I am not sponsored by Badger, but I've been using the Minitaire line for 2-ish months now. Lots of pros, lots of cons. Here's my breakdown:
+ Great value. Bottles are 30 oz instead of the usual 16 oz or 17oz. From what I've heard, bottles will sell individually for $3.33, so that's pretty good pricing. However, the paints are really thin so there's a lot of water in there compared with VGC, Citadel, Reaper, P3, etc.
+ Vibrant, saturated, bold colors that are ready for the airbrush. VMA paints are great, but they are more muted and it's a lot of earth tones. This line has pinks and purples and turquoises and that kind of thing. It's awesome for wargamers who like bright, colorful tones.
+ The Ghost Tints (pre-thinned inks, essentially) are nice. I have really taken to using inks to shade, saturate, and tint colors, so it's nice having a dozen colors to work with.
+ Copper, brass and gold metallics that actually LOOK LIKE copper, brass and gold. The VMA silvers are awesome, but the other metallics are huge misfires. It'll be great to have airbrush-ready metallics that don't look ridiculous.
- They clog more often than VMA. And, for that matter, about as often as P3. What's the point of airbrush-ready paints that have problems with clogging? I still thin them at least 1:1 (usually more) and they clog. I don't get it. ESPECIALLY the Ghost Tints. How do the ghost tints give me so much trouble!? That's weird.
- Separation is awful. Just as bad as VGC, if not worse. You'll need to shake these bad boys a lot before each use. And forget using them on a palette with a regular brush, unless you want to constantly stir them.
- Silvers are not nearly as good as the VMA silvers. There are only 6 lines in their metallic range (2 silvers, 2 golds, and a copper and brass). I think VMA has twice that.
- I HATE THE BOTTLES SO MUCH. They made a RIDICULOUS choice to heavily frost or tint the bottles. What that means is that the colors look significantly different outside the bottle than they do on the shelf. So you can't just look at the bottles and choose a color. They're not even close. And the Ghost Tints, again, are the worst. There are 6 of the inks that look EXACTLY THE SAME. No exaggeration -- the red, brown, black, teal, blue, and purple are indistinguishable just by looking at the bottle (though the tones are all obviously very different).
Overall, the Minitaire line is pretty good, but I can't recommend going out and buying them to replace paints you've already got. If you need bright, colorful tones, your P3 paints work just fine through the airbrush (though I wish they were in dropper bottles). Same goes for Reaper (though those are already in droppers). I've grown more and more disenfranchised with using VGC through the airbrush, so if that's all you've got then this is a good set to get. But if you want muted, military shades and earth tones, VMA is the better choice.
. I'll most definitely get some Ghost Tints to play around with - the tinting is interesting to me, but if it turns out to be just a glaze, then, well, stuff me.
