Watering your paint

[NerdyOgre254]

Over the years i have kept hearing that you need to water your paint, by putting it on a tile, adding a bit of water, and whatever. the thing is that every time i do this i end up with basically an ink, and it drives me up the wall to see a the paint slide halfway down the armor and settle in the cracks, and i end up shouting \"NO DAMMIT YOU STAY WHERE I WANT TO YOU STAY ON THE AREA I PAINTED YOU ON GODDAMMIT!\" and similar things, plus a few expletives. would anyone be able to tell me how they have managed to do it, because i just can\'t do it. I don\'t know why, and i want to get better (well duh) but this is just driving me insane. can anyone help?

 

[lizcam]

It took me a while to figure it out. Water it down a bit less and don\'t load as much on the brush. Don\'t try to cover completely in the 1st go. Build up the paint slowly. I find that I get better control with properly watered down paint than I used to get with straight paint. But it needs to have a bit of body to it still. It can\'t be a wash. More a ......well glaze I think. Kind of like half and half instead of milk if that makes any sense.

 

[Tinweasel]

Personally, I use small graduated medication syringes - I can use a full syringe for large mixtures of paint, specific measurements for smaller-scale ratios, and individual drops for mixing/thinning individual use colors. I have enough of \'em that I generally keep one set aside for strictly thinner, and then a number for measuring out droplets of paint themselves.

The important thing is consistency - if you do it right, 2:3:1:20 Red/Green/Black/thinner is going to end up pretty much the same every single time. Doesn\'t matter how you do it, whether it\'s a brush load of paint/thinner, an eyedropper full, or 2 mL paint to 1mL thinner... the important thing is that it be measured and replicable.

I guess along the same lines, the important thing (and the answer to your question) is also consistency... of the paint. For most basecoating I\'d say 1 part paint to 1 part thinner. If you\'re ending up with paint so thin it flows, then essentially you\'re adding way too much thinner for straight painting. (It sounds like you have washes down nicely, though.) You\'ve probably got it thinned down 1:10 paint/thinner by your description of the behavior, if not moreso.

 

[Manus]

I would say don\'t try to make it to thin now, maybe start by adding some water straght to the pot for a general thinner paint that you don\'t have to thin even more. Then just thin them extra if you are doing fine detail work or a surface that needs to look extra well blended or layered. Then when you reach the level of real good painter like ritual, vincienti or yellow one (or some where in that direction - as few of us do) you can thin every drop of paint you use. But it will be a lot easier not to and it will also save time and get you more model painted wich will improve your painting more than thinning paint, playing around with washes, highlighting etc.
Looking in your gallery it seems you have the all basics, I just think you need to play around. Not that I\'m a topnoch painter but if you need any advice fell free to write.

 

[Einion]

NerdyOgre254, use thin paint but have very little of it on the brush - for basic undercoating the bristles are loaded but for layering/glazing the brush is just damp.

The more subtly you\'re painting the less paint on the brush as a rule. For really subtle touches you can often watch the strokes dry right in front of your eyes, that\'ll give you some idea of how little you\'re applying.

Originally posted by Manus
I would say don\'t try to make it to thin now, maybe start by adding some water straght to the pot for a general thinner paint that you don\'t have to thin even more.

I wouldn\'t recommend this unless you\'re using distilled water. Tap water can introduce microbes into the paint that can cause it to go stinky (that\'s the technical term ) over time, as well as grow mould.

Einion

 

[DaRat]

Your problem isn\'t that your paint is too thin/watered down. The paint is going elsewhere because you have too much paint on your brush and you\'re applying too much.

One trick is just to dip the first few mm of the brush into the paint and then touch a paper towel before applying the paint. Doing both will help reduce the amount of paint on the brush as well as avoiding the flood of excess paint. Essentially, you want as little paint as possible on your brush: just enough to paint.

How much you should thin your paints does vary by what you are doing and the paint that you are using. You want the paint to flow well and be thin enough for your purposes. For base coating with the Reaper MSP line, I generally use a 3 to 1 (paint to thinning mix) ratio. For layering it\'s more like 1:1, 1:2, or 1:3.

 

[Bastetcat]

Painting directly from the pots, even with a little water added will always result in a gloppy finish.

DaRat is correct, the problem isn\'t paint too thin so much as too much paint on your brush.

The key to a fine, blended finish is patience. Multiple thin layers will always look better than one or two thick layers. Thin layers applied over thick ones will not make the thick layers smooth.

 

[zombiesincorporated]

Your problem isn\'t that your paint is too thin/watered down. The paint is going elsewhere because you have too much paint on your brush and you\'re applying too much.

One trick is just to dip the first few mm of the brush into the paint and then touch a paper towel before applying the paint. Doing both will help reduce the amount of paint on the brush as well as avoiding the flood of excess paint. Essentially, you want as little paint as possible on your brush: just enough to paint.

Very accurate. This is the problem and solution. Good luck.

 

[Manus]

Originally posted by Bastetcat
Painting directly from the pots, even with a little water added will always result in a gloppy finish.

have to disagree, know I don\'t paint to GD standard by doing that, but it works fine for me for the basic paintjobs.
I still think that if your in a learning position you can spend your time better experimenting than thinning paint.
I can see that you minis are excellent, and very well done - but for an inexperienced painter they would simply take to long to do - especially if he was painting for army rather than just the painting. :flip:

 

[Eryops]

Thanks for posting this question. I just had the same expletive conversation with my paints and brushes last night.

I\'ve also found that with my Vallejo GAME colour line that the paints come out in varying thicknesses. This totally drives me nuts as well, since some really need to be watered down, and some don\'t need much at all. Is this a common occurrence with the Vallejo paints? Or with every paint line?

There\'s a lot of good tips here that I can\'t wait to try.

 

[Amazon warrior]

I\'ve also found that with my Vallejo GAME colour line that the paints come out in varying thicknesses. This totally drives me nuts as well, since some really need to be watered down, and some don\'t need much at all. Is this a common occurrence with the Vallejo paints? Or with every paint line?

I\'ve noticed that the GW paints I use aren\'t of even consistancy either. Their yellow, in particular, is much more \"watery\" (for want of a better word). Which is annoying, as yellow is a b*gger to paint at the best of times. There were variations with the others too, I think, but it\'s the yellow that sticks in my memory, even if it didn\'t stick to my minis!

 

[Highbulp Billy]

Originally posted by Amazon warrior

I\'ve also found that with my Vallejo GAME colour line that the paints come out in varying thicknesses. This totally drives me nuts as well, since some really need to be watered down, and some don\'t need much at all. Is this a common occurrence with the Vallejo paints? Or with every paint line?

I\'ve noticed that the GW paints I use aren\'t of even consistancy either. Their yellow, in particular, is much more \"watery\" (for want of a better word). Which is annoying, as yellow is a b*gger to paint at the best of times. There were variations with the others too, I think, but it\'s the yellow that sticks in my memory, even if it didn\'t stick to my minis!

Try shaking the pot very vigorously 9before opening). Also, putting a small offcut of metal or ball bearing in the pot before shaking will help mix it up better. I used to have exactly the same trouble with a few GW paints (Graveyard, Desert Yellow etc) but the serious shaking helped a lot to sort the consistency out.

 

[Amazon warrior]

H\'mmm. That\'s good advice. I am a fanatical paint-pot shaker already tho, and alway give any colour I use a good wiggle each time I reach for it, but most of them don\'t have agitators in (except the smattering of reaper paints I own). I guess I should see if I can McGyver something out of dead sprue.

 

[Ritual]

Paints do come in differing consistencies and coverage abilities. I have never found any paint range that is consistent in this matter.

Just vary how much you thin your paints! It\'s not more difficult than that. Thin them as much as you need to.

 

[uberdark]

i always split my pots of gw paint in half and add water to the other half. i then paint straight from the pot. This allows the perfect consistency for me and my blending. i always do wet blending for my big areas of shading so that works quite well. as for agitator, i used to use a penny. it worked quite well.

 

[spazzy]

A penny?! BRILLIANT!! I\'ve always had to resist the temptation of dumping out my nail polishes just so I could take the little agitators out. Cheap and easy! I\'ll just have to clean up a few pennies now. :beer:

 

[Amazon warrior]

Actually as a side-hobby I collect beads. Some decently sized heavy glass beads would make great agitators, I reckon. And being glass, you woudn\'t run so much risk of contamination from oxides etc.

 

[DaRat]

A bit of (pewter) mini sprue or parts of a cut up pewter mini would be better. The agitators in the Reaper paint bottles are little pewter skulls, but there\'s no reason that it has to be a skull.

 

[raginggaijin]

For a paint pallete I use the sponges that come inside the blister packs. They retain moisture to keep the paint from drying, prevent the paint from seeping around, and they are disposable once I\'m done.

For paint I use Vallejo Game Color, and they are thin to begin with. I always agitate my bottles prior to putting paint to palette, so this helps. However, after adding Slo-Dri and a drop of water, even my paint gets quite thin. To bring back some viscosity without removing binders, I apply a drop of Matte Medium. This not only helps \'congeal\' the paint, but it also applies as a matte finish and helps remove the shininess that often occurs during mini-painting.

Hope this helps.