artist oil paints,help?

hey junkman...depending on what colors you're trying to mimic...i would suggest burnt umber and burnt sienna, burnt orange, burnt bronze, black, titanium white, red oxide...that should let you mix most mud and grunge type colors...you might also want to pick up a dark or olive green to help control the colors of your mud...

Merideth gave you a good list. I would add Paynes Grey to your oil colors. I like it because when you thin it out it is a dark bluegrey (almost black) where black thins to a brownish color. It has its applications and you will have to decide based upon that application.
Another color I would reccomend would be yellow ochre. It too has its applications.
If you paint with acrylics, oils work great for washes and some weathering applications. Otherwise, my preference is to use acrylics for most of my work.

Oils can be expensive but they last a long time. Look for the small tubes as the hit isn't as big.

Mike

oh good catch renarts i totally meant to add yellow ochre as well...it's indispensible in the earth tones!

I used Windsor and Newton water-soluble oils on my T-34 posted on RonUSMC's gallery under the build-ups section. The advantages are that clean up is easy and you aren't risking a reaction with hot solvent (such as turpentine) on the underlying paint.
The one disadvantage is that the dilute suspension can also dry like a water-based paint, leaving streaks, but the oil-based component is still viable after the water has evaporated, and can be blended in with a Q-tip or similar for several hours after application. They are produced in all the traditional colours.

http://rongeorge.com/modules/Gallery/buildups

U-96, the water-based W&N colours will do better in your wash if you add not only a drop or two of dish-washing liquid (that breaks down the tendency of water to 'regroup' into drops) and white vinegar (that will help getting rid of those watermarks).

I'd like to add Sepia to the list of useful colours in tubes. It's basicaly a dirty black, and it works really well for washes and stains.

Domi

thanks domi, much appreciated.
done it before with pastels+water, but it never occured to me to add it to those oils.
I hereby award myself the "Doh!" award for possessing latent knowledge I failed to use .

QUOTE: Originally posted by djmodels1999 if you add not only a drop or two of dish-washing liquid (that breaks down the tendency of water to 'regroup' into drops) and white vinegar (that will help getting rid of those watermarks). Domi

Have you tried this with brush-on acrilics? specifically Tamiya

I do a similar mix with acrylics, yes, but I tend not to use acrylics much for washes as once dry, there's no way to get them off the model!

if i use water based artists paints in the tubes how much do i thin them and what do i use?

For thinning you may use the following:

Acylics - Isoprophyl Alcohol mixed with tap water or acrylic thinners available in shops.
Oil Paint - Turpintine (sometimes I use kerosene for oil paints on canvass but maybe not advisable on plastic) or any other oil paint thinners available in the shops.
Enamels & Lacquer Paints - for safety use enamel & lacquer thinners available in the shops (I use industrial lacquer thinners because they are cheaper but I use such with much care as these can eat into the plastic) Caution: Lacquer Thinners are very strong and can eat into plastic and paint layers. Use carefully and in small amounts to avoid sending your precious model into the garbage bin (as what happened to my F-16 once.)

Some water-based artists paints are really just "water colors" that are only good in porous media like paper and may not adhere properly on plastic, so be carefull in choosing the paints.

Happy painting.