Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So I have recently got back in to the hobby, after thinking I was. "A pretty good painter" I was shocked to find that actually I was rubbish.
Slowly I have been getting better, hopefully soon posting a pic of my stuff
And so we get to my queries
I found that since I began using lamian medium my painting vastly Improved, but at like £2.50 a pot for not so much I'm wondering what alternatives are out there if any.
So after all that drivel
What thinners do you use for painting minis?
Much appreciated and look forward to finding something new to help my painting.

Cheers

Cool? I think you forgot to ask your question though.

Epic fail sorry bout that edited in the question

Water and vallejo glaze medium (73.596)

Water.

If you want to get fancy, Various glaze and matt mediums. and or flow improver (water + a small drop of dish soap.)

Water or 1:1 water and matte medium.

If I need it just a little thinner, I use water. If I need a glaze/wash/thin coat, I'll use the matte medium mix. The matte medium creates a more even dispersion of the paints pigment whereas water alone will allow the pigment to pool in the lowest spots or unevenly on the surface you are painting.

water. works fine.. way i see it is the hobby is expensive enough, why buy more stuff when mk 1 tap water gives the exact same result?

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
water. works fine.. way i see it is the hobby is expensive enough, why buy more stuff when mk 1 tap water gives the exact same result?

Its not really the same results.

Additives can significantly change the properties.

I use Golden brand Retarder. Two drops per 'toothpick scoop' of paint. Has been working really well for me but this is my first batch of painted models. Prolly better stuff out there.

Cool thanks all for the replies.

For regular paints I use water most of the time. But for metallics and edge highlighting I use Liquitex Slow-Dri because using water with metallics disperses the metallic flakes, making it look too thin and stupid, and it does slow drying so it's great for edge highlighting.

......

....


................

....


....Spit.

Following on from the OPs question, is it OK to use non GW thinners with GW paints?

Or ,say, non Val!ejo thinner with Vallejo paint?

I agree with OP, using thinner makes a huge difference. I paint in batches and the first thing I do is slop some Laymen Medium in the paint pot. If the pots been onen a while I close and shake again and perhaps add a drop of water to dreplaxe any lost by evaporation.

FacebookJunkie wrote:
Following on from the OPs question, is it OK to use non GW thinners with GW paints?

Or ,say, non Val!ejo thinner with Vallejo paint?

Yes. All waterbased acrylic additives and paints mix fine with each other.

Liquitex Matt Medium works wonders.

Me personally, I typically use a mix of water, Future polish, satin varnish, flow improver, and slow dry that I mix up in batches and put into dropper bottles. I use it in small amounts to thin out paints on the wet pallet, and more of it when thinning for airbrush.

 jorny wrote:

FacebookJunkie wrote:
Following on from the OPs question, is it OK to use non GW thinners with GW paints?

Or ,say, non Val!ejo thinner with Vallejo paint?

Yes. All waterbased acrylic additives and paints mix fine with each other.

Gunze Acrylics say "Water Based Acrylic Paint" on the bottle but won't mix well with GW/Vallejo/P3/Army Painter because they use alcohol as a primary ingredient.

But I believe it's only Tamiya and Gunze (Mr Hobby) acrylics that don't mix well with other acrylics, and Tamiya/Gunze mix well with each other.

Depends..
For airbrushing I thin my acrylics with 40 percent alcohol, shortens drying time. But can give some tip dry issues. But nothing to bad.
other than that, the usual suspects..

The rarest of all compounds for me, dihydrogen monoxide (water).

Flo-aid for doing a few tough colors, but pretty rarely. A little bit of Lahmian Medium if I want to paint letters or just make the paint dry a little slower. For airbrush, Vallejo airbrush thinner.

I have like, 20+ other mediums, but I never use them. I would say, for 99% of my paintbrush painting, just plain ol' water works not just fine, but great.

I use Liquitex slow-dri and all other of their variant brands. I use ardcoat from GW just for gloss finishes however.

Liquitex works very well and is great for the price. Just make sure you get a eyedropper bottle or something similar because the bottles you get do not have an easy pour spout at all.

Zeruul wrote:
Me personally, I typically use a mix of water, Future polish, satin varnish, flow improver, and slow dry that I mix up in batches and put into dropper bottles. I use it in small amounts to thin out paints on the wet pallet, and more of it when thinning for airbrush.

That is Jedi

ConanMan wrote:

Zeruul wrote:
Me personally, I typically use a mix of water, Future polish, satin varnish, flow improver, and slow dry that I mix up in batches and put into dropper bottles. I use it in small amounts to thin out paints on the wet pallet, and more of it when thinning for airbrush.

That is Jedi

It all started out using straight distilled water. It kept beading, so I eventually started to use some Flow improver so that it would not bead up. From there, I added Slow dry to help with the drying time, and I threw in some future floor polish because it was also acrylic and had some self leveling properties. Finally, after watching somebody else on Youtube that used satin varnish as part of their airbrush mix, I threw that in too and I like the result. At the moment, I use equal parts Varnish, Future, and Water, and about a half measure of Flow improver and slow dry.

So many different ways.
Mix paint and water on pallet to "taste".

To wet my brush prior to dipping in paint I use an even mix of liquitex matt medium, distilled water and a couple drops of flow aid (mixed ahead in a squeeze bottle)..

I find all that bother has allowed a smoother application to a model. If you get beading after this mix greasy hands may have handled the model and it needs a wash.

Everything I see here looks good, you just need to see what seems to be agreeable to you. I find what you are used to typically works best.

Look into the washes out there, they typically boil down to like an acrylic ink with lots of flow aid to pool into crevasses. When these things came out, it felt like cheating.

Depends on the paint I'm handling. Some are fine with just clean water on a wet palette, some seem to require feeding a little creatively.

..That came out creepier than I intended. I just don't have one hard and fast rule.

Army Painter washes. Forces me to practice mixing, and I get a little variety in my color, rather than a single shade. I can also dab the paintbrush and do a little ad hoc washing is necessary. Dunno if I'd try this on surfaces that appear painted or manufactured, like space armor, though.