I am making my first attempt at figure painting.
I am working on a resin 120 mm Lost Battalion Minatures British 17th light Dragoon Trooper from 1781
The paint recommended by the shop is Model Color by Vallejo. I primed the model, and have been trying to paint the red coat first. The Vallejo site recommends a 50/50 paint water mixture. I have tried that, and it is so thin it runs everywhere, and does not cover much at all. I kept remixing, and found a 3/1 paint/water seemed to be better, but I still get it running a bit and collecting in the creases of the uniform. Thank goodness it is water based, and I have been able to remove my failed attempts.
I also get some grainyness after painting, even though I mix as good as I can.
Any advice is appreciated.
The rule of thumb is “whatever works”, but it sounds as though you may simply have too much paint on your brush. I’m assuming that you’ve also shaken the paint before using. I only use Vellejo as an under coat to lay oils over, but I often use it straight out of the bottle, and it works just fine.
I’m sure the acrylic guys will be able to shed more light though.
http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/
Go to this link, select “Model color” from the drop down menu and scroll tot he bottom of the page for a downlodable and printable tutorial.
Yes, 50/50 will give you a very thin layer. It’s supposed to. You need to lay several coats on to build up the color. For large areas, I use a #4 flat shader by Lowe-Cornell and just a bity of paint at a time. You may need 3-4 water thin coats to get the full effect.
The theme song for Vallejo (and Andrea) is “shake, shake, shake; shake, shake, shake, shake your bottle, shake your bottle.”
I assume you’ve primed the model first?