Reply To: Wet Palette advice wanted

[lawnor 25948xp 1]

My Redgrass palette arrived and I got to take it for a test drive this weekend.  It is instantly a lot better than converting a blister pack in to a palette.  Its a lot more stable, seals a lot better, and the paper doesn’t curl.  Paint is instantly usable straight from the dropper bottle the moment it hits the palette.

There is a small learning curve as you need to learn how the paint will self-thin on the palette, and it appears this can vary from paint to paint, based on how thin it is to begin with.  A big dollop of paint will maintain its integrity, but the more it spreads out, the more thin your paint gets.  It was a godsend with some paint.  P3 Metallics have a habit of being both lumpy and runny and hard to work with, but I put a scoop on the palette and the lumps just dissolved and it was a pleasure to work with.  Two days later and the paints are still usable, even if some require a stir, which isn’t always that simple on a flat surface without spreading them out further.

I have discovered 2 issues:

1. Beware putting paints too near the edge.  Some paint dropped out of the bottle earlier than I intended and ended up running off the paper and I now have an orange sponge.  I’ll try washing it out when I change papers next.
2. While the sponge always stays wet, the water around it keeps drying up.  I’m constantly keeping an eye on it and topping it op, while trying to be careful not to overflow the paper.  I assume while the lid is on this cannot happen as fast, as there’s nowhere for the water to evaporate to?  Can anyone with any experience let me know if this is normal and I’m right to top it off, of if the sponge is just absorbing more and more the more I add and I should just ignore it?

So far, it seems like a good bit of kit.  My only real concern was getting more consumables (Papers) without being stung by international postage, but hopefully more companies will start stocking their stuff, and if not, the Army painter one is slightly smaller so their papers should fit and should be more or less the same.  I’m 1 weekend in to using the palette and I’ve used perhaps 1/3rd of a paper.  At this rate, a pack of 50 should last 2-3 years, although I imagine as I get more comfortable I’ll end up using it more and more, and taking up more surface with colours as I start using it to mix and blend.