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Well, I know with emamels, you use mineral spirits or thinner..
but what about , water base paints....
i tried some of there meduims... and it either made the paint too thin, were it ran or chunky.....



I perfer too use witch hazel or rubbing alochal, due too the alochal content..... it makes the paint dry faster when you spray it on and its alot cheaper then some meduims...
any one have any other solutions??

Umm, just water for me... Cheapest of them all.

You can use flow improver or a matt medium for instance too, but just water is fine.

I use:
1 part Liquitex Slowdri (slows the drying)
1 part Liquitex Flow (good for blending)
3 part Liquitex Matt (gives a matt finish)

It seems to work ok. I can use 1 part paint, 2 parts medium (my mix) and it still go's on ok. Im still playing with this mix though as I do a LOT of blending.

Since I've switched to a wet palette for painting, I haven't really had to use a medium to thin out my paints. Previously I was using Liquitex Flow agent but now with the wet palette I don't have to thin out the paints at all. They thin themselves out while on the parchment paper. It's kinda awesome!

Aye, wet palettes do the job nicely.

forgive my ignorence but wet pallet? do you mean a piece of wet parchment? is it really that simple?

Yes. Plastic plate, plus paper towel (or shamy towel), plus kitchen parchment paper... add water and you have a wet pallet.

I typically just use water, but I will often add Matte Medium.

A wet palette is definitely the most revolutionary addition to my tool set in 35+ years (bloody hell) of painting toy soldiers of one kind or another.

In England I had one that was "greaseproof paper" (which is waterproof) with microperforations, that I guess allowed just enough moisture through.

There was absolutely no bleed with the paints, which I do see a degree of with my American* parchment-type gizmo.

I should say that both of these were outrageously overpriced wet palettes from art stores.

*It would probably say Made in China if I turned it over, but then I'd have a nasty wet mess on the floor.

@Gunzhard: Adding the matt medium is a new one to me, what's the idea behind that?

Water, simple as that.

Im sorry for the confussion, yes i know water is the best meduim for thinning out paint.. but shooting it thur a airbrush, the water tens.. to star/ astrik pattern..... and turn speckly( egg shell pattern)...

I been using rubbing alohal, which is great for thinning paint and drying..( it dry almost instantly when sprayed...... with a flat finish.

Ahh, now you've edited the thread title it makes a bit more sense...

Not entirely sure what you mean but it sounds like too thin/too high pressure blast effect?

StarGate wrote: Im sorry for the confussion, yes i know water is the best meduim for thinning out paint.. but shooting it thur a airbrush, the water tens.. to star/ astrik pattern..... and turn speckly( egg shell pattern)...

I been using rubbing alohal, which is great for thinning paint and drying..( it dry almost instantly when sprayed...... with a flat finish.

The eggshell pattern thing is, no offense, usually just user error hehe. Distance from the model, the amount of paint flowing, and the time spent on one area are all factors.

For medium... I now only use Liquitex Airbrush Medium. I've used Golden AB medium, which is pretty much the same, and the Vallejo thinner which also works well.

For a long time I used a distilled water and Isopropyl Alcohol (91-99%) mixture. I had a 7:1 (water:alcohol) mixture in a squeeze bottle. Now I use this for cleanup and for spraying between colors. It is cheap.

10:1 distilled water : isoprop alcohol for my airbrush. Mix 50/50 paint/thinner for GW/P3 paints.

I also use Vallejo model air but still add 30% thinner mixture to prevent clogging (I use a 0.2 mm needle).

Just flow improver for brush work.

Johnsons Klear for ink dilution, even coverage and better control.


Nice and simple.

StarGate wrote: the water tens.. to star/ astrik pattern.....

That's called spidering, basically the paint is too thin or you're too close for the volume that's going through, either move away or lower the air pressure.

It can also happen if condensation forms in the air line - do you have a moisture trap between the compressor and the airbrush?