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Has anybody got any experiences of using acrylic paints from art shops?
The likes of Daler Rowney etc.Do they differ from miniature paints? Are
they less durable?

I use only acrylic. unfortunately.

The main problem with acrylic is that its really hard to water down and still get color, since its water based and is mostly water anyway. GW paint has way more pigment (color) in it, and less water.

Fiendcrackar: I have to ask, what paint exactly were you using that left you with that impression?

Real artists grade acrylic is nothing at all like that.

I'm using Tamiya acrylic modelling paint, they're pretty good (except for the "Flat Yellow" that I bought, but that might just be the individual batch that is a bit off)

The artists' acrylic doesn't work well at all, it just comes off. At least the brand I've tried, the Dala range (I paint on canvas with them and they're great, thought I'd try it on a model as an experiment. It failed, flaked off when I picked the Nob up.)

The artists' acrylic doesn't work well at all, it just comes off. At least the brand I've tried, the Dala range (I paint on canvas with them and they're great, thought I'd try it on a model as an experiment. It failed, flaked off when I picked the Nob up.)

Acrylic paint on canvas will also flake if you pick at it. "Artists' acrylic" needs to be sealed.

To get the best results, you need to thin the paint with an acrylic medium. Also, a lot of yellows are very transparent and probably not well suited for miniature painting.

Not to mention the pain of keeping enough color mixes around in cups, or keeping the precise mix ratio around for future reference.

Good thing about acrylic paint (liquitex, windsor & newton, etc.) is that you can mix them with tempera paint to keep your cost down, and still keep a good medium when painting on canvas.

Honestly, I've not touched a pot of Citadel in a while, I tend to go for either Golden or Liquitex for my paints, although I've actually gotten some decent results with Ceramcoat for my yellows, as well as for drybrushing applications.

As far as artist-grade paint, make sure you get a soft bodied paint, as tempting as the big tubes can be on volume, the bottled stuff will give you fewer headaches in the long run, as you don't need to work to thin it so much.


Just a side note, if you need a black that's actually semi-opaque, Golden's Bone Black is actually quite nice for that... mix it with iridescent medium or a fine interference metallic for a whole range of options for any black metal you might be painting.