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Hi Dakka,

I'm using Flash Gitz Yellow and having trouble evenly spreading it. The paint tends to clump up very often and I'm not sure how to prevent that other than putting like 5-6 thin coats. Any thoughts?

Clumping sounds like a bad paint bottle, you should get it replaced in that case. Unless you mean pooling? If it's pooling, you need less paint on your brush, especially for thin paints. Wipe some off onto a paper towel, tissue etc so the brush isn't overloaded and you can put nice smooth layers. Disclaimer: I don't use GW paints, so have no direct experience with the new layers etc.

Layer paints are thinner than base paints and aren't designed to go directly onto surfaces that are not already predominantly that colour. If you are painting over black or another dark colour then you will have to do lots of coats to get up to yellow. Better is to use a white basecoat and then apply the yellow or you should be able to apply Averland Sunset instead (it is a base coat so a bit thicker).

wtnind wrote:
Layer paints are thinner than base paints and aren't designed to go directly onto surfaces that are not already predominantly that colour. If you are painting over black or another dark colour then you will have to do lots of coats to get up to yellow. Better is to use a white basecoat and then apply the yellow or you should be able to apply Averland Sunset instead (it is a base coat so a bit thicker).

That makes sense. Thanks!

Bases = opaque,
Layers = semi - transparent

The difference is in the medium that is the base of the paint.
From Liquitex you can get 'Ultra Matt Medium' which does a similar job to what is at the heart of the base paints range (boost opacity)
While regular Matt Medium is more akin to the layers (boosting transparency)

HairySticks wrote:
Bases = opaque,
Layers = semi - transparent

The difference is in the medium that is the base of the paint.
From Liquitex you can get 'Ultra Matt Medium' which does a similar job to what is at the heart of the base paints range (boost opacity)
While regular Matt Medium is more akin to the layers (boosting transparency)

If I don't have access to those things, I'm guessing that I should just try to make many layers in order to achieve the same effect as a Base?

Yeah thin it a lot, and apply multiple thin layers. Working over a suitable basecolour really helps with the layer paints though.

For yellow, a pale brown, a white, or bone colour might be a nice base. Each will affect the 'temperature' of the yellow ; making it warmer or cooler looking. Another option (because of the transparency) is to underpaint or to shade and highlight the base coat before applying the yellow - experiment with it, finding the right contrast to show through your layer is key there.

HairySticks wrote:
Bases = opaque,
Layers = semi - transparent

The difference is in the medium that is the base of the paint.
From Liquitex you can get 'Ultra Matt Medium' which does a similar job to what is at the heart of the base paints range (boost opacity)
While regular Matt Medium is more akin to the layers (boosting transparency)

not from what ive seen. wild rider red for example is thick clumpy and not really transparent at all.

the base layer thing should be taken with a grain of salt.

to get decent performance out of them you will need to thin it properly OP. for that yellow you could thin it with the yellow glaze for example. or you could try lahmian medium. or vallejo glaze medium, etc.

When talking about paints being semi transparent, it does not mean you can literally see right through them.
Theyre 'semi' transparent. Meaning that the base colour makes a big impact on the colour of the semi transparent layer.

Try it;

paint something half black, half white, and apply the layer paints across the split between black and white, the tone of the paint should appear different over each and the dividing line should still be visible.
For a couple of layers atleast, eventually it will go opaque with enough layers, the only truely transparent paints I'm aware of are Candy colours, which show the base coat through layers and layers and layers. Custom automotive painters use this to great effect.