Liquitex Products.

[shaun5603]

Does anyone have any experience using there products?

looking at there spray paints use for priming and building up colors.

Next question(s) is there glaze medium, I know there different means of glazing not talking about GW glazes which is basically water down paints and too shiny for my likes. There glaze medium would be ideal for wet blending and building up the colors which with out adding shine to and making them looking over gloss.

Airbrush medium does anyone have any experience, does it replace traditional thinners.

 

[eyeayen]

I've used Liquitex but only the ones in the pots. I use it for illustration, it paints beautifully and also can be thinned to go through the airbrush very well. Aside that, I've not used the cans at all. I've not heard too many great things about them so stayed away. Montana cans are good though !

As for Liquitex mediums, the ones I've used ( retarder and flow aid ) have performed perfectly ! I'd recommend it but I've been using it for about 20 years and it suits my purposes.

 

[shaun5603]

I though Montana was mainly use in street art, and didn't figure it would be good models.

 

[eyeayen]

Whatever people tell you, especially the sales stuff, paint, is paint. As long as your models are cleaned first so there is no release agent or grease from your fingers it will adhere just fine. You're right though it was used for street art but that's not it's only use. Also you'll find popular colours much cheaper than else where.

 

[shaun5603]

good point paint is paint. Just unsure about different sprays some have some nasty shit in them and can eat plastic or resin.

There marble effetive looks interesting I been looking for way to make great looking marble.
crackel effect looks like it's worth adding to tool kit.

 

[MrJim]

Have not used their spray paint, as I use an airbrush for priming and some base coats.

As for their mediums, I use their glaze medium and matte medium for some brush work. They both work well for blending and glazing. Liquitex glaze medium dries to a gloss finish, their matte medium to a satin finish, and GW Lanthium Medium to a flat finish so you need to pick the right one for the right application. I generally only use the Liquitex glaze medium for metallic. (it actually works well for that)

 

[shaun5603]

Thanks for that i would have never know it dries gloss like, i guess i'll look at mat medium for thinning down for better blending. I use scale colors so i like to keep things with matt finish over gloss. But adding to metals sounds like a plan.

 

[Zab]

Try W&N retarder. It smoothes things out for blending and dries flat but extends the drying time. Nothing you can;t fix with a little travel hair drier

 

[Antar000]

the only problem with some 'fine art' mediums is that they're mainly designed for larger scales. For example, a lot of crackle pastes require a minimum 1/8 inch layer to crackle: way too much for miniature scales (I use Kroma Crackle, which only needs 1 mm, but takes like 3 days to dry). Similarly, certain techniques are just impractical for miniatures. All that said, most mediums will work on smaller scales, but if in doubt, ask at the store whether or not the medium works at a smaller scale.
Finally, and a lot of people have answered, but here's my 2 cents: flow aid, gloss and matte mediums, and thinners are useful but not necessary. A lot of amazing painters just use water. Airbrush thinners are nice, they improve flow, but not every thinner works with every paint. Tamiya thinner is good stuff for a lot of paints, nearly necessary for Tamiya paints, but for brush work, I almost never use thinners. Sometimes I'll use a matte or glaze medium to thin down the paint without affecting its consistency overmuch, but that's about it. Going back to thinners, my most common one is actually cheap vodka. Most thinners are alcohol based: tamiya's is n-propanol and butyl alcohol, a lot of people use isopropanol, so ethyl alcohol doesn't seem too out there to me. Flow aids, extenders, and retarders are nice for, respectively, washes, freehand work, and wet-in-wet blending. But other peoples' advice only goes so far. I'd say get ones that others recommend and experiment. If you mess up, a jar of simple green will help save the day.

 

[shaun5603]

Thank's yeah the locAl art store workers are pretty much mouth breathers, getting them ID colors is challenge.

local tap water has high volumes of minerals and alters the color, found a gallon jug of baby water works fine. Pretty much last forever.

 

[Dragonsreach]

looking at their spray paints use for priming and building up colors.

I though Montana was mainly use in street art, and didn't figure it would be good models.

I've used both as a basecoat /priming method.
Both have pluses and minuses, slightly longer drying time (allow 24 hours) good coverage, but a bit of a reluctance to accept some paints on top, GW being the worst result.

Overall if you're looking to do a Quick Army in a Flash colour, they are fine, but for high quality Display/Competition work not so much.

 

[shaun5603]

I trying paint more highly quality stuff, and learning to become better painter and learn different methods and ways to paint.

 

[eyeayen]

Shaun, if you are purely painting for display undercoating isn't as important. Firstly you can easily obscure detail. Secondly for mini's that are handled a lot it's good to give the paint something to really grip onto. However for those that are display only or have a plinth base so you definitely will not be handling the figure after it's completed it's probably a stage you can skip.

 

[shaun5603]

Few peices would be for displayed.

But the bulk is for long term project I been waiting to do once I gotten better understanding of different painting methods.

 

[Antar000]

I'd disagree with eyeayen just because primer makes a surface so much better to work on (I recommend Vallejo surface primer thru an airbrush, though Tamiya's is better if you're airbrushing colors), as it helps the paint grip, and can give you some initial zenithal highlights. For a base color on top of a primer coat, however, a good spray paint is just fine, so long as you apply it thinly.

For things like painting techniques, the best advice I have is practice. Buy some cheap minis (garage sales and resale shops can be your friend here; I found some old early-mid 80s Grenadier figs at one for about a buck apiece), and go wild. Try painting things you're not used to painting, try to replicate other artists' styles, and see where things go from there.

Finally, to get back to the OP: if you want to use some kind of spray paint to layer colors, I'd say you should get an airbrush. The learning curve is steep, and the initial investment is high, but (and this is from an airbrush amateur who has less than a year of airbrush ownership under his belt) it's totally worth it. Even just the ability to do fine primer layers, put down super-smooth metallics, and controlled highlights and glazes is great, let alone some of the amazing stuff that experts can do. Just some advice: get at least an OK airbrush. A cheap POS will get you cheap-looking results.

 

[shaun5603]

I got a airbush and yeah the learning curve is still kicking my ass. With .2mm nozzle doing base coats doesn't end well for me I end up spending more time taking it apart and cleaning.

 

[BloodASmedium]

If you use LAHMIAN medium and shake it really well it gives a MATT finish.they had stated this in one of their articles and for me I usually just paint display and comp pieces but to give a deeper color saturation I'll spray on very mildly testers semi-gloss varnish . Back to my point now,if I get a part that's too Shiney I'll glaze on watered down LAHMIAN medium after shaking it and the matt effect is great. Another thing you can use with your inks and glazes is called ANTI-SHINE ADDITIVE,by reaper master series laints.any other questions pm me and Ide be glad to help.

 

[shaun5603]

Thanks I'll look in to anti-Shine maybe it will help with some issues I am having. Appreciate The offer to drop you pm, I'll have to take you up on that once I get started on this project.