How exactly are Vallejo paints better than GW paints?

Ferevendír

New member
I don\'t really see any difference, it\'s just that Vallejo paints don\'t dry out...so fast. But every time I paint with a Vallejo paint it gets kinda...you can scratch if off very easil. Very....
 

finn17

New member
It\'s a matter of personal preference...

There probably is no quantifiable way Vallejo is \'better\' than GW (apart from the bottles). Some people will always continue to prefer GW, you just have to experiment and go with what suits you the best.
One thing about Vallejo paints is that everyone seems to report the need for a lot of shaking and it may be that they are a bit more fussy about the kind of primed surface you are painting on to.
IMO GW paint is a bit more \'gluelike\' because they probably have to allow for younger GW fans painting it directly onto unprimed, uncleaned minis?? Could be wrong of course:bouncy:
 
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Sturmhalo

Guest
In my experience I honestly can\'t say that one brand is better than the other. There might be very minor differences in the properties of the two brands (Vallejo a lot thinner in general, but both cover equally well), but nothing that makes one better than the other. I don\'t know why some people slag off GW paint. It\'s good stuff really!

The only things that make Vallejo better in my eyes are factors that have nothing to do with the paint itself! Yup, the design of the bottles is better as it reduces wastage, but most importantly it costs less than GW and you get more than GW! And the Game Color range is almost an exact match for GW\'s range. Makes it a winner in my book!

:D
 

Corvus

New member
Originally posted by Ferevendír
But every time I paint with a Vallejo paint it gets kinda...you can scratch if off very easil. Very....

What kind of primer do you use (if any).

A strong primer is very important. I have also noticed that GW primer isn\'t that strong. I use a primer called Holiprim, and this doesn\'t scatch of, even not when rubbing it with my fingernail very hard. GW primer can be scratched of quite easily IMO.

I use Vallejo Model Color because of its bottles, its huge color range and IMO the paint covers better than GW\'s. But GW also has some very nice colors (which I still use) such as Blood Red, Bleached bone, Scorched brown etc.
 

supervike

Super Moderator
agree with sturmhalo...

The bottles are what make the biggest difference with me as well.

Haven\'t tried the new GW design, so that may help with choice as well.

I have had that problem with Vallejo \'peeling\' off. Actually I was quite disgusted with it at first. I am not sure which of these things helped, but this is what I did to remedy that.

1. Shake the heck out of the paints. Then shake it some more.

2. Use a much better quality of primer. (actually I was just using some white paint before)

3. Give it a light dusting of varnish after specific areas are done.

4. Did you shake those bottles yet?
 
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Sturmhalo

Guest
Can\'t say I\'ve found Vallejo\'s adhesive qualities to be questionable! Yeah, if you handle painted areas a lot whilst painting, then it does tend to wear off (like most acrylics!), but other than that it\'s just as tough as the next brand.

Never had a problem using regular white paint for an undercoat either! Started using Vallejo white primer though. It goes on a bit better than their regular paint (and it happened to be in the set I got so I thought I may as well use it!).
 

finn17

New member
Shake it all about...

I used to have this problem with Andrea colour, which come in exactly the same bottle as Vallejo and are suspiciously similar in other ways.
I have invested in a Robart paint shaker and always put a small piece of sprue in each bottle. This does help enormously although my right arm no longer looks like it belongs to Popeye, which wouldn\'t have been a problem if my left arm didn\'t look like Olive Oyles. People came to all sorts of strange conclusions...:D
 

KatieG

New member
Yeah I am a big fan of Vallejo\'s white primer, especially since I can\'t spray prime in the winter. I used to use GW\'s but it always had these annoying white dots of dried primer in them, hard to get a smooth coat of primer with that. The Vallejo doesn\'t have that problem luckily :)
--Katie G.
 

Chrispy

Active member
Okay, here\'s my breakdown:

Vallejo Good Points:
Has more hues than Citedal.
Has more natural colors.
Comes in bigger bottles.
Bottles come with eyedropper.
Vallejo puts out accessories like Mediums, empty bottles and pumice stone.

Vallejo Bad Points:
Must be shaken.

GW Bad Points:
Paint cans can\'t open.
No way of getting just a drop for mixing.
Colors way too bright for anything natural.

GW Good Points:
Smaller cans and overpriced... wait, that\'s a bad point....
Okay, so there are no good points about their paint. :p
 
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U5-Boubou

Guest
Originally posted by Chrispy
Bottles come with eyedropper

medical note: dropping Valejo paint in your eyes can provoque weird vision. :D

Concerning the difference between the brands, I have to say that I have ten year old GW bottles and I still use them, the paint is still ok. It just needs to be thinned a little but it\'s still ok.

Another slight advantage of GW paints is that you can see the right colour easier than with valejo, which bottles are lightly grey. And whereas you just have to open the bottle to find out about the true colour in GW, you have to spill some Vallejo to find out.

Sometimes there are too much vallejo colours, so it\'s hard to know which one you\'ll need.
 

Dragonsreach

Super Moderator
Staff member
As a recent convert to Vallejo Model Colours I have to say that there is a marked differrence between the two paints. Vallejo has a far superior feel when painting and doesn\'t need to be as thinned with as much water as GW. As has been said the dropper style bottles mean that you put less on the pallette, therefore less wastage.
Vallejo state that their paints are a \'Vinyl Acrylic paint\' and this is noticable when cleaning the pallette they clean off easier than GW\'s and have a very \'plastic\' feel to the residue.
While I will still continue to use GW\'s paints, the shades available in Vallejo will continue to draw me to their use. The number of Browns alone is great and this will fit in very nicely with a few things I\'m planning.
But all in all it\'s horses for courses and a matter of individual taste. (Assuming you are into tasting paint.!)
 

finn17

New member
Well that\'s a clear advantage...

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
...the shades available in Vallejo will continue to draw me to their use. The number of Browns alone is great and this will fit in very nicely with a few things I\'m planning.
Fits in nicely with me too as most of my minis end up looking like sh*t. At least now I can get the proper shade:D
 

MDL

New member
my 2 Cents...

They are both equally valid tools. Just a couple of notes:

I use a wet pallet, and on such, the GW paints are a DREAM to use. I can get them to the right consistency CONSISTENTLY all day if need be. I can blend, etc. w/o probelms. They hold their hue quite well. They don\'t have some basic hues that would be very useful, like a good burnt humber, or raw sienna (though the new ones approximate the later quite well...).

Vallejos tend to be rather running on a wet pallette, but are good to blend up on a hard pallete, something like a tile. Good colors and whatnot. I can\'t stand the smell though; have you ever had like 150+ of these things in a single area? Man, they just emit a horrible odor from their pigments, thinning agents or something.

The eyedroppers are great for the vallejos, but I use tamiya paint stirrers for my GW paints, which works wonders.

Well, there\'s another couple of opinions.
 
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