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hey all im painting up some tallarn and i was wondering how do you get a nice even base colour on black undercoat mine always comes out patchy
Mal

thinned down layers of paint will help!
the first 3/4 coats will be kind of see-through, but after that you will have a perfect smooth coverage

Try moving from a black primer/undercoat to a light grey color.
It will reduce the amount of coats needed to get smooth coverage and it will reduce the blotchy look without altering the color (darkening it) like black can do sometimes.

Here's something on priming: http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2011/09/how-i-prime-my-models.html
Here's one on using lighter colored primers: http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2010/11/basics-light-colored-primer.html

Hope this helps some.

Two thined layers often can look smoother than one thicker one.

Maybe black is the wrong base colour for your colour scheme? Grey can be more forgiving. Or coloured sprays? I would use my airbrush, but Army Painter Spray seems a popular choice?

ok what paint to water ratio should i use

Hmm its hard to say...

I have a bottle of water with flow aid mixed in (think it was 20:1, but I followed the flow aid bottle guidelines-ish)
When painting I bring an amount of paint out of a pot onto a pallete, and also put an amount of clean water/flow aid in another well on the pallete. then move water into the colour just bit by bit with a brush untill satisfied with the viscosity.

How thin? well as thins as possible without detracting from the coverage too much. Experiment and practise is the best advice I can give... You want the paint to be thin, but not as if its a wash... too much would be counter productive and its rather hard to describe. Just try it out and play around with how thin you can take it before you feel its working against you. And remember its okay to put one coat on and it to dry patchy then apply a 2nd thin coat and it will dry smooth (or atleast less patchy each pass) Its very much a less is more kind of mentality, you want the minimum amount of paint to provide the colour you desire and no more