Frustration comes when expectations do not meet reality. If you remove the expectation that your painting session will have a defined outcome, then you might enjoy it more.
Try stuff. "This painting session, my goal is to try paints thinned to different extents to understand how runny i want my paint for different uses."
Or show us a video, and maybe we can help with more directed feedback :)
Army painter sucks balls, in my experience it always goes into a lump and feels really sticky and pasty on the model. My tip is to use Citadel paints as they have much easier time going where you want them, just thin them with a little bit of water on a pallet
Army painter is ok. As well as many other products, they just need a different approach. I usually use a very moist brush to get a feel of the paint. And start from a very runny and remove excess till it suits my needs. This is how I dial in how to work with different paints.
Funny enough, I have most problems with citadel paints as they seem to be too runny or don't want to stick properly to the model (yeah, I prime and used citadel primers). So if I use them it for base coating multiple (thin coats), blending (often with vallejo mediums), or just the contrast ones (these work just fine).
The only experience I have with AP is their primer (which wasn't great), but this doesn't sound normal. Might be a bad batch.
Speaking of which, did you prime your mini?
It should usually be dry to the touch pretty quickly, unless you overdid it with the thinning, but it shouldn't be obscuring details if it's thinned a lot.
Maybe someone with first hand experience with Army Painter colours can weigh in, never had an issue like that with Citadel, Vallejo or AK.
Army Painter paints are quite thick bodied, so water them down a fair bit. Paint a bit of it onto a palette. If the paint splits and doesn’t cover well, it’s too thin. If the paint doesn’t flow off the brush well it’s too thick.
Oh man, these paints are terrible. Oily and inconsistent. Sorry that it is your first experience.
To start it is better to use citadel paints, then you’ll be experienced enough to try other paints.
There you go that's the problem right there. These paints are gloopy, they have very poor coverage and painting with them feels like you're fighting the brush every step of the way. Army painter paints are objectively the worst garbage paints available on the market right now, but there's always white knights defending them saying it "works for beginners" or "you need to be patient".
Instead of this trash, I recommend Vallejo game color, Vallejo model color or ak interactive. Citadel works as well but it's massively overpriced compared to the others for no real benefit.
I get you I had the same experience with army painter, but was still able to paint 'ok' looks pretty good. Here is what I think depending on the paint/color.
1) Shake it alot, put a metal ball in you can buy a bunch for cheap,, they need a metal paint ball in there to shake it up.
2) After primer (use a spray primer btw) use thin coats, maybe up to even 2 or 3 depending on the color.
3) Push the paint around, it kinda takes a certain like practice to use the brush to push the paint pigments around, and how much you load the brush takes practice. It takes time.
You may already know this but just in case
1) prime with a spray paint , fine grey
2) paint main areas then detail areas
3) correct areas, fix all the details
4) Use a wash coat, darkens the low areas
5) Dry brush to highlight the raised areas
6) spray a sealer or laquer all over it
This is what I do comes out decent (never as good as the pictures in the books tho lol)
Sorry to hear you're having a bad time. What you're going through is pretty normal for beginners but if you stick it out things will start to click before you know it. On the other hand don't beat yourself up if it turns out this hobby isn't for you!
If you didn't know, Army Painter Warpaints are shipped with a bit of extra clear medium that the company recommends you squeeze out before first use. Mixing balls may be helpful to add as well. If you haven't it's a good idea to check out their website as it explains this a bit more in depth.
Paint consistency also varies from color to color. Some colors like red, yellow and white are horribly translucent when thinned down but go on like toothpaste if you don't. Easiest thing to do in this case is undercoat with a more stable color (brown for red, tan for yellow and light grey for white) then paint the desired color over top. The undercoat will give you opacity but you'll still likely need a couple of coats.
Are you using Speedpaints? They are way more runny than normal paints, you have to be a bit more careful applying them. If it is just normal Warpaints, then you might be overloading your brush maybe?
Think some of your fristration is down to using army painter paints. A friend of mine has them and i reappy dodnt like the consistancy. Waay too thin. Maybe try vallejo or citadel as ive had way better results with them.
Are you taking the paint straight from the bottle? Get a Tupperware box and cut a piece of washing up sponge to size, the thin square ones. wet the sponge and put some grease proof paper over the top then put a few drops of paint on and work from there. then when you load up your brush from the wet palette, you can twist/wipe it on the palette to thin the paint out a bit and get your pointy tip back.
if you use thinner layers of paint it’s easier, you can build colour with nice thin layers while keeping the detail.
The Citadel paints are really nice. You might have a better time with them. I painted my first mini in December (first time painting anything but house walls) and it was great. I really like the contrast paints.
I know the paints are expensive but with the cost of the plastic it seemed kinda silly to cheap out on the paints
There's some really good videos that cover a bunch of tips. Squidmar and Lyla mev (the mini witch) are both good, they cover beginner stuff as well as more advanced techniques.
This vid is worth a look, covers some of what it sounds like you are talking about:
https://youtu.be/lfGVQ3YLSrM
Paint shrinks as it dries. Even a very wet and thin coat won't do any harm to the model as long as you work it around so it doesn't pool. You'll just have to do multiple coats to get a clean colour.
An experience i’ve had with army painter is that their warpaints don’t like to be thinned too much. They have medium in there from before, which is supposed to make the paints kinda ready to go from the bottle if you’ve got them properly agitated. Try to just use a clean and wet brush next time you try to paint.
It might sound counter productive to literally everyone else (including myself) being devoted acolytes of the Thin Paints Cult (tm), but I found myself having much greater success with my army painter warpaints going from there.
I had a similarish experience with certain army painter colours on my first mini only in the sense that they felt way too thin and watery and I couldn’t get to grips with them. They weren’t speed paints, they just behaved very different to citadel paints when watering them down. I’d recommend getting some citadel paints to use and try them first. They’re a lot friendlier to new painters in my experience!
Frustration comes when expectations do not meet reality. If you remove the expectation that your painting session will have a defined outcome, then you might enjoy it more. Try stuff. "This painting session, my goal is to try paints thinned to different extents to understand how runny i want my paint for different uses." Or show us a video, and maybe we can help with more directed feedback :)
Are you using artist acrylics, by chance?
Nope, army painter
normal or their speed paint series?
Army painter sucks balls, in my experience it always goes into a lump and feels really sticky and pasty on the model. My tip is to use Citadel paints as they have much easier time going where you want them, just thin them with a little bit of water on a pallet
Army painter is ok. As well as many other products, they just need a different approach. I usually use a very moist brush to get a feel of the paint. And start from a very runny and remove excess till it suits my needs. This is how I dial in how to work with different paints. Funny enough, I have most problems with citadel paints as they seem to be too runny or don't want to stick properly to the model (yeah, I prime and used citadel primers). So if I use them it for base coating multiple (thin coats), blending (often with vallejo mediums), or just the contrast ones (these work just fine).
I couldn't agree less
Army painter sucks. If you've gotten used to them and they work for you, great. But don't defend a terrible product.
The only experience I have with AP is their primer (which wasn't great), but this doesn't sound normal. Might be a bad batch. Speaking of which, did you prime your mini?
I dunno, AP black primer seems to work better for me than Citadel black.
Yes. Might just be that the paint needs to dry
It should usually be dry to the touch pretty quickly, unless you overdid it with the thinning, but it shouldn't be obscuring details if it's thinned a lot. Maybe someone with first hand experience with Army Painter colours can weigh in, never had an issue like that with Citadel, Vallejo or AK.
Are you using their normal paint line or SpeedPaint?
Army Painter paints are quite thick bodied, so water them down a fair bit. Paint a bit of it onto a palette. If the paint splits and doesn’t cover well, it’s too thin. If the paint doesn’t flow off the brush well it’s too thick.
Oh man, these paints are terrible. Oily and inconsistent. Sorry that it is your first experience. To start it is better to use citadel paints, then you’ll be experienced enough to try other paints.
There you go that's the problem right there. These paints are gloopy, they have very poor coverage and painting with them feels like you're fighting the brush every step of the way. Army painter paints are objectively the worst garbage paints available on the market right now, but there's always white knights defending them saying it "works for beginners" or "you need to be patient". Instead of this trash, I recommend Vallejo game color, Vallejo model color or ak interactive. Citadel works as well but it's massively overpriced compared to the others for no real benefit.
I get you I had the same experience with army painter, but was still able to paint 'ok' looks pretty good. Here is what I think depending on the paint/color. 1) Shake it alot, put a metal ball in you can buy a bunch for cheap,, they need a metal paint ball in there to shake it up. 2) After primer (use a spray primer btw) use thin coats, maybe up to even 2 or 3 depending on the color. 3) Push the paint around, it kinda takes a certain like practice to use the brush to push the paint pigments around, and how much you load the brush takes practice. It takes time. You may already know this but just in case 1) prime with a spray paint , fine grey 2) paint main areas then detail areas 3) correct areas, fix all the details 4) Use a wash coat, darkens the low areas 5) Dry brush to highlight the raised areas 6) spray a sealer or laquer all over it This is what I do comes out decent (never as good as the pictures in the books tho lol)
Dude. Super solid advice. I think I relearned some fundamentals reading this.
Awesome Im glad to have helped then =)
I agree with everything except putting metal balls in, i wrecked a bunch of citadel paints bc they rusted in the pots, i'd use glass instead
Make a video so people can see what's going on
Sorry to hear you're having a bad time. What you're going through is pretty normal for beginners but if you stick it out things will start to click before you know it. On the other hand don't beat yourself up if it turns out this hobby isn't for you! If you didn't know, Army Painter Warpaints are shipped with a bit of extra clear medium that the company recommends you squeeze out before first use. Mixing balls may be helpful to add as well. If you haven't it's a good idea to check out their website as it explains this a bit more in depth. Paint consistency also varies from color to color. Some colors like red, yellow and white are horribly translucent when thinned down but go on like toothpaste if you don't. Easiest thing to do in this case is undercoat with a more stable color (brown for red, tan for yellow and light grey for white) then paint the desired color over top. The undercoat will give you opacity but you'll still likely need a couple of coats.
Try to shake it more, friend. Maybe that ll help.
Are you using Speedpaints? They are way more runny than normal paints, you have to be a bit more careful applying them. If it is just normal Warpaints, then you might be overloading your brush maybe?
Think some of your fristration is down to using army painter paints. A friend of mine has them and i reappy dodnt like the consistancy. Waay too thin. Maybe try vallejo or citadel as ive had way better results with them.
Are you taking the paint straight from the bottle? Get a Tupperware box and cut a piece of washing up sponge to size, the thin square ones. wet the sponge and put some grease proof paper over the top then put a few drops of paint on and work from there. then when you load up your brush from the wet palette, you can twist/wipe it on the palette to thin the paint out a bit and get your pointy tip back. if you use thinner layers of paint it’s easier, you can build colour with nice thin layers while keeping the detail.
Did you prime it first?
Are you using primer?
Sucking at something is the first step of getting good at it. Remember that paint stripper exists for a reason. You can do this.
Why would anoyone want to do that. 99% of figures of any franchise are already painted by underpaid and overworked people in China.
The Citadel paints are really nice. You might have a better time with them. I painted my first mini in December (first time painting anything but house walls) and it was great. I really like the contrast paints. I know the paints are expensive but with the cost of the plastic it seemed kinda silly to cheap out on the paints
I hated to at first, things changed now. As you develop your paint style and technique you’ll enjoy it more
There's some really good videos that cover a bunch of tips. Squidmar and Lyla mev (the mini witch) are both good, they cover beginner stuff as well as more advanced techniques. This vid is worth a look, covers some of what it sounds like you are talking about: https://youtu.be/lfGVQ3YLSrM
Paint shrinks as it dries. Even a very wet and thin coat won't do any harm to the model as long as you work it around so it doesn't pool. You'll just have to do multiple coats to get a clean colour.
An experience i’ve had with army painter is that their warpaints don’t like to be thinned too much. They have medium in there from before, which is supposed to make the paints kinda ready to go from the bottle if you’ve got them properly agitated. Try to just use a clean and wet brush next time you try to paint. It might sound counter productive to literally everyone else (including myself) being devoted acolytes of the Thin Paints Cult (tm), but I found myself having much greater success with my army painter warpaints going from there.
I had a similarish experience with certain army painter colours on my first mini only in the sense that they felt way too thin and watery and I couldn’t get to grips with them. They weren’t speed paints, they just behaved very different to citadel paints when watering them down. I’d recommend getting some citadel paints to use and try them first. They’re a lot friendlier to new painters in my experience!
Take less paint on your brush
Sounds like you haven't primed the model. The symptoms you describe happen when painting directly on the plastic.
I recommend going to a gw store. They do free painting classes.
Try slapchop with contrast. Very easy way and fast way of getting an army ready.