@cavestone I also use vallejo paints. The key question here is are you brush painting, or using an airbrush, or both?
The Vallejo paints have a āModel Airā line that comes pre-thinned. You can buy a thinning product (from them) to add to the āModel Colorā series paints, which are the exact same thing, just more concentrated and thicker.
If youāve never used an airbrush, its a bit finickyāit requires regular cleaning and a without a good brush and compressor the paint will flow very inconsistently. The process will be very frustrating unless you use the pre-thinned paints because the brush can only blow paint that is within a certain set of thickness parameters that are difficult to achieve, especially if you are trying to mix the air in the brushās reserve or in small quantities. Thatās why having copies of both Model Air and Model Color is fine by meāunlike Warhammer 40K Iām using primarily earthy colors, greens, dunkelgelb and dunkelgrauā¦ other AFV and camoflage colors and so i donāt need a collection of primary or bright colors.
But I recommend it. The airbrush creates a sublime, beautiful layer and slight mix variations can be used to create shadows, grades, etc. Then you go back over with your brush, adding highlights, lines, details. Then, back over again with a drybrushingā¦then back to the airbrush to blast Flory Wash all over it.
Canāt see your photos, you canāt post photos until you have a certain post count. I wouldnāt use water to thin paints, they are water soluble but the mix and viscosity is all wrong (though water is obv. cheap and easy to clean up)
As for oil-based paints, these require thinner to clean up, they are much more difficult to drybrush with and are not used for airbrushing. The days of the old testors paints is long behind usāeven apple barrel paints are easier to work with and cheaper. The early painting methods were much more about glomming thick layers of paint onto lead miniatures and the modern approach with water based paint and a series of different techniques creates much better results.