spread out as far as it would go and worked with the brush for a time until the streaks came out. It's not a method of painting that you'd have the opportunity to use in many situations. It works well on large surfaces, so I had basecoated the Drop Pod model I'm working on in that way.

So, I just did a little more experimenting and painted a number of coats over part of what I'd done before with paint straight out the pot, just sort of slopping a reasonable amount of it on, not making any effort to spread it out or work it 'til it started to get more even or any of that. I found the colour was, although a tiny little bit darker, it was much more consistent with the thinned coats. I think that although it's something to bear in mind, you get the most noticeable difference when using the somewhat more esoteric technique I employed on the Drop Pod. I'm not nearly so affraid of my new wet pallette all of a sudden, and now I've got a cool technique I can apply if I really want to make a colour come through strong. I think I will try a bunch of coats with the wet pallete next, but attached is an image of what I've done so far. On both of my jar lid palettes that I overpainted here, the bottom left is the thicker paint spread thin, the right is the thin paint, and the top is slopped on. Depending on the quality and calibration of your monitor, you should be able to see that the bottom left on both is noticeably deeper colour.


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I don't know why the picture is sideways... if you click on it, it displays properly.

Paint have various pigments, thus GW organize them(basecoat=high pigment, layer=medium, ink/wash=both are thin but act differently, dry=drybrushing, though you can do with any of them outside the ink/wash).

If you let certain of the layer paints settle, the top wash is slightly different than the pigment layer.

I thin my paint pots with small amount of water and acrylic medium if the top layer starts to dry. If there is blending required, I use a 'wet palette'= topperware, wet sponge, parchment paper(similar to wax paper but not wax).

Congrats man, you have discovered glazing

By thinning your pants you are effectively pushing the pigments around letting some reside on the areas where your brush has been over. Unfortunately GW paints are poo for glazing due to the latex in the paint.

Get some Vallejo paint and thin it down to a glaze and get ready for a wild fetching ride my friend B)

None of the coats were any where near thin enough to be what I would consider a glaze. Even the "thinned coats" were paint taken straight from the pot with a wet brush. nowhere near a skim milk type consistency even.

It occurs to me now, that I wonder if local water quality is a factor in this. We have quite high quality water (very soft and well into in the "ideal drinking water" range for TDS) where I live but some times of the year it can be the slightest bit turbid. Would using distilled water to thin give a different result with regards to this sort of thing?