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Hey everyone,

I've been having issues with my game colour paints, some are ok and barely require thinning like a couple of the reds. However, some come out very thick and when I thin them down with water to the point where I can layer with them they're garbage, the pigment separates and they're barely workable. I've never used any other form of thinner, and the colours that tend to do this are the flesh tones, couple yellows etc. Anybody else have these issues with game colour?

Thanks

Welcome friend http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/523702.page

VGC's are known for not taking well to extensive thinning - just as you describe, many start separating pretty much instantaneously once you get much past 1:1. I've switched from thinning with pure distilled water to a 50/25/25 mix of water, W&N Flow Improver, and Liquitex Extender. That seems to help quite a bit, though the thinned VGC's gloss up a bit more than I'd like. There may be a better recipe out there too - I used this one because it's a widely used recipe and haven't experimented with it yet. I know some folks have used Matte Medium to good effect. Still, I'm planning on slowly acquiring some VMC's for use in the most prominent areas of my better (attempted) paint jobs where the layering effects will be most visible.

I use vallejo glaze medium and water to thin them and it seems to help.

Vallejo game colour are great paints, but they do require that you learn more about thinning with several additives. Various combinations of water, airbrush thinner, matt medium, flow aid and drying retarder not only are really good for VGC, but good to know how to use in general for various techniques.

Your problem specifically of the pigment separating is due to not enough acrylic medium, so the simple fix is to add some matt medium when you then it that far. This will keep the pigments bound for smooth application, but also thicken the mix a little and make the paints glaze better.

Thanks guys, I may pick up some Vallejo matt medium this weekend to try out. But I think eventually I'll switch over to all reaper and army painter paints, they seem to thin down really well for me.