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I recently opened up my paint box (after letting it lie in the top of the cupboard for 3 years) to find that all my Citadel paints have dried out completely and become hard little colorful rocks. My Vallejo Game Colors are still ok, need a bit of a shake though.

My question is this:
What paints should I replace them with. I have heard good things about the P3 and Reaper paint ranges. Are all these paints equal, is it just a matter of personal opinion and preference or is there something in the paints? Based on the fact that the vallejo paints are still good - im leaning towards just replacing all my citadel's with vallejo...

I'm not flush with dollero's so I need to be thrifty and smart in buying the paints and just get what I need as I need it. Any suggestions - comments - opinions?

Thanks

To me Reaper and Vallejo are 1:1 on quality. I have no experience with P3 nor will I because I don't feel like transferring it to dropper bottles.

If you are replacing GW paints, use Valleo Game colors.

This being said, GW metallics ARE worth my time to put into dropper bottles. Some damn fine silver shades there.

What he said, though Reaper would disagree about the quality being the same. GW metallic silvers are the nutz, the golds/bronzes generally terrible.

From the Reaper forum:


"The long version: Yes. All paint bases called "Acrylic" in the hobby paint market are latex paints, in that they are using latex and related polymers somewhere in the mix. The variation in them comes from which other plastic polymers are used in the base latex mix, and in what proportion (along with surfactants, humectants, and other additives meant to produce various results). Those with very high acrylic content are generally more expensive, considered higher-quality for their excellent strength of adhesion, hardness, and clarity. Those with very high vinyl content are usually cheaper, have poorer adhesion (don't stick as well), are more flexible (gooey when stripped!), but have truly excellent coverage because of the particle size of the polymer (vinyl, large particle, pooer adhesion, inherently good coverage/opacity; acrylic, very small particle, inherently higher bond, much clearer base).

Vallejo, GW Foundation: High vinyl content; cover extremely well, tends toward poor adhesion.

P3: Blend, still primarily vinyl, seems to not cover quite as well as Vallejo but adheres slightly better.

Reaper Pro Paints: Latex/acrylic blend. Doesn't adhere like MSP but has slightly better coverage in general.

Master Series: High acyrlic content latex/vinyl blend. Excellent adhesion, decent coverage.

GW: GW's standard paint line used to be one of the highest acrylic-content lines in the industry, though I'm not sure that they haven't changed that. It exhibits extremely good adhesion (try to get it off your palette without using 409...), and beautiful clarity of color, but not very good coverage.

--Anne"

For the record I used to use, and still have some very old GW acrylics, and they are as good as new even today (nearly 20 years after I've used them last), and they newer ones are of a poorer quality imo.

My money goes with VMC these days, although I would give the reapers a go if somehwere local stocked them.

I use Reaper Pro golds and absolutely love them. Dragon Gold is the single best bronze piece color around. Nice and dark.

Yeah, I really should order a few bottles to see how I get on with thier stuff tbh. But I am spoilt by the local shops here though, it's just so nice to be able to hand pick my paints and brushes.

Thanks folks. Just ordered 10 bottle of Vallejo Game Color.

you won't regret it.

Also have a look at Coat D'Arms paints. Some good stuff in there.

Yeah, thats Citadel's old paint supplier. Actually really high quality paints, depending on how you prefer them to handle. You can still get the old GW inks and colours from them, which will make many peeps happy!

I have 3 Game Colour Dropper Bottles and they piss me off to next tuesday. Trying to use bright bronze, it dries up before i can use half of it! Are they all like that? Starting to use P3, one of my 2 paints is spectacular, the other... is crap... should I just stick to GW?

You should thin your paints, and make yerself a wet palette too mate. You shouldn't have a problem with any paint drying too fast tbh, even when using a tile or plastic palette.

Paint brand choice is just personal preference for how you like it to handle, and whether you like the tones/finish. Nought wrong with any of them really.

I am by no means a good painter - I have only ever painted 5 sniper scouts, a missionary and an inquisitor and a couple of other units.

All told less than 20 models.

However I have definitely learned the importance of:

1. Paint workbook - to record mixtures, painting order, layers etc.

2. Thinning paints - in the workbook.

Here is an excerpt:


Paint Workbook

Thinning Solution:
10% Slow-Dri
50% Flow Improver
40% Distilled Water

Extending Solution:
50% Matte Medium
50% Thinning Solution

Basecoating 1:1 parts solution to paint
Layering 4:1 parts solution to paint
Washes 10:1 parts solution to paint


The rest is just color mixtures for shadows, main surface and highlights etc.