Paints?

[obsidianpainting]

Hey guys, Obsidian again. I notice i didn\'t really introduce myself in my last post. Im from canada, i live in ontario. My name is Gary.

Anything else you wanna know just ask.

Anyways, To to topic.

I was wondering what people could tell me about the paints they use. As of the moment i only have GW paints and am wishing to expand my collection.

I have done some research and have come up with a slew of companies

Alright here goes:
P3, Vallejo (game and model colour), Coat d\'arms, Reaper (master series and pro), Andrea miniatures paint, Rackham paint.

I think thats about all of i\'ve found. Can\'t remember any others anyway..

So i was wondering if people could give me a low down on what these paint products are like, If you use them and wether you\'d recommend them or not.

Thanks, all is appreciated

 

[mattsterbenz]

Hello and welcome. The \"what paints do you use\" threads are quite popular here. (It\'s about time we stickied one, mods! )

Here\'s my viewpoint on paints. Others may tell you differently, but this is my honest opinion.

GW- Best all-around paints. Their metallics are excellent. The new washes are fantastic. Foundations are great for speed painting and laying down basecoats.

P3- These are also very good. I don\'t like their metallics much. Too grainy. The other P3\'s are very nice, have a good smooth consistancy, and blend well. The only downside is that some colors (umbral umber in particular) get lighter/milky when thinned with water.

Vallejo- Great quality, I just strongly dislike the bottles. That\'s prevented me from making much use of my set, but many top painters on this site swear by them.

Coat d\'Arms- Made by the same company as P3. Very similar formula, but with a little less pigment. The\'re quite decent. I use them from time to time.

Reaper Master Series- The triad scheme they have going is very handy, but I have found these paints to be quite chalky. I tend to avoid them.

Rackham- They dry very very matte. To the point of them being annoying to use. I picked up a few pots a couple years back and they have seen very little use.

So, I\'d recommend GW and some of the P3 range personally. If you like eyedropper bottles, give Vallejo\'s a shot.

Also, any brand paint will do the job, it just depends on how you use it.

-Matt

 

[obsidianpainting]

Hey well thanks! I use GW all the time, but i wanted to try some other things and wanted to see what they are like.

I was kind of iffy about trying the Rackham paints anyways The p3, Vallejo, and Reaper paints seem to be quite popular and i may have to buy a couple bottles of each. however, i don\'t think those bottles would be able to contest for their whole ranges. i may just pick some colours i use a lot.

I also heard that coat d\'arms paints are like to old GW paints, not sure if thats true or not.

But thank you for your post, Much appreciated

 

[ScottRadom]

I swear by the Vallejo Game color and Model color ranges.

As Matt indicated I love using the foundation paints for basecoats and the citadel washes are the cat\'s ass.

BTW, make sure you put that _Big_ C in front of Canada please! You can leave the little o for ontario....:beer:

 

[Gilvan Blight]

What area of Ontario? I\'m personally from Windsor.

I use a wide variety of paints including PolyS paints that were first released in the early 80s (and still haven\'t dried up). Of all of the brands I have tried I am in love with my P3 paints. Now I haven\'t tried the metallics, so I don\'t know about them, but the general colours are great. I find they coat better then most other brands and stay wet longer on the pallet. The only problem I really had with them is that they aren\'t very good for drybrushing, but that isn\'t much of an issue as I seldom use that technique since finding this site over 5 years ago (wow it\'s been that long).

Besides the P3s, I love the new Games Workshop Washes, and use a slew of GW paints harking back to the original Colour Paint set to some of the newer colours. I support these mainly with some Valejho (sp) paints my wife bought. I find some of the V paints invaluable, mainly washes like Smoke and Woodgrain. The generic colours seem good enough though they tend to require more mixing and have seprated on me when I use too much water.

Now I\'m no where near the best painter on the site (actually kind of close to the bottom if you check my ratings) but that\'s what I have found.

 

[Crayfish]

Well i mostly use Vallejo model color, but also gw paints, i got one andrea color that i hope to get more of the one i have is incredible! I also have some rackham paints, if it is one bottle i would suggest its Steel gray, its an amazing color for NMM!

As matt said, GW metallics are the best i\'ve tried, i have one vallejo but it stinks most parts, i have not tried their air color metallics which have been said to be good. I also own a bunch of Van gogh h2o oil paints, these are the best oil paints since they thin with water!!! quite exspensive though. Also i own some cheap cheap acrylic called Marie, they smell and come in small tubes, they also dry out quite easy. bad but cheap!

 

[dannyk01]

I mainly like using Vallejo model colour due to them having more range but I do use Vallejo Game colour and a few Citadels. The eyedropped bottle isn\'t a concern and in a way is an advantage because the vallejos don\'t ten to dry up as fast as the citadels (they are annoying to try and add moister to once dried up).

The games workshop washes work wonders but i am not the biggest fan of the foundations. I have given them the nickname of \"wall paint\" due to the fact they smell like the acrylic paint me and my dad paint the walls with.

Regards,
Daniel

 

[obsidianpainting]

Thanks guys. This is all very great!

Thanks again, Obsidian.

P.S. I live near belleville ontario, (in a place called stirling)
Windsor? so you live by miniwargameing then

 

[Rastl]

I\'m very lazy and use mostly the Reaper Master Series triads. I like not having to mix 95% of my colors.

I\'ve found a few colors that go chalky when thinning and a few with \'meh\' coverage but overall I like them.

The skin tones in particular are quite handy to me. And several of their brown triads are always on my minis somewhere.

 

[Scribbles]

Vallejo of late, not a huge difference between them and the GW range I\'ve used before to be perfectly honest.

The main thing I do prefer about the Vallejo range is the bottle, quick shake and controlled drop of paint onto my pallet, also stops me contaminating paints with other colours dipping in for more, yeah I\'m too lazy to wash the brush each time if mixing the same colour again

 

[nadine]

I disliked Vallejo model color because I found them difficult to mix (I mean in the bottle; they\'re very pigment heavy and it was difficult to get all the pigment particle to mix with the binder). I also found them difficult to thin without separating but that might be because I hadn\'t shaken the bottle well enough.

The bottle itself I really liked though- the dropper makes it easy to ration out paint on the palette.

 

[Scribbles]

Ah yeah that\'s something I\'ll add to actually, most of the paints are fine, but the odd one seems to seperate in the bottle and it can be a pain when you drop out 10% pigmentation swimming in 90% binding fluid even after a good shake :cussing:

 

[alextheartist]

I have a few gws which do that, so its not isolated to vallejo\'s. all it takes is a little shakin\' to get em\' mixed though.

Alex

 

[mickc22]

Originally posted by Scribbles
Ah yeah that\'s something I\'ll add to actually, most of the paints are fine, but the odd one seems to seperate in the bottle and it can be a pain when you drop out 10% pigmentation swimming in 90% binding fluid even after a good shake :cussing:

don\'t just shake them, hit the bottom of the bottle into the palm of your hand, don\'t know if it\'s the sudden stop that seems to mix them better or what. I\'ve also added a couple of bits of old tabs and bits of minis into the bottles to agitate the paint, keep \'em fairly chunky so as not to glog the hole up

or you could always make a paint shaker...

 

[mickc22]

oops, forgot to mention Foundrys\' \"marvellous paints\"
I think these are actually better than GW\'s

 

[Scribbles]

Daaaaamn got to make me one of those thanks for the tips I\'ve had much better luck with smacking the bottom cheers.

 

[Backstabbeth]

Mixing VMC/VGC Paint

What I have done with vallejo paitns to solve the problem of seperation is remove the spout top from the bottle (easy to do) and stirred up the paint with a stick of some sort. You may notice that a lot of the pigment is solid on the bottom of the bottle. once the pigment is al mixed in, ill add a bit of distilled watter (5 drops or so) and drop in a couple glass beads. place the top back on and give it a right good rattle. this has solved that problem for me... but that paint shaker is awsome!

 

[Crayfish]

I have heard about putting in some balls of some sort to make the mixing work better, but i have such a huge amount of paints nowdays i dont think i have the time to put in two balls in every bottle... But i may have to, hate shaking for 5 minutes everytime i need a color.

 

[DIablofollower]

I guess I\'ll put my two cents in on this.

I have been using GW paint since I starter painting about ten years ago. Recently though I have been transitioning to Vallejo Model Colors. I like the dropper bottles a lot more just because they are much easier to us. As far as the shaking them part goes, I don\'t mind sitting there a few minutes to make sure they are mixed well. Although I must say that I will be trying the marble idea to make it easier on myself. .

Reason I prefer VMC over GW paints is that their colors seem to be a bit duller than GW paints. By that I mean the colors seem more matte therefore giving the mini a more realistic look. But thats just a personal preference. As far as the coverage goes, GW paints seem to cover better with less passes but Vallejo seem smoother. (This is diluting both the GW and VMC about 1 part paint and 8 parts water.)

I have used some P3 paints as well but am not a huge fan of the color range, although they are great paints as well.

 

[obsidianpainting]

Ah ok, so essentially the vallejo are less saturated. Nice, as im trying to find some less saturated colours. And also, For my paint pots i just cut up some of the metal bits that are at the bottom of metal miniatures, or cut up plastic sprues and put them into my paint pots to help them mix better. WORKS WONDERS