halo 3000 wrote:Thanks! you answered the majority of the questions I had, but didn't know how to say. I got the apple barrel and folk art paint. I made some Boltgun metal too. when you said a dot you weren't kidding...
No problem. Yeah, a little goes a really long way when mixing.
halo 3000 wrote:what do you do in terms of thinning your paint?
Hm. I usually don't have to. You might try (and bear with me here because this might be a little hard to explain):
First, shake really well.
As Zupponn suggested, use a palette (The Wal sells those round ones with the small cups, the flat ones are alright and easier to clean but are kind of a pain for mixing). Measure your paints (the apple barrel ones with the flip tops) in drops, maybe get about the size of the tip of a finger (you'll have to experiment with it to determine how much you need vs. how much you'll be painting at a time). Then take a bit of paper towel and dip it in some water until it saturates. Slowly wring the water out into the paint, mixing as you go with either an old brush or one you don't care about. If you've an eyedropper, that'd be easier. If that doesn't really work for you, try a "wet palette" instead. You can find instructions to make them on YouTube (they're pretty easy).
Also, try sort of (oh, how do I say this) gently scraping the edge of the brush against the rim of the palette or something to remove excess paint. You don't need much actually on the brush. I'm sure once you've painted a few minis, you'll have a good idea about how much you need.
halo 3000 wrote:What do you use to prime? would the spray can I have back there work?
I've used that exact spray many times. Now, the problem with it is that it isn't exactly the highest quality paint so sometimes it doesn't come out real smooth and you get burrs. You can mitigate that somewhat with vigorous shaking, but not always. Make sure when you use it that you sort of dust the minis in sweeping passes. It can go on thick and destroy small details. I've found its easiest to do 5 or 10 guys at a time (make sure you tape or sticky them down; the plastic is really light and will blow away).
Also, keep in mind that your undercoat will affect your top colors. That is, a black undercoat will make colors appear darker. Lighter colors (like yellow or white) over a black undercoat will require multiple coats (2-3, usually). Be sure when you do them that you wait for them to completely dry before applying another coat. Same is true in reverse, of course. A white undercoat will highlight colors. I took to gray for a long time, thinking to split the difference, but that's not always appropriate for some models. Your color scheme looks like it would be easiest to do black as an undercoat (because so much of the model will be black...or is that a charcoal gray?) That little nook behind their neck is a real pain if the marine is already glued together.
It takes longer, but another option is to "primer" them using the acrylic paint and a somewhat larger brush. I bought a big thing (8oz) of the white and black for this purpose a while ago. Another good thing about those paints is that they last a long time. The citadel paints often dry out quickly (that might have changed somewhat since they released their new line a couple of months ago, though).
Finally, consider higher quality paints if you want to bulk paint in white (like primer or whatever). The new citadel white acrylic is gorgeous (I tried it out at a GW store a few months back...coverage is great, paint is smooth). The white wal-mart spray is worse than the black but can still work if you do a good job painting over it.
Sorry so long but I hope it helps. I look forward to seeing your Grey Ravens.