What do you use to thin your paints before using them?

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**StormX**

I would like to see what people vote and just to get a idea of what the majority is doing. And i feel this thread might help others.

Thank you dakka.

EDIT - Sorry. I forgot to mention what i currently use. Just regular tap water, except i use the tap that has a filter, not the one without.

**Elbows**

Regular gamer who paints to tabletop standard.

Tap water.

**StormX**

Elbows wrote:
Regular gamer who paints to tabletop standard.

Tap water.

Damn man, your models look really good, i guess tap water is fine really. Mabel it only comes down really to using metallic s as they say, since the water tends to separate the flakes to much etc

**Elbows**

Take that with a grain of salt. I don't do layering, highlights, glazes, etc. (i.e proper painting). I just think you'll get varying answers depending on how proficient someone is at painting. I have heard good things about medium, but I don't paint to a standard where I need it.

**StormX**

Elbows wrote:
Take that with a grain of salt. I don't do layering, highlights, glazes, etc. (i.e proper painting). I just think you'll get varying answers depending on how proficient someone is at painting. I have heard good things about medium, but I don't paint to a standard where I need it.

So you don't highlight or shade your models?

**TheCustomLime**

Plain ol' tap water. Never seen a reason for anything else.

**StormX**

TheCustomLime wrote:
Plain ol' tap water. Never seen a reason for anything else.

Cool. Supposedly medium gives a smoother finish ( or increases translucency ) . But that might mainly be regarding metallic to stop flakes seperating i think.

Edit - I don't understand what more translucency really means to be honest, even after googling. I mean like i dont get what makes that meaningful in regards to painting when it seems that is is similar to transparency.

**l33tninj4**

Clean tap water and a little bit of drying retarder and for washes a bit of Lahmian Medium and water.

**ingtaer**

Depends upon what I am painting but as I only use a wet pallet, distilled water, as that's what I have in the pallet. For keeping a mix alive for a while or to thin further, medium.

**StormX**

ingtaer wrote:
Depends upon what I am painting but as I only use a wet pallet, distilled water, as that's what I have in the pallet. For keeping a mix alive for a while or to thin further, medium.

Awesome, and am i correct to say that you thin further with medium instead of water so that your paint doesn't sort of start separating, as in the paint partials sort of go wild...?

I should mention that i use that paper that is used for cooking so nothing sticks as the platform which i put on top of a wet surface.... so yeah i should have probably asked if this is correct, but i have been doing it since i started and seems to work great.

**queen_annes_revenge**

Water. Its free, well free at the point I receive it

Automatically Appended Next Post:
If you use medium to thin your regular paints you'll burn through it like no one's business and that means buying the stuff. Save your medium for making and thinning glazes.

Seriously, water is fine. I really don't understand having distilled water either. That just seems a little too A* retentive.

**Vulcan**

It depends on the quality of your local tap water. In some places (the desert southwest of America, for example), well water is usually HIGHLY loaded with calcium and other such things which can impact paint quality. In such places filtered water is pretty much required, and distilled the ideal.

**ingtaer**

As Vulcan said, the water here is high in calcium, fluoride and chlorine. I also get distilled water free so its as available to me as tap water.

**SirStudent**

Distilled water.

The tap water here is filled with all sorts of nasty chemicals that ruin any potential paint job that I try to do, as my brushstrokes leave bubbles that explode, forming nasty craters in the model. It's that bad :(
However, picking up 10 Liters of distilled water was worth it, as I can paint without having to worry about that ever again!

**edwardmyst**

Tap water for me. Using the little filter thing as other have explained.
I also live in that strange twilight world known as the desert of SW America...where your water is harder than most roads . Alkali is my areas specific issue.

**greatbigtree**

Regular tap to thin paint for normal use.

Water and Medium to make washes.

**Jamie Shred**

Tap water for thinning for regular painting and lahmian medium for thinning washes or making glazes

**Garrlor**

queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Water. Its free, well free at the point I receive it

Automatically Appended Next Post:
If you use medium to thin your regular paints you'll burn through it like no one's business and that means buying the stuff. Save your medium for making and thinning glazes.

Seriously, water is fine. I really don't understand having distilled water either. That just seems a little too A* retentive.

A tub of Windsor and Newton Acryllic Medium is about £8. 4-5 drops is enough to make a Lahmium medium equivilent in 100ml of Distilled Water. Post 4-5 drops you still have a pretty much full container of Medium to carry on using.

Distilled or De-Ionised water is great for keeping around for a long time, as it wont go off. There are also no impurities in it (London and its hard water, ugh!). I normally just have some water in a dropper bottle so I can mix my paints easily without guessing, hence why I have ticked Medium and Distilled water.

For making glazes I use my homemade Lahmium, for washes I use a combination of Lahmium and Flo-Aid.

**topaxygouroun i**

My option is not in here. I use acrylic retarder. Same as medium but also makes the paint unable to get dry for some hours, this lets me work on whole detachments at the same time without my paint going dry.

**queen_annes_revenge**

retarder doesnt thin the paints though does it? if anything it makes it thicker. at least the retarder medium I use does. I find retarder annoying as I use a lot of layers, and need them to dry quickly. so swings and roundabouts.

**topaxygouroun i**

queen_annes_revenge wrote:
retarder doesnt thin the paints though does it? if anything it makes it thicker. at least the retarder medium I use does. I find retarder annoying as I use a lot of layers, and need them to dry quickly. so swings and roundabouts.

The one I use seems to do the job. I also do multilayers but I can either paint into an assembly line (do layer #1 on 30 models, by the time I have to paint layer #2 the first models are dry already, especially if I use thin layers), or I find that it helps me when I practice my color blending a lot. Leaving the paint wet on the mini helps me try my noobish skills to blend.

**fresus**

Tap water and a wet palette for most of my painting.
I use medium for some of my metallics, and glazing medium when I try to glaze. It's possible to glaze with just water (most good painters do it actually), but I find it easier with a glazing medium (i.e. I fail a bit less).

**Supershandy**

It's interesting this question has come up, we're releasing a new product to help with thinning paint at the end of next month after weeks of testing.

We've called it Water+ and it's not an April fools joke as most people think it is

, it's a modified distilled water that cross links pigments in the droplets evenly dispersing them, this means that you get much smoother coats on your miniatures and each brush stroke contains an even amount of paint compared to using distilled water or other mediums where the concentrations are higher or lower at the start or end of the brush stroke.

These are two samples of our Grey Blue paint, one mixed with Distilled Water, the other with Water+

Unedited image

(Image brightened to show dispersion)

Brush strokes showing dispersion off Size 1 brush

Samples after a full day of drying, note the more even distribution of pigment in the Water+ Sample

We're really proud of what we've created and currently, with every order made through our store, a free sample of Water+ is included so you can try it for yourself.

It's also cross product too, so although it works brilliantly with our product, it works brilliantly with other brands.

Smoother coats and less time painting, what more could you ask for?

You can see MonkeysWithFire Using it on his videos where our paints are being showcased this month!

Monkeys With Fire Twitch Stream

**Alibasili**

I use distilled or filtered water for thinning paints.

**feltmonkey**

I generally use custard.

It's an unconventional set-up, but it works for me.

**StormX**

feltmonkey wrote:
I generally use custard.

It's an unconventional set-up, but it works for me.

Are you serious?

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Supershandy wrote:
It's interesting this question has come up, we're releasing a new product to help with thinning paint at the end of next month after weeks of testing.

We've called it Water+ and it's not an April fools joke as most people think it is , it's a modified distilled water that cross links pigments in the droplets evenly dispersing them, this means that you get much smoother coats on your miniatures and each brush stroke contains an even amount of paint compared to using distilled water or other mediums where the concentrations are higher or lower at the start or end of the brush stroke.

These are two samples of our Grey Blue paint, one mixed with Distilled Water, the other with Water+

Unedited image

(Image brightened to show dispersion)

Brush strokes showing dispersion off Size 1 brush

Samples after a full day of drying, note the more even distribution of pigment in the Water+ Sample

We're really proud of what we've created and currently, with every order made through our store, a free sample of Water+ is included so you can try it for yourself.

It's also cross product too, so although it works brilliantly with our product, it works brilliantly with other brands.

Smoother coats and less time painting, what more could you ask for?

You can see MonkeysWithFire Using it on his videos where our paints are being showcased this month!

Monkeys With Fire Twitch Stream

Thanks so much for that visual explanation, appreciate it.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

queen_annes_revenge wrote:
retarder doesnt thin the paints though does it? if anything it makes it thicker. at least the retarder medium I use does. I find retarder annoying as I use a lot of layers, and need them to dry quickly. so swings and roundabouts.

Yeah i don't know but i know retarder is i think best for use when wet blending.

**queen_annes_revenge**

Retarder slows the drying of paint, which makes it good for wet blending. I rarely wet blend so I dont use it much.

**DV8**

Spit, sweat, and tears. Occasionally blood.

Seriously though, I don't really thin my paints. At most it's going to be whatever tap water seeps through the parchment paper on my wet palette. That's about it.

**StormX**

DV8 wrote:
Spit, sweat, and tears. Occasionally blood.

Seriously though, I don't really thin my paints. At most it's going to be whatever tap water seeps through the parchment paper on my wet palette. That's about it.

Hahaha, fair enough.

**Rybrook**

Just tap water here, it’s so soft there is no limescale build up at all