Wet pallets, what the fuck are they about then?

That was my reasoning when John Marsden told me about these new fangled devices. I am constantly astounded at how far painting models has come since the early 90’s. The peak of technological prowess back then was watering your paints down, something that should I have done at the time, I’m quite certain I’d not only be a High Lord of Terra sat on a throne made of skulls at GW head office, I’d have Beth as my wife and I’d have Jervis Johnsons limbs all hacked off at the elbows/knees for ditching the Squats.

But yeah, wet palettes. They’re supposed to make stuff easier, keep your paints wet for longer and make mixing easier. I’ve long been one for mixing on an old cd case or more recently a white tile like we used to do back in the day, but thought it was about time I dragged my sorry arse in to the 21st century. Kev Walsh makes his own wet palettes and I’m sure with enough mithering he will do a DIY article on just this, however, I’m shit at making stuff, so I plumped for a Privateer Press one from Troll Trader.

As a side note, Troll Trader are backed as far as I’m concerned, top people, they invest in the gaming scene, cheap prices, excellent range (they don’t stock gw though), and the postage is light lightning. I’ve had orders posted an hour after ordering in the past.

It arrived quickly, as expected, and consists of a plastic clip box, a piece off foam and some paper, not normal paper mind, some special space age wet pallet paper, but Kev reckons grease proof paper from your girlfriends baking drawer will do just fine.

I followed the ridiculously easy instructions, poured a load of water on to the sponge, made sure it was saturated, then dampened a piece of the paper and put it on the foam, reversing it so that it didn’t curl up. Piece of piss.

Is it any good? Yeah its fucking boss, I’m painting an elven horse for my next tale of gamers, in the baking heat, and my paints are staying a nice consistency, they’re easy to mix, and they’re staying wet, which is important when you’re using mixed colours as its a pain in the arse matching a mid tone sometimes.

I’ve already packed up my tile, this is the future, its just  shame I’m late to the party. I paid about a tenner for mine but now I’ve actually used it, you really can make this shit for free out of home wares, or at the most, hit up your local £1 shop. Really recommended and I think it would benefit any level of painter, it just makes life that little bit easier.

I’ll leave you with something both watery and crushingly heavy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgIIP_vOgYc]