Army Painter paints

[pawl]

Just a quick one!

 

I've got a couple of colours from the Army Painter range, but have yet to use them. I've read online that they ship with extra medium in to prevent colour spillage in the event that a lid comes off/breaks,and that you should remove this before using the paint.

 

If I don't, and simply mix it in, is it going to ruin the paint? What if I had picked one up by mistake and shaken it?

[Bryan Blaire]

That's probably one of the weirdest things I've heard - medium shouldn't do anything to prevent color spillage - it's just medium for the paint - it would be like GW having "extra Lahmian" floating on top - that's not going to stop a pot without a lid from spilling. Maybe it could prevent it from drying out in the bottle too much or something over a short period.

 

If there is extra medium in the bottles, unless it's a non-acrylic medium/something you shouldn't be mixing in your paints, it seems like the only thing mixing it in would do is alter the properties of the paint - thin out the pigment density a little or alter another property, if it's something other than just straight matte acrylic medium.

[bigtrouble]

What Army Painter says in their info that comes with the paint is that after you shake it, you should empty the tip onto a paper towel before using it because the tip will fill with medium that has less pigment in it. The same applies if you let them sit for a really long time. If you plan to add a mixing ball, be sure to mix the paint up a bit first before pulling the tip off, and put the tip back in slowly because the dropper bottle will tend to pressurize and you’ll get a small fountain when you open it the first time. Edited November 25, 2020 by bigtrouble

[Firedrake Cordova]

If I don't, and simply mix it in, is it going to ruin the paint?

Worst case, it'll be slightly more thinned. :)

[Tyberos the Red Wake]

So the new Army Painter bottles are jam-packed, and then they fill the top with pure medium for shipping. If you think you can mix it properly without squeezing out the medium, go for it. Most likely you will only be able to slightly mix it, and the first big glob of paint will be very, very thin in pigment. It won't affect anything, it'll just make it seem like the paint barely has any coverage.

 

I didn't put two and two together and realized why my fresh bottle of grey was so terrible despite shaking until I remembered I never removed the extra medium. After squeezing out a big drop of runny grey, the rest of the bottle was normal.

[CMDR_Welles]

I've never had to squeeze out extra anything. If its still runny, just shake it more to mix it in. It wont affect anything. I definitely recommend using mixing balls. Army PAinter ones are nice. I put two per bottle.

 

Army Painter paints are pretty thick anyway, anything extra to thin is a welcome thing IMHO

[pawl]

Thanks for the advice all! When I next get time to paint I'll have a look at them, see if I can lose a little bit from each - don't mind the paint being thick because I'm only going to thin it down anyway!

Have some of the AMMO mixing balls that I've not used yet (couldn't be bothered with the mess!) - is there any real benefit to using two per bottle over one?

[bigtrouble]

I have tried one and two, and don’t see a difference. personally. Maybe it’s a few less shakes with two?