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Hi guys,

I just painted some ghost grey (from VGC - its a grey close to white), i used it over a base of Celestra Grey from GW - which was directly over black. The results weren't too good. The paint job looks very thick.

So i was wondering, to avoide this, is thinning the base paint a viable option? Does it thin well and keep its coverage?

Thanks

As a general rule only very slightly. I only thin their ledbealcher down as that is like whipped cream!

Only very slightly, some people say to the consistency of milk (slightly thicker than water), but even that can be too thin for some paints i feel. normally 1 drop of water to 3 drops of paint i go for, can be a bit hit or miss though.

You should always thin your paints. The consistency of milk is, in fact, the right amount of thinning. Citadel paints come really, really thick with a lot of pigment in them so are going to require a little more work than other brands to get to that level.

My usual recommendation with Citadel is 3 parts paint, 2 parts mixing medium, 1 part water. The medium keeps it from drying longer than paint will and improves its flow over the model.

You can pick up Vallejo Glaze or Matte Medium or P3 Mixing Medium for these purposes. Always use dropper bottles for this. It's easy to have waste if you don't.

If you prefer to just use straight water, it should be a 1:1 ratio. It'll dry a little faster and be a little more, well, watery.

I like to dip my brush in water so its nice and wet then dip into the pot of GW paint. I get a nice consistency of paint that flows so smoothly.

 spacewolf407 wrote:
I like to dip my brush in water so its nice and wet then dip into the pot of GW paint. I get a nice consistency of paint that flows so smoothly.

Doing this is asking to have paint crawl up your ferrule. This can destroy a brush's ability to hold a point over time.

Best to use either a wet palette or a glazed ceramic/clay dry palette. Mix with a stick and keep the paint just on the end of your bristles.

I always thin them and sometimes, with Gw paints especially your mileage may vary, i find one pot can be twice as thick as the next.