Simple painting query to see what people use to mix paint on...

I've got a stack of clear CD protective blanks, and use these both as palettes and for chopping up into random armour-plates

As they are clear, you can turn them over (when dry!) and look at he pretty patterns !

I use the blister plastic, it's not a perfect shape so it tips up a lot, but reusing them saves throwing them away. Recycle! The possibilities are endless!

I dont mix paint regularly, but on those rare occassions i'll use empty pots.
( happened twice in 10 years, so i doubt i need a palette )

I use a tile and those cheap acrylic paints from the craft stores. For details and 'important stuff,' I use Vallejo on the tile mixed with a little water.

My palette is used / unwated CD DVD not the case.

any smooth surface works for me , as i dont "thin my paints" they dont run anywhere anyways.

I use a one-use(for eating) paper plate.

I use the GW one DUH.


A fool would not.

DIY wet palette. I use "Wettex" for the sponge(y) part, it's a kitchen towel thingie.

I used to use a tile, but they got to dirty and got bored of cleaning them, so now i just use my desk as a pallette

Paper plate. I usually can milk one out over a year.

I am an ancient Chinese Grandmother, and my Granddaughter will have fond
memories of bearing the ceramic family heirloom to my paint table everyday. It has passed
through the generations, from the times when our honored ancestors once served the Emperor's
own miniature army artist, when they hand brushed the forces that he would marshal
well into the afterlife.

I continue the tradition today, though not for the Emperor as he was, but in preparation for the Emperor
who will be. For when he comes, he will raise the family ceramic dish to his blessed lips, and
all my hard work will be paid off as the soldiers I've painted using that dish will awaken and
defend his soul from the demons who would wrest it from his sleeping body.

I use a tile as well as the tops of the GW paint pots, as you can simply peel the dried paint off of the top afterwards.

Lid off and Icecream Bucket.

CD case I salvaged from our bin.

tile

I use a porcelain artist's pallet (12 Wells). Before that I used disposable plastic jobs of similar design...

Like these...

http://www.dickblick.com/products/round-porcelain-palettes/#photos

A wet palette looks nice.

I use random plastic lids, for example old cottage cheese lids.

I just use old paper, but I'll really have to try out the wet palate idea one of these days.

malfred wrote:I am an ancient Chinese Grandmother, and my Granddaughter will have fond
memories of bearing the ceramic family heirloom to my paint table everyday. It has passed
through the generations, from the times when our honored ancestors once served the Emperor's
own miniature army artist, when they hand brushed the forces that he would marshal
well into the afterlife.

I continue the tradition today, though not for the Emperor as he was, but in preparation for the Emperor
who will be. For when he comes, he will raise the family ceramic dish to his blessed lips, and
all my hard work will be paid off as the soldiers I've painted using that dish will awaken and
defend his soul from the demons who would wrest it from his sleeping body.

I too use an ice-cream bucket lid.

I use plastic bondo spreaders,I have about a thousand of them from work,I also use them in terain projects.

Pieces of a rhino

My thumb nail

Hard plastic saucer that I just bought the other day... not liking it so much but at least I don't have to go hunting around for cut up blister packs

Old Thai Food take out lid.

I have a paint pallet.........but I don't ever get around to using it....... I use a pringles lid......hahaha!!

Old teacup saucer. It works like a charm, though it has probably half an inch in caked paint by now; all hard as a rock.

I use the news paper I sit my models on while I'm painting/drying them

nice heavy duty paper plate, been using the same one since January.

yeah,
I use a large A2? cutting board as my HobbySurface / PaintPallette.

Panic...

I use a disposeable yet resuable paint pallette that has 10 ( I think) circular dips made for mixin paint. I mix paint quite regularly so it comes in handy, its recycleable and they are cheap!

I mostly use old blister packs, but I occasionally just go to the newspaper that I'm using as a work surface.

I voted other. I use a plastic lid from a disposable plastic container, such as a sour cream or yogurt container lid.

I just use the lid off an ice cream container. why bother with some expensive palette when a cheapo works just as well?

Darkness wrote:My thumb nail

use must have a freekishly large thumb nail

I mix all my paint & also spray all the models on top of the box I store my paints in.

my desk.

I use disposable, square, plastic plates (£1 for 20) at home and kitchen foil at work...
Mick

I use a saucer.

warboss spinetwizta wrote:

Darkness wrote:My thumb nail

use must have a freekishly large thumb nail

You just need alot of paitence, and a small brush.

I usually use a paper plate, although I should get a wet palette set up, as they're much nicer. If only I wasn't so lazy...

The top black ring of the vial with GW paints.

I use the small GW retail bags, as I took a ton before I quit.

I use a wet pallette most of the time, however when I'm making up a wash I use a cheap pllastic palette, the kind with multiple wells.

Don't use one, i'm not that advanced

I find that paper sheet work perfectly as dry palettes...

I'm not so aware of the advantages of a wet palette, but maybe some users could enlighten us?

Cheers,

I use gladlock bags. The ones without the zippers that you use for sandwhiches. They work just fine.

I use the caps from water bottles. They keep the paint in nice contained areas.

I lay newspaper over my painting area and use that as my pallet.

I started using a big piece of Plastic card a few years ago, and I'm still using it. It looks like garbage, but it's MY garbage.

I dont know the proper way to transfer paint from the Citadel pots to a pallette, so I just open the pot, dab a little out, and close it again. Time consuming, but I dont waste much. Whenever I tried to use a pallette, I had paint left over on it, which made me sad. (I paid a lot of money for those paints) Since I dont mix up my own colors, I dont see a need for one (all the colors I tried to mix came out looking wrong)

I barely mix paints ...

But i use an empty pot of any sort for when i do

I use the pallette I got the the GW paint set.

I use the plastic inserts from GW/PP metal boxsets,

Works well and there is a lot of space to use.

Plus as long as i keep buying stuff that i need to paint, i will have a palette to use.

I have a stack of yogurt and coffee can lids I inherited from my mother's days of craft-painting. I have a dozen, easily, but one is all I need, as I usually just wash/peel it clean between colors while the paint dries on my terrain (all that I've painted, thus far). With just one color, you don't need a ton of space to keep colors you don't want blending from doing so.

a card............

My table.. I'm not proud of it but hey, it works!

I use lids I've saved from soda bottles. I have a whole big box of them, because I don't mix paint very often.

Lol I use The piece of plastic I got from the Warhammer starter painting kit, you know, the one that the paints originally came in.

It's worked fine for me so far.

I currently use a Masterson Sta-Wet Premier Palette.

http://www.dickblick.com/products/masterson-sta-wet-premier-palette/

However, I replaced the sponge with one a 1/4 of the size. The end result is has been actually drawing moisture out of the paint as the ends of the sponge are exposed. So I will probably end up purchasing a much smaller set up in the future along with a normal painter's pallet with multiple indents for washes, which I have begun to use.

I use the plastic lids off of yogurt containers and they work well enough, I guess. Still, I'm curious about the wet pallets and how they work (and whether or not they're worth the investment).

I use almost all of the above depending on what I am painting and how many colors I need.

just a blank piece of paper

A plastic party plate. Always good, holds water, even has dips so that some dont mix.

An old piece of plasticard.....blister packaging...newspaper....i guess i've used just about everything listed except for a wet pallette....though I've used a sponge before.....

I use a homemade wet palette, only thing is it's not working..

I usually just mix them on my paint station, it looks strange now because it just has various shades of colour all over it from the past few months.

I use old Tile Samples.

I use a plain white 'sample' tile (6"x6").

I used to work in a tile factory, and 'made it myself' so it cost me close to nix.

Although the wife is a painter and she has offered me her old palette.

Whatever is within reach after I have started painting and realize I don't have a palette.

I use a piece of polished black granite.

I have a cheap circular pallets with a number of little wells around it. It's great for mixing and diluting paints but you do lose a lot of it drying around the edges of each well.

I have a P3 wet pallet but I haven't used it in ages and don't even have any paper left for it.

i use a 18 well artist pallet

I sprayed the bottom of a CD white.

I use an old CD

i use a DIY wet palette made with a Tupperwave box.

Two cheap eleven dimple plastic pallets from a crafts store. I got the dimpled thing so that the paint wouldn't accidentally run together when I was watering it down, although I have to admit to doing a lot of mixing paint in the central flat area a few drops at a time.

Up until recently we've been using the inside of the blister packaging, but a few weeks back I was raiding my parents loft and found an old tool box full of paint pots with a tile in it. So now we use that. Tile ftw.

I use my desk, or get a spare base, flip it upside down and mix paint in it.

I have a 1' x 1' tile left over from the patio outside our house that sits perfectly on my desk (on a towel for ease of movement and to prevent scratching). I've used less than a third of it and I doubt I'll be replacing it any time soon. Works great for me.

I use a thick sheet of glass. (with beveled edges of course...you only make that mistake once ) It's really easy to clean with a paint scraper.

A potato salad cover. Has worked for 2 years.

small ceramic saucer (like for a tea cup)

Easy to clean, can mix washes next to colors.

Straight from th pot

DIY wetpallete

basically made from one of these:
http://www.afreshdesign.com/01February06/2006-02-26_0022.JPG

With a wet piece of this in it:

http://www.e3living.com/files/twist%20european%20sponge%20cloth.jpg

with a sheet of that on top:
http://www.reynoldspkg.com/reynoldskitchens/en/product.asp?prod_id=1799

Can mix up anything or even just put paint out on the parchement and it doesn't dry up. Once the cover is on I've had paint sit in it for months untouched while I moved from one house to another etc and be able to pick up painting without an issue.

wife gets theses 500ml cups of yougurt, the tops are protected by a plastic circular cap. they work wonders.

Cardoard

I use a paper plate. I think Bob Ross even said that paper plates make great palettes.

I use a traditional palette, but my friend uses an ice cube tray. Pretty clever I thought.

Paper Sufley cups

99 cent palette from walmart

I just stole one of my in-laws square dinner plates....that was 4 years ago now. Despite breaking a corner off when I dropped a mug of tea on it, it's still going strong

Styrofoam disposable plate. Works pretty damn good for me.

My painting table.

School ID
Fingernails
Flying base of the model I am painting
Tile
If there's a semi-laminatedesque object in range, there's paint on it.
Giggles,
Mr. Self Destruct

Lol i use the little aluminum trays meat pies come in they are amazing

Been prone to using the back of bases :/

I use an empty can of tuna fish.

Personally i use what ever is on hand.. from my armies plastic carry case to the lid off of a margarine carton..

But my preference is a laminated object or tile. (not a good idea to use your grandparents marble tile stair case!...)


Automatically Appended Next Post:

ChaosxVoid wrote:Lol i use the little aluminum trays meat pies come in they are amazing

Lol.. when i first read that.. i though you meant baking trays.. im thinkin:
"Yeah.. then the next time your poor granny bakes cup-cakes they're gonna be a mix of Vomit Brown and Red Gore.."

But yeah.. nice idea, im gonna go down to the corner store to buy a potato pie, just so i can try it.

And old cork/wood/lamenated coaster thats built up so much paint now its like rolling countryside!

I just use the desk I paint on. Been painting for so long I'm now onto my 3rd table

A piece of mdf the size of a sheet of paper.

I use quite alot of things rageing from old tiles and paint pallets to my hand, arm and such

somthing to keep a butch of hard boild eigs lol.
its in some kind of metal

Paper... from newspapers... the same stuff I protect the table with. Not overly complicated.

I use the tops from old tobbaco cans>

Ice cream tub lids - because seriously, what else are you going to use them for?

I use a economy 6 well plastic palette, like this. I buy them locally for about $0.21 each, and throw them away when I'm done (cleaning plettes is too boring to waste any time on). I like the six well design because I used Reaper Master Series and Vallejo paints primarily, and you can use the wells for mixing up colors, even in large batches for speed painting a dozen or more figures (use a retarder to keep it from drying out too fast), or you can put teeny little drops on the level surface around the wells for colors you only need a tiny bit of.

I personally use the tops of the GW paints just because I rarely mix paint and am quite lazy

i dont mix paints and i use the paint straight from the pot.

I use whatever I can get my hands on. I have purchased palettes in the past, but I never seem to remember to fish them out. Right now I am using a business card .

a piece of cardboard
someday when i dont suck at painting i'll get a real GW palette. I like the shape

I stuck other down as I usually use an old small plate I clean off now and then that I've used for *mumbles* years. also have a wet palette and an improvised wet palette when I've mixed stuff up.

Tile

-cheap, easy, and simple

bathroom tile (not in the bathroom of course) its really smooth so you can easily do painty stuff on it =D

I'll use whatever is at my convenient disposal. CD case, the lids of my bitz containers, often my desk. A tile or plate is the ideal painting luxury over here, however that is all the way in the kitchen.

I use a Disposable plate, it's got some cracks in it now, but it still works.

I use an old plastic container lid, about 3 or 4 inches diameter, I have no idea where I got it from though.

Easy as to clean just twist it and the sheet of paint pops off, instant art! I'm sure some sucker somewhere would pay loads for it....

The lids from cheese containers. I use the cheese containers for bits. Also, they're easy enough to just rip in half, so quite often, I end up with a couple different pallates.



Except I'm serious!

The lids of my paints..

I either use a proper pallette, or the bottom of a 2 liter soda bottle.

plasticard

Tin Foil, or the lids of my paints if I'm not mixing.

I use a Valkyrie base.

It's really nice, actually.

I use the underside of lid of the tin i keep my paints in. It's very colourful nowadays.

I use the lid off a container filled with a mysterious blue powder (I must find out what it is!) and have been for the last three years, the paint is now so thick that should I scrape back a few layers I could tell what I had been painting last week. Just the same as geologists and rocks, with a twist

Priveteer Pirate Press wet palet

I just use a newspaper. It works. Fairly well

Ceramic tile all the way!

Right now I'm using a wet pallette, buuuuut the paint comes out really flat and it takes more coats to cover everything...
Not sure if I like it

I now use lids that come from containers of soup that I buy from Von's.

Blister packaging most recently... Just because i have some!

I use an old saucer to mix my paint.

It washes off pretty easy too.

Wet Palette is the best ever. Your paints just never dry out
Even though my wet palette consists of foam from a blister on top of a cup of water!

Tile or a black/free CD/DVD

A piece of scrap cardboard

My table xD

Just (news)paper, or a tile.

I use the GW paint pallette, i got it on a whim. Well i am an Empire player and it looks like a Swordman's shield

I don't use a palette?

Unless you count the paper towel I use to get the excess paint off the brush when I'm drybrushing something.

Tile

Got sick of scraping it though.

Now use plain old white plastic/foam plates. EZ

Random items found on the table - mostly the tops of my paint tubs but any random junk will do

A plastic dinner tray from the dollar store.

Privateer Press Wet Palette

Sometimes I switch to the GW plastic tile

Augustus wrote:Tile

Got sick of scraping it though.

Use Simple Green when you strip your next batch of metal models. It really cleaned up my plastic tile until there was nothing on it; almost brand new.

I used to use a simple white tile, but a friend of mine gave me all of his old paints and supplies because he doesn't need them anymore, and a couple palettes came with all that stuff so I use those now

Heres what I use my old water colour pencils case.

Other, my kid...

All of the above... whatever is closest, usually my thumb or other parts of my hand first.

anything i can find

my thumb

Ice-cream tub lid.

A piece of newspaper that has become stiff due to all the paint drying on it.

Paper plates.

I like to mix on a wet pallet but I like to paint from a piece of paper.

I find it way easier to control moisture on a slice of paper

How do you mean "paint from a piece of paper"? Do you use the paper to remove excess paint from the brush before applying it to the model?

i'm really cheap, so if i can't find some scrap plastic, i'll use the underside of the 25mm bases. Just a coat of black after to hide all evidence of my having been there.

Thumb - yeah I use my thumb sometimes too - and my laptop still has blobs of paint on it because I was painting and streaming at the same time

the printed side or beer boxes (yuengling boxes usually)

Other

-Bottle caps
-Painters pallet (one metal, one plastic)
-Parchment paper ontop of wet paper towel.

Old ceramic plate that doesn't match the rest of our dishes.

My desk.

My girlfriend.

I wet brush, you get some interesting results.

I just flip a base upside down and use them as a pallette

A home made wet palette.

My keyboard.

I use an old side-plate, although it's more paint than plate today.

I use a kitchen cutting board exactly like this one except it's white plastic...



I've used it for the last 15 or so years. Paint and either peel the dried paint off or prime over the whole thing if you want a clear pallet.

Works great.

i voted tile, but its more like a round plastic saucer.

The Defenestrator wrote:Old teacup saucer. It works like a charm, though it has probably half an inch in caked paint by now; all hard as a rock.

Me too. I need to start using the bottom of it more so I can get it completely covered in paint

A jam jar lid! Oh Yea!

Left thumb.

I use a cheap china saucer (nicked from the cupboard :/) which I havnt cleaned for about 2 years so the ridge in the middle that holds the cups in place no longer exists as the paint is at the same level...

A Testors plastic drop cloth.

Homemade wet palette:

Take a plastic container, put down some cut-to-size paper towels, and wet them enough that a tiny bit of water collects when you tilt it. Then put freezer paper on top.

Voila - a perfectly usable wet palette. I've had paint stay good for up to a week.

Ice cube tray works awesome for me for years now. Each little cube is a major colour over time, so I have my foundations my metalics and so on. Because they are deep rather than wide, my paints dont dry quickly and if they drain back to the bottom when I mix with water or re-water them if I have a big batch of a single colour. Would never change, ice cube tray is the way forward for painting.

I use a sheet of plasticard. That way I can write my thoughts on it when working, cut on it, mix my palette, whatever, and be safe in the knowledge that my desk will remain safe

-Nikolakhs

I'm all about my future terrain projects I'll never get to, and I save the blister packs off of everything. They make awesome palettes, as do the lids of Grizzly dip cans (don't hate, at least I quit smoking). My current heavy use piece of crap to paint from is actual a 4"x5" piece of quarter inch blue foam board. It was on my desk to be made into some ruin or other and I started mixing nurgle paints on it. Still using it after four months.

a 12 inch square piece of steel.

I know I really shouldn't but I just use the table as one big pallet..

I use my glass table, I put the paint directly on it...

nobody has that:

the top of a chocolate box wich my mom got from a couple from france who lost their iphone in norway. This was found and returned by me and my mom.

and thats what i mix on xD

I use a wall tile. Easy to clean and plenty of space.

RogueMarket wrote:I use the GW one DUH.


A fool would not.

Me too. I think it's rather good.

I use my knee.

I hardly use a pallet as I don't tend to mix paints, but when I do it's a Chinese take-away box XD

The lid of a mayonnaise jar

Cutting board chunk, hard to explain how it came into being.

I use old pieces of cut up plasticard. Although I have been trying to improve my painting skills and should probably start using the proper tools.

Poster board

The back of my hand, particularly near the joint of my thumb. That way I can hold the miniature in my fingers, have the paint right there, and my brush in the other. If I need a different consistency then I use a finger nail.

I use a paper that is now caked in so many layers of paint that its become almost boardlike. Works better every day.

Ediin wrote:I use a one-use(for eating) paper plate.

As do I , glad im not the only one

Sheet of mewspapaer that I am using to cover my desk.

I use a 20c white ceramic plate i got from a charity shop.

If there is too much dried paint on it i just use a scouring pad and hot water to wipe it clean. Do that once-three times a year.

Not fancy but it works

DIY wet palette made from a sponge, small bowl and some transparent baking paper.

An old saucer.

i just use my desk, it stays still instead of sliding around as i mix paints

When I need to mix I use a piece of paper

Any thing I can get my hands on really.

1hadhq wrote:I dont mix paint regularly, but on those rare occassions i'll use empty pots.
( happened twice in 10 years, so i doubt i need a palette )

I dont mix often either. If its a large quantity I use and empty pot, if its small I just use some scrap plastic like a blister pack.

Toast36 wrote:An old saucer.

Same.

A wet pallette. I won't go back to paper plates or a plastic sandwich baggie.

I use a piece of sheet metal bent into a rectangular dish. I couldn't find my GW paint pallet one day, so I cut out a section of metal I was using to magnetize my bases and bent up the edges. It is now my favorite and I have abandoned my plastic GW one.

-Jim

I think i've posted here before, but whatever. I use a Jam jar lid, I don't really use it for anything except mixing anyway. I'm an evil jar lid person.

I just use a simple piece of cardboard.

I use a plastic palette for the Vallejo colours, even though I rarely mix colours.

I use freezer paper. It's cheap, you get a lot for the price, and you can just throw it away when you're done.

Wish i had pictures but i got a small snap lid container, a sponge, and a nice piece of parchment. all from the same grocery store


total price was like 5$

Then i took a peice of sprue/ cut a rectangle to keep it from curling.

Blister pack here. I almost never mix paint though. Been doing it more lately, so I might have to cob together a wet palette.

I buy paper plates from CVS, use them to store and transport works in progress and as a palette. When the paint dries I either pick it off or toss the plate. When modeling it's easy to keep blitz contained and keep paints from mixing.

I use the inside of my boxes, which I also use to prevent paint form getting on my desk, I am not a technologicaly advanced man . Though I have been wanting to build a wet pallet.

I got two round artist palettes from an art store, they were about 40p each. I think it promotes good practice for my kids - use the right gear for the job.

I don't mix paint, ever, but I do use a palette for thinning my paints with a little bit of water. It helps a lot. You can get a cheap plastic palette at Walmart for like 98 cents.

There's a local variety of sausage that I like to buy that has an awesome, grooved styrofoam packaging. Clean that in the sink with the dishes, and excellent disposable paint pallettes.

Paper plate with tinfoil on it

I usually just use a tile that I picked up from Home Depot, works quite well.

I use a ceramic plate that was used for eating with. I really shouldn't. I know. I'll invest in something else soon.

Scratch built wet palette.

I use a palette I got in walmart for $3.

Switched to wet palette recently. Like it a lot. (For metallics, however, I use a regular palette. I like them drier because I mostly only use them for dry brushing.)

I switched, recently, to wet palette too and use a sponge for dry brushing. Before this great improvement I used everything except nails ..(unwatchable)

White disposable paper plates and the back of my right thumb (I'm left-handed) to remove excess paint from the brush.

I will consider getting or making my own wet palette though, that looks like it might be handy, even though I don't mix my paints much. With the wide variety of colours available now, I don't see the need for that any more. Back in the nineties I would spend a lot of time to get the right shade of grey or brown.

If and when i decide to use it.. i use the same discount tile I bought from Home depot back when i painted my first models .. around 2005 id say. That little buddy is essential.. and ive stripped the caked paint of him so many times XD

An ordinary plate.

Amazed at how few people use a wet pallet, it's not just some where to mix paint it will also make you a better painter.