Reaper Paint Questions

[Mr.Wizard]

Hi All,

I have two basic questions, and hopefully they won't be stupid:

 

1) Are the Pro Paints ready for prime time?

 

2) Of the Pro Paints and Masters' Series Paints, which are the higher quality/higher price?

 

Not meant to be a loaded question.....my other hobby is painting paintings on canvas, so I'm willing to pay a little extra for the good stuff.

 

Please help,

Mr.Wizard

[eastman]

It isn't really an issue of quality, as much as the paint lines are tools optimized for different jobs.

[Sergeant_Crunch]

The better question is "which paint is better for what I want to do" While I haven't had a chance to play with the new Pro Paint formulation yet I have every faith in Anne's selections. Pro Paints will provide better coverage while the MSPs tend to be somewhat transparent but allow the painter to get silky smooth transitions. Most colors in MSP take me two or three coats for a good smooth layer, unless it's red or yellow.

 

Basically the way I see it, if I'm painting an army, coverage trumps everything else because painting six layers of to get a decent coat takes too dang long when I'm trying to paint 30 miniatures. But if I'm working on the overall supreme head honcho commander or a single display/competition piece I want thing layers that allow for good layering and glazes.

[Vaitalla]

What the other guys said. I would say that for the amount you're getting of each they give equivalent value (Pros you get more but use them less thinned or even straight from the bottle; MSP's you get less in the bottle but tend to use a lot more thinned applications and thus go through less paint).

 

I use a combination of both in my painting currently, and would say that Pros are excellent for basecoating, wet blending, and shading but that I find MSP's are what I reach for in highlighting, merely because their texture, fluidity and translucency make layering easier. I also like MSP's better for glazing, as they are more smooth and thin beautifully.

 

--Anne

[Mr.Wizard]

Hey, thanks for the insight!

It sound like for my skill level, amateur<<>>intermediate, I'll get pros for most of my painting and some masters to try and start blending.

Blending is a big unknown for me but I see such astounding results I want to make an attempt.

Not to be off-topic, but can anyone refer me to an article on blending and shading?

[Vaitalla]

There is much confusion in painting terminology... Specifically, are you asking about working the paints by blending two colors together while they are still wet, or are you intending to try to get the blended effect through layering (applying a thin layer of paint over the top of a dried layer)? Both are techniques which can be used to both shade and highlight figures, but they are very different in application.

 

--Anne

[smokingwreckage]

basecoating, wet blending

 

 

DAMMIT!

 

Now I want some.

[Mr.Wizard]

Thanks for the clarification; I think wet blending is what I'm looking for. I have done it with my oils and acrylics at my easel, but I want to give it a try on minis. You guys acheive such amazing results with wet blending, I think it's my next step.

[TaleSpinner]

Thanks for the clarification; I think wet blending is what I'm looking for. I have done it with my oils and acrylics at my easel, but I want to give it a try on minis. You guys acheive such amazing results with wet blending, I think it's my next step.

 

Actually, I think that most of the "amazing results" you see are likely done with layering rather than wet blending as I think it is the more commonly used technique and is easier to pick-up and put down if you only have short blocks of painting time. With wet blending you need to keep the paint wet while you are working with it and with acrylics in a small scale this is difficult and usually requires that you not be interupted while painting. Layering, on the other hand, can be done one layer at a time over many sessions as needed.

 

Both techniques can be used to produce similar results, with neither really being supirior to the other. It really comes down to what you learn and how you approach the model.

 

Personally, I tend to use layering for light effects (typically, dark in the low points layered up to the light highlight, and wet-blending for color transitions in the tonality of a subject, (i.e., the change in color from a dark back to a light belly in some animals). Actually, the last troll I did had a light belly and dark back. I did the color transitions through wet-blending each of the highlight layers accross the transition zone (I, hope that made sense), so that is an example of where one would use both wet-blending and layering.

 

The following is an attempt to show this (probably poorly, for it is difficult to describe). The dashes are the blending.

 

Off White

Light Green-------Light Brown

Med Green---------------------Med Brown

Dark Green--------------------------------Dark Brown

Very Dark Green--------------------------------------Very Dark Brown

 

I hope this makes sense and wasn't just me babbling.

 

TS

[smokingwreckage]

If I have paints suitable for it, I like to alternate layering and wet-blending. I find wet-blending to be much, much faster but a bit more difficult to control (especially with regards to transparency).

[Mr.Wizard]

Good job Talespinner with the blending instructions (especially with ascii characters!).

Thanks all for the tips on layering vs blending. I'll have to try 'em both now.

[DirePenguin]

basecoating, wet blending

 

 

DAMMIT!

 

Now I want some.

 

 

Me too! And I just spend more than 100$ on paints allready

[pestario]

do these come in the drop top or screw top bottles?

[Rastl]

I'm using some PP shades as base coats for colors that have less than stellar coverage - red and yellow.

 

A base of a matching PP will keep the colors true while giving coverage. It's pretty sweet.

[vutpakdi]

do these come in the drop top or screw top bottles?

The Revamped Pro-Paints come in large mouth, screw top bottles, just like the old Pro-Paints.

 

I'm transferring mine to dropper bottles since I prefer those.

 

Ron