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I keep hearing that the key to a good paint job is the proper thinning of your paints. How does one properly thin their paints? What is the proper ratio? Would you use an eye dropper with GW paint pots?

Hey

Absolutely. Painting with GW paint straight out of the pot is like trying to paint your model with tooth paste.

You need to thin atleast 1:1 with DISTILLED water. You can also get a product called Liquitex Slow-dri Blending Medium, and mix that 10:1 (water to medium) to add to your paint to thinn it. The slowdri makes your paint not form a skin and stay wet on the palette alot longer, so you get more time to play with it.

The amount you need to thin is all about the feel of the paint: its natural viscosity out of the pot/bottle, the type of paint (base, layer, ink, wash or glaze), the opacity of the paint, and a number of other factors, even getting down to how warm the room is and if there is good air circulation. This is one of the reasons i always paint in the same place, so that i can get into a rythme and consistancy.

Skill with painting comes with ALOT ALOT of practice. I have been playing this game for about 10 years now and am getting to the point where i can be really proud of my painting. It's certainly not Golden Daemon (i cant wet blend or NMM), but i could paint on commission for a hefty fee if i chose to.

Just take your time. Experiment with things. You can always strip models. And, for the perfect guide on that, go here:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/365067.page


Anyway, feel free to PM me if you have any questions you want to ask. I can try to take some pictures of the crimson fists ive been painting on lately, email them to myself then upload them. It might take a bit, since im computer-illiterate, but i'd give it a shot

Good luck and have fun

-Gunnvulcan

I'm still a n00b, but I've been using a medicine dropper to thin my Army Painter paints, generally about 1.5/1 paint to water (they seem thinner than GW paints). Differs with different colours and sometimes this mix has given me a wash rather than a paint...

I think the key is learning what the consistency should look like on the palette. People say it should resemble milk, so pour a little milk onto your palette and learn how that looks, then give it a try with your paints.

You will

I just stick my finger into the clean water cup for my brushes and drip what in as needed (stir with brush or tooth pick).

Note I use a wet pallet which is just cooking parchment paper on top of a soaked paper towel which keeps my paint from drying over an hour or two. Also note that except for washes I never use paint straight from the pot.

Now if you're thinning the pot use distilled water.

This is a tough one. The key is thin them to what works best for you. It takes a lot of practice, each brand and even each color within a brand thins differently.

Experiment with some primed sprue and or an extra mini to see the effects from no water to too much water, and determine what consistency/flow quality you like best.

FWIW, I just use regular tap water to thin, nothing extravagant. I dip the top of my brush (non-bristle side) to mix a little water in the paint, or use an eye dropper if I need to add a lot more water.

I don't dispute any of the above, but here is my advice:

Keep it simple. You can (and should!) get into wet pallets, paint additives, slow-dry, droppers, etc... but start with simple and cheap. Water, Paint, and something to mix on. I use plastic Egg cartons, but a real (cheapy) paint pallet will work great.

You CAN paint with ANY consistency of paint, except too thick. GW or P3 paints will allow you to thin down near to the consistency of WATER and you could use that - but it will require more practice and will take longer to achieve your result (though that result will be incredibly smooth). There is however no need to start with paints that thin.

With GW paints I always use the same cheap synthetic brush to pull a blob of paint out (so my recipes are always consistent), then I use the same brush to grab some water, then stir. NOT ALL PAINT POTS ARE CREATED EQUAL - SO NO HARD-FAST RATIO WORKS. Some pots will be a lot dryer/heavier than others, requiring more thinning. Then get familiar with a consistency that works best for you, and eventually push yourself to work with thinner and thinner paints if you are trying to achieve advanced results.

Painting with thin paints really doesn't take that long to learn. It's mostly about how much paint you load up on the brush. Too much, and the paint will run everywhere, ruining your results. Too little and you will spend all day painting one shoulder pad. A good brush really does help here. A nice Raphael or Windsor and Newton, size 1 or 0, will hold your paint perfectly and still have a pin-point tip for details.

CD jewel cases work well as well. I would also recommend starting slow. You can do a lot of stuff with normal water and a nice flat smooth surface to mix on. I've never used anything else.

I paint primarily with GW paints right out of the pot. Some of the paints are thin enough but for the thicker ones, I dab onto a paper plate and add a drop of water.

I've painted with Citadel paints straight from the pot for a long time now. My friend, who got me into the hobby, showed me a little about revitalizing paints when they start to separate, but not much about actually thinning paints.

So far I've got about 90 minis painted (including all manner of IG vehicles) using paints that have not been thinned. I'm proud of the paint jobs, in spite of the fact that I may be a complete loser and an ametuer, but the only person I'm trying to impress is myself.

Honestly, I don't think thinning is NECESARY for the every-man who just wants to goof off and play a little on the side. Maybe I'll try it one day on a model I don't mind messing up, but probably not in the near future.

like you, I just recently got back into painting 40k --and I really wanted to give it a good try. After doing some serious research and test, I can say that my painting has improved 10 fold. Some stuff I do now:

Paint thinning:
I got into paint thinning after having to do it for the airbrush I had purchased. I now thin 1:1 on most dark colors, and 2:1 on lighter colors. I thin most of the time with Windex in a dropper unless I am thinning white, or reds (orange, maphiston red). This makes the citadel paint so much easier to work with and produces, in the end, a much better result I feel. Thinning is amazing at removing the trace lines produced by line painting with a brush. No lines/riges = thin, blended colors across surfaces = better over all look.

Wet Pallet:
Oh god, I just got into using a wet pallet about 2 months ago and I cannot recommend this pallet enough. If you are the type of painter who'll paint night to night (I work 11 hour days and can only paint at night)--then this is the pallet for you. I made mine out of parchment paper, the lid to a plastic bowl I got from some asian take out and some paper towl. The pallet is primarily used for blending colors (which you'll get into if you want to spend a lot of time on models) but it works perfectly fine for day to day painting. Currently, I'm painting 90 shoota boyz (face numbing) but I am doing the majority of my highlight work (yellows, whites--etc) on my wet pallet.

Brushes:
Buy a good brush. It doesn't have to be a kolinsky sable 30$ brush, but a good brush with a good belly and a fine tip. I used to use really small detailed brushes with little to no belly. A longer brush with a bigger belly and tinned paints can produced far more detail than a micro brush with a tiny dab of paint.

Thin paint with a good brush (good belly) and a wet pallet has made painting, for me, a far more enjoyable experience. I am much more pleased with the product I am getting out of my models, and the longevity of the average paint pot that thinning helps bring about. example: 3 dabs of brown & 3 drops of windex allowed me to do all the leather detail on 30 boyz last night. Suddenly the 3-4$ per pot doesn't sound that bad.

 Gunzhard wrote:
NOT ALL PAINT POTS ARE CREATED EQUAL - SO NO HARD-FAST RATIO WORKS.

A frequently overlooked point, and a large part of the reason why I rarely give any, and not unless accompanied by a similar caveat. Not only does paint thickness (and opacity, which thinning changes) vary between brands and colors - even the same pot over its lifespan - different tasks also call for different dilutions. It takes a bit of messing around, but it's important to get a feel for it, which simply trying to copy the most popular estimated ratio doesn't really give you. When basecoating, high coverage is (usually) the goal, so the minimum amount of dilution that allows the paint to flow smoothly off the brush is ideal - most paint I've used takes less than the commonly recommended 1:1 to get there. If I'm glazing with paint (normally because I don't have ink or a pre-mixed wash, which I prefer for the task), my mix is pretty much strongly tinted water. Normal layers range between those. The only thing I can say with absolute surety is that I don't thin for drybrushing, at all (duh! ).

I would disagree with Gunzhard on one point, though: While jumping straight into the deep end with additives and the like may be a bit overwhelming, I recommend starting to use a wet palette as soon as possible. Considering how cheap and easy it is to make your own (the most basic takes nothing more than a plastic plate or old blister pack, some wet paper towels, and a bit of parchment paper), there's very little investment required. The main benefit of the wet palette, in my opinion, is not the long-term storage of custom colors, but the maintenance of paint's mixed consistency throughout a single painting session. Much of my initial thinning trouble was due to the fact that I was fighting a losing battle with evaporation. It was hard to tell when my mix was perfect, since its consistency would change by the time I went back for my next brushload. With a wet palette, though, changes are much more gradual, so I'm free to adjust my mix to the task at hand, but rarely have to touch it, otherwise (unless I run out of paint). That freedom is what finally allowed me to really start developing that feel for consistency that I mentioned earlier.

@oadie - Let me just say, I also highly recommend using a wet-palette. ...it's not necessary to start [painting with thinned paints] and it's another step for the newbie painter - but I would agree it is actually quite easy to implement and certainly extremely useful.

For my wet-palette I use a water soaked "Sham-Wow" cut to the shape of my dish, and put a piece of kitchen parchment paper over it. Oadie has the right of it... it is worthwhile.