$150 for paints, is this normal?

[Carlin]

Yep going to agree with AllTerrainMonkey here, I've used Tamiya without any problem.
Granted it is the smoothest primer around but the issue of paints being shiney on top of it, well I've never had that occur to me.
Shineyness from the paint I've found mostly due to the carrier medium not being mixed enough and Vallejo do require a serious bit of shaking to get well mixed.

Oh I didn't know you need to shake the bottle before usage. Is this also true for Reaper Master Series?

 

[AllTerrainMonkey]

It's true for any paint. Some separate faster and to a higher degree than others, but they're still just pigment and binder floating in water; eventually they'll settle out a bit. Some paint companies put glass beads or bits of pewter in the bottle to aid agitation as well; you can always go to a craft store and get a couple hundred small beads that'll fit down the neck of whatever paint you're using for cheap. Someone also mentioned on CMON (I think I saw it here at least) storing your paints on top of your washer/dryer to give them regular agitation. I have almost all of my paints in large plastic cases, which lets me pick them up once a week and shake the bejeebus out of a hundred or so at a time.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Yep shake your paints like its going out of fashion.
Just had an issue with Vallejo Red being shiney yesterday. Even with Matt Medium added wouldn't dull down.
Hoping DullCoate will sort out the issue.

 

[Carlin]

I didn't know shaking the paint bottle is essential I thought it's only required for the bottles like the Citedal ones where it get exposed to air.


There's something I noticed about Natalya's videos is that her paint stays liquid for a long time, she didn't mention adding any additives like slow-drying chemical. Did she add a retardant or did she not? (I've noticed she uses a glass as a palette maybe that's the "secret"?)


Oh and what about Transparent (Clear) colors, why would someone need to use these? Are they for "glazing"?

 

[AllTerrainMonkey]

What are you currently using as a palette? I tend to use porcelain welled palettes regularly and wet-palettes from time to time; even without retarders my paint can stay workable on my porcelain palettes for a couple of hours as long as I mix in a bit of water whenever I notice it getting a bit thick from drying.

I assume you're talking about Master Series' clear colors? They're just pigment and binder with no additional material whatsoever for coverage. Most paints made for miniatures painting either use white pigment or other chemicals to give paint coverage. The Clear colors can be used to glaze very easily, therefore, and can also be used as additives to 'punch up' the intensity or change the hue of other colors.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Hoping DullCoate will sort out the issue.

WhooHoo, It Did.

I didn't know shaking the paint bottle is essential I thought it's only required for the bottles like the Citedal ones where it get exposed to air.
Yes definitley essential with Vallejo. Just like the wife, much as I love her and them, I'm aware of their faults.
Vallejo Model tend to settle into Pigment and medium very easily/quickly, a good rattle for a minute or so and jobs a good to go.

Oh and what about Transparent (Clear) colors, why would someone need to use these? Are they for "glazing"?
Yes and No.
I use Vallejo transparent Red, Yellow, Orange and Green and for various tricks.
Red enhances a red paint without overpowering it, Yellow sparks green paint right up and really can put a "ooh" into a Gold metallic paint job as can Orange as a shading tone over a gold.
Green can take a so-so green paint job and just pull it back enough to recover and "make it right".
Having said all this I use these transparent colours so dilute, a case of touch the pallette with the bottle and then two to three brushloads of water. (real scientific measurement that you know) and work with a 000 brush most of the time.

..................

 

[Carlin]

So, I can still make my washes by thinning a color with water (and probably still can make a glaze by thinning it even more with water) is this true?

Oh, regarding bases... when should we do these? before painting the miniatures? or after? Should the miniature be attached to the base during this process?

 

[TrystanGST]

Yes to washes and glazes.

As for the bases, you'll probably get as many answers as there are members.

 

[Audiva]

This thread has been very helpful, by the way... Carlin you keep asking all the questions I had when I first started painting - but never got to ask because I didn't know about CMON for the first year Bonus points to all of you who are answering

 

[AllTerrainMonkey]

You can make glazes or washes as thick or thin as you want; it all comes down to how much you want the color to change in each layer of it. A good rule of thumb is to err on the side of thinner, as doing more thinner coats are easier to adjust things with compared to one over-thick coat.

One thing I really loved from taking a seminar taught by Jeremie Bonamant Teboul was base-coating your base and then adding the colors of whatever area you're painting on the mini to the base; it tends to make them integrate nicely.