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Made in de
Fresh-Faced New User




Hello there,
I have a pretty stupid question. If I want to mix a colour, what is is the best way to get a exact amount of a paint out of the Pod?
Sometimes it says mix two parts brown with one part of green or so, how can I make the "parts" as precise as possible?
I usually use the rear-end of a Brush, to transfer paint to the pallet but that's pretty random because the thickness of the paint can variate.
I also tried a dropper but that just ends in a mess, because the paint sticks in the dropper and you have to clear it first before you can use it for the next colour. Oh, and it produces air bubbles in the paint.

Has anyone a tip for me?
   
Made in au
Lady of the Lake






Generally I just eye it, but to get a proper measurement you'll be looking for plastic syringes to take the paint out and put it somewhere else in a precise amount. Will have to clean it as well after each use, I suppose like the dropper then you'll just need more than one if you want to really speed it up.

   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut




Nottingham, UK

Eyeball it, and bear in mind that painters giving instructions like 50-50 space wolf grey and shadow grey will quite often not be referring to the mix, but the resultant tone (ie aim for 'half way' between the two).

It's extremely rare that someone is OCD enough to actually measure precisely what they're doing.

 
   
Made in gb
Rotting Sorcerer of Nurgle





Portsmouth UK

If you're going to use the mix a lot, mix up a large batch & stick it in a spare paint pot.

Check out my gallery here
Also I've started taking photos to use as reference for weathering which can be found here. Please send me your photos so they can be found all in one place!! 
   
Made in us
Rampaging Furioso Blood Angel Dreadnought





Boston, MA

I mix in plastic cups (actually plastic egg cartons).

In my water cup I have a cheap, synthetic, Testors (white handle) brush. I _always_ use that brush to pull a blob of paint from the container (count that as '1' for the sake of ratios). It rinses so easily being synthetic and I always use the same one so my ratios remain more or less consistent.

Please check out my photo blog: http://atticwars40k.blogspot.com/ 
   
Made in us
Grizzled Space Wolves Great Wolf





I usually just use "brushfulls" of paint. Using a brush I don't care too much about, I'll pick up a blob, wipe off the excess, then pick up another blob, put it on the palette, wash the brush, do the same for the other paint, and that's pretty close to 50:50. If you wash and dry the brush on a tissue when going one paint to another, it'll hold much the same amount of paint each time.

If it's something I actually care about colour matching perfectly, I'll mix a large batch in a spare pot. Even if you can drop out exact amounts of paint, paints dry out over time so if you come and do the same mixture in 6 months time, one paint might be dryer than the other so the same volumes won't give the same result or maybe you run out of a paint and have to buy a new one and the new one is more watery. So even perfectly matching the volumes doesn't guarantee a perfect mixture.
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut






Pa, USA

You're best bet is to keep your paint in individual droppers rather than paint pots, just for this particular reason.

But if that's not an option, I also do Brush fulls of paint. As long as you can eye it up properly and the finished mix looks right, good enough.

Why is it that only those who have never fought in a battle are so eager to be in one? 
   
Made in de
Fresh-Faced New User




Thanks for all the tips so far. Using a cheap brush for colour transfer sounds reasonable. I will try it.

If I need large amounts of a mixed colour I usually use some old airtight pillboxes. But If I have an old paint pod, is there a good way to to remove all the remaining dried up paint from it?
   
 
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