Thinning Your Paints




In this post I hope to help those who are struggling to understand what 'thin your paints!' actually means.

Figuring this out myself was actually something I discovered by accident and may happen the same for you. A happy accident of course. I was attempting a satin effect on my Lady Olynder model (which did not work by the way!) however, the effect I ended up with was actually far better for the mini. I was basically thinned my paints down to watercolour paint consistency, and layered them up. This isn't a quick method and happens without you realising, because it is so slow, but it is very effective.

This follows on from the 'mediums' post and as you can see in the picture above I have tried to provide some examples of paint mixed with these mediums and different types of paint. 

1 - this is Mephiston Red straight out of the pot. You can see how thick and pigment heavy this paint is and I never recommend you use this paint in its non-diluted form.

2 to 8 are the different mediums in the 'mediums' post all mixed with Mephiston Red:
2a - Mixed with lahmian medium
3b - mixed with contrast medium
4c - mixed with glaze medium
5d - mixed with matt medium
6e - mixed with thinner medium
7f - mixed with retarder medium
8g - mixed with good old water

9 - this is Mars Orange from Scalecolour 75. These paints are very matt and as a result can be a little dull in colour, but they are also very creamy and do not separate as quickly as GW ones.

10 - Skeleton Horde contrast paints and 11 - Plaguebearer Flesh also contrast paint. You can see how thin these already are and can be used straight out of the pot. These also work really well over a zenthial highlight or a Grisaille painting. (Please refer to my Sloppity Bilepiper on IG for more on this)

12 a-g: is Wraitbone base paint mixed with all the mediums. As a paint of the white family I would always recommend using a medium with this than water.

13 - Dorn Yellow, which was an edge paint of GW's but is now just a normal layer paint. This is quite thick and transparent as you would expect from a yellow. Straight out of the pot.

14 - Vallejo's Magenta straight out of the pot. Quite thin won't need much watering down.

15 i-vii: Mephiston Red again but this time with varying amounts of water added each step:
i. straight out of the pot
ii. 1-1 paint with water
iii. 1-2 paint with water
iv. 1-3 paint with water
v. 1-4 paint with water
vi. 1-6 paint with water
vii. 1 blob of paint just very heavily watered down. This is the watercolour consistency I mention above

Summary

  1. Learn your paints.
  2. Some can be used straight out the pot, others are just a no-go
  3. If you are getting an 'edge' to your paints when applying them to your minis, then they are too thick
My recommendations
  1. consistency iii in the picture above is what I would probably use when applying base coats, I may even wander into iv if the paint required it. 
  2. v to vii I would use for layering and glazing and washes
  3. ii to iv I may use for edging and edge highlighting
  4. depending on the paint I may use i or ii for spot highlighting
Well I hope that is helpful. If you have any questions my DMs are always open on IG.

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