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I want to mix ard coat into my apple barrel plaid paints. I figure it will help keep it from just washing off. I'm not sure on a mixture and before I go wasting tons of paint experimenting with ratios I figure I would ask here. I had 3 main mixes in mind 50% A+B, 50% gloss. 50% A+B, 25% gloss, 25% isopropyl. 33% A+B, 33% gloss, 33% isopropyl

Why the isopropyl? If you just want to thin, use water, flow improver, or matte medium instead. As to mixing in gloss? Why would you mix? Why not just put a coat on after the paint? Either way your minis will be glossy without a matte varnish. If you are just looking to skip a step, mixing in the the gloss should be fine. I would use 33 gloss to 66 paint, thin with water as needed. With the cheap paints like apple barrel though, you are really going to be needing to use numerous coats as they have a much less saturated pigment count.

'ard coat? meh I wouldn't use that just because of the expense - if you really wanted gloss, I would use something from the art section, like a liquitex gloss and add that instead.

I dunno that'd I'd add it all tbh, I use a lot of those craft paints as well for many, well, crafty type things, and I wouldn't want to mix them with other things. You already have to do quite a bit of mixing, and they dry out fairly easily as well.

/shrugs

Ymmv

I just want to make my primary layers stick a little better while not adding as much of a glossy sheen to it.

Put down your paint, thinned with water as needed. Put on a gloss coat of varnish (you can use ard coat, but liquitex works just as well and is much cheaper. Then spray with a matte varnish. Done.

You can mix gloss, matt, media and varnish as long as they are all acrylic but you shouldn't need to in order to make the paint stick.

Wash the model properly before you start painting, and mount it on a temporary stand so you don't have to handle it with your fingers.

Use a primer. AWater based acrylic isn't as good on plastic as enamel paint.

Apple Barrel paint isn't really meant for miniature figures, but if you want to mix it, use an acrylic medium plus water to thin it, rather than 'Ard Coat, which is very expensive for what you get.

When all your painting is finished, follow the advice given by previous members to do two layers of varnish -- gloss followed by matt -- unless of course you want a gloss finish. I prefer sprays for this stage but brush on is OK too if you make it a thin coat.

I'll repeat this, if you want the paint to stick, the best you can do is to use a primer, preferrably a good spray on one. You can varnish something all you want, but if it is not properly primed, the paint can still come off.