So, I figured now is a good time to chat about paints and if you like post up your thoughts about paints you use.
I have been a long time user of Citadel paints since the early 90's (as you can see by the old bottle below) and of late have started to become a bit disappointed with how things have changed. First the bottles they moved from the old stopper top to the screw cap (wow that was bad and then the flip cap on the new ones. These past two choices have sucked ass frankly. Paint dries out too quickly if you get any air in them and with these cheap bottles, it happens. Plus I think GW has started to use a cheaper paint choice and are cutting corners on their quality. I have always liked several of their colors and including new ones like the Foundation colors but have since been moved to Base colors which are now lacking the quality that the Foundation had and the washes are not what the good ole inks used to be. Of late, I tend to buy limited choices of colors from the GW line as I am finding other colors that I like better.
A snap of the classic bottle! This is like classic Coke vs New Coke above!
P3 has really impressed me, I only own about half dozen of the colors so far and most are the browns and greens as well as their brown ink and I have to say this takes me back to the old desired days of GW quality. I will continue to dabble with using these paints and recommend to anyone that has not tried them to give them a try as to me they are well worth it.
Foundry paints I am in love with. My only gripe is the price as I have to pay the British Sterling cost and overseas shipping to get them. So, when I order I have to order big to make it worthwhile. The great thing about these colors is they are sold in a set of three. I love this as it gives you base and highlights in one simple package with no mixing or blending. Just paint and go! I love that, painting done simple! A good company to purchase from. I love the stopper bottles again! Classic to old GW and if I recall, Foundry or Coat'D'arms uses to make paint for GW before they branched off on their own line.
Coat D'arms another decent color of paint, a bit hard for me to get except via mail order as the only store in my area closed that sold it I have tried the Bleach Bone, Wolf Grey and some of their metallics (blue and green) with great results and love this type of paint. If you see it, well worth your money at least for the colors I have bought,
Game Color, the are old Vallejios I tried a long time back. The jade green is a nice and striking color to use on miniatures while the red was well a bit thin for my tastes and hard to use as I had to paint layers to get it right. I'd rather use other choices for red which can be a hard color to work with.
Vallejio Air, this is a new experiment for me as I just bought an Air Brush and looking for that right paint to see how it works out for me I used the Green-Brown for my French to do about 40 in less than an hour in base coats for the coats and uniforms. The color is close to the straight color main by Vallejio and blended well together. I also go a Medium Green that made for a nice camo striping on my German Vehicles. I have bought about 6 to play around with: Orche, Med. Green, Khaki Brown, Rust, Grey Base ( for primer work on bad weather days) and Green Brown. So far, I am happy with the results, while I have read you can add to an airbrush and paint I still found I needed to add a tad of alcohol to thin the paint slightly. Not much mind you, just a little bit.
I snacked up a few new colors for Vallejio including some colors for my German vehicles and the French army that I am painting up. So far, I like what I have used so far which includes Green-Brown, US Dark Green, German Field Grey with a few other colors left to try. So far, two colors I plan to give another try for but feel they are just crap is the Track Primer from the Panzer Aces, it sounded cool but wow is just like liquid crap and does not cover worth a darn. Chocolate Brown is another color that was water like and didn't cover worth a crap and that is what it looked like when I squeezed it on my pallet but in the runny way!
This is up for a future test, War Paints, I have read a few good things about their product and figure I would give them a shot. Stay tuned for he results.
Badger Minitaire paint, I have heard good things about this paint but I have yet to give it a try as of yet. I have noticed some colors are a total bitch to order and was rather annoyed by that very fact. Guess everyone and their mother is trying this color. Still, I got some colors to try including a Ghost Tint Black which appears to be like an ink of sorts for an airbrush and the pallid flesh and an off white color. I figure the green would be nice for my Death Guard when I get to them and the white could make for a good general tone for my Veritechs for Robotech Tactics.
So, share your experiences with the paints above or other paints that I may not have covered! I always like to hear what the general public says about paints they use.
I like my Vallejo colours. Some of the browns seem to separate very easily, so I had to put some mixer ball bearings into the pots and given them a good shake before using. This seems to have solved that problem and improved coverage no end. I find the Vallejo Air paint is really good with a brush too as it is thin enough to flow nicely off the brush and become more of a glaze than a thick layer of colour.
ReplyDeleteI'm also still using GW paints, but have transferred them over into dropper bottles. This seems to have improved the storage and life expectancy of the paints.
I'd be interested to hear about what you think of the Badger paints when you get to them as I've also seen them mentioned a few times recently
Interesting, I heard of the bearings in the pots but never the droppers before. May have to give that a try.
DeleteI saw there was empty bottles sold...may not be a bad idea to transfer mine over.
Badger tests should be within a week or two, once things calm down. My friend uses them brush style and likes how thin they are.
You've got more than I do...but I've followed a similar path.
ReplyDeleteI started out with GW foundation paints, and still have some. While thick, they are great paints but the new line they introduced a few years back has way too many colours and the pots are terrible, so I started searching for alternatives.
I ended up moving to two different lines Formula P3 and Army Painter. I love the bottles of the P3 line, and the paint has a fantastic texture, although the colours are a little 'off' from what you get with GW. The Army Painter line is small, and all of the colours are utility colours, often with near-exact matches to old GW colours. With those two lines at my disposal I know I'm set for anything.
I also recently bought an airbrush, and ended up getting some VMA paints just to try them out. Can't say how they work yet however, because I've simply not tried them. The grey primer is nice though.
The Vallejio Air has worked pretty well, I am going to find some time to sit down and try to work with the Badger colors next...stay tuned!
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