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So I picked up a drying retardant for wet blending and it's not working at all!

In fact, it seems to do the exact opposite of what it's supposed to do, the paint seems to dry almost instantly.
After only a few moments, the paint seems thick and rips up when I touch it with the brush, like it's tacky but not dry yet.

It makes the paint thick and syrupy too, gets even worse after several coats.
The paint obscures small details, a whole model painted with this would look clumpy and awful.


So what am I doing wrong?
How much of this stuff am I supposed to use?
How much water should be added to the mix?


To be more specific, here's what I'm using

Hi juggler, i use exactly the same product and I use only 1 drop, sometimes 2 (maximum) with paint on my wet pallete. If you're not using that I'd recommend mixing your water and paint as per usual then applying just a single drop and stirring it well.

Maybe I'm just using too much of it.
I'll give it another shot tonight and add less of the drying retardant.

Still, it seems like using too much would make it dry too slow.
I've read other articles and forum posts telling people not to use too much or it will take days to dry properly.

I can actually watch it dry, takes about 30 seconds or so.
Dries out on my palette (I use a wet palette too) much faster than paint without the retardant.

I was starting to think they accidentally filled up the bottle with a drying accelerant!

Thanks for advice, I'll give it another shot.
Has anybody else used a drying retardant?
Any tips on using it properly?

Ok time for the "dumb" questions.

Are you shaking it vigorously before use?

Are you using it with acrylic water based paints?

Sorry have to get that out of the way.

 darefsky wrote:
Are you shaking it vigorously before use?

Actually - no
I feel kind of dumb now, but no I did not shake the bottle of drying retarder before using it.
The stuff looks fairly homogenized, not separated out or anything.
How did I not . .. . . . . let's not even think about it
I've got a bottle to shake this evening.

Are you using it with acrylic water based paints?

Yes, I'm using citadel miniature paints


Well, maybe I'll be back later with a completely different story after shaking the freakin bottle.

Hopefully it's as easy as that man.

I've never shaken dri-retardant, though I did learn quickly to keep my lamp away from the palette wet or dy lol

Allright - after following the advice here, it's still not working in the way I thought it would.
Vigorously shook the bottle, added a much smaller amount to the paint. No success on any of my test models.

As far as I can tell, this is actually a thickening agent and a drying accelerant.
Are there any other products you might recommend?

Weird man, just weird.

I use airbrush thinner on my wet pallet and it works well.

I use badger brand but honestly its the only one I have used, I have no idea if there are better or worse, I bought cuz it had the free shipping on amazon.