What do you use Lahmian Medium for?

[Trout]

I'm trying to understand what it is and why you would choose to use it instead of plain water. I've only used it when following along with one of Duncan's tutorials and didn't quite understand why I was using it (other than "because Duncan said to").

[KnightFire]

It is basically the "medium" that the pigment in washes is floating in (they aren't really water based). You can use it for a number of things, but the main ones would be watering down existing washes without causing the wash to go shiny or anything odd like that, and creating new washes by mixing a small amount of paint with some medium.

Think of it as a wash without any coloured pigment in it. 

[Terry Pike]

This discussion was on Twitter a few days back as well, if you are new to technical painting it doesn't explain what it does on first glance!

Watch the Warhammer TV video where Duncan paints Nagash, he gives a great tutorial on the uses of Medium and GW shades. Also the Blightking video is great for this.

Water mixed with GW shades can often leave it shiny, cloudy or a grey/chalky finish.

Also the water in your area will effect the paint. I used to live in a very hard water area and the water was not good for painting. it gave everything a chalky finish.

[Elmir]

I use it to mix in oldschool artist inks. They tend to be a lot more vibrant than the GW washes that way, but sadly, they need to be heavily diluted. Just using water makes the inks dry up in blotchy, ring like formations. The Lahmian medium fixes that.

I also use it mixed with the original basecolour after I have highlighted with my airbrush. It's more of a glaze then, but it works wonders. 

[RuneBrush]

As @Terry Pike says, Duncan does a good explanation of how to use Lahmian Medium

From a technical point of view, it's a pigment binder with matting agent.  Air Caste Thinner is the pigment binder but without the matting agent - it's the matting agent which gives the milky colour.  If you use neat water, it thins everything down - unsurprisingly making it watery, if you use binder it makes the paint/wash more transparent.  I always use Lahmiam Medium when I paint bone or flesh colours, because I find otherwise the paint is quite difficult to get a consistent thin coverage.  It's often used when thinning washes as it provides you with a lot of control - @Mengel Miniatures uses thinned washes in a lot of his tutorials

[Vaux]

24 minutes ago, RuneBrush said:

 I always use Lahmiam Medium when I paint bone or flesh colours, because I find otherwise the paint is quite difficult to get a consistent thin coverage. 

Good thing I use an airbrush for this, problem solved. But yes... Lahmian Medium is best used to thin down washes or even create glazes. But there are other thinner mediums with the same effect (and cheaper), that fact should be mentioned too.

[RotCleaver]

It is acrylic medium, without pigment. Its what pigment is mixed into to create paints, washes and glazes. Use it to thin out other acrylic paints , washes and glazes. Also you can use it by itself to give something a matte effect.

[Trout]

Thanks guys and possibly gals, but to someone as new to painting as I am, a lot of the things you are saying still don't mean anything to me. I am still filled with questions.

2 hours ago, KnightFire said:

It is basically the "medium" that the pigment in washes is floating in (they aren't really water based). You can use it for a number of things, but the main ones would be watering down existing washes without causing the wash to go shiny or anything odd like that, and creating new washes by mixing a small amount of paint with some medium.

Think of it as a wash without any coloured pigment in it. 

Why would you want to water down a wash even more than it already is? When might I want to do this?

 

1 hour ago, Terry Pike said:

This discussion was on Twitter a few days back as well, if you are new to technical painting it doesn't explain what it does on first glance!

Watch the Warhammer TV video where Duncan paints Nagash, he gives a great tutorial on the uses of Medium and GW shades. Also the Blightking video is great for this.

Water mixed with GW shades can often leave it shiny, cloudy or a grey/chalky finish.

Also the water in your area will effect the paint. I used to live in a very hard water area and the water was not good for painting. it gave everything a chalky finish.

Thanks, I will look at the Nagash video when I get a chance (no access to Youtube at the moment).

 

1 hour ago, Elmir said:

I also use it mixed with the original basecolour after I have highlighted with my airbrush. It's more of a glaze then, but it works wonders. 

It "works wonders" doing....what exactly? What's the purpose of doing this?

 

1 hour ago, RuneBrush said:

I always use Lahmiam Medium when I paint bone or flesh colours, because I find otherwise the paint is quite difficult to get a consistent thin coverage.  It's often used when thinning washes as it provides you with a lot of control - @Mengel Miniatures uses thinned washes in a lot of his tutorials

 

As to the former (using it for bone and flesh colours), what do you mean? What's wrong with using just a bit of water? As for the latter (thinning washes), Lahmian seems to be thicker than washes, not thinner, and it seems making a wash even thinner would diminish your control, not increase it; do you really mean to thicken it? To increase its viscosity?

 

53 minutes ago, Vaux said:

Good thing I use an airbrush for this, problem solved. But yes... Lahmian Medium is best used to thin down washes or even create glazes. But there are other thinner mediums with the same effect (and cheaper), that fact should be mentioned too.

By "create glazes", do you mean to take an existing color and make it more translucent?

 

[Mikester1487]

As someone who enjoys the painting but doesn't really get into the meat of it I use it on washes because they can sometimes create a "shiny" effect in the crevices of cloth and weapons.  Admittedly it's probably because I put too much wash on my brush.  So to counter that I just thin it a little with the medium to avoid the shine.

I prefer it over water because it feels like it makes the wash less runny.   Water is good for thicker things like bases and primary layer paints in my opinion.

[Vaux]

Yeah, a glaze is a really translucent color where you have to paint several thin lairs of paint to intensify it so the base color still shines through. So you can use it to get highlights or shadows.

[RuneBrush]

3 minutes ago, Trout said:

As to the former (using it for bone and flesh colours), what do you mean? What's wrong with using just a bit of water? As for the latter (thinning washes), Lahmian seems to be thicker than washes, not thinner, and it seems making a wash even thinner would diminish your control, not increase it; do you really mean to thicken it? To increase its viscosity?

I've found that if I use plain water, the paint can become a little streaky when applied, this is because even with a liquid pigment, cream and white paint pigments are inherently chalky.  Basically the water evaporates fairly quickly leaving chalky paint behind.  The medium acts as a retarder and keeps the pigment liquid for longer.  There are other retarders you could use or a wet palette to achieve a similar effect though.

You're right, lahmian and air caste thinner are much more viscous than water.  The term "thinning" when talking about paints doesn't refer to changing it's viscosity, more thinning the colour.  Because mediums evaporate much more slowly, if you add medium to your wash it allows you to push and pull it around your model before it begins to dry, allowing you to achieve much smoother blends or subtler effects.

[Ollie Grimwood]

Also if you've used Purity Seal and not shaken it enough or it's too cold and you've got the white frosting effect, a coat or two of Lahmian Medium will usually correct it.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Elmir]

Glazing over a painted area with the original basecoat mixed with lahmian medium, makes the colour transitions a lot smoother. It also has the added bonus of collecting in the recesses like a shade does, making the shading more visible again (something that can get washed out a bit when airbrushing on highlights. 

For instance: 

I used my airbrush to highlight most of these crypt horrors, but some of the shading applied  with blue grey got lost on the shoulders. I was able to re-apply them with a mix of the blue grey basecoat with some lahmian medium. And as you can see in the picture, the paintjob still remains smooth AF without any weird pooling.

[Trout]

1 hour ago, Elmir said:

Glazing over a painted area with the original basecoat mixed with lahmian medium, makes the colour transitions a lot smoother. It also has the added bonus of collecting in the recesses like a shade does, making the shading more visible again (something that can get washed out a bit when airbrushing on highlights. 

For instance: 

I used my airbrush to highlight most of these crypt horrors, but some of the shading applied  with blue grey got lost on the shoulders. I was able to re-apply them with a mix of the blue grey basecoat with some lahmian medium. And as you can see in the picture, the paintjob still remains smooth AF without any weird pooling.

What kind of base to medium ratio do you use for such an application?

[Elmir]

I reckon about 4 parts medium to one part paint. I usually just check the consistency to be to my liking. But I guess 4 to 1 is about right.

[Vaux]

Your Horrors are a really good showing how to reinforce shadows with glazes after you airbrush the skin.

[Trout]

43 minutes ago, Elmir said:

I reckon about 4 parts medium to one part paint. I usually just check the consistency to be to my liking. But I guess 4 to 1 is about right.

Do you then thin it out with water like you would if it were paint straight out of the jar? or you don't use water at all for such an application?

 

Thanks for the info!

[Elmir]

Sometimes, I do add a bit of water.... It's a consistency thing. If I feel it gets a bit thick, I do add a tad of water. 

[Mikosan]

I use it to thin down metallics so they don't separate and get "flakey".  Usually just one brush load does the trick

 

[Routasydän]

14 hours ago, Trout said:

Why would you want to water down a wash even more than it already is? When might I want to do this?

 

Sometimes the wash might be too dark, Drakenhof and Druchii for example, especially if you use it on something like a pale skin.  Some of the washes are kinda thin already, like Agrax and Nuln and the bits where you use them probably dont need any thinner wash. But yea, you can pretty much use washes straight from the pot but there might be times when some wash is just too dark as it is.

[Kugane]

Is Lahmian medium the same component as Purity seal? Can it be used as a varnish? I was considering to do a coat of 'ardcoat and then put lahmian on top of that to varnish stuff (no garden/space to spray varnish). Anyone have any luck with that method?

[Chris Tomlin]

50 minutes ago, Kugane said:

Is Lahmian medium the same component as Purity seal? Can it be used as a varnish? I was considering to do a coat of 'ardcoat and then put lahmian on top of that to varnish stuff (no garden/space to spray varnish). Anyone have any luck with that method?

Lahmian over the top of Ardcoat will provide a protective layer that is more matte than gloss.

I use Lahmian for everything, I go through pots and pots of the stuff. It's an absolute hobby essential for me. I use it instead of water when thinning down my paints out of the pot as I find it gives greater flow and control. I use it to create glazes and dilute washes. I love the smooth finish it gives.

Pro tip; decant it into a dropper bottle to avoid spillages and contaminations.

 

[RuneBrush]

9 minutes ago, Chris Tomlin said:

Prop tip; decant it into a dropper bottle to avoid spillages and contaminations.

^ this.  Plus petition GW to do it in bigger pots

[Vaux]

Well to be honest... there are other thinner mediums with way larger bottles and a cheaper price out there, which are as good as the Lamiah Medium.

 

[Planar]

2 hours ago, Vaux said:

Well to be honest... there are other thinner mediums with way larger bottles and a cheaper price out there, which are as good as the Lamiah Medium.

 

Can you please suggest one?