GW Paints

[Killing With A Smile]

Ok, I seem to feel like whenever GW paints are mentioned, there\'s this huge thunderbolt that follows. I do use GW paints BUT i feel from this forum and articles that they just ar\'nt very good??

Could someone please clarify

Thanks

 

[PegaZus]

Well, as one who has maybe two pots of GW paints, I\'m probably the last one to stand up in defense of them. But I think you\'re a wee bit off.

GW spray paints? Oh yeah. Zeus is having a ball with his bolts. I think the general consensus is to avoid them unless you know how to get around the deficiencies. However, I think the standard painting pots from GW have a following here.

But be aware of that old saying comparing anatomy to opinions.

 

[painterboyroy]

GW paints

well after using GW paints for last 15 years, and after a couple of rubbish pot designs and the most expensive paints, I have now just about replaced all my GW paints with Vallejo paints, and wow, more paint, less money and great eye-dropper type pots and the range of colours, I mostly now have the model range not the game range.. but thats all IMO. good luck painting.

 

[Killing With A Smile]

So am i correct in assuming that Vallejo paints are better? I have noticed there names are very similar to each other, who copied who.

Although i have to say i like the Foundation paints and there pots

 

[demonherald]

I\'ve used em for 20 years and almost exclusively use them still..hey\'re great paints....The pots are shit and soon lead to them drying out but using a wet pallette and keeping the pot open time has reduced thi massively.. I have a ton of vallejo model colour and while some great colours there are a lot of unneeded colours that can be created with a few mixes...
The main vallejo colours I use are the Reds and the yellows which are generallybetter than the GW versions..although scab red still kicks ass as a first coat.

just picked up some P3 and reaper paints to..he P3 seem very nice bit more playing arund to do yet and the reaper metallics are sweet.....

In short try some..no one will lynch ya for the type of paints you use..There\'s no right or wrong every range has its useful colours and it\'s crap ones...I\'ll probably always use GW as they are the colours I know intimately..If I need a certain tone or colour I know how to get it.....

 

[Roger Bunting]

I will be getting a load of P3 paints and reaper Master Series paints delivered tomorrow. I got them from the war store as the exchange rate is good for us in the UK atm and well, I\'ve no idea where to get the RMS in the UK. Unfortunately I got hit by customs and so have to pay the v.a.t. and a parcel force handling charge. In the end I haven\'t saved any money, I think. For now I still use GW. The metallics are good and yeah, scab red is a favourite of mine. White, on the other hand, isn\'t good.

 

[Gilvan Blight]

Personally I am a huge fan of the P3 paints.

Vallejo (sp) I am iffy on. It depends which paints. Some I find excellent, some I find watery, some I find thick. I have some Game colour and some Model colour. I find the Game colour better, but not perfect. Overall they seem better then GW in colour selection, pot design and the ability to thin without loosing consistancy. They seem random on how thick or thin they are, some requiring a lot of wating down and others being to watery to use for a base coat.

 

[Roger Bunting]

I think the consistancy has to do with how much pigment is needed to attain a certain colour. GW paints have the same thing, some are thinner than others. Game colour is the range that matcheds GW colours reasonably close with similar names. They are designed to be able to stand up to a bit more handling.

 

[airhead]

I\'ve had a set of the GW paints in the older (non-flip-top squat bottle) style. You had to keep a large set of pliers with you to open the blasted things. Dried paint in the threads, etc.

Shortly after I bought them, GW comes out with the flip tops they have now. Somewhat better. I offered to buy a set of tops from them to maintain my set. No deal.

I also own a set of Reaper\'s Master series (RMS) paints. Dropper bottles like Vellajo and they come in triads for shading and shadowing. Still gotta thin them down (that is a good thing) and they had some growing pains with early production runs. Send your bad paints in and they would replace them. Cannot beat that for customer service.

I\'ve painted with VGC and a few VMC paints. I really like the pigment denisty (you have to thin them lots) and the dropper bottles. Downside to the pigment density is that you have to shake the stuffing out of them. Invest in a bottle of Reaper\'s skulls to drop into each one.

(stoking the flames here now)

I\'ve also painted with Apple Barrel and other craft paints. There are a few painters here that get great results with them, but I am not one of them. I find them too thick and hard to thin without losing consistency.

(back to the original question)

I have no problems with the paints in GW\'s bottles, it is the packaging that drove me away.

 

[demonherald]

Originally posted by Roger Bunting
I will be getting a load of P3 paints and reaper Master Series paints delivered tomorrow. I got them from the war store as the exchange rate is good for us in the UK atm and well, I\'ve no idea where to get the RMS in the UK. Unfortunately I got hit by customs and so have to pay the v.a.t. and a parcel force handling charge. In the end I haven\'t saved any money, I think. For now I still use GW. The metallics are good and yeah, scab red is a favourite of mine. White, on the other hand, isn\'t good.

I got mine from the warstore too....didn\'t get hit with the taxes..It\'s such a hit and miss affair the Bristish postal system full stop is screwed at the moment....

I ordered £60 worth of paints the first time I ordered and £50 the second time with no customs charges.... Bought £8 orth of parts from Battlewagon and got an £11 charge.....There\'s no sense in any of it......Interestingly enough if there was a way of verifying the GW parts as from UK manufacturer then the charge would be refunded...

 

[Roger Bunting]

Yeah, the lottery of customs. I\'ve had two dvd region 1 box sets, got hit on one, not the other. I knew it was a risk but as it was I was saving money, even with the large postal costs, and I wanted to try some RMS paints too, so I went for it. After spending the money on paints and a new miniatures case, my bank account is going into rehab.

 

[jahminis]

it\'s all personal preference here...
i use gw and p3, but i\'m open to tryin\' any manufacturer...aidken, reaper, foundry, cote\' de arms, rackham, vallejo, or whoever...i think that it has more to do with personal budgets than anything else...every manufacturer has a set of advantages and disadvantages...if we had all the money we wanted, we would probably have one of ever paint in the industry...
every different paint seems to be good for a different approach...i was usin\' the new foundation red the last few weeks, and i love the coverage, but i don\'t like the flat finish...seems to lack any life...it has it\'s purpose though...great coverage over black, but then i have to come in and do a layer of scab red, or red gore over it...
i\'ve heard a lot of bad things about the spray cans from gw, but i\'ve never got a bad can in 20 years...i\'ve used the primer with no problems for years...i\'ve used testors dullcote, and gw purity seal, both with more or less the same results...maybe i\'m just the lucky one...
the main thing is to not get locked in a box where you only use one company\'s paints...no paint racism!!! try it all...get out there and get your brushes wet...you never know what will turn out to be your favorite without tryin\' a variety of paints...

cheers
jah

 

[Wag1809]

GW

I\'m a fan of GW paints. I like the flip tops and the colors. I\'ve never had a drying in the bottle problem, and I live in Colorado, not exactly a wet state.

They are what I know, they are what I like

 

[Jericho]

I\'ve had by far the most experience with Citadel paints. I still think they\'re really good on the whole. Like most ranges a few colors are dodgy, but I think they are easier to work with and less finicky than Vallejos.

VMC paints need an assload of shaking and I find the paint rubs off very easily with handling. That\'s terrible for gaming figs. Sure the bottles are nice (but they do clog up once in a while) and all that but I don\'t see me buying any more than 1-2 specific colors ever.

I haven\'t used the P3 paints much, but I must say I\'m extremely impressed. The metallics are a bit sticky for my liking, but they are nice colors anyway. The regular paints are gorgeous, they are somewhere in between Citadel and Vallejo Model Color for style of colors available (vibrancy vs. realistic), they flow well, they are better at covering over black primer than most Citadel paints, and best of all they are really cheap. And 18mL per pot isntead of 12. I think we have a winner.

The metallics aren\'t quite as easy to use, and I haven\'t bought any inks at all (I have all the current and all the past range of Citadel inks, so why bother) but overall I think P3 is the way to go. Supplement with a few specific colors if there\'s some you can\'t live without and you\'ll be fine.

Oh yeah: I\'ve never had a Citadel paint pot dry out when it wasn\'t my fault (like not shutting the lid properly). Just add a couple drops of water to the paint once in a while and it\'ll be fine. I still have a bunch of the old screwtop discontinued paints that are in mint condition despite their age and supposedly inferior lid design.

 

[mickc22]

for the record:
VMC was designed for static display models, ie. you paint \'em, put \'em on a plinth and dust \'em now and then, not for gaming minis
that\'s what VGC was develloped for, they are completely different formulations

 

[Baz]

I started with GW paints and was kinda limited to working with them for years as I worked for GW. They\'re pretty good paints but the price of them is really prohibitive. I would reccomend to anyone who was serious about painting to use vallejo modelcolour acrylics.

But don\'t limit yourself to one paint range as your only choice. Sometimes you\'ll find that a particular paint range doesn\'t have the right shade or consistency for the job at hand.

That\'s how I got into using other paints. I needed a good bright red and GW didn\'t have one so I got a few foundry colours. Then I needed to paint a beasman army and wanted a decent variety of browns so I went for vallejo and haven\'t looked back.

I still use the GW paints I have but I\'d never buy any more. For the price of 1 GW pot I can get almost 3 of any other brand.

Bearing in mind GW hired me as a painter......lol

 

[DrEvilmonki]

I pretty much use GW for my painting. I personally don\'t find their price prohibitive as the pots last a long time for me (except white and black which I seem to chew through.

 

[lizcam]

Originally posted by airhead
I\'ve had a set of the GW paints in the older (non-flip-top squat bottle) style. You had to keep a large set of pliers with you to open the blasted things. Dried paint in the threads, etc.

Shortly after I bought them, GW comes out with the flip tops they have now. Somewhat better. I offered to buy a set of tops from them to maintain my set. No deal.

I also own a set of Reaper\'s Master series (RMS) paints. Dropper bottles like Vellajo and they come in triads for shading and shadowing. Still gotta thin them down (that is a good thing) and they had some growing pains with early production runs. Send your bad paints in and they would replace them. Cannot beat that for customer service.

I\'ve painted with VGC and a few VMC paints. I really like the pigment denisty (you have to thin them lots) and the dropper bottles. Downside to the pigment density is that you have to shake the stuffing out of them. Invest in a bottle of Reaper\'s skulls to drop into each one.

(stoking the flames here now)

I\'ve also painted with Apple Barrel and other craft paints. There are a few painters here that get great results with them, but I am not one of them. I find them too thick and hard to thin without losing consistency.

(back to the original question)

I have no problems with the paints in GW\'s bottles, it is the packaging that drove me away.

On the craft paints here\'s a trick. Add some glazing compound to them about 1 part glaze to 3 parts paint. Then thin them down. The glaze really helps the consistancy. I used craft paint exclusivly untill I could afford a set of RMS. Still use them a lot because of the colors. They tend to be clearer than most model paints

 

[Baz]

Originally posted by DrEvilmonki
I pretty much use GW for my painting. I personally don\'t find their price prohibitive as the pots last a long time for me (except white and black which I seem to chew through.

For basic black and white I use a large tubes (about 200ml) of windor and newton acrylic. Needs quite a bit of thinning as it\'s in a sort of paste but it\'s lasted 2 years and hundreds of minis so far. You can ge cheap acrylics in large tubes in the works or WH smiths in the UK or probably Michael\'s in the US.