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Hi ho,

So I am thinking about maybe getting back into 40k after a very long absence. I think rather obviously, one big turn-off to the idea is cost................

I have quite a collection of more traditional paints from my other hobby of well... painting. I was wondering what - if anything - really separates GW or similar paints from other, more typical artist's acrylic paints.

In particular I have a boatload of Liquitex acrylics and associated mediums - would these be usable on miniatures? Are there any mediums or things I can use to help? Or would I just need to bite the bullet and splash out on specialist miniature paints?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated - thanks!

As far as I understand traditional paints are more easily damaged than specialised miniature paints. But, as long as you prime the model, handle it very delicately during painting and seal it with something once you're done you should be fine.

I use both Liquitex soft body acrylics and Golden fluid acrylics. They work fine with minis. For mediums, matte medium from either of these works, as do slow dry additives, flow enhancers, etc. I thin with a mixture of matte medium and water w/flow enhancer. No problems.

Not sure what your traditional paints are. Acrylic paints is the norm in this hobby. Whatever you are using you don't want it too thick that it fills and cover the details from the mould. In a given range of paints like citadel acrylics they will use different mediums depending on their function. It seems the base and layer paints have a standard easy flow quick dry medium, washes/shades will pull the pigments into the recesses and away from raised areas, tints/glazes will have a medium that pushes itself between each pigment particle spreading it out across the surface with a near translucence, dry paint is like clay, the texture paint I use is a very chunky paint. Might not be necessary to go beyond standard base and layer paints but the other types help exponentially in both speed and ease of use. I consider shade paints like Agrax Earthshade to be liquid talent in a bottle. Slather it on aND it'll do the rest of the work for you.

I avoid water as a medium. The result after drying is noticeable as though pigments get pushed and collect at the edge of where the water dried.

All very helpful responses, thank you.

Durability was my initial concern, but I have painted a few sculptures and not had any major issues so I have hope.

 ProwlerPC wrote:
It seems the base and layer paints have a standard easy flow quick dry medium, washes/shades will pull the pigments into the recesses and away from raised areas, tints/glazes will have a medium that pushes itself between each pigment particle spreading it out across the surface with a near translucence

Sounds to me like some home-made mixes would be something along the lines of:

- Base/layer: Just a little flow enhancers, water, and matte medium like Red Harvest suggested.

- Washes/shades: Same as above but with more water

- Tints glazes: Same as the base/layer paint but with more flow enhancer medium.

You can give it a go. I have never tried it but mates who have said the artists acrylics didn't have enough pigment density such that by the time they thinned it down enough it didn't have good coverage.

But that's just 2nd ha d information, I haven't tried it.

I use artists acrylics a lot on my minis...I started out using them almost exclusively in fact...although these days I've built up a pretty hefty paint collection of both artists acrylics and miniature paints (GW, and a few P3 and armypainter paints/washes)

...the artists acrylics don't have quite as fine pigment, or cover as well as miniature paints, but they're certainly usable...and with the addition of some medium, can be really nice for glazes

I may use a slowly increasing mix of miniature paints and artists acrylics, but honestly, I don't think I'll ever totally stop using artists acrylics...I enjoy using them, and they're considerably cheaper, and come in larger quantities...which makes them ideal for experimenting with various colour mixes and whatnot

(disclaimer: I haven't actually tried liquitex paints, so all the above is relating to my experience with "Jo Sonja's" brand artist's acrylics...not for any particular reason honestly...that just happened to be the brand I decided to try first a few years ago, I liked them, and just kinda stuck with them...I don't imagine there'd be much appreciable difference between those and liquitex though.)

The main difference is that art paints tend to be a lot thicker because of how they're normally used. To get good results on miniatures you'll have to thin them down significantly, and you can run into problems with the paints separating instead of thinning properly. Unless you're on an extremely tight budget it's probably going to be a lot more trouble than it's worth, and you'll want to buy the miniatures paints.