Lahmian Medium and Iron Hands

[Herald of Magnus]

Hey guys, so I've been painting my iron hands for a while following a guide (very roughly following that is). I had a few issues with the colouring of the guide, firstly here is the link:

 

 

 

OK so I found when I used the same base colour as he says, the model ends up like, really dark, as in, still black dark. It looks barely noticeable after the base is applied. So I started using Ironbreaker as the base and it seems to work much better? However I'm unsure if it came out so dark because I did something wrong with the mix at the beginning.

 

My next issue is, what's the point of Lahmian Medium? He mentions it's for thinning the paint but couldn't you just do that with water? I have a pot of the stuff and it basically just seems to act as water?

[NiceGuyAdi]

If you were thinning down the Leadbelcher a lot, you may have needed two coats to get it to show? But if Ironbreaker works for you, why not go with that?

 

Lahmian Medium is basically Citadel paint with no pigment added, so you use it to thin paint and it will still flow in much the same way as before. You can use water instead, but need to be careful not to add too much or it becomes difficult to control the paint once you go too far.

[Herald of Magnus]

To be honest I didn't water down the leadbelcher probably as much as I should, I haven't used the colour before so didn't know if it was a dark coloured silver or not really. Odd, so with Lahmian medium you can kind of add a good amount so to speak and it'll still flow well? So it's just a more forgiving version of adding water. 

 

OK, well thanks very much!

[Bryan Blaire]

Water by itself is not necessarily the greatest paint thinner because it will change the properties of the paint at a higher concentration of water to paint. If you really want to get a good thinning of your paint while still having it still act like paint, definitely check out a medium and a flow improver. You can also use an air brush paint thinner. These will all thin the paint without substantially altering its properties (although if you thin a Base paint from GW or one of the Heavy Opaques from the Vallejo Game Color line, it may need more coats to get complete coverage of any undercoating).

 

To save yourself some cash, definitely check out art mediums instead of relying on GW's, you will get substantially more for a similar price.

 

Something else I noticed in that video... Don't paint your glue join areas. You won't get as strong a join as you can bare plastic to bare plastic, which means your figure will be more prone to break at that weaker join when dropped. If you are going to paint it, scrape some of the paint off before gluing to give you a space to glue/join more strongly.

[Herald of Magnus]

Ah ok, I see now Bryan. To be honest I paint the marines as one built model I don't split them like in that video. Though thanks for the help!!

[Bryan Blaire]

If you want to stick to GW products, in my mind, the GW Air Caste Thinner (air brush thinner) is much, much better for thinning small amounts of GW paint than their Lahmian Medium is. You can use it 2:1 thinner:paint and get a lot more mileage out of a small bit of GW paint.

 

I still prefer a mix of 3:2:1 Winsor & Newton Flow Improver:W&N Matte Medium:GW paint (I don't use any water, even though the flow improver says to). You'd have to experiment with your paints and additives to see what kind of mix you like.

 

You don't have to use GW paint on the models obviously, and I would say that everyone should try out multiple paint lines to find the colors they want to use in a "paint flavor" (for lack of a better term - color, consistency, coverage, viscosity, etc.) they like. Other paint lines tend to be cheaper to quite a bit cheaper on the pocket book, but I still tend to use the GW stuff because I like most of their colors and it's convenient.

[Herald of Magnus]

As a bit of a novice I was looking around at other paints however I was really unsure of what would work, I also don't have a good eye for copying shading/colour etc. So for now I've picked up GW products however I'd be happy to pick up other thinners for use with my iron hands, especially since it seems I'm going through so much Lahmian medium, I'm not paying however much it was again!  

I was thinking of setting up a WIP project soon, my iron-hands whilst I like the scheme I'm not sure if it's too dark or needs something to help it pop but I'm unsure. Would I be able to ask for some constructive criticism here or is that too off topic for the thread? I'm also thinking of setting up a project blog too in the other section you see.

[Bryan Blaire]

You'll want to post a WiP thread in the Works in Progress forum here in the Forge, you can get constructive criticism there.

[Grand Master Laertes]

Another idea, instead of thinning down the common Leadbelcher, would be using the Leadbelcher from GW's Air range, that is no more a web exclusive and can be also found in physical shops. It is already thinner than the Base range colour, and for most of the basic jobs can be applied stright out of the pot, without mixing it with mediums or anything else.