P3 Wet Palette - SMC'16 loot review #4

Hi everybody!

In today's article is another Scale Model Challenge Loot review! This time I will show the P3 Wet Palette  by Privateer Press and share my thoughts about it.


The first response from some of you might be: "Why would you buy something that you can make yourself?" And this is a valid question. Truth is, I've never really used a wet palette. I always seemed to manage with my airbrushes and a regular palette with semi-spherical compartments. I wanted to get a wet palette, but I never really found a suitable container that I liked.

That changed at the stand of Scenery Workshop. After a short chat with Patrick, I decided to buy the P3 Wet Palette package. It has everything you need;

• The container
• A sponge
• Parchment paper

The container and its contents

Now there is enough paper to last you a while! from the top of my head, there are 50 sheets in the little booklet. Once you run out of paper, you can use greaseproof parchment paper. Make sure you get the parchment paper without the oily coating, as the greasiness will destroy your waterbased acrylic paints. 

So why use a wet palette you might ask me. Well, for me it has two benefits I didn't or couldn't get from a regular palette. First, and most obvious reason is that it keeps your paints usable for quite a while longer! Acrylic paints dry pretty fast, and the humidity of the sponge in the container will give the paints on the palette a longer lifetime. The second reason is I want to better control the colors I'm using while blending. On a wet palette, you can create a gradient you eventually want to use to create blends on the model.

Let's try this wet palette out!

I got some tips to put a tissue, paper towel or kitchen roll in between the sponge and the parchment paper. This would help distribute the water. 

Paper towel over the wet sponge

The second tip I got is to soak both sides of the parchment paper so the paper doesn't curl up. If this were to happen the paper will dry out and so will your paint. 

So these tips in mind I set everything up. I soaked the sponge, I covered the sponge with a paper towel and I placed a sheet of parchment paper over the wet paper towel. The first thing I noticed, is that the sponge doesn't hold water at all. It seems to be the same material P3 uses to pad the miniatures with. The water just falls out of the bottom of the sponge into the tray. Luckily the paper towel soaks the water up from the bottom and keeps the top wet! The sponge alone will actually dry out, leaving the paper and thus your paints to dry out. 

Luckily I was armed with the tips to avoid this problem!

Paint loaded onto the wet palette

I did some painting for a little while, blending my skin tones for my Durotan orc bust. After about 45 minutes of painting, I had to leave so I closed the container (this is important!) and left it on my desk. 

When I got back to my desk, about 6 hours later, the paints were still in working condition! 

Paint on the wet palette still workable! 

So the final topic is the price. Is it worth the $19,95 or €16,45 that is charged for it?  Personally, I think it's a bit pricey but I didn't mind having to pay it. I do acknowledge the fact that you can make one yourself a lot cheaper! 

So my final conclusion: 

I think that getting a wet palette is a good thing! However, this particular wet palette could definitely be improved! Maybe get a sponge that actually holds water would be a leap in the right direction. It is also somewhat expensive for what you actually get but on the other hand, you get everything in one nice package, which saves you the hassle of looking for the materials yourself. 

I would recommend that if you are not using a wet palette yet, that you would invest some time or money in getting one! Although I would not recommend this wet palette per sé, 

I hope you liked this article and that it might have helped you in whatever way. 

See you next time and until then, happy painting!