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I have been told that I should not paint from my GW paint pots, but no one can tell me why I shouldn't. Please explain this to me. Seems like I will be wasting a lot of paint otherwise.

Thanks,
Ted

Are you on about using paint straight from the pot onto the model???

If so, its general consensous that by thinning your paint with water it goes onto the model better, does not "Blob" and looks better once dry.

I think that Munkey is correct - they probably mean that you should water down your paints before use, rather than using paint "straight from the pot".


Edit: Typos of Doom!

MunkeyKungFu wrote:Are you on about using paint straight from the pot onto the model???

If so, its general consensous that by thinning your paint with water it goes onto the model better, does not "Blob" and looks better once dry.

No, I thin them. Just told not to use them out of the pots- to use a pallet.

That would be for mixing paints to get blends of colours I would imagine.

Don't really advise that myself until you have your painting skills up to a reasonable level first as you can waste a lot of paint if you don't have the basic skills and it is not really required to get a pretty good finished paint job.

It's due to the entire pot of paint slowly drying out while you paint from it.

A simple wet pallet of wet kitchen roll with some parchment paper on top will let you take some paint from the pot, close the pot, and not have the paint dry up on the pallet while you use it.

Okay, thanks guys-much appreciated!

Ifalna wrote:It's due to the entire pot of paint slowly drying out while you paint from it.

I paint under some pretty hot, bright lights and have to say that my paints stay pretty good painting straight from the pot. Still have some really, really, really old paints that have been OK for about 10+ years now

Just keep refressing them with a touch more water if you notice then drying up and you should be fine.

Adding water will not return your paints to their original state. While the change in consistency/quality may not be noticeable to the human eye, paint begins to dry as soon as it comes into contact with air.

Paint does begin to dry, but I've found that a wet brush rubbed on the dried/drying paint globs on the cap get be paint I can use. Now that's gooey or tacky paint blobs, not the rock hard crust near where the cap seals the pot. But I have brought fairly old (5-6 years?) paint 'back to life' with some water and a toothpick. Not that this is ideal, but it works for me. I guess what I'm saying, is I have always painted from the pot, and I don't have too much trouble. Still, there's nothing wrong with using a pallette if you want to go that way.

I've seen some video's on YouTube on how to paint Mini's. One of them had a great show on how to "mix" the paints etc.
Although, the author - and also the painter - used some sort of tube-paints, which made it alot easier to get the right "mixings". He'd just drop x amount of drops onto a palette, and add other colors the same way, and to finish, add a drop of water from another tube.

But how do people mix the paints from the pots, and avoid getting the colors all different (if you for example paint over several days, and needs the same colors the day after)?

Billinator wrote:

But how do people mix the paints from the pots, and avoid getting the colors all different (if you for example paint over several days, and needs the same colors the day after)?

I solved this by mixing the paint colour I need in a deppression in a palette, or if I need a higher quantity of the colour, in a plastic bottle top. Once I'm finished, to stop it drying out, just put some sellotape over the top. Hey Presto, and air tight seal which stops your newly mixed paint drying out.

TheSecretSquig wrote:

Billinator wrote:

But how do people mix the paints from the pots, and avoid getting the colors all different (if you for example paint over several days, and needs the same colors the day after)?

I solved this by mixing the paint colour I need in a deppression in a palette, or if I need a higher quantity of the colour, in a plastic bottle top. Once I'm finished, to stop it drying out, just put some sellotape over the top. Hey Presto, and air tight seal which stops your newly mixed paint drying out.

Now that's a good idea, especially should you need exactly the same colour day after day.

My sisters BF collects SW, and he wanted to use the same mix which the guys in the Eavy Metal team use to do the SW in their collection. I can't remember which paints they were, Codex Grey and Fenris grey possibly, but he just poured equal measures into an empty washed out pot and now he has his own custom 'Space Wolves Grey' to do his collection.