Cragglehatch said:
Thanks for the insight, Neveroddoreven!
Any chance for a brief step-by-step on your application/use of the medium? :O I've never dabbled in it before, but it sounds promising, judging by your results!
I was painting in my local GW not too long back. Sitting next to me was a kid painting his first model, a teeny tiny Bilbo, doing an amazing job and putting my first ever model to shame. I was older than him when I first started and I sucked at it.
Anyway, the topic on the table turned to the use of medium. I really wanted to inspire this little guy and advise him on it's wonders. But I couldn't describe it. The conversation has come up again and again, and I fail every time to explain just what the use of this mysterious invisible paint is.
I'll give it a go;
Medium is used as a tool to control the transparency of your paints.
Think of the quality of your paints in terms of opacity and transparency. The old foundation paints (and to a lesser state, the newer 'Base' paints that are their replacement) are an example of very opaque paints, they have a high pigment content. The washes ('Shades' whatever) are transparent, with a low pigment count.
Using a lot of it, you can create your own washes or glazes. Using a little of it when layering helps to blend the layers because you can still see the layer underneath. It saves you mixing up lots of layers.
I mix it into every single paint when I'm working on important things like character models.
As a disclaimer though I can't claim that this is the correct way of using it, or if there actually is a correct way. I've never looked up a tutorial or anything. Just experiment with it, I had a pot of it for a year before I figured out a way for it to work for me.
Hope this helps.