Getting back to painting - What paints to buy?

[frenchkid]

Hello dear CMON community,

Been away for some time, but lately I've been thinking of making a come back to mini painting.
Actually it's been on my mind for quite a long time but could never seem to make it fit somewhere in my schedule (I've been keeping busy). But a combination of a nice kick starter project from Jeremie that landed in my mailbox on a boring day at work and a not so distant move to a land where I don't know anyone and don't speak the language (Germany for the curious ones) has made me think that this might be a good time to start looking into it.

Hence a question I have:
Obviously all my old paints have dried out, I was going to buy the citadel kit with all the paints in their line-up, but seems things have changed a bit too much and it doesn't exist anymore. So imagine that you had an opportunity to renew all your paints with a decent sized budget, what would you go for? I was using mostly Citadel, and as I remember they had quite a good taste, but since it's a fresh start I'm completely willing to look at some new things

Thanks!

 

[MAXXxxx]

right now I'd probably say: try the Scale75 ones

or got for the sure one: Vallejo Model Color
But the best imho is: get the planned colors for the first 2-3 projects together, then mix and match paints from different paintlines for that. The ones I'd suggest browsing through for colors: VMC, VAC, P3, Scale75, Reaper and GoldenAcrilics.

The one thing I learned: never buy sets, you end up not using half of it (and they will dry out in time), while needing doubles-triples from some of the most used colors.

That said some colors I can't live without :
- VMC Buff, VMC Ivory, VMC BrownGreen
- VAC Gun, VAC Steel
- VAC Dark Sea Blue
- P3 Ryn Flesh and Midlund flesh
- VGC Beastybrown
- P3 Sanguine base
- Tamiya X-2x series (the clear colors)
- Inks from ArmyPainter, VGC and Transparents from VMC

edit:
if you are going by taste, then be vary of the Scale75 ones (they taste horrible) and the Tamiya (same + definatly not safe)

 

[Bailey03]

Yeah, buying a set tends to give you plenty of colors you won't end up using. I think it's better to buy colors as you need them. Your set will continue to grow over time as you start new projects.

As for what type of paint to buy... I'd say the four most common brands are GW, P3, Vallejo, and Reaper. Also out there are Scale75 sets and Andrea sets. There are others but these are the ones I'm more familiar with. For the most part, you'll be fine using any of these paint brands. In my opinion the most important decision comes down to how you like to paint. GW and P3 come in paint pots. Just open the cap, dip your brush in and go. Vallejo, Reaper, Scale75, and Andrea come in dropper bottles. This is better for squeezing out a controlled amount on a palette for easier mixing and making your own colors. If you plan on doing color mixing, consider one of those sets over GW or P3.

After that, I'd say lean towards the brands you can find locally. It's a lot quicker to run by the hobby store and pick up that color you need than it is to order it online.

As for me I use mostly Reaper Master Series paints, but I still have some GW, Scale75, Andrea, and Vallejo paints (I'm starting to really like the Vallejo Model Air range).

 

[Dragonsreach]

My goodness, have people been in hibernation or what?
So many "Original Players" turning up again.
NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN FRENCHKID!

As to the question of paints got to admit GW/Citadel are now a range I've left behind, cost primarily and a few other reasons, so I'm using Vallejo as my main paints, with a few Reaper, Artists oils, and goodness knows what else.
Privateer Press' paints and Scale 75 are getting good write ups as well, but rather than "splurge" on sets, cherry pick your colours.
Oh and Vallejo Airbrush Metallics are worth looking into IMO best metallics out there.

 

[Zab]

I use mainly GW due to their ease of access, but I am expanding my paints to other ranges and I have to say I like Reaper and Vallejo Model colour. Although if you are in Germany Massive Voodoo did a little review of these Duncan color acrylics that look pretty nice and seem to come in huge bottle compared to other ranges. Very much like Americana craft paints. I believe PK PRO carries them.

Cheers

 

[frenchkid]

Thanks for the advice guys, and thanks for the warm welcome back Dragonsreach (you've been keeping busy, 15K posts!)

I see it was a good idea asking, seems some new options are available out there.
To be honest the set idea was linked to pure laziness of not wanting to run back and forth for every color I forget to buy at the start, especially since I'm currently in Geneva where paints are not easy to come by (internet it is). That being said might just wait to move to my next place of residence (Frankfurt) and see what's on offer in terms of hobby shops and paints. Probably won't be getting much time to get started up again until I move anyhow.

I'm intrigued by the Scale 75 ones, though I must admit from memory taste is somewhat important as I have a tendency to spend my time licking my brush (this sounds wrong... ), I'll check out a couple just to see.
I also have some good memories from Andrea paints, especially the kit for flesh paint, but think overall Vallejo sounds like a good option to look into!

Will keep you posted, and start the mandatory WIP thread once I get back into it, might be still a couple of months until I'm settled in, but will try to make an appearance, or do some prep work.

Cheers!

 

[ElderMind]

If you will be in Frankfurt, and have a car, I would recommend www.fantasyladen.de Their warehouse is a little west of Mainz. They also have a shop in Mainz, but the selection is more limited there (although you can pick up an order from there). I like to browse the warehouse...

I recently got back into painting, and bought some Vallejo Model Color. The colors are nice, but the settling of the paint (and vigorous shaking required) gets irritating. They also dry very fast, which also becomes tiresome. Load the brush from a wet palette and the brush tip is already dry by the time you get the brush to the mini to dot an eye or gem. Brushlicking required... Finally, the reports of easy chipping / rubbing off are very accurate! Varnish is definitely required. I ordered some P3 paints, which should be here any day now. We'll see how they work out.

If you find a shop in Frankfurt (other than GW), please let me know!

 

[MAXXxxx]

Not Fft, but Darmstadt (about 20km to the south of Fft). Here (besides a GW store) there are 3 places to get paints:
- 1 general rpg-mini-cardgame store. They have most of the VGC and VMC lines. (Also some remaining Confrontation, quite a lot reaper minis, and 10% off of GW stuff)
- 1 art-shop with an airbrush section, carrying the VAC range + airbrush colors that are quite good (spectre, schmike, etc)
- 1 modelling shop (ships, cars, etc) carrying about the whole Tamiya range.

P3/Reaper/Scale75... (and generally non-gw models and such) I use battlefield-berlin. at orders 50+ euro postage is free and what they send arrives in 2, max 3 days.
The only thing fantasyladen has atm, that I really eye are the Rackham-Cynwall boxes (both unit and command), but I already have 40+ unpainted selsyms, so... not that important.

 

[frenchkid]

Ah useful information, thanks a lot!
Should be in the area starting in June, probably staying in a hotel for a couple of months, so I'll start snooping around then and see what I come up with!