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Hello,

Sorry if this is a daft question but i can't figure out how thin paint should be for a good covering.

since discovering that thinning paint is the way to go I have have had much better results then when i used it steight out the pot. no suprises there.

but where im up to know i thin my paint down so it is runny and i'm getting a really nice finish on the models. its perfectly smooth covers evenly and looks great.

The only trouble is i need to put on between 5 - 8 coats to build the colour up. And this takes me ages. also painting fiddly highlights is hard because often the pain runs into the cracks where i don't want it.

So i'm trying to find a happy medium. or just wondering if this the norm. i'm happy to put the time in if that's what it takes but if i'm going a bit over the top I would like to know that also. coz as it stands now it'l be year before my army is painted. How many coates should it take to do a colour?

So yeah any thoughts or help in matter will be much appreciated. I'm going to experimenting but could do with a push in the right direction.

cheers

I believe the consistency of milk is what you're looking for, and it usually takes me 2-3 coats. If you're looking for an incredibly smooth blending of colour, then your level of paint and coverage would give a very sutble layering technique, but again this is something that you'd see more on display models than playing models.

There are a lot of factors to determine: what kind of paint are you using, what color and what brand, what kind of techniques do you use, what is the basecoat, etc. If you can tell us those, it would be more helpful.

Depends on the paint, for Reaper and Vallejo, I tend to go 1 drop of water for every 3 of paint.

Im using citadel colour paints. I use either the choas black or skull white primer. I try to start with a foundation paint first. but even the foundation takes four or five coates.

use lots of colours so can't list them all.

When I first started painting, I would do a 1 to 2 water to pain ratio. this was fine for very simple paint schemes but you will find that as you progress in your painting skill, you will will end up using more of a 2 to 1 ratio, thinner to paint.

the reason for this is that blending techniques require your paint to be very thin or your transitions will not work properly. Also when you get into fine highlighting you will have alot of problems with brush control if your paint is too thick.

I know it will seem like you have to apply too many coats to your model, but just remember that it will pay off in the end to properly thin your paints.

Spray paint primer? Or just normal paint?

Spray paint works better for a primer, since it's thinner and easier for paint to adhere to. I don't see why you should take a lot of coats, especially with foundation paints.

Questions: Do you use them straight from the pot? How big are your brushes, and do you make sure they're not much water in them? With base colors, try drying the brush before dipping it in paint from the pot, unthinned. Spread the paint on the surface so that it won't ruin the details.

A few things... to begin with it is easiest to just add a few drops of water to your paint mix. Push/pull the paint in the appropriate direction - meaning, if you are painting shadows... push the paint down from your mid-highlight area down into your shadows; if you are painting highlights, pull the paint up from your mid-shadow area to your highlight area.

Eventually you might discover that you can paint with mixes as thin as water. It really just comes down to managing how much paint sits on your brush. For general army painting I wouldn't bother going for uber-dilute paint... but if you watch the pro videos like Jeremie Bonamant or the Julien Casses (miniaturementor) video... they use super dilute paints for incredibly smooth blending.

It is actually quite easy to practice painting with super thin paints however. You can even use just water but it is a little more difficult to see the results. I use primed test minis for everything... mix up some quick and dirty 5:1 water:any-color mix... load up your brush, wipe it off on your pallet or paper towel and practice applying to the model. If it runs all over the place, then you still have too much on the brush, wipe it off and try again... you will have it down in 15 minutes. The nice thing is, if you mess up, it's so easy to cleanup with a second brush or even just ignore because it was such a thin coat to begin with.

This is advice I have needed. On a related note, how do you guys thin your paints, as in, where do you put the paints and water/thinner and how is it measured?

I've found that pallets work but leave leftover, wasted, paint. I use GW paints and usually mix in the small cup on the underside of the lid, so when I'm done it pours back in. I usually just dip my brush into the water and flick droplets into the paint cup until it looks about right. It works, but isn't always consistent. What's your processes?

Fiend wrote:This is advice I have needed. On a related note, how do you guys thin your paints, as in, where do you put the paints and water/thinner and how is it measured?

I've found that pallets work but leave leftover, wasted, paint. I use GW paints and usually mix in the small cup on the underside of the lid, so when I'm done it pours back in. I usually just dip my brush into the water and flick droplets into the paint cup until it looks about right. It works, but isn't always consistent. What's your processes?

Most often, just because I am lazy, I use a standard plastic pallet. It does leave some thinned paint, but in the end you really only used what a drop of paint? ...if you are more concerned with saving paint you could make a quick and easy wet pallet. Which I do for highlighting large batches of troops (when I want to use a specific mix).

Take a plastic plate, fold a sheet of paper towel once, cover with water, and then put a piece of regular super-market parchment paper on it. Add your paint to the parchment paper. It will keep your paint moist for a very long time and you can even put it in the fridge for longer keeping. I am just so used to the consistency that I like in the pallet... but the wet one does have its uses.

Most of it is instinctive, since I was once a Painting Major (took Fine Arts in college) and enough experience with acrylics to know how much should the water/paint ratio should be.

And after mixing paint and there are still leftovers, put in some drops of water and cover it well. You can still use the paint again even after a few days. Best way to do this is mix paint in small cups where they put ketchup in or in ice cube trays, so that it's easier to cover a portion of it. That way you can mix a lot of paint for an entire army and not worry about stopping for fear of the paint drying. It also helps if you're in a humid environment, I think (although I wouldn't know, since I live in a humid environment all my life).