new to the painting scene...

By the way, we have tutorials on this site too: http://www.figurerealm.com/customtutorial.php

thanks everybody for all the great pointers and for the excellent links. Looks like I have some practice ahead of me.

Agreed, I use Testors, others use Citadel but it still turns out the same mostly if you follow the recipe of the figure you are making. Just need the practice of the paint and the painting

Citadel works just fine, it's easy to get too. The only problem I have with Citadel is that some colors do tend to get clumpy for no reason (like the Blood Red I have). A little water does help though.

Doesn't really matter what paint you use, it's not the paint that makes the master, it's the practice.

I have used Tamiya, Citadel and now Vallejo and I find that thinning my paints with a drop of water helps. If you're a novice to painting one of the great benefits is it helps to cut down on visible brush strokes but you do have to do more coats of paint. My ratio is usually 1 drop of water : 3 drops of paint. I'd also suggest using distilled water as tap water can have stuff in it that will affect the paints. You can buy distilled water for around 60 cents a gallon at Wal-Mart or you can make your own by simply boiling tap water and then letting it cool off.

Here are some links to painting tutorials that may help:

snoochie boochies brodie noochies

I see now your a real person.lol.. I noticed you joined the soup but didn't post anything..lol I was like "this fake member has a cool name" but Know I see your not fake at all...

Well Brodieman your question is a good one and I can only speak for myself when I answer it... I have used plenty of citidal paints and I have never thined them once... I know use Vallejo Game Color which is very similar to citidal (but has better perks IMO) I do not thin that one either... as long as your consistant with your stroke technique you should achive a nice smooth finnish... and yes, mutliple coats will help. BUT if you do like a little runnier paint like some do. OR if your at the end of a bottle and its starting to "clump up" then try ONE or TWO DROPS of water with acrylic paints... I would get my fingers wet and let VERY SMALL DROP or 2 into the bottle. That what I had to do with my Tamiya paint back when. Then mix well with tooth pick or the like.

hope that helps brodieman.