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Hello all,

I want to reduce the opacity of some paint without thinning it too much (I'm using dark brown to weather/shade a vehicle, currently it's spraying too opaque and if I thin it with airbrush thinner, by the time I get the opacity I want it's too thin and spider webs and pools).

So I was going to grab some Vallejo Glaze Medium. The idea being to reduce the opacity of the brown without thinning it excessively. Is that what it'll do? Has anyone airbrushed with vallejo's glaze medium?

I don't currently own any, I just wanted to check before I order some online that it's actually going to do what I want.

Cheers!

I have some Vallejo glaze medium, but I haven't used it to thin airbrush paint, though I will do that in the future.

Not valejos specifically, but I use glaze medium and water in varying amounts in my airbrush.

Ephriel wrote:
Not valejos specifically, but I use glaze medium and water in varying amounts in my airbrush.

Does it do what I'm thinking it'll do? lol

It should do.

I'm theory hammering to an extent, but knowing what it is, and what it does, then it should behave in the way you anticipate.

Just to give another idea, although not exactly sure what you're trying to achieve, VMC Smoke, when thinned with some thinner, makes an excellent ager/weatherer, especially over metallics.

Actually I have some Tamiya smoke grey, never tried putting it through an airbrush, but it is good for an making something look like it has an oily build up.

I have a bunch of very clean grey on grey camo IG tanks, trying to figure out how to make them look slightly more used.

My plan was to do airbrush shading with a dark brown rather than a darker grey, similar to how you see on some of the Forge World tanks, then do some heavier localised weathering in the crevices with inks and powders, the brown airbrush shading helping blend the weathering in to the tank a bit more and give it a bit more depth.

I probably could achieve the same thing with a burnt umber oil paint, blending it in to the surface with white spirit, but I thought airbrushing might get the job done a bit quicker since I have a lot of tanks to do.

I did a test run with the dark brown airbrushing, it did what I want but a bit too much, just a bit too opaque even though I was trying my darndest not to pull too far back on the trigger. So I was hoping with a glaze medium I could more easily do low-opacity dark brown panel lining an then build up to thicker dirtier brown in the areas where dirt is more likely to build up.

I've just tried Typhus Corrosion, which was one of the new Technicals I'd not picked up until now. It might do what you want, I only wanted a light effect, so just thinned it further with water, seems to be pretty good finished effect.

 azreal13 wrote:
I've just tried Typhus Corrosion, which was one of the new Technicals I'd not picked up until now. It might do what you want, I only wanted a light effect, so just thinned it further with water, seems to be pretty good finished effect.

Isn't the grit in that paint going to get stuck in the needle (which is very small and narrow)?

Oil paint does my favorite oil effect BTW.

Yes, the grit in TC would get stuck in an airbrush. Which is why only a complete muppet would try it.

I was suggesting alternate means of achieving his goal, not suggesting he blow it through an airbrush!

I have tried Typhus corrosion. It works alright, but I was hoping for slightly more professional look. Typhus corrosion looks good on certain colours, but it doesn't look awesome on grey/grey camo, it's too noticeable on the light grey and you can barely see it on the darker grey.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
i want to reduce the opacity of some paint without thinning it too much (I'm using dark brown to weather/shade a vehicle, currently it's spraying too opaque and if I thin it with airbrush thinner, by the time I get the opacity I want it's too thin and spider webs and pools).!

Your doing it wrong. If you reduce the psi, don't pull your trigger back so far, and practice a bit, the pooling and spider webs will stop. Instead of looking for shortcuts, learn to do it right.

A.

 Redfinger wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
i want to reduce the opacity of some paint without thinning it too much (I'm using dark brown to weather/shade a vehicle, currently it's spraying too opaque and if I thin it with airbrush thinner, by the time I get the opacity I want it's too thin and spider webs and pools).!

Your doing it wrong. If you reduce the psi, don't pull your trigger back so far, and practice a bit, the pooling and spider webs will stop. Instead of looking for shortcuts, learn to do it right.

A.

Ok, I'll try that, I won't be getting the glazing medium until after easter anyway... but wouldn't it be faster just to reduce the opacity of the paint? Low PSI spraying is so much more fiddly, lol.

If you want to lower opacity, try inks. Again, better to learn to do it right rather than do it fast.

A.

 Redfinger wrote:
If you want to lower opacity, try inks. Again, better to learn to do it right rather than do it fast.

A.

I had a play around.

If I thin the paint out more and lower the pressure, yeah, I can get thinner less opaque coats, but it's much more fiddly. This is actually already what I do with my lizardmen, for some reason I didn't really think of it when doing the tank.

I played around with Mr.Hobby Smoke Grey as well (earlier I said Tamiya, my mistake, it was actually Gunze, not sure if there's any difference). Tested it on my testing Rhino (2nd edition Rhino that I use to test tank schemes). This is basically EXACTLY what I want... except it's black and I want brown

It's very low opacity but not super thin (I have to thin it slightly to use in the AB, it ends up similar opacity as using a wash but much thicker). So when you AB it, you use a higher pressure and just do very light build up around panel lines and then a heavier build up where grime would collect more.

It also has the benefit of being glossy, so you can really SEE it going on much easier, but then hit it with a satin/matte varnish and it blends in perfectly with the rest of the panel.

Again, better to learn to do it right rather than do it fast.

I guess I'm not really sure what's "wrong" with using lower opacity paint, running it thicker and higher pressure vs achieving the lower opacity via thinning and then having to fight with pressures and pooling. I know aircraft model painters who use Smoke Grey (low opacity black) through an AB for various things, I just want to do the same except with brown instead of black, lol.

I guess I need a glossy medium then, hmmm.

You should def pick up VMC Smoke then, as it is a brown, not a grey (yeah, I don't get it either, but it is)

The camera hasn't really picked it all up, but if you look at the lower right leg, you'll see the discolouration on the hydraulics, this was done with (pretty thin, but not overly) Smoke through my airbrush.



I used it all over the metal under structure to 'age' the metal, and focused it on a few spots where I anticipate exhaust (it loses the opacity pretty easily with a more focused spray) before applying soot pigment over the top.

You should def try it, I think you'll get what you want.

I have a bottle of Vallejo GM and it seems to be pretty thin by itself, so I don't think it would help, as you still need plenty of water/medium to bring down the amount of pigment. Only way I see it is to add more acrylic body to it, by using (thick) Matt Medium. I'd probably tone MM with a small amount of paint first, I'd guess 1 part paint to 2-3 parts of MM, then dilute it with Airbrush Medium.

You can of course use thick Gloss Medium, too, and go over with matt varnish/medium afterwards.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Redfinger wrote:
If you want to lower opacity, try inks. Again, better to learn to do it right rather than do it fast.

A.

I had a play around.

If I thin the paint out more and lower the pressure, yeah, I can get thinner less opaque coats, but it's much more fiddly. This is actually already what I do with my lizardmen, for some reason I didn't really think of it when doing the tank.

I played around with Mr.Hobby Smoke Grey as well (earlier I said Tamiya, my mistake, it was actually Gunze, not sure if there's any difference). Tested it on my testing Rhino (2nd edition Rhino that I use to test tank schemes). This is basically EXACTLY what I want... except it's black and I want brown

It's very low opacity but not super thin (I have to thin it slightly to use in the AB, it ends up similar opacity as using a wash but much thicker). So when you AB it, you use a higher pressure and just do very light build up around panel lines and then a heavier build up where grime would collect more.

It also has the benefit of being glossy, so you can really SEE it going on much easier, but then hit it with a satin/matte varnish and it blends in perfectly with the rest of the panel.

Again, better to learn to do it right rather than do it fast.

I guess I'm not really sure what's "wrong" with using lower opacity paint, running it thicker and higher pressure vs achieving the lower opacity via thinning and then having to fight with pressures and pooling. I know aircraft model painters who use Smoke Grey (low opacity black) through an AB for various things, I just want to do the same except with brown instead of black, lol.

I guess I need a glossy medium then, hmmm.

I guess it boils down to personal opinion, but I strongly feel if you learn the skills to use your airbrush to it's fullest potential, then there is almost nothing you cant do. The skills will benefit you longer, than the short cuts will. I am not against using them, I have done what you are talking about before, but I also know how to do it with out the glaze medium. As your skills level increases so will your capacity to achieve different effects.

A.

I dunno, I guess it just seems odd to me that if you want a lower opacity coat you just wouldn't use a lower opacity paint to make it easier on yourself rather than fighting against pooling and splatter trying to do it with nothing but paint+thinners, lol. Isn't that why the likes of Tamiya and Gunze sell smokes and clears to begin with?

I guess the engineer in me wants to make it as easy as possible, I'm not terribly artistic, lol, also the fact I have the best part of a armoured battle group to paint. If it was just 1 or 2 tanks I probably wouldn't bother I have friends who do historic scale models and they'll spend weeks on a single kit.

After googling around, I see there's a ton of acrylic mediums ranging from low viscosity wash-type mediums right through to thick gels and also varying rheology, so maybe I'll go to an art store and see what they have and also get my hands on the VMC smoke.