Mix Your Own Foundation Paints

Foundation Paints are a line of paints made by Games Workshop formulated for maximum opacity. They come in limited colours which are desaturated compared to GW’s normal line. By basecoating with Foundation Paints one can reach a solid colour in fewer coats. Washes and highlighting are then used to complete the paintjob. I haven’t touched GW paints in years and although the properties of this new line sounded interesting I didn’t want to go back. Fast forward to a year or so ago when I was looking at the various Liquitex mediums when I came across something interesting.

“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. When over 50% is added, Ultra Matte Medium can act as a weak tinting white, increasing the value of the original color approximately one level. Light colors will be affected less than dark colors.”

Sounds like Foundation Paint to me. A few months back I picked up a container of Liquitex Ultra Matte medium, planning to give it a try. At the time I wasn’t painting rank-and-file, so was more interested in slowly building colour than trying to reduce coats. By the time I started my WWII project I’d forgotten I’d bought it. It wasn’t until my final batch that I discovered I had it and gave it a try.

I had hoped to include an example of the covering power of this paint mix. I painted six swatches of yellow on black-primed card. Each swatch had between one and six coats. Instead of thinning the paint as I normally would I only thinned it 50-50 with water. Unfortunately VMC Flat Yellow needs to be thinned more and remained a little thick during application. The consistency could almost be described as oily. When I may my six blotches I noticed that the covering power varied wildly from swatch to swatch. I’m afraid you’ll just have to take me word that this works.

The basework was painted in one coat using Ultra Matte Medium

I used it during the basecoating process and found that it did improve the coverage of my paint. Now I have a source of Foundation Paint in any shade I could possibly want. Matte Medium is still useful when I want to increase transparency in paint or I can’t afford any colour-shift when painting, but Ultra Matte Medium is now a staple in my painting technique.

Tyler