Triads What to Get ?

[Chris S]

I have been thinking about trying some 3 colour triad painting.

I Purchased Kevin Dallimore's book and have visited Steve Deans website and feel
well inspired to give this style a go.

Now my question.

What make triads do I choose ? And what triad pallettes would be a good starting point.
I have these three makes in mind, but keep leaning towards the Foundry starter set.

Foundry
Coat d'Arms
Reaper

 

[Wyrmypops]

I've not tried the first two. I had a similar "have a go" thought and picked up a few of the Reaper ones. My experience of that has positives and negatives.

On the good side, the idea behind the triads is sound. The three paints relate to each other very well. Instead of going by whatever is on our rack/box of paints and highlighting with something that is similar-ish and lighter, these are more accurate. Especially noticable with the flesh and purples, where a subtle change in the colours that make up any given paint (a bit more red) is absent here. These have us hightling a dark indigo with a couple of lighter versions, instead of some random purple that happens to be more violet than indigo.
So, very good on that colour choice, but not so much with the paints super-structure. It rubs off too easily. Even a light touch of the miniature during painting can have the dried paint leave the model. One could varnish after each use, but that's hardly ideal. This vexed me enough I wouldn't buy anymore Reaper paints.

 

[Einion]

Edit: I'm presuming this question is about primaries...

Edit 2: Not about primaries, okay then LOL

Einion

 

[kathrynloch]

I really like the Reaper paints and their triad system but I only use the actual triads with a few colors. Unlike wyrmy I haven't had a problem with them at all and find them very durable. Color choice is wide open depending on what you are going to paint.

Wyrmy have you gone to the Reaper forums? Anne Foerster is in charge of the paint and is more than willing to help out if there's a problem. Reaper customer service has been top notch in my experience.

 

[Wyrmypops]

Nah, I just shrugged and accepted the lack of durability as one of their properties. Experienced it with enough of the paints I could consider it a pattern.
If it was a bad batch it would have been mighty unlucky to have a bad batch of so many. Still, I could have rolled a "1" I s'pose.

 

[Chris S]

Thanks for the replies.

Why I did not think like this I will never know
OK, I was not wanting to go down the paint mixing route but I just did not think like this until somebody on Steve Deans
forums explained it like this.......

Lay down the chosen dark colour, then mix the chosen high colour with the dark one to get the
in between (shade) colour, then paint the high colour, then if you want go to the 4th colour mix some white with the
high colour.

Now I think even I can do that.

Now with the comprehensive collection of Vallejo Game Colour I have, I am sure I can sort out loads of Triads, and if
I want one I cannot make I will just buy the colours I require.

 

[kathrynloch]

lol! A critical fumble is possible for anyone. But I use Reaper almost exclusively now, that's how much I like them. I've had to strip a couple minis and I have to let the Reaper paints sit longer in the Dawn Power Dissolver than I do the other brands like Vallejo and Citadel.

Do you wash and prime the model? I use Vallejo brush-on white primer and it works great, I've also tried them with, Tamiya, Vallejo Spray and Dupli-color Sandable Primers. All good.

Super duper thin paint? Actually I've tried super thin paint following the Miniature Mentor vid so I doubt that's it.

IIRC the Master Series line already has flow improver added to it...or I might be thinking of the liners I'll get back to you on that. Did you use any additives? I did have problems with Liquitex Slow Dry retarder. Oh and Anne told me Reaper and Krylon products don't play well together at all. It seems Windsor & Newton acrylic mediums, Rustoleum primers, and now my Liquitex don't do well with Reaper.

Not sure just trying to throw some ideas out there. Sorry OP - didn't mean to hijack your thread but I've had great results so I'm curious as to what's going on. If it's only that Wyrmy's cursed :skeleton: then I need :clover: and give him a wide berth. :laugh:

 

[Einion]

Why I did not think like this I will never know
OK, I was not wanting to go down the paint mixing route but I just did not think like this until somebody on Steve Deans
forums explained it like this.......

Lay down the chosen dark colour, then mix the chosen high colour with the dark one to get the
in between (shade) colour, then paint the high colour, then if you want go to the 4th colour mix some white with the
high colour.

Now I think even I can do that.

This is well worth trying, even if only to find out where it doesn't work.

It might help to use yellow as an example where I think it's clearest: the shadow colour is a dark yellow of some sort and the highlight colour is a lightened yellow (will include some white), should be easy to see that mixing the two together won't give you full-on yellow like you'd typically start from. What you'll get instead is a dull colour that lies somewhere along a line drawn between the highlight and the shadow colours.

Einion

 

[Wyrmypops]

@Kath - I undercoat with a squirt of the ol GW cans. Probably thinned with my dropper bottle of a distilled water/flow-aid/slow dry mix. The rubbing off went back to expose the primer. Haven't had any issues like that with other ranges of paint though, I still figure it as Reaper thing.

@Chris - if putting together your on triads, you should be most secure with the primary colours. It's getting a dark/medium/light tone that relate well to each other, and with primaries there isn't a lot of other colours in the various paints to upset their relating. When you get into the secondary colours though, it can start getting gribbly. With a green, one could have more yellow in it than another, one could have more blue, one could be muddied up to brown. Purple and flesh tones are those that have given me the biggest headache over the years.

 

[Ordo Septenarius]

I still can't recommend Reaper enough — and on the odd chance there should be a problem — their customer service is top notch, so you needn't worry.

 

[Chris S]

Thanks for the replies on triads, I think I am organized now