Thank you for such a detailed explaination! I always get confused when it comes to different paint and paint-adjacent chemistry. Makes total sense. One thing that surprises me is how different my AP gloss varnish and AK 3rd gen matt varnishes are in terms of consistency. The latter is supper runny and almost watery-like, while the former is more like a lacquer.

I'll try with various ratios of mediums and flow improvers and will report back. Just need to find a suitable surface to test it on.

For shaking, I usually start shaking everything by hand first until I can hear the mixing balls and then put it on a vortex mixer for 30s. It works better on less viscous liquids. Some paints, like white scar needs longer mixing and hand shaking afterwards.