Do it yourself speedpaint mix?

[destofante]

I have been reading of the “magic” of the speedpaint sets that are recently coming on the market. The concept is attractive, especially for my 15mm WW2 miniatures on the painting waitlist, but I have already invested in Vallejo paints and I am reluctant to ditch them for a whole new product. Is there a way (by mixing with thinner, or other ingredients) to replicate the same speedpaint effect using “regular” Vallejo colors? Not sure a thinner would be enough, but I do not what other element to consider for some experimentation.
Thoughts?

[SteveBurt]

Dilute the paint with water with a little acrylic flow enhancer mixed in

[destofante]

Thanks Steve — any flow enhancer you would recommend? (For reference, I am based in the UK.)

[Fitz]

A simple contrast/speed paint medium is a 50/50 mix of flow improver and liquid matte medium.

I use Vallejo flow improver and Golden liquid matte medium. The amount of paint required to get the optimum level of colour intensity will vary from pigment to pigment; you'll have to experiment. This medium will allow you to go all the way from full opacity to the subtlest of glazes without losing the integrity of the paint layer.

[NotifyGrout]

A simple contrast/speed paint medium is a 50/50 mix of flow improver and liquid matte medium.

I use Vallejo flow improver and Golden liquid matte medium. The amount of paint required to get the optimum level of colour intensity will vary from pigment to pigment; you'll have to experiment. This medium will allow you to go all the way from full opacity to the subtlest of glazes without losing the integrity of the paint layer.

Important note: if you use art store flow aid, like Liquitex, make sure it doesn't need to be diluted. Liquitex's is a concentrate and needs to be diluted 20:1 water:flow-aid. Not doing so won't cause any harm but it's wasting a lot of it. I didn't realize this until another hobbyist pointed it out, and I'm not wasting my flow aid anymore.

Vallejo's flow medium is already diluted to the proper consistency.

I'm about to resume experimenting with 1:1:1 acrylic ink, acrylic matte medium, and the above 20:1 flow aid mixture again. Paint will also work, but more medium would likely be needed.

[FifteensAway]

Not sure if this quite meets your desire but I recently painted a bunch of longhorn cattle and wanted some with brindled coloring.  I did this by mixing a variety of appropriate paint colors onto a palette in a very loose manner so all the colors still showed and then picked up the multi-colored paint and applied to the cattle. Worked good enough for me.  Very similar technique to what Bob Ross does in many of his episodes of The Joy of Painting using a painting knife to 'cut and roll' some blended colors.  Except I use craft acrylics and just thin with water - and an angled edged brush small enough for my subject instead of a knife.

And I discovered that it is hard to paint the wrong coloring on longhorns - I used a website with scores and scores of photographs of unique animals and somewhere along the way realized Mother Nature churns out some really messed up lookin' doggies. 

[ced1106]

Are you washing after the basecoat? At 15mm, you're not going to see the details when gaming. You're definitely not going to be focusing on the paint job while you're playing the game. I use colored primers followed by washes. That even takes out the step of priming.