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I don't know what your budget is, but I would strongly recommend mixing your own paint set. You can buy like 100x empty pots off ebay for next to nothing, and you can get a box of five large 60ml bottles of Vallejo premium (RYB+BW) for around £25. It's way way cheaper than buying individual pots. You can also buy a big bottle of acrylic medium for about £7 and make all your own washes (why pay someone else to water down your paint?).

There are many other advantages though besides cost: Mixing colours as you need them means that all your paints are colours that you actually use. You will always have exactly the right shade, and you'll always have the perfect highlight and shadow colours.

I personally spent too much time and money trying to find a brown that would work as a nice base for NMM gold. When I started mixing my own paints I was able to whip up the perfect colour in ~10 mins. It makes things so much easier. I even mixed up five shades of the same blue (each one slightly lighter) in order to highlight a cloak.

The only downside I would say is that Vallejo paints need stirring and shaking a lot because the pigments separate (this is a general issue with the brand). If I could get 60ml pots of coat d'arms I would choose that.

Coat d'arms would also be my preference if I was forced to choose 'off the shelf' pots.

jah-joshua wrote:i am one of the few people i know who sticks to one line of paint...
for me it is P3 all the way...
i love the pots, the tones, and the dense liquid pigment...

Have you tried the Coat d'arms paints? I believe they are from the same manufacturer. The pots are identical (labels are similar too). I don't know what the truth is about the liquid pigment, but I've never had an issue with pigment separating. Some of my Coat d'arms paints also cover better than some of my p3 paints, so I don't think there is any big difference in quality.

You should check them out if you like p3, they're about a 1/3 cheaper and have a much larger range of colours. Coat d'Arms and p3 are my favorite paints too

Combination of Scale75 and Vallejo Air.

Vallejo, vallejo air, and their range of washes.

@Smacks: yes, i know Coat d'Arms...
i do believe they are indeed from the same manufacturer...
honestly, i like the unique tones of P3 more...
the great thing about Coat d'Arms is that they have some of the original Citadel colors, but my original pots of Citadel are still good, over twenty years later...
if i ever need more Midnight Blue, or Elf Grey, i would use Coat d'Arms...

Coat d'Arms has been around much longer than P3, so i've known about them for a many years...
i believe Foundry are from the same manufacturer, too...
i know Ali McVey uses them, and has done since before Mike put together the P3 line...
for me, though, P3 does exactly what i want, and gives me the colors i want...
there is no point in getting other paints, if i don't feel the need for them...

for me, price is not an issue...
not only did i used to do some painting for PP, but one of my best friends from high school is the painting studio boss, so when i need fresh paints, i just ask for them, and they get sent to me for free...
it's good to have friends on the inside...

cheers
jah

 jah-joshua wrote:
i just ask for them, and they get sent to me for free...

Dam...

I've had the VGC complete line for about 4 years - I got the complete boxset as a gift. I used GW washes, not really bothered about using or trying vallejo's washes. They served me fine for a long while, then a few years ago I got an arbrush and branched out to their model air line. It started with just primers and base colours. Then I learn to actually paint with it, so I got more paints in the VMA range. I tried a few from the Game air range (the airbrush paints directly comparable to VGC), but felt a little cheated seeing as I could just thin down what I already have. At least VMA has different shades of colours and not limited to the game colours (which has some colour gaps). And for me personally, I need to see the paint in person before I buy it, which limits me to what I can source locally. It's all well and good looking at the colours on a screen, but does that accurately reflect the colour in person..?

But anyway, from limited experiance, I've come to using VGC for the 'core' of my painting. GW Washes & Glazes. Model air for the metallic colours (so much better than VGC metallics).
I've had intentions to try liquid gold colours from Vallejo, and the extra opaque colours. But not found an overwhelming need for them, yet.

I'll stick to GW paints, I'm pretty content with them and for me it is very important that on a Saturday noon I can hop in the car and get a new paint from a model store in the next town. I wouldn't want to have to wait for an Internet order, stopping me from doing my intended project when I have time.