"Liquitex Acrylic tube paint" Topic

Is a paint like this suitable for miniature painting? Has anyone used it before, any ips, tricks, or is it simply too thick to use?

I've used black, white, and gray with a generous daub of water to thin it for basecoating figures and terrain.

It "works", but it is mighty thick. Renaissance Inks Paint levels of thick.

You need to thin it for normal painting.
It is excellent for two things, though:
1. Undercoat for bendy plastic figures; it flexes with the figure so paint doesn't flake.
2. Mixing with acrylic texture gels for basing.

You will need to thin it out… ALOT!

Some folks swear by it, saying the inherent thickness makes it perfect for drybrush techniques. I've yet to get the hang of it.

Doug

It's all I've used for the last 15 years. You do need to thin it with water, but, as pointed out it's perfect for dry brushing and makes a passable wash as well. It's also very easy to mix, allowing for perfect color control.

I've used it (off and on – due to cost) for the last twenty years. I currently have a couple of tubes Red (Cadmium Red) and Titanium White).

I would use it more often, but it is VERY expensive and quite rare in the UK.

You may want to invest in a Flow Improver, for best results.

Tony
dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com

but it is VERY expensive and quite rare in the UK

Artist's tube acrylics are rare in the UK? I would think any art shop would have them.

Doug

For tube or hard bodied acrylics, you need a palette or something else to mix them on, matte medium, glaze medium and a palette knife for mixing. Trying to mix with a brush will aggravate the bejeebers out of you.

You need to thin them quite a bit and a small dot goes a long way because of the pigmentation of the paint.

I use them often and like them but they take some getting used to. I use them as regular "model" paint but they have been thinned about 1 part paint to 7 parts water, 1 part matte medium and 1 part glaze medium. Like I said a small bit goes a long long way.

Liquitex invented acrylic paint according to their company history. Their first product was an acrylic gesso; the name comes from that, an abbreviation of "Liquid Texture". Clearly they know a thing or too about how to make paint.

I've started replacing my hobby paints with Liquitex wherever possible. I have a friend who only uses Liquitex for his miniatures. You'll find many many topics here on TMP about using gesso as a primer on miniatures; the most successful examples all seem to use Liquitex Gesso.

Liquitex has several varieties of tube paint; most dry to a satin finish unless they say otherwise.

Soft Body Artist Colors, previously called Medium Viscosity, are what I've been using. I get them in the squeezeable bottles though not tubes. This still needs to be thinned for use on miniatures but the quality and pigment concentration are high so they thin out just fine. To be certain I don't water the paint too much, I've been thinning with their Ultra Matte Medium or regular Matte Medium. (Ultra Matte Medium is supposed to improve opacity so I use it for extra insurance but it's also supposed to lighten color slightly, so where that would be an issue I use regular Matte Medium.) I thin either of these matte media 50/50 with "wet water" – filtered water with a drop of dishwasher rinse aid per cup -- before adding to the paint; the 50/50 water/media ratio is recommended by Liquitex.

Heavy Body Artist Colors, previously called High Viscosity, are very thick, emulating tube oil paints. I've avoided these but they are made to the same quality standards so probably they would work as well for miniatures as the Soft Body colors, just require more thinning.

Super Heavy Body Artist Colors are thick paints that will hold sculpted detail and won't shrink when drying. Not a good fit for miniatures painting.

BASICS Student Colors are value-priced colors. I think the difference is they have lower pigment density and are not guaranteed to be lightfast (e.g., they may fade when exposed to UV light over time). The regular line is a heavy body formulation; the MATT line is a matte soft body version. The lightfastness is probably only relevant when compared to artist colors -- most hobby paint lines don't guarantee lightfastness either, but professional artist colors do.

Price-wise, here in the US the Soft Body acrylics cost 2-3 times what hobby paints cost, but they come in a 59 ml bottle (2 oz) so you get 3-4 times as much paint in the bottle and you thin it so it goes even further than that.

It is an excellent paint for figures, but thick. If you get the various thinning agents, liquid mediums, acrylic thinners, etc., you can do more with this paint than you can with the pre-thinned stuff from hobby paints as the thickness allows certain uses which cannot be achieved with other paints (like sculpting paint onto your figure!). On the other hand, they also have problems because thinning them also thins out the pigments in them and makes them less suitable for one-thin-coat coverage like you can get with the pre-thinned and pigment corrected hobby paints. I use both types depending upon the application. As stated above, they are great for the dry-brush techniques because of the thickness of the paint and the dense pigmentation in them.

I was looking at the soft body artist colors in bottles today at Michaels. Most colors were $6.99 USD a bottle, a few were $9.99, but I have seen them online for as low as $4.19 USD so they don't seem all that bad compared to hobby paints.

I think I will try a few bottles, looks like thinned down they will last a long, long time. I had good results with the gesso, just missed a few spots where I put it on too thin

How is their flat varnish?

I've been using Liquitex Acrylics for 25+ years. I like them for the quality and consistency. The tubes can be pricey, but they last for years if you take care of them.

Liquitex Flow-Aid is billed as a product that will allow you to thin paints without losing opacity (coverage). I have been using it with craft paints and Liquitex paints and, so far, Flow-Aid has lived up to its billing. Beware, however, as Flow-Aid is pretty powerful stuff (bottle recommends 1:20 ratio with water).

jaxenro, I've only used Liquitex Matte Varnish on figures a couple of times so far. It scared me at first because it seemed to dry with a white frosting effect, but eventually I realized it takes a long time to fully cure; the frosting finally went away (not overnight, I think it was a couple days but might have been longer as I looked at my test piece the next day then put it away and ended up not getting it back out for a week). I have brush-on Testors Dullcote as well (and spray); I have not scientifically compared the two but I think Dullcote is slightly more dead flat. Still I like that the Liquitex Matte Varnish is water-soluble so I will continue using it.

Oberst Radl, I wouldn't want to challenge your experience, but from the description on the Liquitex web site, I have assumed Flow-Aid is for creating washes. It does actually say so: "Breaks water tension … Use with Liquitex Soft Body color to make very fluid washes." I wouldn't think it would maintain opacity. It also advises "Should not add more than 25% as there is no binder".

Matte Medium and Ultra Matte Medium contain binder, that is why I use those since Soft Body Acrylic is thick paint and I expect to dilute it more than 25%. As I mentioned in my other post I thin the Medium with water 50/50 and I do add a softening agent (I use dishwasher rinse aid but perhaps I should get Flow-Aid).

It appears from the different descriptions that Ultra Matte Medium is the best to use for thinning paint while maintaining opacity: "Economically doubles the volume of Soft Body Artist Color by adding up to an equal amount (50%) of medium to color with little or no noticeable loss in opacity or change in hue." and "Opacity of colors mixed with Ultra Matte Medium will be higher than if the color had been thinned to the same degree with any other medium except Modeling Paste."

Liquitex main web site: liquitex.com/default2.cfm

(On the links below click each product for more detail.)

Liquitex fluid mediums including Matte and Ultra Matte: link

Liquitex additives including Flow-Aid: link

Liquitex varnishes including Matte Varnish: link

donrice,

Interesting. Could be the sales lady thought she was selling me another product? Or I thought I was buying another product? I don't use anywhere near 25% dilution, so your post is a good check on my accuracy. I do know that I mixed about 1:20 with water and use drops of that to turn thick craft paints into good-covering paint that's the consistency of cream, whereas just using water seems to disperse the pigment.

But reading your post has me convinced I should buy Ultra-Matte Medium and compare.

I've always use them. Started in the 70's 'cos I hated enamel. Expensive? Yes some tubes cost £8.00 GBP or so but it'll last you 10 years (had a lot dry out in the 80's heatwave)

Most useful – Graphite grey, ideal for any metallic surface, starship. Payne's grey. THe new black for those who don't like painting things black. Try them on horses.

Metals are superb. You can POLISH them with a brush if you want a brighter effect. Two coats? Wot? never! Goblin puke colour? You'r 'aving a laugh.

I've always undercoated by making a wash of one of the blacks – but then I prefer a thin irregular coat rather than a thick, detail covering spray.

The transclucent paints are fantastic over inked metal, ideal for bioships and other fantasy types. Fish types I mix with a very strong coat then drybrush contrast over the top.

I've always found these paints EASIER to find in the UK than hobby paints other than humbrol.

Liquitex soft body are excellent paints – finding them in the UK CAN be hit and miss – a lot of art shops carry Rowney Cryla and the Winsor and Newton ranges instead (which are heavier bodied than Liquitex soft – more like their Heavy Body range, IMO). Mail order isn't a problem.

I took the plunge and ordered 25 bottles of paint in a host of different colors, plus the matte medium. I figure
i can fill in locally and at 2 oz a bottle they should last a long time. I had really good results with the Liquitex black gesso as an undercoat and like the idea of sticking to one brand of products.

I did notice, though, you can't just buy a bottle of "flesh" color but they are the more traditional artist colors like cobalt blue, cadmium red, chrome green, burnt umbar, etc. Do any mixing charts exist, like a formula that says two parts raw umbar and one part raw sienna for flesh that I can use as a starting point?

link

link

Let us know how your experiment works!

I will. Originally I was looking into craft paints and the like but the Liquitex gesso worked so well and I gave it a thought.

I am planning a Roman army of almost 1,000 figures over the long run. Assuming that based with all the extra's they will run between $2.50 USD and $3.00 USD per figure total cost is going to be between $2,500 and $3,000 for one army (four legions). So knowing that does $150 USD for paint seem all that out of line if by buying better paint I get better results. I probably could have spent 1/3 of that on craft paints fleshed out with hobby paints but this way I get a good quality paint and all compatable

So is 5% of the total really too much to spend on paint? I decided it wasn't

That's a very reasonable calculation. Just for more information, I spent $165 USD and got 140+ acrylic craft paints. Of course I'm new to wargaming and wanted as varied a palette as I could get since I didn't know what I would be painting the most of. Your targeted project gives you more room to spend on specific paints (I suspect the same is true with Foundry people who've settled on periods).

The last time I tried Liquitex acrylics was 30 years ago and my experience wasn't good. Of course I didn't realize you could/should thin them first! I've gone to artist's acrylics for metallics, however -- craft metallics are crap and hobby metallics are way too expensive. So far the best approach I've come across for metallics (painting medieval figures) is to buy a 4 ounce bottle of Golden fine silver and 2 ounce bottles of the other metallic colors. Golden mixes fine with craft paints and so the variations on "steel" are pretty much endless.

Your army should be very impressive!

Great links, Oberst Radl. I am no color mixer but maybe I will try making up my own flesh tones.

Thanks. I usually cut tan with some pink, which gets me in the ballpark. Or the other way around, some dark brown added to pink. But the important thing I've noted is that you can't do this with actual pink; you have to mix some red and white or it won't work.

For Flesh, I mix a little burnt sienna with Unbleached Titanium.