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Hello,

I live in a small town in Western Manitoba. I haven't painted or done any WH40k since I joined the military. However, the other day when I was running out to get cheese cake from a pizza place for my pregnant fiance, I happened upon a little comic shop selling some minis. I went in an had a nostalgic moment of painting 40k Orks when I was younger. So quickly I grabbed them and asked the owner where I could get some paint. He said that he did not carry the paints. I tried a few in town hobby shops, but they're all train or random hobbies that do not carry citadel or vallejo paint.

So I went online to try and see if I can score some paint. Well a lot of places are selling the citadel paints for at least 4$ or more, including the GW website. I found one place though that are selling Vallejo paints for about 3$ a bottle.

I looked at the comparison chart on this website, and I'm still trying to figure out how many and of what I should buy. Is it worth the extra buck to do all this though? Are they a defunct or inferior paint? I remember just hearing about them when I was young but now I haven't a clue.

Thanks,

Basically it is quite highly debated but overall Vallejo's paint are regarded as better than their Citadel counterparts both is quality of paint and storage bottle (actually VERY important).

As you said you can get the Vallejo paints for $1 cheaper so straight away that is a plus. The Vallejo paints also contain more ml's of pain compared to Citadel's and the "dropper" style bottle is much easier to use and is far less prone to drying out.

I would personally recommend getting as many Vallejo as you can, but definitely buy the Citadel Wash and Foundation range.

Got a 72 model color paint set. F-ing love it. Best choice I ever made to switch.

I'd say that Vallejo and GW are equal.

Some of V's colors are better, some of GW's colors are better.

Sometimes the squeeze bottle is really nice, because it lets you count drops and thus mix paints very repeatably. Other times it's not nice, because you just want the color, in which case the GW pot is much friendlier to use.

I bought the full "suitcase" of both GW and V Game Color, and I use paints from both.

If I could only have one, I guess it'd be GW. I find myself more often irritated with the squeeze bottles than with the pots.

vallejo is no trouble at all but gws paints have new formulas to dry faster valljo didnt change

I love my Vallejo paints and would never change back.

Thank you! I think I'll just go with the Vallejo then. My wallet isn't especially deep these days and I can save up enough to get a good batch.

At one point, Vallejo was considered a far superior product. I think GW actually changed a lot of things about their paint as a direct result of competition from Vallejo and other companies.

No matter which you prefer, I've never heard anybody call Vallejo an inferior product, so if you can get it for less money, that's a win-win.

On the other hand, if you are just getting back into the hobby (which means you'll be buying a lot of different colors), one option you can consider is buying a cheap craft acrylic like apple barrel. You can find them at arts or craft stores like Michael's or even Wallmart some times. Might be cheaper than paying for shipping -- maybe not. But you would be able to see the actual colors with your own eyes instead of trying to guess from a website chart.

Myself, I use Vallejo and I like it a lot.

Does Vallejo cover well?

As good as GW Foundation paints? Or P3?

I have always used GW's paint but after trying Vallejo's I am switching over.
The Vallejo paint is nicer to work with, if you can put it that way, feels better on the brush, at least to me

However I still use GW's Foundation and Wash

A healthy mix is probably the right way to go


//Edge

GW's foundation and washes are excellent, to the point of being pretty much essential to my daily routine. The majority of colours are excellent, if used correctly (blood red I'm looking at you).

Vallejo (I only use Model Color and Panzer Aces) have a huge range of ready-mixed colours and blend pretty easy. Also a good range of additives (glaze medium, retardant) and inks and even a dropper bottle of pre-mixed putty (so handy!). I like their golds a lot more than the GW ones. Also the range of colours available off the shelf make planning a blending strategy with minimal mixing (as a commission painter I don't want to mix anything myself that I don't have to) much easier.

For spraying / airbrushing Tamiya are still king IMO. I've bought some Vallejo air but have yet to try them. This opinion may vary. :-)

I've never used other brands so can't comment on them. Except Humbrol, they're gak.

Vallejo is better and cheaper. GW used to have better metallics, but with Vallejo's new Vallejo Air line, you really have no reason to buy GW paints anymore.

In addition to a much wider colour selection, Vallejo paints also have an eyedropper-style bottle that stops the paint from drying out and allows you to only use as much as you want when you want. This greatly increases the lifetime of your paints (it's been suggested that GW purposely designs their bottles to dry out quickly, causing you to have to buy more sooner), and you also get a lot more paint for your buck (L Bursley did a comparison, I think it's somewhere around 40% cheaper than GW paints dollar per ml).

Additionally, I find that Vallejo paints are more consistant in their quality. With GW, I've had paints that flowed like water, and paints that were as thick as jello (I'm looking at you, Kommando Khaki!). Vallejo colours tend to be very uniform in their quality, so you know exactly what you're getting with each bottle. Not to mention that the eye-dropper style bottle ensures that they stay that way. I have bad memories of opening GW paint pots to paint up the coolest new model, only to find out that the bottle I bought only a few months ago had dried up to the point of unusability. Where I've had Vallejo pots that have lasted for years before going dry.

The only downside I could see with Vallejo is that you have to shake the bottle a bit before use. that's a more than fair price to pay.

It's nice to finally hear some about the Vallejo colors, and even better they get praise.

I've been thinking much about swiching out the GW paints in favour of Vallejo's colors. The prices for the GW paints seems to rise more and more, as the ml seems to drop concurrently with that. That and the bottle's seems to make it easier to dose the colors you use (to get the same color everytime when mixing them).


Any suggestion of whether to get the Game colors or the Model colors?

Use both. They're pretty much the same thing, except model colour has a much wider range. Game Colour is meant to use simpler colours to fit in with GW's standards for easy transition, where as model colour obviously has a bigger appeal to military models. However, you're bound to find any colour you need in the Model Colour range.

Also, for metallics, make sure you use Vallejo Air. I'd use them if my FLGS carried them, which they don't.

Thanks for the advice, fafnir.

I found a Paint Range Compatibility Chart here on dakka, displaying the GW equivalent colors, so it shouldn't be too hard to find the relevant ones.

Thanks!

Go Moose!

I recently started to switch over to vallejo, mainly due to price and i prefer the container. Since getting my first few vallejo colours I have to say that they are good to use. hard to see any real difference in quality but time will tell maybe. My only problem is that the shadow grey equivelent is nothing like the GW one so I will have to continue getting that colur from GW. But for the most part im switched/switching.

Vallejo also has a new line of "heavy" paints that act just like foundation paints. So now, I have all vallejo except washes. GW still makes awesome washes.

I concur with everything folks say here. I've slowly transitioning over to vallejo.

The one thing I will add for the benefit of the OP, is that you should consider using a wet palette. The vallejo dropper plus wet pallet means you will waste very little paint and it is extremely easy to mix up colors.

If you aren't familiar, you can make a we palette by taking bit of sponge, putting it at the bottom of a cheap flat tupperware container and then putting some parchment paper on top after adding water to the sponge.

With this setup you can have paint keep for days without drying out.

If your painting orks, Vallejo has some great paints in the Game color line (VGC).

I use their reds for blending on cloaks and I must say I'm quite impressed. Makes me wish I switched over years ago when I first saw vallejo paints on the web.

Like many who have posted above I have begun the slow and steady process of switching over to Vallejo, the difference is amazing. More paint for a cheaper price that are easier to mix and doesn't dry out

I know a lot of people use the Game Colour range as it's easier to compare and contrast with the current GW range allowing you to follow tutorials and colour schemes on the GW site. However I use the model colour range simply because it's what my local store sells, do what ever is most convenient to you

Vallejo have recently released their own version of GW's Foundation Paints and washes, if they turn out to be good I imagine people will start to buy them as well, Why? they are a cheaper alternative and any money you can save in this hobby is always a bonus

Add another to the vote of confidence in Vallejo paints. I've got a set of the 72 VGC paints and a number of the model air and model colour ranges. So far I've found them to be good to use and I much prefer the dropper bottles. The model air paints go very nicely through my airbrush when painting tanks.

After reading legoburners great article on agitators I bought a few packs of lava beads cheap on the net and have put one in each bottle just to aid mixing. Seems every little can help.

Fafnir wrote:Use both. They're pretty much the same thing, except model colour has a much wider range. Game Colour is meant to use simpler colours to fit in with GW's standards for easy transition, where as model colour obviously has a bigger appeal to military models. However, you're bound to find any colour you need in the Model Colour range.

Also, for metallics, make sure you use Vallejo Air. I'd use them if my FLGS carried them, which they don't.

There's a difference you're not mentioning here between Game and Model Colour.

Model Colour, while it appears dry to the touch after a few hours, requires at least two days for it to settle down and really get fixed into the crevices.

I mostly use Vallejo Air though. Love getting the colors I need for a good, clean basecoating and just airbrushing them on.

Valejo paints are good, I'm liking them even more now since GW changed their pots and I don't like em. The only drawback I've seen with Valejo is the paint is more "watery" and seems a little harder to drybrush good. GW's paints seem to work better for me there.

Really though, you can't go wrong with either one.

I like GW paints for durability and brightness.

I like Vallejo for greater range of colours, and excellent blending/wash properties. I think they use a finer pigment.

If I'm painting an army for 40k, I use GW. It's consistent and gives better coverage with fewer coats.

If I'm painting single minis or small skirmish bands where each model gets more attention, I use Vallejo. The blends and gradients are much smoother, and the washes don't pool as badly.

I'll use Vallejo washed over my GW paints where I can.

Not sure that helps any. I got back into painting almost 15 years ago when I moved to Victoria BC, just after the birth of my daughter, so I can totally relate You're probably not going out much over the next few years, better grab a hobby!

I use:

GW Foundations for base coats and their standard black & white. I also swear by their metallics as long as they are applied in thin layers.

Vallejo for their blue tones and Model Air range for my airbrush as the pigments finer and I rarely clog it thanks to that. I also recommend Vallejo's inks.

For blending, highlighting and any painting involving dilution I use Reaper master series paints which are excellent but expensive as i had to order direct from the USA.

It depends what you prefer really and most makes have pros and cons and some colours are better from certain ranges. I like to experiment but i've settled on these combos for now.

Oh yeah, and I use Mig Productions pigments and oil paint for weathering.

Hope this helps rather than confuses.

To the OP: My rule of thumb is this: a healthy mix of brands really is a good thing. I would recommend getting GW Foundation paints: they are worth the money. The standard Citadel paints tend to be very vibrant, so they are best for things such as warpaint and really any thing requiring bright colors. However, Vallejo's colors are the most natural looking, and work very well for skin tones and bases. I would say go with Vallejom unless you are painting orks with tattoos or Tzeentech figures.

_Tim?

Sorry to hijack slightly but...

What is a citadel 'wash' i use various fountain pen inks because i quite like a slight gloss but are washes essentially matte inks? Plus did someone say Valllejo take two days to dry, TWO DAYS!!!??? Half an hour is long enough lol... Tamiya is the cheapest but is pretty annoying, in my experience you have to give it a good mix (a shake wont cut it) with a paper clip (bent into a triangle) if you want decent coverage plus they dont mix brilliantly.

I have to +1 on the Vallejo quality. I've been using GW stuff for 5 years until I ran out of blood red and picked up Vallejo's Game Color counterpart. Love the dropper bottle and since have started moving my GW paints to dropper bottles.

Conspiracy theories abound about the GW bottles/pots allowing their paints to dry faster even while "sealed." I've found no problem whatsoever with the dropper style bottles. The only drawback may be if you pull your paint straight from the pot to apply to the model, then it would be difficult. As I always thin my paints, I love being able to count out the drops and add flow-aid or retarder as needed.

I am a huge fan of Vallejo Game Color and use it almost exclusively. I do have every GW Foundation and Wash though. These products are excellent and the best I have yet seen. So use what works for you!