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Do other painters use paint additives to improve the function of acrylic paint?

I'm trying to improve the way I blend and paint very transparent layers, and it doesn't always turn out so well.
When I thin the paint with water - like 3 parts water, 1 part paint - it usually dries more like water spots on a drinking glass.
The layer isn't smooth or even at all, quite the opposite really.

Is there something I should do differently?
Would a fluid medium help in any way?

EDIT: like this stuff http://www.amazon.com/Liquitex-Professional-Slow-Dri-Blending-Medium/dp/B001UNYH3W

I use Vallejo Glaze medium and retarder medium myself.

I found it helps a lot for blending.

For most situations, distilled water is fine. When using shade on light colours or as in your case transparency involved, I'd definitely use medium.

My advice would be to get medium that is meant to go with the paint you are using. I.e. GW paints > GW medium, Vallejo paint > Vallejo medium.
The idea behind medium is that it's paint without pigments, which mixes better with the real paint than water and flows and dries the same way.
If you use medium with a different makeup than the paint you are using, it will still be better than water, but not as good as a real match.

I'm not sure if your application will actually require a longer drying time as provided by retarder, but if so, go for it.

 Stephanius wrote:
For most situations, distilled water is fine

Is distilled water really so different than just water out of the sink?
That is, at least for this purpose

 Stephanius wrote:
My advice would be to get medium that is meant to go with the paint you are using

I'm using citadel paints, (GW paints) is there any product that you recommend in particular?

 Stephanius wrote:
If you use medium with a different makeup than the paint you are using, it will still be better than water, but not as good as a real match.

I've been trying to use the stuff I mentioned in the original post (http://www.amazon.com/Liquitex-Professional-Slow-Dri-Blending-Medium/dp/B001UNYH3W) and it doesn't work anywhere near the way it's supposed to work.

It is supposed to make the paint thinner and it will dry very slowly, good for wet blending.
While in my attempts, it makes the paint very transparent, but physically thicker - and it dries almost instantly.
That's the opposite of what it's supposed to do!

Do you think maybe I'm using it wrong?

 Stephanius wrote:
My advice would be to get medium that is meant to go with the paint you are using. I.e. GW paints > GW medium, Vallejo paint > Vallejo medium.
The idea behind medium is that it's paint without pigments, which mixes better with the real paint than water and flows and dries the same way.
If you use medium with a different makeup than the paint you are using, it will still be better than water, but not as good as a real match.

Pretty sure this doesn't hold water, though different brands may have different properties they don't tie to their own paint brands in any way that I've noticed. So long as you use acrylic mediums with acrylics, and oil based things with oils you're good. Lahmian medium is just highly overpriced matte medium. $6 for 12 ml compared to $8 for 200ml sort of thing.

Yes, additives can help a lot with your painting. If you're going to blend with acrylics, drying retarder helps give you a lot more time to work with it which is why people like to blend with oils. Matt medium can help maintain consistency for even work on surfaces, flow aid does it's thing and so on.

Matte medium is a great thinner, retarder is helpful if you want to wet blend, but otherwise seems a bit redundant to me if you are using a wet palette. If you are painting a lot of transparent layers though, you might have to get a few coats down before the color looks even and solid. This will vary depending on what colors you are using.

Glaze medium is still a mystery to me though. I have a bottle of it that came with a Vallejo paint set and I don't know in what manner it is to be used or for what purpose. I know what happens when you glaze ceramics, but I don't really want to bake my minis.

Allright, this is all good advice

but can you recommend a specific product?

I use Liquitex Matte medium, drying retarder, and flow aid iirc. They all work well. Liquitex is a solid brand but not the only one.

Golden is also solid, but pricier than Liquitex.