The best type of paints?

[PTS]

I\'ve always used the standard Games Workshop kind, but I get the feeling that these are thicker than some of the other brands out there (not to mention more expensive?). It\'d sometimes be nice if I could do some smooth blending and not have the paint dry super-fast on the mini (and yes, I do water down).

Suggestions?

Paul S.

 

[Ebonbuddha]

Yes. I\'m stalking you.

you\'re going to get tons of opinions on this topic. I personally ditched GW and went with Vallejo Model Colours. Not as bright as GW or Vallejo Game colours. I like that. The Vallejo Colours also come in a dropper bottle. This is great for measuring out amounts of paints.
Adiken miniature\'s put out one too. It\'s called Adikolor. Imagine that. lol I have yet to try these but Fantization has a deal on them. IF you get all of their game colours you get a free case for your paints, four free red sable brushes, and two random minis.
I haven\'t tried a lot of Ral Partha. Only the mettalics. They are prety good.
Reaper Has some nice paints I hear. They are nice and thin, unlike GW.

I hope this helps. :bouncy::flip::bouncy:

Originally posted by PTS
I\'ve always used the standard Games Workshop kind, but I get the feeling that these are thicker than some of the other brands out there (not to mention more expensive?). It\'d sometimes be nice if I could do some smooth blending and not have the paint dry super-fast on the mini (and yes, I do water down).

Suggestions?

Paul S.

 

[Cerridwyn1st]

Reaper Pro-Paints

Originally posted by Ebonbuddha
you\'re going to get tons of opinions on this topic. I personally ditched GW and went with Vallejo Model Colours. Not as bright as GW or Vallejo Game colours. I like that. The Vallejo Colours also come in a dropper bottle. This is great for measuring out amounts of paints.
Adiken miniature\'s put out one too. It\'s called Adikolor. Imagine that. lol I have yet to try these but Fantization has a deal on them. IF you get all of their game colours you get a free case for your paints, four free red sable brushes, and two random minis.
I haven\'t tried a lot of Ral Partha. Only the mettalics. They are prety good.
Reaper Has some nice paints I hear. They are nice and thin, unlike GW.

I hope this helps. :bouncy::flip::bouncy:

I\'ve said it before, and I\'ll say it again: Reaper has the consistancy of snot and is about as easy to work with. Those big, wide mouth bottles allow the stuff to dry out really quickly, which leads to big gunky rings of paint inside your bottle (ew!)

Their metalics are nice and thin, but still have that gunky \"ring around the bottle\" problem. Another problem with the metalics is that the grain of the metal flakes isn\'t nearly fine enough.

The more I use Vallejos, the more I like them.

 

[BoBzz]

You think maybe we should have a few stickies for these types of questions in the P&C forum?

Seems like theres atleast one \"what paints, Brushes, etc should I get\" per month, maybe more.

 

[finn17]

Vallejo

 

[Cerridwyn1st]

Probably more

Originally posted by BoBzz
You think maybe we should have a few stickies for these types of questions in the P&C forum?

Seems like theres atleast one \"what paints, Brushes, etc should I get\" per month, maybe more.

What, and spoil everyone\'s fun over saying the same damn thing over and over? Besides, one of these days someone might actually say something we HAVEN\'T heard.

While we are discussing paints, has anyone else used Testor\'s Acrylic Fantasy metalics? The metal grind in this stuff is incredibly fine. Gotta shake the stuff like crazy, though, it settles like mad.

Also got some Tamiya Smoke (as suggested in the artilce on real metal) and wondered if anyone else had given the stuff a try.

 

[BoBzz]

Originally posted by Cerridwyn1stAlso got some Tamiya Smoke (as suggested in the artilce on real metal) and wondered if anyone else had given the stuff a try.

What the heck is that stuff exactly? An ink?
Where do you get it?

 

[Valander]

Originally posted by PTS
I\'ve always used the standard Games Workshop kind, but I get the feeling that these are thicker than some of the other brands out there (not to mention more expensive?). It\'d sometimes be nice if I could do some smooth blending and not have the paint dry super-fast on the mini (and yes, I do water down).

Suggestions?

Paul S.

Oddly enough, I\'ve found that GW paints aren\'t really all that \"cheap\" in comparison to some of the much better paints (e.g., Vallejo) out there.

Retail, in US dollars, for GW pots are $2.50 for the regular and inks, with metallics being $3.25. These are 12ml bottles, so for the regular paints, that works out to about $0.21 per ml.

Vallejos come in 17ml bottles, and retail for $3.00 (or some places $3.25). Even at the higher end of 3.25, that\'s still only $0.19 per ml. Besides, the eye droppers mean you\'ll have less waste, so you\'ll actually get to use much more of the paint you paid for.

So, the result is that not only are Vallejos (for example) better paint than GW, they\'re actually cheaper, too!

Vallejos are much thicker straight out of the bottle than GW paints, though. You most definitely need to thin them in order to use. They still cover better than GW (in my experience), even when thinned to like 50% water/paint. So, you get even more usage out of them!

 

[Cosmotiger]

Originally posted by Cerridwyn1st
While we are discussing paints, has anyone else used Testor\'s Acrylic Fantasy metalics? The metal grind in this stuff is incredibly fine. Gotta shake the stuff like crazy, though, it settles like mad.

Also got some Tamiya Smoke (as suggested in the artilce on real metal) and wondered if anyone else had given the stuff a try.

Years ago, Polly S had a series of metallics called \"Metallines.\" They were the best acryllic metallics ever, IMO. Very fine metallic pigment, very good brushing consistency and coverage. Testors now owns Pollyscale, so I wonder if the Testors fantasy metallics are a re-issue of the Metallines formulation? That would be great.

Tamiya Smoke is great for airbrushing, but I personally don\'t like it for washes. It tends to dry too fast and gets gooey on the brush. Perhaps with an extender of some sort...

 

[sivousplay]

I use vallejo (both game & model) almost exclusively. I have a few old RP colors that I\'ve always loved and still use. I use Reaper Inks, but agree that they screw on lids (as opposed to the dropper bottles) are a pain.

jim

 

[Loup-garou]

I just ordered the Adikolor box set from their website. Risky I guess but I really liked some of the colors included and at only $2.25 for a 17ml dropper bottle they seem like a good deal. Plus, if the worst comes to the worst and I really don\'t like them, a friend has already said he\'ll buy them so I won\'t be too out of pocket!

I also know they are releasing a \"thinner\" in the next month or so which is the same as they use in the manufacturing process so it shouldnt change the paints propeties ....(might be useful info for anyone who does any form of airbrushing on their miniatures).

I\'ll let you know what the paints are like once I\'ve used them for a while. Hopefully they\'ll be as good as their customer service which really was great. :bouncy:

 

[Cerridwyn1st]

Where there\'s Smoke, there\'s fire

Originally posted by BoBzz

Originally posted by Cerridwyn1stAlso got some Tamiya Smoke (as suggested in the artilce on real metal) and wondered if anyone else had given the stuff a try.

What the heck is that stuff exactly? An ink?
Where do you get it?

No, it isn\'t an ink. It is transparent paint. I was using it kind of like an ink, though. I can\'t say too much about it, since I\'ve only used it on a baby dragon, so that isn\'t much paint. I liked what I did use, as it added definition without overly staining the little guy. I had thinned the Smoke about 50/50 with water.

You can get Tamiya paints at a hobby store that carries model airplanes and stuff like that. Can\'t say that I care too much for their normal paint line; they stink to high heaven and are very shiney. The Smoke smells of alchohol, but is less offensive than many inks I\'ve tried.

Cosmotiger, I\'ve never used the metalines, so I can\'t say if the Testor acrylics are a re-issue or not. Perhaps you should trot down to the local hobby shop, buy a pot, and let the rest of us know if it is comparable. I can tell you that I like the stuff.

 

[Cosmotiger]

Originally posted by Cerridwyn1st
Cosmotiger, I\'ve never used the metalines, so I can\'t say if the Testor acrylics are a re-issue or not. Perhaps you should trot down to the local hobby shop, buy a pot, and let the rest of us know if it is comparable. I can tell you that I like the stuff.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I just got interested in painting miniatures again after a several year hiatus, but back in the day, I used Metallines all the time. When they went out of production, I couldn\'t believe how bad some of the other companies\' metallics were in comparison.

They really were that good-- it\'s kind of like a Holy Grail for me, if they are available again. I\'ll pick some up and let you know.

 

[tuxit]

No, it isn\'t an ink. It is transparent paint. I was using it kind of like an ink, though. I can\'t say too much about it, since I\'ve only used it on a baby dragon, so that isn\'t much paint. I liked what I did use, as it added definition without overly staining the little guy. I had thinned the Smoke about 50/50 with water.

I use it alot to wash metals with. I\'m now in progress to paint alot of warmachine models and they have alot of metallic parts. Tamiya Smoke is awesome to give the metal some greasy dirty look and that is the effect I\'m after on these warjacks.
I usually thin with a bit of water and lots of vallejo glazing medium. 50/50 thinning is way too less. You have to go to somewhere like 8 to 1 or 10 to 1. I can\'t give a real recipe for it because I thin till the wash flows off the brush and settles in the creases of the model.

 

[Cerridwyn1st]

Sounds great

Originally posted by Cosmotiger

Originally posted by Cerridwyn1st
Cosmotiger, I\'ve never used the metalines, so I can\'t say if the Testor acrylics are a re-issue or not. Perhaps you should trot down to the local hobby shop, buy a pot, and let the rest of us know if it is comparable. I can tell you that I like the stuff.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I just got interested in painting miniatures again after a several year hiatus, but back in the day, I used Metallines all the time. When they went out of production, I couldn\'t believe how bad some of the other companies\' metallics were in comparison.

They really were that good-- it\'s kind of like a Holy Grail for me, if they are available again. I\'ll pick some up and let you know.

Cool, Cost, I look forward to reading your review.

I painted a bunch of helmets with the steel color from this line, and they look like polished metal, not cheezy paint. This was done right on white primer, no dark undercolor or drybrushing or anything.

 

[Cosmotiger]

Testors fantasy metallics

Originally posted by Cerridwyn1st
Cool, Cost, I look forward to reading your review.

I painted a bunch of helmets with the steel color from this line, and they look like polished metal, not cheezy paint. This was done right on white primer, no dark undercolor or drybrushing or anything.

I picked up a bottle of the Testors \"Armor Steel\" last week. The guy who owns the shop I went to was of the opinion that the Testors Fantasy line is the PollyS fantasy line, rebottled. However, once I got the bottle of paint home and checked it out, I have the impression that he\'s not 100% correct. In comparison to the PollyS Metallines, the Testors paint smells different, and is a little bit thicker. The good news is that it appears that the same super-fine ground metallic pigment from the old PollyS paints has just been added to a new Testors acrylic base. I haven\'t had a chance to work with them a lot yet, but my impression is the same as yours, a very smooth, shiny finish-- not grainy with metallic \"sparkles\" in it. Which is why I liked the PollyS metallics so much in the first place!