Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm new to painting and I'm slowly experimenting with different things. One of the first things I've been told is to dilute my paint and I have, with water. But, there are many people which swear by things such as flow improvers, pain thinners and dozens of mediums. I'm in Eastern Europe and other than GW brand paints, Vallejo is pretty readily available. I was looking over their product line and I'm a bit fuzzy on the while Glaze Medium and Matte Medium products. Both, the site says, increase fluidity and mask brush strokes and when thinned down more (i.e. 10:1 ratio) make good glazes and such. What do you guys use them for?

A matte medium promotes a non-glossy finish; a glaze medium has a shiny finish. That's the whole difference.

A few articles that might help you:
http://handcannononline.com/blog/2011/05/11/tutorial-basics-this-plus-that-equals-additives-and-their-uses/
http://blog.brushthralls.com/?page_id=2681
http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/A_basic_course_in_Acrylic_Mediums

 Vulcan wrote:
A matte medium promotes a non-glossy finish; a glaze medium has a shiny finish. That's the whole difference.

You're thinking of "gloss medium", not "glaze medium". Glaze medium makes the paint more transparent whilst still keeping the glue that binds the paint.

Thanks for the help, guys. I saw some really cool tutorials showing how to paint whole armor highlights using the Medium Glaze. From what I see, thinning paints is a matter of taste. Some folks us water, some add the Glaze Medium to get a little translucence, some just use thinner and still some us a combination of everything :/

why cant this be simple?

Like you said it's a matter of taste. Currently I'm using a custom blend for thinning but having watched a few tutorial videos it's been my observation that almost all of the top painters I've seen use plain water to thin their paints. I plan to wean myself from using additives and get used to plain water for thinning.

Dante72 wrote:
Thanks for the help, guys. I saw some really cool tutorials showing how to paint whole armor highlights using the Medium Glaze. From what I see, thinning paints is a matter of taste. Some folks us water, some add the Glaze Medium to get a little translucence, some just use thinner and still some us a combination of everything :/

why cant this be simple?

It can be. For acrylics, I use Future/Klear. Works a charm, both in an airbrush and by hand. It's also a great gloss coat prior to using washes, decals, and oil paint weathering, as well as a protective layer for clear parts like windshields which also makes them appear thinner and more to scale, and clarifies removing scratches and hazing.

I've tried water, and that works fine too, but I find the fact that Future/Klear is acrylic itself to be better. I've also tried complicating things by adding slow dry, flow aid, retarder, etc but it over thinned. So I just use Future/Klear

I finally sat down and started painting yesterday. I used mainly water, but with GW paints, i always had more water on my palette than I got paint from the pot. I used the Glaze Medium on my metallic foundation and I saw that, I had greater control than with just water.

https://imageshack.com/i/fkz0lmj

Everything went fine, until I tried edge highlighting, I mean, it's not bad considering this is the first mini i ever painted

https://imageshack.com/i/mw7s12j