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Thin Paint - Army Painter Mega Paint Set

Mark Sinosich
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Mark Sinosich

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I bought the Army Painter Mega Paint Set 2017 after reading many good reviews and comparing prices to Games Workshop paints.

All of the paints seem to be thin. Mostly but not only the Yellows and Reds that I am painting on my Skinks and Saurus. I know red and yellow are trouble colours, even the orange is quite thin.

I've shaken the containers extremely well and for long periods. I've opened them up to make sure the pigment is well mixed. I have ordered tiny round bearings to drop inside and help mix.

Perhaps its my base coat paint? regular red and yellow gloss (yes gloss they didn't have matte) spray from the local hardware store that is certainly a base coat and designed for painting on top of.

Maybe I have a bunch of bad pots? My next step is to take those pots and my Saurus to a GW store and see how the guys there paint those colours on another model and paint their colours on my model.

Anything else you guys think of that I could try? Or does it really require multiple (4,5,6+ layers of those pigments?). I really feel like when I had GW paints years ago I never had issues like this.
 
Paint a base coat of white under red or yellow for maximum brightness.

ps. most paints aren't as thick as GW's paint.
 
n810 said:
Paint a base coat of white under red or yellow for maximum brightness.

ps. most paints aren't as thick as GW's paint.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I've heard that white/light grey will make colours brighter and help with thin pigments.

I should have mentioned that i tried some other base coats. Black, Red, Yellow and also painted a white with slight grey tones in it. All the same results. It really didn't seem to matter what the base pigment was, the layering still needed to be multiple.
 
OMG maybe I am turning millennial and want instant 1 layer satisfaction! ;)
 
Yeah, army painter is quite thin compared to GW, given a choice I would base with GW and detail with army painter.
 
I use Vallejo air which is about as thin as you can get, my findings so far:

Try and base with your primary colour wherever possible, and be prepared to use a highly pigmented white to re-base anywhere you need a particularly strong colour that isn't your primary colour. Ceramite White from GW is ideal.

In certain situations you won't want to use a wet palette, as this will end up with the paints being too thin. Use them RAW!

Layer your paints wisely - working through other colours and shades to reach your goal will generally provide better results than trying to go straight from, for example, red to green. Go through an orange and a yellow first to get there. Sounds like hard work but your results will look amazing.
 
I get the ton of thin coats for heroes but how do you guys manage with rank and file guys that you just want to spit out super quickly.

the last thing i want to do is have to layer up my saurus skin multiple times and the scales then drybrush. seems like a lot of extra effort?

perhaps i am being too picky and because its thin you get nicer gradients and mistakes are not noticed as much because it blends.
 
Are you letting your paint dry between coats,
because if you aren't blending you
may be wiping off the paint you just applied
in an effort to get a thicker coat.
 
That could be possible. I know I haven't waited a long time before trying a second coat and then getting disappointed because it looked just the same as the first and the first almost looks like nothing has been applied at all! ;)
 
I use the army painter paints as well, my reds and yellows go on vibrantly after a single coat. I use a white primer though, but on a grey primer they still work pretty well. How much water are you adding? I just dip the tip of the brush in water and go from there.
 
Fulcrum said:
I use the army painter paints as well, my reds and yellows go on vibrantly after a single coat. I use a white primer though, but on a grey primer they still work pretty well. How much water are you adding? I just dip the tip of the brush in water and go from there.
Click to expand...

so over a white base coat the daemonic yellow turned a very translucent lime. After about 3 coats it still wasn't anything close to the yellow on the label or even fully covering the white in lime... so I stopped.
 
Hmm it may just be a bad batch of paints. I know that for some people, certain parts of the army painter colors can behave oddly. Have you tried building up to the yellow with maybe an orange? If you're still struggling just get another yellow paint, at least you still have the rest of the color line from army painter.
 
I ended up base coating every skink with yellow spray. Took away the need to build up. For the rank and file guys all I have done is a tone wash in the recesses. For my heroes though I will want to highlight up a bit more so we will see how that works. Perhaps jumping straight up to a yellow/white or even a straight boney white will be a good highlight for those special guys.
 
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