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Thursday, 3 December 2015

Learning the mixes while trying to cut the cost.



Image result for mixing paint




There is one thing that I have noticed when it comes to paints that are aimed at us as miniature painters is they are mostly pre mixes that are made and we are then made to think we need this tone or that when all we need is five colors Black, White, Blue, Yellow and Red and with these we can make any of the hundreds of paints that are for sale but at the same time which is funny these companies do not sell the midtone Red, Yellow, and Blue which is pure enough and saturated enough to have a good starting point for mixing colors. This Picture really brings home what these companies are doing.



So it has made me look at what is out there and if they are good enough to paint mini's as well am I able to cut the cost of the high cost of the paints we all use.

So my first paint I am going to look at is.

Reeves.


The consistency of this paint is rather thick but most of the "craft Acrylic" is.

So I thought I would try to see how it mixed and was pleased with the saturation of the colors and mixing tests went well.

(Green and Blue)


So far things are going well and all that is left to see what it looks like added to a miniature.

(No effort was taken with the painting as this is a test of the paint overall not my painting skill) 

The paint did water down well and did not become too thin to fast and I made a brown to do the leather and after painting it I noticed that it dried gloss. I thought I would do another test to make sure it was not something I had done so I painted the other half red to see if it was the same.  


and to make real sure I decided to use a red I have that is made by reaper and the black and paint both the arms and see how it goes.


As you can see from this the black is also gloss whereas the red is more Matte.
So in conclusion over all this paint was great it thinned nice and the coverage was good with no undercoat, but the glossy finish of the paint went and ruined it all for me and was a no no in my option. The cost of the paint was £2.50per tube and the set was £10 each tube was 75ml so would have been a huge saving on the 10ml bottle and pots that we buy for £2 -£3.50.

If there is a brand you could recommend or might like to suggest please do.



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5 comments:

  1. Unknown3 December 2015 at 18:07

    Good idea. Mixing does save quite a bit of cash. However, you actually don't have the basic primary mixing pigments there. Try to make a vibrant purple with that Red and Blue and you will find that it comes out a little drab and muddy. This is because the actual starting pigments are not "Blue, Red, and Yellow" as we were taught in school, but Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. "Red" is actually what you get when you mix Magenta and a bit of Yellow--see for yourself. Because of that Yellow mixed in, it muddies up any purple you try to create from the Red. If you get the much lighter, brighter Cyan and Magenta, you will have a much easier time mixing a full range of colors--especially purples (admittedly not the most essential color for painting gritty wargaming minis, but I thought I'd share what I've learned).

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  2. Anonymous3 December 2015 at 18:43

    Even when your post is true it isn't completely true: Yes you can mix almost any color from a primary triad (red, blue, yellow or cyan,magenta, yellow), but it is impossible to have a very saturated color from mixing that you can obtain through an specific pigment. This problem can be reduced using a split primary palette (two colors for each primary i.e a purplish red and an orangey red instead of only one pure red).

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  3. Tony4 December 2015 at 08:46

    I have never been a one company acrylic paint guy and my box of paints include both cheap artists acrylic and professional artist acrylic paints as well as all the usual suspects.

    I find that I can mix most (Tamiya being the exception) with one another and have no issues with picking up acrylic paint sets in either charity shops (a great source - my last purchase was a set of acrylic tube paints for £1.99) or Pound Shops - although some china based acrylic paints are a little weak - but still OK for terrain painting.

    Thank you for the post.

    Tony

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  4. Merkeysa5 December 2015 at 20:34

    All Very good and Helpful comments this is one thing I love about our Hobby is that there is always more to it and there is never one true answer to anything.

    Magenta is something I was aware about But they did not have it in the set will be planning on getting some to play with.

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  5. Anonymous10 December 2015 at 21:51

    Well one solution to the drying with a glossy finish is to add some Matt medium into the colour. This ofcourse changes the beahvior and strukture of the colour in some degree but you would get a matt result and not glossy. For example I do use expenisve colors from Golden and they are glossy to matt depending on the pigment that are used. When I do need I either use a matt or satin spray varnish at the end if I want the whole figure to be changed. If it is a competition piece then I would suggest to add the medium to the colour you want to change.

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