RedgrassGames Everlasting Wet Palette Review

Rejoice, those amongst you using soggy bits of baking parchment and takeaway box lids as makeshift wet palettes, for RedgrassGames have created something really quite special. Come and see what we think in our Redgrass Games Wet Palette Review.

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Best Hobby Tools for Miniatures

This article is part of our series looking at The Best Hobby Tools for Miniatures and Wargames Models.

To see all of our guides to the Best Tools for Miniatures, click on the image above.

RedgrassGames Everlasting Wet Palette Review – Summary

“Everlasting” really is the key word here. RedgrassGames’ wet palette will keep your paints ready and waiting for you for as long as you could possibly need – and, as a result, could quite possibly be the best wet palette currently on the market.

RedgrassGames Everlasting Wet Palette Review – Introduction

Today, we’re going to dive into RGG’s phenomenal Everlasting Wet Palette and make a real splash painting some brand-new Assault Intercessors. Hope you’re all ready to get wet and wild!

That was horrible. Let’s start again.

Everyone is guilty of using a terrible palette at some point. Everyone. No exceptions. In my brief time as a hobbyist – and ever briefer career writing for this site – I have seen some truly horrific crimes against palette-use: people using warped old takeaway box lids, others who have used the same palette for decades, have never cleaned them, and have allowed their paints to coalesce into gargantuan, tumour-like growths of rock-hard acrylic.

I myself am guilty of this. Until receiving RedgrassGames’ Everlasting Wet Palette, I’d been using a small plastic eyebrow-dyeing palette my girlfriend had dug out of a drawer to save me spending actual money on something. After several months of use, my palette is indeed beginning to grow its own paint-tumour.

But if you aren’t using a palette at all, then I assume you are scooping your paints straight out of the pot and splurging them onto your miniatures with no dilution, which is a thousand times worse than any of the above. Seriously, two thin coats memes, anyone?

RedgrassGames Everlasting Wet Palette Review – Contents

RGG’s Everlasting Wet Palette comes in three forms: a Starter set, a Painter set, and a Studio XL option. All have similar features and contents, give or take a few sheets of hydration paper and the small, white, magnetic attachment for your inks and washes that RGG have called the, uh, “Wavy accessory”.

This review will be based on the Painter option.

There are quite a few bits and pieces in the RedgrassGames Everlasting Wet Palette box, and there is a little assembly required in order to get the palette ready to use.

The palette comes with a fifty-sheet packet of hydration paper, two pieces of hydration foam – both of which are necessary for getting the palette operational – as well as the orange-lidded palette itself, a grey elasticated band for keeping it closed, and, as mentioned above, a magnetic “Wavy accessory” for your more aqueous hobby liquids.

There’s more than enough in here to set you up for a few month’s painting, and it’s all pretty compact and self-contained as well, which means space isn’t too much of an issue.

One thing to note, though, is, as FauxHammer kindly demonstrates in the image below, the palette isn’t as watertight as it could be. Now, this isn’t necessarily an issue if, like me, your hobby primarily takes place in one place: a study, a garage, or a swelteringly hot conservatory that’s been taken over by all your work from home junk.

If, however, you’re a more itinerant hobbyist – perhaps you go to a club, enjoy setting yourself up in your local hobby store or paint with a friend at their house – this may be a bit of an issue for you. If the palette is not watertight, you always run the risk of having your paints or any excess water in the Everlasting Wet Palette dripping out into the bottom of whatever bag you transport your gear in.

Plus, that the palette is not watertight simultaneously means it is not airtight, which does mean that, even in storage, whatever paints you have prepped on your palette will eventually dry out.

That said, though, neither of these have been an issue for me just yet: if I transport my palette anywhere, I just make a point of keeping it flat which, sure, may not always be possible if you’re lugging all your gear to and from your local Games Workshop, but isn’t hard if you’re just moving around your home. Plus, so far I’ve not had any paints go hard on me before their time – one gentleman on Facebook reported he had abandoned his paint palette for a month during a house move and when he had returned to it the paints were still good to use. Take that for what you will.

RedgrassGames Everlasting Wet Palette Review – How to Set Up your Wet Pallette

First things first, let’s address an elephant in the room. The instructions in RedgrassGames’ Everlasting Wet Palette: Miniature Painting Made Easy book are absolutely horrendous and nearly impossible to follow.

So, in my infinite omnibenevolence, I decided to write the instructions out for you all again in comprehensive English.

1. Start by unboxing everything. You should have the palette itself, two hydration foam pads, a packet of hydration paper, the palette itself, a small magnetic ink holder that clips on to the edge of the palette, and an elasticated strap for keeping everything together.

2. Open up your palette and get some hydration foam ready.

3. Take your hydration foam out of its packet and lay it in the bottom of the palette (that’s the grey half)

4. Add water to the hydration foam. I used about 100ml of water for this. As there are no instructions whatsoever in the guidebook as to how much water you should use, I did this more or less blind. I initially added around 100ml of water and slowly upped this to around 100ml. You’ll know the water is being absorbed by the foam because it’ll start to look kinda funky.

5. This is where things may get a little difficult. RGG’s instructions state you should keep adding water until there is a thin layer of water sitting on top of the foam. I waited until the majority of the water was absorbed by the foam and then added a few more drops until the foam was soggy and saturated to the touch.

6. Next up, take a sheet of hydration paper and place this on top of the foam pad. Be aware: the paper will curl as you place it down, so be sure to flatten it out again.

7. Now, your palette should be good to go. The paper on top should be wet to the touch, but not be so saturated that there is standing water on top of it.

You can also affix your ink holder at this point as well, if you’re going to use it. There are magnets on both the long and short edges of the palette, so you can attach it on whichever side suits you best – which is a nice touch.

I actually began painting when a thought struck me: how do I know if I’ve used too much or too little water?

Well, if you’ve added too little, your paints will dry start to go dry, and patches of the hydration paper will also remain dry to the touch. Whilst your paper shouldn’t be soggy or saturated, it should be damp to the touch.

If, however, you’ve added too much water, as I did in order to carry out the “how much water is too much water” test, I quickly discovered that the little patch of paint you have prepared on your paint will let you know.

Yikes.

RedgrassGames Everlasting Wet Palette Review – Using the Everlating Wet Palette

As some of you may know, I was recently lucky enough to receive the Warhammer 40,000 Command Edition Starter Set, which I then went and wrote an entire Wikipedia article in-depth review of for this very website. With a bunch of unpainted Space Marines kicking around, I decided it was time to add a splash of Dark Angels colour to my little grey spacemen.

To put the palette through its paces, I decided to prepare my first colour, Caliban Green, on the palette before I primed my Space Marines with Chaos Black. I did not thin the paint at all before adding it to the palette, either, so I ended up smearing a pretty thick glob of green across the palette.

Now, with the old piece of paint-covered plastic I had been using prior to this test ( the aforementioned eyebrow-dyeing palette my girlfriend dug out of a drawer months ago), by the time my Space Marines’ primer had dried that the green paint would be rock-hard on the palette and completely unusable.

To be really cruel, I deliberately forgot about my primed Space Marines for about an hour, went and had some lunch, and even watched a bit of telly before I went and retrieved them from the garage, where they’d been left to dry. By this time, their primer had set and they were ready for painting – as was the paint abandoned on the wet palette.

With the paint just as wet as it had been when I’d left it, I was able to immediately start work on my little (soon to be) green (space)men.

So, that’s a pretty good start.

Then it comes to actually using the paint itself. Having been left sitting in water for an hour, what would it now be like?

Well, it was super. The paint goes on nicely and remains easy to control.

Now, for related reasons, I’m going to tell a joke I saw on Reddit.

I was at Warhammer World the other day and ran into Duncan Rhodes. He was wearing a really cool jacket, so I said to him: “Hey, Duncan! That’s a sweet jacket!” He turned to me, twinkle in his eye and said “It’s not a jacket. It’s two thin coats.”

Some Dude on Reddit, c. 2020

Well, a few weeks ago, the FH team utterly ruined painting and this joke for me forever by telling my the two thin coats philosophy is bogus and if I ever want to improve my painting, I had to start applying around half a dozen thin coats to my miniatures.

In my ignorance, I ignored them. Until it came around to writing this review.

The water I had added to the palette did a wonderful job of thinning the paint down whilst also ensuring that it maintained enough thickness to actually be useable and not just greenish water. It also forced me to apply more than the famed (and allegedly bogus) two thin coats. In fact, in order to build up a nice, solid green I was happy with, I had to apply no less than six coats to my miniatures – and they look great.

There’s absolutely no loss of detail on any part of them, and the colour still pops (well, as far as a dark green over a black basecoat is ever going to pop).

If you’re the sort of person who is lazy with their thin coats, this palette won’t let you get away with it. Given its wetness, the moment you apply any paint to the palette the water begins thinning it. Whereas I would usually do two or, at a push, three thin coats on most of my miniatures, in order to get a decent colour built up on my Intercessor, I had to keep applying layers and layers of paint – though I was very happy with the result.

So, not only is the Everlasting Wet Palette forcing me to be a better painter, it’s also thinning my paints for me. How thoughtful!

By the time I’d finished applying my half a dozen ultra-thin coats to my Assault Intercessors, it was beginning to get late and I had other things to do. So, at approximately 19:30, I dropped a small globule of Khorne Red onto the wet palette and closed it up.

I decided to come back to it the following day and see what it was like. If the palette is as good as it is hailed to be, then it should have no problem prolonging the life of a single glob of red paint.

So, at 8:30 the next morning, I opened my palette up again to find…

Sure, it’s separated and run a little, but that’s likely my fault due to how close to the edge of the palette I decided to place the paint – and the fact it had been sitting in water for over twelve hours. After a little agitation with a brush, it was good to go.

I was able to put the Khorne Red straight onto the weapons of my Assault Intercessors without any difficulties at all, and after a good four or five coats, the colour was really starting to look rather good.

Next, and with a few little black bits still showing on my Assault Intercessors, I decided to see how the palette handled metallic paints. I spread a little Leadbelcher on the palette in preparation for doing all those shiny bits on my Space Marines.

Now, one thing I noticed when dealing with this particular metallic paint was that the palette, not having been watered for a good twenty-odd hours at this point (a working day happened between me stirring my red and starting my silver), was beginning to get a little dry and, as such, did not begin to thin the paint as effectively as it had the previous day when freshly soaked.

It’s something to be aware of if you’ve left your palette a while, if you’re painting on a warm day, or, like me, live in rented accommodation and are limited to painting in your sweatbox of a conservatory because it’s the only space you’ve got.

That aside, as before, there was little to note with the metallic paint, other than I had to frequently agitate it on the palette to stop it separating too much – but such is to be expected of dealing with metallic paints anyway. Make sure you give your pot a good shake before applying any to your palette, and then just make sure you keep stirring it as you use it.

The rest of the painting process didn’t actually involve the wet palette all that much, but I kept using it for some of the smaller details on my intergalactic space crusaders. Every time I turned to it, I found myself astonished by how well the palette held the paints on it, and the fact I could abandon the palette for hours at a time, then come back and pick it up again as if I hadn’t been away was unbelievably convenient.

I’m not sure I can really emphasise just how brilliant this palette is. I still can’t quite believe it myself. Acrylic paint is, by nature, a substance that dries quickly once out of its pot: you leave it for a few minutes on a palette and bam, solid. Unusable. Back to square one. Get some on the tip of your brush and the phone rings? By the time you’re back, you’ll be soaking the paint out of the bristles.

Putting your paint on RGG’s Everlasting Wet Palette, though, is like sending your acrylics to the day spa. Not only does it sustain them in peak condition for hours upon hours, I often found that my paints in a better condition for painting with after a short stay at Palais de Redgrass.

This is how my (first ever) Space Marine looked following a little help from RGG’s palette:

For those interested in the rest of the process: after bathing my Assault Intercessors in Nuln Oil, I beat the living daylights out of them first with a Waaagh! Flesh drybrush, then a slightly more selective Warpstone Glow drybrush in order to give the green armour a little extra colour and depth. The same lighter green was then used as a selective and subtle edge highlight.

I then applied a little Abaddon Black to the softer joints in the armour, to be picked out in Eshin Grey and Dawnstone later. The metallic areas on the backpack and weapons was done with a Leadbelcher base coat, a Nuln Oil wash and an edge highlight in Ironbreaker.

Then, I picked the Space Marine-y pseudo-Catholic skulls-and-wings details out with some Corax White, gave them a careful Nuln Oil wash, and then a gentle White Scar highlight.

The wax of the purity seals and the little buttony bits on the armour was done with a Mephiston Red base, a droplet of Agrax Earthshade, and then a careful Evil Sunz Scarlet highlight on the edge. The parchment was Zandri Dust, Seraphim Sepia, and Ushabti Bone.

The base was covered in Martian Ironcrust, heavily drybrushed with Ryza Rust, and then lightly brushed with Eldar Flesh. A couple of Army Painter Scorched Tufts finished off the whole extra-terrestrial world look.

Here he is with all his buddies.

Now that’s all done, I’m going to go and change my hydration sheet…

Will RedgrassGames’ Everlasting Wet Palette Improve my Hobby?

In all reviews I’ve written prior to this, at this point in the article I’ve bashed out some do-gooder spiel about how man maketh the hobby, hobby doth not maketh the man, or whatever, and said some crap about practice making perfect.

But not this time.

With RGG’s Everlasting Wet Palette, I could see myself improving, feel myself getting better. I had a deeper appreciation for the work I was doing, for slowly building up of those layers, for being absolutely certain all my paints were the correct consistency before applying them, instead of just making do.

I understood why things had to be the way they were, why watering down paints to such a thin consistency and going beyond two thin coats was so important – and because of it, I found myself paying more and more attention to the details on my miniatures.

So, will the Everlasting Wet Palette Improve my hobby?

Yes.

Oh my god, yes.

RedgrassGames Everlasting Wet Palette Review – Price and Availability

RGG’s wet palette isn’t as easy to get hold of as it should be. It’s not available via Amazon, but a number of online hobby stores stock it for prices between £30/$40/€35 – £35/$46/€39.

It’s also available directly from RedgrassGames’ website for a similar price post tax and shipping. In the name of supporting a small, independent business who make some really special products, get it here. These guys deserve your dosh.

It may seem like a bit of a steep price, especially if you’re a beginner, but if you’re wanting to take your painting to the next level, this is not a product you can dismiss.

RedgrassGames Everlasting Wet Palette Review – Final Thoughts

Well. This was something.

I’ll admit, as a penitent sinner does before their god, that my palette was never something I really cared about or thought much of before receiving RGG’s Everlasting Wet Palette. It was an intermediary, a nameless middle-man meant to hold my watered-down paint whilst I carefully put it on my miniature. I never gave it much thought, and so it was slowly enveloped beneath a thick layer of dry acrylic and wash, its clear and cheap plastic cocooned within a chrysalis of rainbow of pigment.

But RGG’s Everlasting Wet Palette product has opened my eyes and left me reeling, suddenly untethered and unsure of my future with this hobby.

I’ve been so wrong.

Because it’s perfect.

How could I have been so hopelessly, painfully, and obsequiously wrong about something? What else have I been wrong about – am I wrong about? Am I just hobbying in completely the wrong way? Who even am I?

I’ve had my eyes opened to so much from my brief time using this product, and as I was painting my figures I could actually feel myself getting better.

And I’m not joking. This product is phenomenal. Everything that it does for your paint, for your habits as a painter, is for the positive.

I desperately want to remove some stars from this review for just how abysmally bad RGG’s guide on how to set up the palette is, but I don’t feel like I can. This is an absolute wonder of a product. Not only will is save you your hard-earned money by prolonging the life of your paints, as you won’t have to scoop out a new glob of paint every time you sit down to start a painting session, but the length of time by which it also prologues the lives of your prepared paints is staggering.

And that it forces you to have good paint etiquette is excellent. Lazy with your thin coats? Not anymore! The wetness the palette maintains helps ensure your paints are thin and smooth, and apply without streaks, excessive build-up or blemishes. How good is that?!

I didn’t know I needed RedgrassGames’ Everlasting Wet Palette in my life before receiving it. Now, I can’t imagine ever being without it.

And I got through an entire article about a wet palette without using the word “moist”.

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Summary

Reviewer

Rob Hebblethwaite

Review Date

Reviewed Item

RedgrassGames' Everlasting Wet Palette

Author Rating

5

Product Name

RedgrassGames' Everlasting Wet Palette