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.
We've finally released our much coveted "Water+" (Yesterday, not today....it's not a wind up )
The ultimate product in paint thinning, INSTAR Water+ is a unique creation and only available through INSTAR.
Unlike typical mediums such as distilled water or Acrylic bases for thinning paints, Water+ acts differently by crosslinking the paint and pigment particles in the solution, evenly distributing them compared to typical water based mediums which attract pigment particles to the centre due to surface tension leaving unsightly tide marks.
This allows for much smoother coats per brush stroke since the pigment is evenly dispersed throughout the head of the brush and leaves the brush in an even manner in comparison to other mediums which retain most of the pigment in the brush head until the end of the brush stroke where the pigment concentration will be higher.
Using Water+ is no different from the way you use other mediums, just mix into paint to the consistency you require and Water+ will do the rest, It can also be used with wet palettes too (performance will be reduced slightly due to an increase in dilution)
Check out the Twitch streams from Grey Paladin Arts and Monkeys With Fire to see Water+ in action and see their reactions to using it!
Some lucky Model Box subscribers will have received a sample bottle in their medieval pack while Asset Drop customers will be receiving a 20ml bottle in the latest Discovery box!
Here's what Asset Drop had to say about it
"Thinning your paints is arguably one of the most important aspects of miniature painting. How thin your paints are will change how they act on the miniature; from how well they cover to the uniformity of the end result. It also opens up different techniques like glazing and washing.
Because thinning is so important, it’s no surprise that there are a variety of products which can help you with it; from distilled water to flow improver to acrylic thinners, all from a number of different manufactures. For most painting applications, I’d recommend a high quality thinner over water, as good thinners change the base properties of the paint much less than water will.
How do you pick the best acrylic thinner though?
This is fairly subjective as different people will want different things from their thinner, in a thinner, and why amongst the ranks of other thinning products, Water+ really stands out. For me, there are four key attributes a thinner should have to make it excellent. Water+ has all of these!
Low Viscosity
I personally prefer my paints to be thin, with lots of flow, for as smooth application off the brush. Having a thinner which isn’t too thick (or too thin for that matter) is a great start.
High Transparency
As well as looking for a thinner with the ideal viscosity, I also look for thinners which won’t alter the opacity of my paint during application. Good thinners won’t make your paint more opaque when dry, but thinners which come out of the bottle milky will make your paint look more opaque when it’s
being applied, and may even alter the colour tone during application. I find this undesirable as it’s harder to judge the end result of your painting this way.
High Compatibility
Although it’s uncommon, I have experienced thinners that don’t behave well with some paint brands. I like to keep painting as straightforward as possible and not have to worry about how my thinner will react with new paints.
Great Value
Finally, being good value for money is the final hurdle. I get through plenty of thinner so being able to buy it in larger bottles is a must.
Water+ has all of these attributes exactly right, while also providing two further outstanding features!
Pigment Suspension:
With Water+, INSTAR have managed to engineer a formula which provides pigment binding properties. What I mean by this is that your paint will no longer separate as readily on the palette! This is an issue which can arise with other thinners, especially water. Now when your paint dries, it will give you a very smooth and solid coverage, even when using thin paints, or paints with larger pigment particles. This is an impressive property of Water+!
Finally, the high precision bottle INSTAR have used for their Water+ has a super fine nib. This helps you to get exactly the right amount of thinner, exactly where you need it. Ideal for keeping waste and mess to a minimum, and getting the correct thinning ratios."
Water+ is available from our store under its own tab on the menu bar!
ced1106 wrote: NIce -- tidemarks, eh? (: How well would it work as a wash with inks? Paints?
Very well, it thins them down nicely improving the flow, but because of the cross linking effect it distributes the pigment more evenly rather than pooling so it increases the level of control when using washes and inks
All they really need is a drop and that's about it
Heavy flesh was used on the skin tones (Funnily enough!) over the top of our Sunburnt flesh to give a smoother transistion blend, the Purple was used to enhance the leather look on the shield
Next up we have two new colours to add to the paint line, Mucus Green should come with a free set of nuclear goggles!
And three new editions to the Vintage line and a welcome return to some much missed colours, Graveyard Earth (IV-36), Scorched Brown (IV-37) and Bleached Bone (IV-38)
OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote: If you're just used to GW paints you may be tempted not to shake other brands like these enough,
which might explain having to use multiple coats as not all the pigment has been resuspended (I can't say for sure about Instar but I've a few Vallejo and Armypainter colours like that)
GW uses a very gummy mix, especially for layers;/foundations which makes them less likely to separate but means they're harder to do some blending techniques etc with
Though I shook the paints way more vigorously than I ever shake GW paints, I gave it another try. This time I shook them so long, it bordered on a workout
This indeed improved the coverage and I now only needed 1 extra layer compared to GW base colour. It also now matched the GW colour better, the difference is now only minimal. So the paints are better than my first impression was, but GW still wins on convenience IMHO.
Maybe there should be a "shake like crazy" instruction on the bottles
I added a little pebble or ball bearing (didn't have enough ball bearings) to my dropper bottles.
That shakes them thoroughly without trouble.
I actually have to water down the INSTAR paints quite a lot as they cover so well, in my experience.
they are thicker than GW paints, from what I recall of GW paints, and most importantly for me they provide a solid vehicle for tints and other additives...
ced1106 wrote: NIce -- tidemarks, eh? (: How well would it work as a wash with inks? Paints?
Very well, it thins them down nicely improving the flow, but because of the cross linking effect it distributes the pigment more evenly rather than pooling so it increases the level of control when using washes and inks
All they really need is a drop and that's about it
Water sounds interesting indeed!
We're adding agitators to all new batches we produce so this problem has now been resolved, also they're pretty good agitators we use and mix the paints better and faster than traditional ball bearings (And they don't rust either which is a plus!)
And yeah, the Water+ is getting lots of really good feedback, most people will tell you it's a gimmick though they haven't tried it, but once you've smelt it, tasted it and used it, you'll know it's not just distilled water and quite possibly, as one twitter user put it, the wonder product of 2019
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/04/15 15:29:27
So GW have a supposedly new product coming out that has gotten people thinking they have come up with something new that people haven't thought of.
Well, we'd already beaten them to the punch on that one
Our Water+ is unlike anything else on the market and in fact cannot be found anywhere else on the market, with a heavily modified solution, our Water+ allows you to create smooth, seamless blends, make other paint brands more useable (Such as Army painter and Scale75 being the most prominent ones), keeps your brush tip sharp....
You can't improve washes by helping them flow into recesses better with no loss in pigmentation, you can glaze faster and smoother
You can keep your brush nice and clean, it'll extend the life of your brush, it will give even tiny 10/0 brushes something of a reservoir so you can paint longer, neater and faster
You can use it as an airbrush thinner to keep a high pigmentation level through your airbrush
The list of what this stuff can do just seems to grow as people use it more and more!
Why not check it out for yourself, any order placed with us gets a free sample bottle to try out
The Phazer wrote: I might give the Water+ stuff a try. Does it slow down trying as well like a Liquidex slo-dri stuff? Or can it be mixed with a product like that?
Quite the opposite, it actually speeds up drying time a little faster than standard water, but it levels out as if you are using a slow drying retarder so you can get the same results and paint quicker
We haven't tried mixing it, but I can't see why it wouldn't work to slow the drying time
As a brush licker/two brush blender I’m interested to hear.
Also, does it contain animal byproduct as a vegetarian...
I’m using your foundation range for my bases and they do the job well replacing colours I used to use, this product has piqued my interest but (without you giving the game away) I need to know if I can use it or not.
While we don't recommend it, it's perfectly safe to lick your brush using this stuff
And it contains no animal byproducts whatsoever, in fact, it's completely vegan friendly and yes, it not only works with our paints, but other brands too so it's not a one trick pony so to speak
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/04/25 20:15:48
angel of death 007 wrote: Is there any chance you are doing a Bestial Brown. I am getting low on this color and could really use it. All the GW replacements are not close to the correct color.
Not yet, but we can bump it up the list
Follow us on our social media and you'll find out as soon as it launches!
ced1106 wrote: [Thanks -- did some more work, but the pictures didn't turn out well.
Anyway, I'd like to see some brush-on colored primers. I know you're going for the display-level audience, but, for tabletop, I find colored primers make painting faster.
I often use brown. Black is for metal undercoats, but I see Vallejo makes a metal primer. Other colors I would like use are green (orc skin), flesh (human), red, blue, and yellow.
And here's a picture of a skaven firethrower (?) team, base coated with Dust Brown and Cool Grey before washing. :
Oh we have no particular audience, we love all the miniatures we see painted with our products
We are looking at brush on primers, though coloured ones are a little way off at the moment, at the moment we're still working on our one-coat system!
The original idea had to be shelved as one of the supplier of the raw material folded on us which meant the whole project took a set back. However we haven't given up on it though it might be turning in a new direction so watch this space (That is providing the idea actually work....)
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ashaar wrote: Looking forward to seeing the Spectrum line, the example looks great.
Thank you!
There will be samples of this heading out with orders soon much the same way Water+ has, the only difference is it will be a random colour.
We're aiming for full release end of May - mid June (Due to the move, the launch date had to be pushed back a bit)
Automatically Appended Next Post:
FabricatorGeneralMike wrote: Hello there I just placed a order with you guys for the first time for iv-02 aka chardinate granite as mine gave up the ghost a while ago and finding a replacement is a pain in the ass. I just wanted to know if you are still offering the free 5ml water+ sample as it looks rather interesting. As a first time customer if you are offering it will it up the shipping cost? I live in canada and as awesome as your products look the exchange rate and shipping costs just nuke me everytime.
Thank you and i can't wait to see how the paints work out.
We saw, thank you very much!
Yes it will come with a free sample of Water+ but given that our shipping cost is based on weight, a small 5ml sample won't push it over, and even if it did, we won't charge you the extra for it.
We're nice like that
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2019/05/21 17:01:14
Heavy flesh was used on the skin tones (Funnily enough!) over the top of our Sunburnt flesh to give a smoother transistion blend, the Purple was used to enhance the leather look on the shield
Next up we have two new colours to add to the paint line, Mucus Green should come with a free set of nuclear goggles!
And three new editions to the Vintage line and a welcome return to some much missed colours, Graveyard Earth (IV-36), Scorched Brown (IV-37) and Bleached Bone (IV-38)
Our new Alpha line is already making huge waves in the community with large numbers of positive reviews
Ultra Thin like a wash, Highly Opaque like the old Foundation paints designed to get your models tabletop ready fast while giving a high quality tabletop finish!
The "Pure" Colours in the range can be likened to Kimera Paints, but much thinner, the rest of the range are premixed colours ready to go straight from the bottle, onto your pallete and onto your miniature with no additional thinning required
By adding a tiny brushful of thinner you can turn these from hihly opaque paints to a layer type paint, add a drop of thinner, you get a Contrast style paijt, Add two drops of thinner, get a glaze and add three drops of thinner, get a Wash.
They are also freezable too meaning shipping is now no longer an issue, once defrosted the paints make an excellent drybrush or sculptable terrain paint and after a full day the paint reverts back to it's original state ready to be painted onto a miniature...you'll know when it's ready because you'll hear the agitator!
Use alongside our new Matte+ and Gloss+ additives to really enhance these paints further and unlock new methods
Great quality off the brush or through an airbrush with no extra thinner required straight from the bottle
Brush ready, airbrush ready.....are you ready?
All through November we have an early bird discount code, just use at the checkout at our store - ALPHA5
jeff white wrote:geez wow you have really come a LONG ways!
I am gonna be at your webstore just now though to check these out!
Wow!
Pricing is awesome!
I am getting the airbrush out of storage today,
and see if I can make some room for a few 100ml bottles of these Alphas.
Just awesome!
Thank you, it's been a hell of a year but it's all been worth it!
Thank you for being one of the first to ever use our product!
dyndraig wrote:When will the Alpha paints start shipping?
Official shipping starts on the 7th December, but you can pre order your paints now all this month while we finalise the production, you'll also get a discount, just use the code alpha5 at the checkout
Automatically Appended Next Post: Morning,
If anyone's interested tonight, MonkeysWithFire will be showcasing the new Alpha line on his channel tonight (7PM GMT), he has the full selection including our coveted Water+ and the new Matte+ and Gloss+ additives
Get to see the paint in action as well as asking us and the Simian Collective (Pascal, Edo, Sarah and Snik) who will also be there any questions about the range, they've had the set for several weeks now and had plenty of time to play with it!
Slipstream wrote: Hi Instar,
I was wondering if you could give me some guidelines for one of your metallics?
I have Cabarnet red (good colour) I've used it but I've never felt that I got the best out of it or used it in the right way.
It turns out a little grainy and really needs a few coats. I tried painting over a light gold basecoat to no avail.
Any suggestions?
Hello, unfortunately Cabernet Red suffers from the same problems as any red, except because it's a metallic it's a little more extreme since the particles are reflective and not transparent, meaning that the light can't pass through it twice (Once on the way to the surface and secondly on reflection).
It is just an unfortunate case of layering though a grey basecoat might work better than a black (Which absorbs more light) or White (Which will wash it out)
We do however have a much improved system called Metal+ - https://shop.instarpaint.com/product/metal/ which can turn any paint into a metallic simply by adding it, you can see the swatches here where we've used our Pure Colours with an addition of Metal+ - https://shop.instarpaint.com/swatch-cards/, there is an improvement coming to the system next year to make it even more powerful.
Slipstream wrote: Hi Instar, thanks for the reply, you've gave me some ideas which I will try today.
I tend to use very opaque paints as colour undercoats when I'm painting red. If I need a bright finish I use a sand paint(more yellow than tan), if I need a darker finish I use a dark pink colour. I think the dark pink will work better with the metallic red. Failing that, I'll try drybrushing!
We've got new products in store and if we're honest, painters haven't had this much power at their disposal!
To start with, we have three new single pigments to add to the Alpha line. While we're moving into just a single pigment range, we're also providing guides to help painters along, we're not leaving anyone in the dark
Pure Oxide Black is a more natural form of Black, you can see this as it's more Brown hued than Pure Black which is Blue hued, this gives different variations of grey as well as creating a superb wash for metals when combined with our Water+ product
Pure Warm Blue is a more gentle version of Pure Blue so can provide more subtle colour changes, it is however slightly more opaque than Pure Blue
Pure Warm Red is a richer version of Pure Red with more body, great for blood and flesh effects
This currently gives us the largest single pigment range on the market right now and we have plans this year to add even more to give even more options when it comes to creating your own colours!
Which moves us onto the next items in the list
Our Bundle packs have relaunched and are the perfect introduction to both the Alpha Range and Colour Mixing, each sets colours are specifically chosen to provide the widest range of colours possible in a recognisable format. Each one has its own set of colour wheels (If you saw our video short on colour wheel evolution, this will make sense now) and mixing guide that will allow you to create almost any colour you can think of extremely easily.
And that leads on to the biggest thing of 2021 so far
This is currently the crown jewel in our store, making colours on a palette is one thing, but what if you want to do a whole army in the colours you mixed?
Well now you can, this kit contains everything you need to get you started on making your own paint set, instead of a limited closed system of pre mixed colours, you can create anything you want to make, by using the printable swatch cards available on the website, all you do is simply record the recipe in droplets, use the conversion calculator and use the syringes (with plastic tips ) to put the raw colours into the bottle, then simply shake it up and voila, we should note that all the stuff in the box can be purchased separately (Including the bottles!)
This video will explain more (We are planning to do an updated version of this) (The video is disabled for embedding on purpose)
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/01/14 14:46:25
Gimgamgoo wrote: I was just putting an order through but the main paint I was after has vanished...
Alpha range - Camo Brown. I thought this was a new range?
I was about to order either a 100ml or a couple of 50ml bottles. (My last 50ml and 20ml bottle ran out today). I've been using it as the base coat for my army's sanded bases and movement trays. It is a perfect consistency for painting over the sanded bases, seeping into all the gaps, never bubbling and only ever needing one coat.
Is it discontinued or just out of stock?
The Alpha page only shows 2 browns, neither are camo brown.
Typically, I get half way through an army and the paint vanishes. I thought I'd done away with that problem by stopping using GW and their ever changing names and slight shade alterations.
EDIT: I found the camo brown in the clearance sale. Does this mean you're dropping the Alpha paints barring the ones for your mixing kits? :-(
Hello!
Kind of a 50/50...
The Alpha range hasn’t “gone” as such, the colour can still be made even with the use of the dropper bottles, it’s more of a streamlined product line now to be able to cater for everyone (mostly because we were always getting requests for new colours).
The Camo brown is one of the simpler recipes that can be made and can be found in the mixing formulas https://shop.instarpaint.com/product-category/alphasimplecolours/, but don’t think that it’s a lot of paint to make a colour, 10 drops is a very small amount considering that a standard 20ml size holds around 1000 drops of paint.
So yeah, no need to worry about colours changing, the colours are still there and will be the same everytime you make it, we put a lot of thought into it before we made the change
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/02/15 13:52:17
That's unfortunate as we put an awful lot of thought into the system and don't feel it's a step backwards, unlike Kimera or Scale75 Artist who largely leave you in the dark or require you to have a degree in art (for lack of a better term), we actively encourage it, but provide a big helping hand along the way by providing a massive database of colours with dropper recipes to recreate them every time, that way you can always get the colour you want/need with the same consistency without having to resort to another paint brand, with a different formula paint requiring you to adjust your approach.
One - to provide a much more accessible product since we realised that the words "Paint" and "Mixing" tends to instill fear in most painters (even some of our sponsored painters at first we're afraid until they realised how easy it was), but is actually one of the most basic skills we learn at a very early age, you don't need to have a grounding in colour theory and mixing with the system we've developed.
Two - Reduce the amount of paint you actually need, no point buying a colour that you'll only use ONCE if you can just mix it on the palette in a matter of seconds using the dropper bottles and counting the drops
Three - Easy to scale up, if you find yourself using a colour an awful lot, it's very quick to convert a dropper recipe to a ml recipe to create a bottle of the exact colour that you mix on the palette, we did this exact system with our NMM steel colours so we didn't have to keep mixing all the time, now all we do is just reach for the mixed colours. One of our sponsored painters did this for his skintones and made his own collection using our system
Four - Access to more colours then you can shake a stick at, most of the colours you buy in a triad are just the same colour with Grey or White added to it, so you could make your own triads out of just one colour from a possible two billion base colours, this marine here is the same purple colour base all the way through, all we did was add a drop of a lighter or darker grey to adjust the saturation.....the principle remained the same for all the other colours from the guns to the purity seal.
As for the number of colours you need...you can easily make any colour you want using just the Primaries pack which we have available as a bundle pack or you could get the colours individually for less than £15 for the 20ml sizes, plus access to a free, pigment specific colour wheel that's dead easy to follow and will recreate the colour you see on screen
Gimgamgoo wrote: I must admit, although I've loved the quality of the alpha paint range. Mixing isn't for me either.
Your £140 paint mixing kit gets you to put the paint in stubby jam jars. We know the paint will separate and require mixing. (See pic below of alpha paint). So, it will need shaking up. A GW pot is nasty enough for the mess around the rim and lid, but I imagine a screw top jar with a large surface area lid will require a lot of cleaning to keep from crusting up.
While i'm not going to try to sell you on the mixing kit, the tubs were something we put thought into as well, since they are just they for storage and not continual opening and closing, when you shake it, the paint doesn't run into the threads although if it did, it's quite easy to clean with a simple kitchen towel, but on the whole you don't run the risk of crusting up the threads, also with the syringes that is also something we thought about.
Because the paint is very thin naturally, it's much easier to dispense then you think and we specifically supply plastic syringe tips that are the right size to ensure easy dispensing and to get the correct amounts, though the example you gave from the RAL database for the Flame red will require the use of the syringes and tips to reproduce the exact colour, that's something that's totally unavoidable since they are a Standard Colour, but it does also mean that if you saw that colour in real life and thought "That would make a good colour for *insert model here*, you could make it and it would be the same, if not as close as possible to that colour.
However you can round it it to get a close approximation, but even a small amount of paint can make a huge difference, But that's also the reason why we began a seperate database (which is growing all the time) that has formulas that are just in whole numbers so they can be dispensed straight from the pure bottles in a droplet format...essentialy the formulas are just ratios so even if you managed to get hold of saucepan sized amounts of Alpha and mixed it altogether, you'd still end up with the same colour regardless.....
But it wasn't as if we made the desicion lightly and we knew it would ruffle some feathers, we'd spent the best part of a year devising a system that was simple to use, easy to follow, most importantly repeatable and would be able to cater for every painters needs since every painter is different and has different tastes, some people like a thicker paint, others just want a contrast style paint etc.....we opened it up in a way so people could create the paints THEY wanted.
But it's not just having to buy the kit, If you onyl have a set number of colours you use day in, day out, you could order just the refill size bottles and syringes, a bottle pack and optionally the storage containers, the idea behind it is to reduce the amount of waste that we, as a community generate...when we have an empty pot of paint, we just throw in the bin, but it can't be recycled with dried paint in it, it just goes to landfill...and then we just buy another pot and the cycle repeats. The idea with this system is that once the paint has been used, you can look up the recipe and refill it again and since you're just buying refill bottles (Which can be easily cleaned out and recycled) the cost of your paint drops by quite a significant margin and at the same time, being kinder to the environment too.
Azazelx wrote: The brush-cleaning stuff looks good. I'd pick it up if it was a realistic purchase, but the postage sadly prevents that.
As for the paint system, not for me, I'm afraid. I mix sub-colours all the time, but I'm not intertested in needing to use pipettes and so forth when I need a very small amount of a specific colour, and I like being able to eyeball what I'll get by mixing Warpaints Tanned Flesh with VMA Rose Brown, and then varying it by adding a drop (or less) of Panzer Aces Light Rust, and doing so to paint the flesh on 6 models.
If someone was using very few colours to do an army with a limited palette, then sure, but I like to be able to eyeball a lot of different shades and tones and then vary or play with them on the fly.
Ahhh, the syringes are only really needed if you're mixing from the RAL database to create full bottle of colour or creating a full bottle of colour from one of the mixing formulas, other than that you can just use drops from the dropper bottles much as you would using normal paints in place of the millilitres, the system is there to cater for everyone. It just generates much less waste and if you only need a very small amount, you can easily eyeball it if you count a single drop as "1" and then roughly guage what you need to remove so 0.4ml would be just under half a drop, 0.7ml would be just over.
The idea behind it was repeatability as that's one of the things that puts people off colour mixing completely, but you're doing exactly what the system was designed for by mixing paints anyway, just we offer it as a single pigment line rather than mixing pre mixed colours which can have a big level of unpredicatbility since you won't know what pigments are in the colour (Unless of course they list them...which most companies don't), but if you prefer mixing premixed colours, you can create your own specific flesh tones and bottle them up easily, then adjust them on the fly as needed.
It's pretty much how we're painting now, a select number colours that we use day to day and then adjust them with various levels of greys, yellow, reds and blues.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2021/02/24 10:13:25
New video up on our Youtube Channel, How to paint Onyx Skin
Also a free, updated guide on how to use our Alpha paints as well as how to mix colours using three different methods, The INSTAR system way, the traditional way and the bulk way
Fifty wrote: A friend just posted about the changes to your range on our club's painting page, and I am intrigued, to say the least.
I think the Alpha range might be risky for you, judging by the number of people here who seem reluctant to mix their own colours, but I am very, very interested in the idea. Before I next buy any new colours, I need to at least try this out. I am not as good as I should be when it comes to sustainability, but I am at least conscious of it and this seems like something that deserves a try. The level of flexibility certainly appeals as well.
(I wonder if some people who are reluctant to mix colours because they might not quite get a perfect match also over-estimate their own ability to paint well enought to exactly match previous models anyway!)
I am curious, how well would a paint mixed from your Alpha range mix with a regular acrylic from GW or Vallejo?
Weirdly the take up for the new system of the Alpha range has been pretty positive so far, probably due to the fact that we've stated that you can make the majority of the premixed Alpha range just through droplets alone, but the idea came about from seeing loads of forum posts where it starts with "I'm trying to find this colour" or "I want a specific colour but no range has it". We're also working on a system of painting that helps massively, rather than a how to guide tellign you step by step which colours to use, we leave that door open to the painter to decide on their colours and instead provide them with a guide on how to choose the colours to get the best effect possible for what they want, we're currently in the final stages of it.
Rather than going down the Kimera or Scale75 Artist range where you tend to put a big blob on the palette and then take a bit from each and mix somewhere else which does put people off, we decided to keep it simple and straightforward. Since every drop out of our bottles is pretty much uniform, regardless of the colour, it was easy to make recipes that just said "Mix 2 drops of this, 1 drop of that and 4 drops of this and you'll get this colour". Put that alongside easy to follow colour wheels and an ever increasing database of colours means that it's easy to find the colour you want and due to the way we've done it, what you see on the screen, 99% of the time will be what you get, but because every monitor setup is different it's difficult to get it to 100%.
Then we have swatch recording cards where, if you make a colour you like or paint an army up in a specific scheme using specific colour mixes, you can paint a swatch on the card and write down the recipe to make it, then, because of the uniformity of the droplets, means that you'll make that same colour every single time. Which comes round to the point about armies, because of the way the system works, there's no fear in trying to match the same colour to keep it consistent, so long as you write down what the formula was, you can repeat it all the time consistently and repeatedly. In our "Using Alpha" guide under the "Free Stuff" tab, we show three ways you can mix colours.
With your point about reluctance to mixing, We're not sure if it's because people might recognise that the colour they've used is not exact (Which if you get it close is going to pretty hard to spot anyway unless you paint side by side on the same model) or because they feel it's beyond their skill level which we feel is wrong, as we've pointed out, if we can do it starting entirely from scratch on an industrial level, so can everyone on a hobby scale ,though if more people come forward to say why they are reluctant to colour mixing, we can then improve the system to make it more accessible. At the moment we feel we've done a lot to make it easy from providing empty bottles, syringes, storage containers, recipes, colour wheels, some of our sponsored painters are doing paint alongs etc
Given that the Alpha range can be turned into washes and glazes easily using Water+ means that you have an incredible toolkit at your disposal to make the colours you want to make.
I'm not sure on the last question though....I know some people have added the Pure White to Corax White to make a super luminescent white so they do mix in well with other ranges meaning you can adjust them accordingly.
)
) to put the 
