Resources
I’ve found these links to be very useful experimenting with paints including contrasts. I will probably edit this post over time and expound upon my results when I have more time but I wanted to get this information out there at the beginning of the thread for folks to experiment.
I’ve bought one bottle of nuln oil in my life and since then I’m never going back. The price point is absurd if you are willing to tinker with the cheap raw materials purchased in “bulk”. I would also state that once you have your recipe dialed in you can tinker with it on a model by model basis, tweak your opacity and flow properties to suit your needs.
What I buy:
Liquitex Acrylic Artist Inks (Black, Burnt Umber, etc)
Winsor & Newton Matt Medium
Vallejo Airbrush Flow Improver
A good general guide to the arsenal of products that are cheap and allow for tuning your paint recipes. Understanding is the first step to taking full advantage of these products. Granted a lot of it is trial and error with experimenting by feel. Still I found this video well worth a watch.
Science of Acrylic Paints for Hobbyists - Mel the Terrain Tutor
This is the video that got me started down the path of DIY technical paints and washes. A great resource and he touches on the use of jet-dry (rinse-aid?) which I have tried and tested for super cheap bulk terrain projects. Given that the “artists” products are still an order of magnitude cheaper per volume than GW I don’t necessarily see the need to go mega budget option but figured I’d mention it.
Luke’s APS How to make Nuln Oil and Agrax
And another from the Geek Gaming God Luke. Similar to the washes recipes and contrasts recipes to be honest. I’ve used this for ghostly effects over white primed models and also for verdigris.
Nihilakh Oxide
Pretty sure you have to gargle when you pronounce that word.
More to come, excited for this thread and to see what others noodle up.