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Looking for a little advice here.

I have only recently started painting and having some trouble with paint coverage. I am using Army Painter paints and when I apply the paint I am finding that very little is staying on the ridges and it is all running into the crevices obscuring the detail and leaving the ridges primer colour. I have tried thinning the paints with both Vallejo Model Color Thinner and water but seeing similar results. Watching tutorial videos I am seeing people get good base layers over grey with the same brand and colour paints in 2 coats where as it is taking me 5 or 6 and I am still ending up with some primer showing on the crevices. I am especially having trouble with skin tones and browns, suprisingly yellow is one of the colours I am having most success with.

I am currently priming the models with Halfords grey spray primer but had similar issues when I was using Army Painter White spray primer.

Does anything jump out as to what I may be doing wrong? I was originally painting my models in Monochrome schemes using a range of grey Vallejo paints and that was working well, I have only really having coverage since I switched to Army Painter colours.

Sorry for having to ask such a basic question

Thanks for any advise you can give.

The problem could be a few things.
1) Make sure the paint is dry before adding another layer
2) Be careful where you keep you can. A cold enviroment could cause issues (I think this is the problem, i had this exact situation when I kept my can on the balcony in the middle of winter)
3) Spray at at least 6 inches of distance (if you hold it closer the paint particles will arrive wet onto your model, traveling through air makes the water evaporate)

I just got a lot of Army Painter colors as well and I am having the same issues with them. Army Painter releases a "new" line every year so try to find out when yours were made. For example, if they have a "100% MATCH" logo on them in the shape of a paint blob, they are from the previous couple of years. If the logo is more of a hexagon type deal, they are the new ones from this year.

Reason that might be important is because a lot of Army Painter inventory seems to have been sitting on shelves for a while and many of the bottles are pretty separated. You may have to do a LOT of shaking and/or stirring to get them back into shape.

But yes, I have noticed the same issue; my Vallejo colors cover in many fewer coats, and the Army Painter colors are pretty thin straight out of the bottle until you really mix them up.

I purchased this years Army Painter Mega Set 3 so I thought they would have been quite new paints but maybe it's old stock rebranded. I thought I was doing a good job at mixing them up via shaking but will double the shaking time and see if that makes a difference.

If they're that runny already, you probably shouldn't be adding any thinner/water to them.

Yea army painter paints require lots of shaking. I usually shale 1-3 minutes depending on how much ive used it.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I think the issue may have been that I wasn't shaking them for long enough. I only painted one model today but had no issues with coverage at all after shaking the paints for 3 minutes rather than the 30 seconds I was before. The model I painted didn't have any regular flesh tones and had a dark colour scheme but I hopefully have the same success when I move onto regular skin tomorrow.

Army Painter and Vallejo have the same issue sometimes. The pigment and the medium tend to separate in the bottle. You need to put a heavy glass bead or something in the bottle to help agitate when you shake the paint. Occasionally, pulling the spout and manually stirring helps a lot.

I'd suggest 2 things;
1) Foundation paints. Vallejo do a very good set in the basic colours, they're all called heavy red,heavy blue etc..... I find it is better to base coat with these as they have more pigment and top coats go on much better/especially when using the the thinner layer coats.
2) Look on ebay or amazon for a paint mixer.Trumpeter do one but if you look on Hobby's website(based in London) you'll get one for about £7.99.

Just had a thought; The primer you are using is it matt or glossy? If it is glossy that might explain your problem.
Hope this helps.

Slipstream wrote:
1) Foundation paints. Vallejo do a very good set in the basic colours, they're all called heavy red,heavy blue etc..... I find it is better to base coat with these as they have more pigment and top coats go on much better/especially when using the the thinner layer coats.

Vallejo says that the 'Heavy' Game Color paints use the exact same formula as the Model Color line and have exact equivalents in the Model Color line (e.g. VGC Heavy Brown is the exact same paint as VMC Flat Earth).