Paint Thinning

After reading the recent article at Reaper's site on thinning paint (http://reapermini.com/index.php?nav=The Craft&sub=Paint&article=15), I was wondering what peoples experiences are with a couple brands of paint that I'm thinking of trying out.

I paint for table quality. I'm slow and don't paint all that often (a few times a month), so I tend to go from the bottle, to the palette, to the mini. I will thin paint for washes and highlights, but thats about it. I interested in trying some new paints, but I'm sure I'll need to learn how to thin better before I am happy with the results.

The paints I'm interested in trying are Adikolor and Vallejo. I have a couple sample bottles of Adikolor that I was given at GenCon, but I've only used one of them and found it quite thick. I have never used Vallejo paint. Whats the experience of others with either of these brands? Can you paint straight from the bottle, or do they really need to be thinned? I'm not afraid to thin, but I don't want to ruin alot of paint while I'm learning either.

Just an FYI, I usually paint with a mix of Testor's Model Master Acrylics, Reaper Propaints, Gmaes Workshop (which I dislike but bought a bunch when I started painting), and some other odd acrylics that I've picked up here and there.

Have you come across other good articles or sites that talk about thinning and blending? Whenever I've tried it, I end up with one of two results: the differences between shades of color have a noticable contrast, or the mini ends up looking chalky when the paint dries.

I've been using Reaper paints, and maybe they're not the best paints in the world, but I have a sneaking suspicion with me it's more a case of painter inexperience than anything else.

TiQuinn said:

Have you come across other good articles or sites that talk about thinning and blending? Whenever I've tried it, I end up with one of two results: the differences between shades of color have a noticable contrast, or the mini ends up looking chalky when the paint dries.

I've been using Reaper paints, and maybe they're not the best paints in the world, but I have a sneaking suspicion with me it's more a case of painter inexperience than anything else.

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Reaper paints are actually of very good quality. They are slightly thicker than GW paints so thinning them is a good practice. The following article is specific to Vallejo paints, which are probably the best paints for the price. However, the techniques are the same for any type of paint you use.

This article is very good at explaining the basics of both thinning and blending. The important thing about thinning is that you will apply more coats of paint, instead of one thick coat. To do this you dip your brush in the thinned paint and then 'squeeze' most of the paint on the lip of your palette. Don't go directly from palette to figure. That will prevent most of the chalkiness you've experienced. It took me a while to figure this out and it was very frustrating. In addition make sure that you are using an 'acrylic extender' instead of just plain water for your thinning. You want the paint to thin but the pigmentation to be even. Just water ends up diluting the pigmentation too much.

I hope this helps.

http://www.ttfxmedia.com/vallejo/cgi-bin/_modelis.asp?p1=ing&p2=modelcolortecnicas#modelcolortecnica11

I use "wet water" to thin my paints. Thats regular water with just a tiny tiny bit if dish soap to break the surface tension. About 1 drop of soap per pint of water. I've used a variety of paints, everything from cheap craft paint, Citadel, reaper and Vallejo Game colors and Reaper. Of them all I find Vallejo gives me the best results.

Thanks for the tips, and that link. I'm definitely using too much paint from the sound of it.

Thanks for the link. That was very helpful!

Edit- Hmm. I had the link open a little while ago, but now it seems to be dead...

Edit again- And it's back again.

Cthulhu's Librarian said:

Thanks for the link. That was very helpful!

Edit- Hmm. I had the link open a little while ago, but now it seems to be dead...

Edit again- And it's back again.

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Well, I'm glad the link was helpful to all of you.

One frustrating thing about thinning is that you really have to 'learn' to paint again. Thinned paint does not behave the same as paint right out of the bottle. You must break through the frustration to be able to achieve good results with thinned acrylics. The Reaper article is very good in making a case for this. To 'relearn' brush control use minis you don't particularly care about how they turn out. Don't try to 'relearn' in your prize minis. You will blow a gasket if you do.

D'karr said:

One frustrating thing about thinning is that you really have to 'learn' to paint again.

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What do you mean "learn again"? I'm still trying to learn the first time! I picked up so many bad habits and wrong ways to do things, it's all learning to me.

That's my DM! He wrote the Reaper article. I was painting the evil scarecrow mini Reaper has, until I saw his... depressingly good.

I just started using the thinning techinique after talking to him. I need to read the article to get some more out of it, but it's helped so far. I find that it helps keep my brushes nice in addition to giving better results.

Darin's got a bunch of follow up articles planned. He'd love to get any feedback from you guys.
PS

I'm also trying to get the hang of thinning. I was trying the method described in the Reaper article on a troll mini last night with only partial success. The mini turned out okay, but I think it ended up "flatter" than I'd wanted.

CL, I recently switched from GW's Citadel paints to Vallejo's Game Color. I splurged and picked up about 20 colors. The coverage is much better with Vallejo and it comes out of the bottle thinner than GW. You do need to shake well before using them though (the paint tends to separate in the bottle). Haven't tried Adikolor.