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A couple of years ago a friend of mine explained a particular process by which he combined acrylic paint, water, and detergent to make a highly effective sort of ink. In retrospect I should have taken notes. Anyone familiar with how this is done, and what the proportions are?

I don't think I've ever heard of anything like this. Dish detergent? Laundry?

Maybe borax for the slicking effect? I donno.

Your friend is not crazy, but I never tried it myself

I do it, with about 3 parts paint, 15 parts water and 0.5 parts washing up liquid. It breaks the surface tension and gets a very even spread of a colour. You have to be careful with how quickly you brush it on as you get bubbles forming if you are too aggressive. The alternative is to use PVA glue instead of washing up liquid and then you get a stickier mix which pools more easily than a regular paint/water mix.

Ye this is actually a more common practice than you would think.
normally the surface tension of water causes it to pool up, causeing an uneven spread. using dishwashing detergent breaks the surface tension of the water, allowing it to spread out. You do only need a very small amount of detergent, although using more will give your models that just washed scent of clean.
I believe there is an article on either brushthralls, or maybe vallejo's site about the componets of paint and how to mix correctly.

This is the way to go!

I use a watered down flesh wash with a drop of dish soap as the second step to my Fists Yellow. If you don't have the soap, the ink will pool and make dark splotches, vs covering evenly during the drying process.

A lot of people also use Future Floor Finish instead of the dish detergent to break surface tension.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I managed to get in touch with my friend about how he did it, and I think I have an idea of how to pull this off. Cheers!

On the same note, has anyone ever used Folk Art Extender or Winsor and Newton Flow Improver to help with surface tension or too quick drying?

I use Folk Art Extender for washes, and am quite happy with the results. The only downside I find is that it takes forever to dry when it gets in crevasses. I had parts on my Librarian Terminator that were wet after 3 days.
Take a look at my Sisters of Battle thread at the two assassins, and in Paterno's Lions at Paterno; all three made heavy use of a cheap black paint wash made with Folk Art Extender.

As a note, I also sometimes use acrylic medium for washes, but mixed with water. There is a lot of ad hoc chemistry happening on my painting table, generally because I don't always read the labels before mixing.

Does this have the same effect as "Flow Improver" like Reaper sells?

at Snoggums, yes it does.

I use Future. Big bottle for a few bucks that lasts for years.

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but I use Vallejo paint extender to get this effect on all kinds of stuff:
The skin i mean

I don't use inks anymore because I don't like the settling it renders. I use paint that's been watered down with water and future floor finish. I also have some matte glaze medium from liquitex that I use. Inks just seem too pigment heavy even when thinned out. But whatever works I guess.

mortal888: Is the Genestealer's skin in that picture the blue bits (hands, face, etc)? Because I like the way that looks.

The blue bits would be the armor/chitin. That was just some deadly nightshade with another color drybrushed on top. (can't remember the second color). If you want I'll look at my paint box later and see if I can figure out what color it was.

the simplest way to break the surface tension without wondering what parts of this and that are needed is simple.

take one jar of clean water from your tap and put 1 drop of washing up liquid into the jar of water ,stir the water .
use the water to water down paint and clean your brush.

works for me anyway

see what do you think ?

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/KITSANDBITS/MARKHOWARD

They sell several inks that have the surfactant already added in the proper proportions, and the ones I looked at didnt cost any more than citadel inks.

I picked up a bottle of Didi's Magic Ink from the WarStore. It works quite nicely, and definitely has some manner of soap in it, at least according to my tongue. Worth 5$? I don't know, but it does save me from mixing my own washes and inks, provides consistant results (at least until I decide to try thinning it even more) and I should have enough for quite some time.

I saw Blackmoor mention this and I had to throw in my 2c
Future floor wax (2-3 drops) in your ink / watered down paint, heck even in your thinned paint breaks the surface tension, and gives a really nice, smooth cover, as well as
1-no watermarks along the edges ruining your effect
2-the future is an acrylic, and when it dries, your ink won't bleed into any other paints you may add on after.
and a bottle of future will last forever (I've been usin mine for 8 years, and have only used about a tenth of it)

My usual mix is:

50/50 mix of Windsor & Newton's Acrylic Flow Enhancer and plain water.

Dilute paint in it until a satisfactory consistency is reached (usually 1 part of paint to 5-6 parts of solution).

If I want a glaze effect I add the Vallejo glaze medium to the mix as well.

@mortal888

I really like how the head and blue skin has turned out. Have you finished with the model though, because in contrast, the claws and carapace look remarkably crude, IMHO though...

i also use washing-up liquid on my bases - after sticking on the sand / gravel and waiting for it to dry, i mix up a batch of watered down pva with the washing-up liquid added. i then coat the bases with it to stop the sand / gravel shedding during the painting process - it sets like rock and flows really well so not too much loss from applying it.