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Made in nl
Regular Dakkanaut





Just getting back into painting minis - an old teenage hobby from twenty years ago. A tip that you see on all the videos now which I didn’t do back then is “thin your paints”. (Why don’t they sell them already thinned I can’t help but wonder…) Anyway I’ve been doing this religiously for the last few months but I can’t seem to get it under control. Thinning the paint seems to make it harder to control - it doesn’t sink into the details the same and flows too easily across boundaries so I lose definition. I’ve only been adding minimal amounts of water but still the paint seems to work less well, not better after thinning. Wondering what other people’s experiences are and if there are any thoughts on whether this really is worthwhile and what I might be doing
wrong

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/09/25 15:10:22


 
   
Made in gb
Storm Trooper with Maglight





Thinning your paints is a must if you want the model to look half decent. The downside is that you might need to use 2 or 3 thin coats (wait for each coat to dry before applying the next one) rather than one thick one.

Of course you shouldn't make the paint too thin, it's a trial and error thing really. Normally the advice is to make the paint the consistency of milk.

Out of interest, how do you thin your paints? I just use water, which works fine for me, though some people use a thinning agent.
   
Made in gb
Death-Dealing Devastator




It sounds like you're over thinning.

Best advice is to use a wet palette, if that's not an option then either a white ceramic tile or a palette book will do the trick.

Also this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxWgsqSf74s

   
Made in nl
Regular Dakkanaut





I am using a wet palette and don’t think I’m over thinning. I’d say what I’ve got is thicker than milk and the closer it gets to milk the more problematically it behaves. I’m sure this must just be me because everyone else swears by it but I just don’t quite get it
   
Made in gb
Death-Dealing Devastator




If you are using a wet palette then that'll be thinning your paints, adding water to that will over thin the paint.
   
Made in gb
[DCM]
Fireknife Shas'el





Leicester

You could also try thinning with a medium rather than water too, it doesn’t change the texture of the paint in the same way.

DS:80+S+GM+B+I+Pw40k08D+A++WD355R+T(M)DM+
 Zed wrote:
*All statements reflect my opinion at this moment. if some sort of pretty new model gets released (or if I change my mind at random) I reserve the right to jump on any bandwagon at will.
 
   
Made in es
Inquisitorial Keeper of the Xenobanks






your mind

Yeah… tap water can make big differences as some is hard, other has too much chlorine, yada. Try buying distilled for painting or us an RO or carbon or a deioniser or even a Brita filter to see if you get better results. A medium or flow improver is definitely a good idea too, in addition to getting your water supply sorted.

   
Made in ca
Regular Dakkanaut





Oh Canada!

What brand of paint are you using?

Not every brand requires thinning - some are thicker than others, even different colours in the *same* brand can vary considerably in consistency. As for why most need thinning, it's because some techniques require thicker paint, and it's easier to thin than thicken acrylics.

Is your brush sopping wet when you're going in to pick up paint with it? Bristles work best damp, not dripping, for laying down regular base coats. Conversely for drybrushing you'd want both brush and paint as dry as possible.

Your wet palette may be overhydrating the paints all on its own. This depends a lot on your local humidity/temp, the paint, how much water is in the palette and how quickly the paper is drawing it up from the reservoir.

Paint must stay where you place it. If it's running all over the place, there's too much water / not enough medium to keep the pigment in suspension.
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





Wet pallets aren’t a magic bullet, it took me a while to get the amount of water in the sponge right and get the water coming through. You also, for your 2 thin coats consistency, don’t need to spread the paint out on the pallet, just a blob of the paint will absorb some water, but each paint is a bit different. That’s why they aren’t sold pre thinned.

The other bit of advice to painting with thinned paints is to wick the paint of the brush before painting, so put your brush in the paint and then gently against a bit of tissue to get he excess off. If you paint is uncontrollable then you may well have too much on your brush.
   
Made in nl
Regular Dakkanaut





Thanks to everyone who replied. I’m glad I asked this. There are some seriously useful tips in the replies and lots of things I will now try.
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





Let us know how you got on and what tips helped. It’s good for other newbies
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut





In my experience, GW paints tend to be very thick right out of the pot. Aside from metallics, they almost always tend to need at least a bit of thinning.

I also use quite a few Vallejo Game Color paints. These tend to have a wider range of opacity and thickness between colors, though (especially as they're eyedropper-bottle paints) they're almost always more fluid than GW pots across the board.

I sometimes wonder if Vallejo paints tend to stay on the store's shelf longer, and are more prone to separation when I buy them. But even when aggressively mixing--taking the dropper top off and scraping the insides with a dowel then adding agitator beads and shaking the everliving frack out of them--many of them seem very thin right out of the pot, occasionally to the point of being difficult to work with, especially on a wet pallette.
   
Made in ca
Regular Dakkanaut





Oh Canada!

Hankovitch wrote:
I sometimes wonder if Vallejo paints tend to stay on the store's shelf longer, and are more prone to separation when I buy them. But even when aggressively mixing--taking the dropper top off and scraping the insides with a dowel then adding agitator beads and shaking the everliving frack out of them--many of them seem very thin right out of the pot, occasionally to the point of being difficult to work with, especially on a wet pallette.

This is just a trait of Vallejo paints. They separate, hard. And quickly too! Same thing on a wet palette - Vallejos do not stay in suspension, and yes that makes them difficult to work with. All paints separate to some extent or another, but the degree varies quite a bit, and Vallejo sits right at the top of the pile unfortunately. I've plenty of old acrylics that exhibit no where near the same speed of separation, so it's not simply a factor of age or viscosity.

Storing them on their sides helps a bit, since it's easier to mix the thinner, horizontal layers vs. having the stratification in thicker vertical chunks. Vortex mixer is another option.
   
Made in us
Incorporating Wet-Blending






> Not every brand requires thinning -

Yeah, that. Reaper uses a fair amount of flow aid. I brush prime with Strylrez (sp) and it's already thin. I only paint to advanced tabletop, so cheat by adding airbrush mixing medium (dunno if I really need that) to the GW paint pot and paint directly from the pot lid. I'll drip some hobby paint into the GW pot lid and let the thinned paint thin out the paint I added. I've put wash and paint in the same bottlecap and used the wash to thin the paint.

I guess mostly I thin the paint on the brush with whatever medium is around. Hmm... wonder if that's why my hobby brushes lose their tips faster than I would like, though...

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/10/10 04:58:31


Crimson Scales and Wildspire Miniatures thread on Reaper! : https://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/103935-wildspire-miniatures-thread/ 
   
Made in us
Buttons Should Be Brass, Not Gold!






I stopped thinning my paints with water the last time I took a hiatus from this hobby around 10 years ago. When I returned to minature painting in recent years, I've used acrylic thinner since.

Get the same brand of acrylic thinner or acrylic medium as the paints that you are using, just to be sure the result works as intended.

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2021/10/10 08:05:07


 
   
Made in gb
Crafty Bray Shaman




Anor Londo

Two important tips for the OP:

1) Use an actual spray primer. It's important because it provides texture for the paint to cling onto, meaning that your thinned paint won't run as much and will be easier to control.

2) Rather than using water to thin your paints, use Vallejo Airbrush Thinner (yes, use it for regular brushed on paint too!). It's a great all-in-one medium, when I started using this everything seemed to "click", my painting went up a few notches.

But yeah, trial and error is a good part of the process. Good luck!
   
Made in us
Ship's Officer





Dallas, TX

I hardly mix paints, mostly paint from the pot. I add few drops of acrylic thinner, add some distilled water into the pot. If I'm painting a semi large item/vehicle, I add few drops of acrylic glaze on a tile/palette, then add some paint into it.
   
Made in us
Daemonic Dreadnought





Eye of Terror

@Jandgalf - there's no single solution to thinning paints, learning to do this is a process of trial and error.

You might benefit from thinking about the palette and the medium. Both have a big impact on the results you get.

I use a wet palette, a dry palette, and bottle caps. I thin with distilled water, acrylic medium, thinning medium, and flow aid.

The purpose of the wet palette is to get paints to a similar thickness. I use folded paper towels under a layer of parchment paper, and add water when I need the paints thinner. When the paints get too thin - which it sounds like it happening to you - I toss the paper towels, put new ones in and add a small amount of water. This is great for doing multiple coats.

When I need to do edge highlighting or fine detail work - I don't want the paints too thin. I use a dry palette, jut put the paint on the plastic. I will also add a drop of Tamiya X-20 thinning to the palette and mix as needed. This gives more precise control over individual colors. I might also add flow aid to keep the paint wet longer.

For washes, glazes, or any 'go over' application - I pull from the pot or mix something up in bottle caps. There's a bag sitting under my desk, I just keep the tops from bottled water and pull as necessary. Army Painter makes a great wash medium that I use often, it goes in there and then I can add any color. I also do a lot of airbrushing, bottle caps are a great way to mix paint before adding it to the resovoir.

Hope this helps. Took me a long time to learn, but I'm very satisfied with what I can produce with this setup.

   
Made in gb
Fresh-Faced New User




El Torro wrote:
Normally the advice is to make the paint the consistency of milk.


Which is without a doubt the worst advice i've ever come across because who in the name of zues's butthole knows what the consistency of milk is like.
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





Stephen1974 wrote:
El Torro wrote:
Normally the advice is to make the paint the consistency of milk.


Which is without a doubt the worst advice i've ever come across because who in the name of zues's butthole knows what the consistency of milk is like.


And what kind of milk?

One of the hobby cheating videos on YouTube is about thinning your paints to the right transparency for your intended use
   
Made in gb
Crafty Bray Shaman




Anor Londo

Yeah, the whole "consistency of milk" comment is one of those unhelpful phrases that has been parroted on forums for years.

Getting the mixture of medium to paint is something that you should play around with until you feel comfortable.
   
Made in gb
Thane of Dol Guldur





Bodt

They don't come pre thinned, because sometimes you want/need them thicker. There is no single catch all consistency that paint needs to be. When I paint a miniature I use consistencies ranging from straight from the pot, to incredibly thinned, 2/1 water/paint at least. To me it just sounds like you need practice and to get familiar with painting again. Don't go so thin on your initial paint jobs as you get back into the game. Don't slop it on but don't religiously think you need to thin everything then get tide marks everywhere. As you practice you'll learn how to manipulate paint with regards thinning, layering etc. It will eventually become second nature, but it takes time.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/10/18 18:00:29


Heresy World Eaters/Emperors Children

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