I've been painting historical figures for a couple of years now. I use acrylics because that's what I learned with on gaming figures. The most important thing I have learned is how to thin my paints.

I have a couple of mounted figures in my grey army that I've been putting off. I've read here and on Danilo Cartacci's book that oils over acrylics is the way to go. Now I have also read on PF that you don't thin your oils. The experiments doing this have not gone well. Am I missing something? Do I thin? If so, with what and how thin?

I can just offer my personal experience to you. I paint often oils over acrylics, and i think the oils must be in any case thinned bu you need to have a strong acrylic base, well dried, and use a moderate quantity of oil thinner. To do this normally i use to thin oils a quick oil drier getting the results to have the oils thinned and also to get them more matt. Hope this is usefull to you.
Francesco

As a oilpainter I can say that Danillo's painting with oils is the same as mine.
I also thin the paint, only when it comes to very sharp work.
I paint over acrylic paint that is something darker then the oilpaint that i'm gonna use.
Let the oil soak out of the paint on a indexcard. Then I put the paint on my palet. ( a white tile) and started painting with a large brush (size 3-4 ) all over the horse.
Then I let it dry for a hour and take a very large soft brush (make up brush )and start to whipe of the paint. With this technique i have no brush marks. The next day when the paint is dry I do this all over again and then i gonna lay down the shades and highlights.
It is not always the case that the first layer of oilpaint is enough. But you have to know that two thin layers is better then one thick.

Marc

Marc and Francesco, thanks for the advice.