Army Painter Warpaints too thick.

[zizi666]

A friend wanted to pick up figure painting again because of all the miniatures that come with boardgames these days.
Starting from scratch after all these years, he bought an AP starter kit.
Soon after he asked me wether it was normal for the paint to be so thick (think the consistency of yoghourt  )
Upon my contradiction he contacted Army Painter where they assured him their paint is supposed to be that way...
Makes the whole : shake well before use warning completely obsolete IMO and also, every review I could find online claims the paints are of good consistency and some even find 'em too thin 
As such I'm pretty sure there's something wrong here. I've got 30 bottles of warpaints standing here and not 1 has liquid in it. I painted some black on a fig and I really disliked the stuff.

So, anyone else experienced this? and more importantly : any chance of thinning this properly (adding a bit of water made it more of a wash than a paint)

[Major_Gilbear]

No idea since I don't use them myself, but from every review I've ever seen they don't soynd right to me. 

However, if you mix up a batch of 1:1 distilled water and matte medium, you can add it to your paints a drop at a time until they are a better consistency for you. The medium is essentially acrylic binder with no pigment, so it should help to avoid the paint splitting compared to just  adding water on its own. 

[zizi666]

I have Airbrush Medium from Golden.
Wouldn't that to the trick ?
Or else Flow retarder (again from Golden)

[Major_Gilbear]

Well, water is a thinner, and you saw what that did on its own; airbrush medium is just thinner again.

Retarder makes the paint dry slower, but doesn't really change it's workability (which is what you're after).

Matte medium is an extender, and without the pigment is often a bit thinner than the "full" paint. This medium is an extender; that is, it lowers the concentration of pigment to binder, making the paints a bit more translucent.

By mixing some extender with some thinner, you should be able to make the paint less gloopy but also avoid it getting too runny. Do add a tiny bit at a time though, and check as as you go.

[Mr Tough Guy]

just use a wet pallet, TBH I prefer the paint to be thick, as it will be diluted on the pallet anyway and it will be much easier to get to the right consistency for what I want. diluting thick paint is easy, trying to thicken up thin paint is impossible. maybe not ideal if you tend to paint straight from the pot, but perfect for anyone that uses a (wet) pallet

[zizi666]

Doh.
It was clearly past my bed time when I typed the last post.
It's Flow Release Agent I have, not flow retarder...

[Mr. Peabody]

Major Gilbear has a very good solution, pun intended. And it will fix the consistency of just about any acrylic paint.

I go a step further and add a few drops of 'flow release' to my matte medium and water mix (10% by volume per the flow release instructions).

I mix up a half litre of this stuff every year or so and use it not only to thin paints, working with inks and making my own dip, but also for basing work. It's super useful stuff.

You want to put a couple of agitator beads in the bottle to aid mixing it up...

[zizi666]

Any particular brand of matte medium?
Golden is easiest to come by for me (3 hobby supplies stores nearby, that all carry the brand)

[Major_Gilbear]

Golden and Liquitex are both good, and even Vallejo too if you're caught short is more than fine.

[Mr. Peabody]

I use liquitex, mostly because I watch out for sales and buy the big, big bottle. 

[obsidian3d]

Mr Tough Guy's suggestion will help, and is the same one I would give. Simply dropping it onto the palette will let the pain pull in some more moisture and make it flow a little better. If that's still too thick for you to work with a mix of water and matte medium will help with improving the flow. I'd err on the side of matte medium over water, going with a 2:1 mix.

Are the paints you have from the regular line or the Zombicide range? I've heard that the zombicide paints were intentionally made to be thicker than their regular paints. I think that was a mistake...but that's beside the point.

[zizi666]

Mr Tough Guy's suggestion will help, and is the same one I would give. Simply dropping it onto the palette will let the pain pull in some more moisture and make it flow a little better. If that's still too thick for you to work with a mix of water and matte medium will help with improving the flow. I'd err on the side of matte medium over water, going with a 2:1 mix.

Are the paints you have from the regular line or the Zombicide range? I've heard that the zombicide paints were intentionally made to be thicker than their regular paints. I think that was a mistake...but that's beside the point.

Some bottles are Zombicide, most however are from the standard Warpaint range.

[obsidian3d]

Hm that's interesting. I have the full range of regular paints (none of the zombicide ones) and generally find them to be a nice consistency. I usually thin all of my paints out a bit when I'm working. I'd rather get a smooth finish through two or three coats than something clumpy.

[zizi666]

So, I got all the ingredients and mixed up a batch of matte medium/distilled water.
Opened one bottle and found something inside that looked like a coloured version of vallejo's Heavy Gel 
I had to add 50 drops of the mix to thin it down to the consistency of valejo paint (and even then it still was thicker than that)
While fluidity improved a lot, coverage got worse, a lot... 

Tried a second bottle with only 20 drops this time. coverage was so-so but paint still was way too thick.

I'll be giving my friend his paints back plus a bottle of the mixture, so he can experiment with it, but for me it's a done deal :
I'll never buy Armypainter paints.
Selling a whole batch of shit to people and upon complaining even having the nerve to try and convince them it's suppopsed to be like that.
Shame on them !
 

[obsidian3d]

Sounds unusual really. I wonder if the place he bought them from stores them somewhere a little too hot? That's the only reason I can think of that they'd all be thick like that.

I've bought several single bottles, a small starter set plus their mega paint set and have never had any issues with the Army Painter stuff. I've stayed away from the Zombicide sets because I heard they were a lot thicker (and I don't need any more paint). If you find the water mixture affects the coverage too much, go with a higher ratio of matte medium.