Reaper Master Series

[MrPickles]

i read a bunch of stuff, some on here and some elsewhere about how great these paints are. so i was all excited and bought 4 at a local hobby store.

bought some reds to experiment with on my blood angels. pheonix red, magma red, clear red and clear yellow.

theyre terrible. the paint cracks apart? wtf? i wasnt using particularly thick coats either. even painting it on paper, after it dries , it's all cracked. then i watched a youtube video where the guy is compairing vallejo to reaper and he talks about the "dry lake bed" effect with reaper. damn, i wish i saw his video before buying them. im washing the bottles out and transfering some GW to the droper bottles. bleh, i hate wasting money.


whats the deal with this? bad batch or what? why does everyone talk so highly about these paints? maybe they changed the formula part way through and now it's good if you can get a newer batch? either way, i'm not risking ever buying them again.

and yes i shaked them...

 

[Elric2k]

Not sure, I own about 50 RMS paints and dont have a single problem with any of them. Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience with them, it can be a crapshoot ;/

 

[AllTerrainMonkey]

Were the labels full wrap-around or taped on? The taped on were the first batch, and if the reds are applied really thick without having been shaken they might crack, or if you're using a really strong enamel primer that hasn't set completely (or a combination of the two). You can always send an email to questions@reapermini.com or call in to get a replacement sent out quickly. I've been painting with RMS since the first iterations to the present (2005-present) and own a couple hundred of them; I've seen people bring in bottles of paint that crackled on them and had it not crackle when others have used it.

 

[MrPickles]

yes, full wrap around labels. i have a feeling theyve been sitting on the shelf for ages. i noticed that there was no little metal skull or whatever inside the bottles that i emptied out? also, if youre wondering, i primed the models with army painter dragon red, then put on a thin coat of GW blood red then tried the reaper reds on top of that, and it all cracked.

very disappointing. looked like they had other reds i was excited about - "bloodthirsty reds triad" looked promising for BA.

 

[RuneBrush]

Does sound like you've picked up some old ones. The fact the paint is old likely isn't the direct problem - I've got paints that are many years old and I use without any issues, however I look after my paint, shake them all occasionally and keep it in optimum storage conditions. Paint in a shop will sit untouched (often in a window) and be subjected to extreme temperature fluctuations. One of the reasons I tend to buy GW paint from one of the hobby shops rather than a local store is that I know they sell a huge quantity of paint, so I'm unlikely to buy a pot that has been sitting there for over a year.

 

[MrPickles]

a reaper rep contacted me and they are sending me three free paints. very unexpected, you would think that standard line in a nutshell from most companies would be "take them back to where you bought them, we dont care". but no, they obviously really care about their customers. im very impressed. im hoping these new ones work well. reaper was so many unique and awesome colors. im thinking a death company painted in adamantium black might be cool.

 

[Ordo Septenarius]

Sorry to hear you had problems; Reaper has been great to me in the past on the very few occasions there were issues with their product.

 

[jmanj]

I use a reaper paints fairly often, but mostly in the past year. I have had this happen a few times. Through some experimentation I have found the crackling issue derives from surface tension on the model. I had issue with reaper black and red, don't remember exact colors, on some Tyranids I had airbrushed with a GW Devlan Mud wash. On these models, I went back and sealed them with Testor's Dullcoat before trying the black and red and had no issues. So, could be paint age/quality, but I would check out the surface. I use the term surface tension for lack of a better term. In the situation I am describing a heavy airbrush applied wash created a very 'smooth' surface from the wash, since the new GW washes are kind of like a thin gel. So, maybe try sealing what you are working on after primer, but before brush on paint. I know a lot of people do this with white primer as well as other base coats. Hope that makes sense.