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Hello everybody here on Dakkadakka. I am curious about what paints do you use for painting your miniatures and what is your experience with them.

A I was watching those amazing videos from Laszlo Jakusovszky, Jeremie Bonamant Teboul, guys from MWG (incl. Epic Duck Studios), Less from APJ.com etc. and started trying to paint on my own with GW and Vallejo (haven't yet tried Reaper paints as well as P3), some were more comfortable for me to work with than the others.

But still I can't figure out how do painters paint with Vallejo Game Colours, Vallejo Colour (standard ones) or Vallejo Air Colour. Tried them differently thinned down with water or their own Vallejo Galzing Medium and I still end with to much pigmented colour on the brush or the colour completely loose pigment and it is impossible to paint with it (pigment and water/medium separates from each other). And another thing, on some models with some colours (especially green tones) the colour had tendency to trip off the miniature. (Base coated with GW Skull White undercoat) - any ideas why are these things happening?

So I use GW paints now. Have a bunch of them. Nevertheless some colours are more easy to paint with than the others (reds, greys, black are easy to paint with) - does this apply for all type of paints, I mean for all manufacturers?

Would be grateful for your answers and experience.

Hmm... sounds like you didn't shake the paint bottle enough. What do you mean when you say "the color has tendency to trip off the miniature"?

GW paints, and I use folk art 'black' for most black stuff I do. I don't really like chaos black. it's too shiny.

I got a mega paint set, so now it's too late to turn back I've been considering buying some coat d' arms inks. Are they just as good as citadel inks? (I've been told they're the exact same thing )

AresX8 wrote:Hmm... sounds like you didn't shake the paint bottle enough. What do you mean when you say "the color has tendency to trip off the miniature"?

This has to be: tend to strip off the miniature.

I did shake it for about a half a minute (30 seconds), but still end up with this result...

I have some old paints from around 1995 or so, the second from the left in the picture, that are still liquid, but are a bit chunky, and don't go on very smooth anymore, and a few of the third from the left, from between 2000 and 2005, and most of those are completely dried out. Other than that, I have a few Vallejo Paints that I love! They just seem to go so smooth! I am ordering a whole bunch more next week! And I use cheap Wal Mart primers for undercoating. Are they the best? No. Are they the best for $.99? Yes.

I just use good old acrylics (either Eureka or Plantec) and I water them down ad hoc when painting.

And Samus, they do are the same. As far as I've been told by folk here, Coat D'arms where the ones who made Citadel paints long ago (GW just slapped the "Citadel" brand on them).

i use folk art paint and the generic acrylics that come in the pack of 20 or so paints that you can get at wal-mart. However, if i have more specific needs then i use GW paints or testors oil paints, it all depends on what i need at the time.

in my gallery pics you can see my Eldar tanks and Nightwing that has been painted using Folk art black pearl and metallic emerald green, as well as amethyst purple and sapphire blue. Originally i used testors sapphire blue but when i found the folk art blue, it tried it and it worked much better for me than the spray can did. the red on the tanks is using Folk Art ruby red, and i'm not happy with it, it has a tendancy to thicken up too much and doesn't cover like it should. for basecoat is use an every day gray primer from Dollar General, i like gray because it doesn't obscure detail like the white or black does. black makes it hard to see the detail due to shadows and white will make you snow blind after a while, plus with gray you know that the color you are putting on the model is the color you will get, since it will not bleed through, brighten or darken the paint.

anyways, my the gold on my Eldar is GW's shining gold as it is a much brighter gold than anything i have found on the market, but on my Tyranids i used folk art gloss black, folk art white with a red wash, and GW boltgun metal, tin bitz, mithril silver, and testors silver oil paint. i also used folk art antique brass, bronze and copper on both tyranid and eldar.

all you can do is try something and see how it works for you and what you had pictured as a final result of the model in your mind, if something doesn't work like you thought then try another brand, eventually you will find the different paints that you want and are comfortable with.

With the Vallejo paints, sometimes you need to shake the bottle - quite vigorously - for up to two minutes. It really depends on how long it has sat, causing the pigment to settle. Just keep shaking, I had the same problem at first myself.

I have always used GW paints as when I was growing up and just starting out I never knew you could use other paints, or even that there were other ones available for mini's! now i'm older and wiser (marginally) I have a mix of GW and tamiya paints and i've just ordered some Vallejo paints and air paints that should arrive next week, so far the GW ones are good as they are designed for painting mini's but I find the newer ones dry out or go quite thick very quickly , the tamiya paints are good they need a lot of stirring and if you're not careful they can be quite thick and pigmented but the coverage is good and the colours and price are good too.

I use Delta ceramicote or Americana for all but metallics. Cheap.

@CrashUSAR: Ok, I'll try. Till my hand fall off

Save your hands Vostok, Take the dropper top off and mix the paint with the back end of a paintbrush. Add a touch of water if needed.

Have any of you tried to run any of these paints through an airbrush? what did you use for a paint:water ratio? How did it look?

I recently replaced the bulk of my GW paints with the vallejo game color range and absolutely love them. don't get me wrong, i didn't really have any problems with GW as far as paint goes. my problems were the pots and the prices.Les Bursley (APJ) did a breakdown of the costs per ML of the major paint brands and GW is nearly twice as much per ML. do prefer GW metalics over VGC though, but i have heard really good things about vallejo model air metallics, and be can be brushed, so i will be putting an order through at thewarstore for those, the new vallejo foundations, and the ink set. I also have a few P3 paints and like them a lot, the consistency is interesting, much different than GW or vellejo, this is because they have a liquid pigment as apposed to a powder, or that's what the website said at least. As far as your problem with vallejo, it could be that you got bad pots, or it could be that you didn't shake them enough, they do separate really easily and require fairly vigorous shaking. at least a minute or two.

@ Todosi - Thank you, will try

@ BloodWulf - yes, I've tried airbrushing with them:
Vallejo Model Air - no need to thin down with water, can use it ouf of the pot. Good finish and coverage
Vallejo Model Colour - should be diluted in ratio 1:3 to 1:5 paint to water (depends on your taste and airbrush IMHO)
Vallejo Game Colour - tried it in ratio 1:5 and 1:10 - had bad experience (1:10 pigment get loose)
GW - really depends on colour ... but 1:2 to 1:4 worked well for all of them (NOT FOUNDATION !!!)

@ Jake1022 - What do you mean bad pots?

Paint is paint is paint. How you use the paint is more important than what brand, with a few exceptions. Some brands may be more opaque or watery or have differant coverage, but again it's more important to know how a brand acts (which just takes experimenting with it) than what brand it is. I know a local Golden Deamon winner that used nothing but Delta Ceramcoat for his miniatures.

I personally use a mix of just about everything, long as I get the right color: vallejo game color and model color, delta ceramcoat, GW metallics and washes, P3 metallics, reaper master series (they make pretty good brushes too, though I now use winsor & newton). Really, where you put a stroke of paint is what matters, the brand of paint really doesn't.

Kalamadea wrote:Paint is paint is paint. How you use the paint is more important than what brand...where you put a stroke of paint is what matters, the brand of paint really doesn't.

I couldn't POSSIBLY disagree with you more. At all. Not all paints are created equal. Not even a little bit.


To the original OP, here is a breakdown of the paints I use, with comparisons on pricing points, pros and cons, and bang for the buck.



These are all the paints that I use for everything from terrain to minis.
(prices taken from bottles I have at home)

Games Workshop $3.50-3.70 per 12ml bottle - probably the most common and recognizable paints in our hobby.
Pros: Readily available from hobby shops, consistent hues, colors blend well, some washes and colors widely considered to be the alpha and omega of paints (ex; Devlan Mud wash, Iyandan Darksun), excellent range of metallics.
Cons: Price, poorly designed jars, paints thicken rapidly, far less quantity vs. price paid.[/ul]

Vallejo Game Color $3.29 per 17ml - Easily the best substitute for GW paints (if you're a GW paint fan)
Pros: Comparable price to GW, very good squeeze-bottle design, very similar colors to GW range, last far longer than GW paints.
Cons: Inconsistency in thickness of paints (some thicken a lot, some are as thin as water), nozzle tends to clog badly on certain colors (namely the ones that thicken badly), some consider the price a high.[/ul]

Plaid Craft Acrylics $.95-1.99 per 59ml - These are the craft paints found at Art sections of stores like Wal-Mart, Michael's, Hobby Lobby, etc.
Pros: Dirt cheap, huge quantity vs. price paid, super-wide range of colors, extremely easy to find, last seemingly forever, very consistent hues.
Cons: Some colors dry fairly chalky, some colors dry more "pastel" than the wet paint might indicate, color-indicating sticker on the bottle cap is usually NOT the same as the color inside.[/ul]*These paints should be the ONLY paints you use for black and white. There is no reason to spend the money on GW (or other minis/model-oriented manufacturer). Black is black, white is white. In addition, these paints are really good for massed terrain-making. 97% of my terrain gets painted in these colors with the other manufacturers used for some detain work or metallics.

Tamiya Color $3.10 per 23ml - Nice, solid colors that flow well off of the brush.
Pros]: VERY authentic historical military colors, glass jars with screw on lids, paints last a very long time, many colors to choose from (51 "flat" hues), very nice transparent glazes in many colors.
Cons: Most paints a little on the thicker side, glazes tend to get a little "gummy" over time, limited practical need for these colors.[/ul]*The military range of colors are really the only ones I use from Tamiya. Paints from other companies are far more readily available.

Floquil Polly Scale $3.50 per 15ml - This paint line is strictly for historical military modeling.
Pros: Excellent reproductions of authentic military colors, nicely thinned right out of the jar, glass jar w/ metal screw-off lid, works excellent with airbrushes (75:25 paint:water), lots of mileage per jar.
Cons: Usually need more than one coat, very limited use for most of the local hobby community (due to historical colors), fairly expensive.[/ul]*To any historical modelers that may read this, if you haven't tried these paints yet, I really recommend that you buy a jar or two and try them out. Most of the historical color matches are near perfect.



So, there you have it. These are my views on the commercially available acrylic paints, for whatever my opinion is worth. I have used several different paints over the years but these are the ones that my trials, errors, paint style, and results have kept in use throughout. I've been at this for almost two decades now, so I've had a lot of research time.



King Ghidorah

Ghidorah wrote:

Kalamadea wrote:

Plaid Craft Acrylics $.95-1.99 per 59ml - These are the craft paints found at Art sections of stores like Wal-Mart, Michael's, Hobby Lobby, etc.
Pros: Dirt cheap, huge quantity vs. price paid, super-wide range of colors, extremely easy to find, last seemingly forever, very consistent hues.
Cons: Some colors dry fairly chalky, some colors dry more "pastel" than the wet paint might indicate, color-indicating sticker on the bottle cap is usually NOT the same as the color inside.[/ul]*These paints should be the ONLY paints you use for black and white. There is no reason to spend the money on GW (or other minis/model-oriented manufacturer). Black is black, white is white. In addition, these paints are really good for massed terrain-making. 97% of my terrain gets painted in these colors with the other manufacturers used for some detain work or metallics.

With acrylics in general, the actual paint hue and pot not matching can be solved by a polite "Can I open it to see the actual paint's colour?". I've bought acrylics in several places and never got a "No" as an answer.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Dark wrote:

Ghidorah wrote:

Plaid Craft Acrylics $.95-1.99 per 59ml - These are the craft paints found at Art sections of stores like Wal-Mart, Michael's, Hobby Lobby, etc.
Pros: Dirt cheap, huge quantity vs. price paid, super-wide range of colors, extremely easy to find, last seemingly forever, very consistent hues.
Cons: Some colors dry fairly chalky, some colors dry more "pastel" than the wet paint might indicate, color-indicating sticker on the bottle cap is usually NOT the same as the color inside.[/ul]*These paints should be the ONLY paints you use for black and white. There is no reason to spend the money on GW (or other minis/model-oriented manufacturer). Black is black, white is white. In addition, these paints are really good for massed terrain-making. 97% of my terrain gets painted in these colors with the other manufacturers used for some detain work or metallics.

With acrylics in general, the actual paint hue and pot not matching can be solved by a polite "Can I open it to see the actual paint's colour?". I've bought acrylics in several places and never got a "No" as an answer.

I use a mix of paints: a few colors from my big box o' craft paints (a handful of Delta Ceramcoat colors, mostly Folk Art and Apple Barrel), a few each of GW's foundation, metallics, and washes, and my primary model paints - Vallejo Game Color.

To the OP's more specific questions, it does seem like the issue was paint separation. More thorough mixing should solve much of the issue, and stirring or adding an agitator will speed up the process. As for consistency, different colors will behave differently (opacity, consistency, ideal thinning ratio, etc.) within a single range, just as the same color from different ranges will. It's really a matter of trial and error, until you've gotten used to each paint you use.

@Ghidorah: I'm not saying all paints are exactly the same, in fact my 2nd sentance said they have differant consistancies. I'm saying that the thing that matters is learning how a particular brand behaves. And for an experienced painter the brand won't matter a bit, it's all about where he puts that paint. It's all about trying differant brands to see what colors from what lines you like the best. But in the end it's all personal taste, there is no "line of best paint paints"

Folkart. It's a hell of a lot cheaper than "miniature" paints and produces the same quality. And you get a lot more for a lower price.

Since I got back into painting, I've been using Vallejo Game Color and have been loving them. They're cheaper than GW paints, the colors are easy to convert if you need to, and the dropper bottles are far easier to use than trying to move paint from the pot with a brush or pour some out on your pallette.

@Kalamadea: I agree with you that for every paint, colour, pigment you need to find your own way how to work with them.
However let's talk a bit more in common about the brands we use.

For example here in Europe, we don't exactly know what are Delta ceramicoat paints. I mean that brand is known only to individuals.
And what is that Folkart you are all talking about?

Ive only used all Citadel products. That is subject to change though when I began my next couple of army's. I wanted to keep things consistent within my Blood Angels Force, so I was reluctant to change primer brands, sealant, paints, well anything really. I am going to give a standard (much less expensive) primer a shot on my Eldar and future Tempest Chapter.

If Vallejo paints were sold in my area, I wouldnt hesitate for a second to switch. Im so tired of GW gakky bottle conception. I expressed my discontent with it to them as well...I would urge everyone to do this. Their new bottles have made me paranoid that I have paint on my fingers and thumbs, because typically I do just from opening the bottles! Curse the new pot design!

Delta Ceramcoat and FolkArt are brands of acrylic paint here in the USA made specifically to paint small ceramic/plaster statues. Both lines come in 59ml squeeze bottles for about $1.00~$1.50 USD, as opposed to vallejo which are $3.29 for 17ml and GW which are $3.70 for 12ml. Of the two, I much preferr Delta Certamcoat, they tend to have better coverage, but FolkArt are certainly useable.

http://www.deltacreative.com/pcid/16/Default.aspx

For a significantly larger bottle of paint that is very comparable in quality to GW, and has a much larger selection of colors, the cost is far less. This is mostly becuase they sell to a much larger market so they can afford to make it cheaper, and also they use a slightly lower quality and density of pigment than many miniature-specific lines of paint. But the differance in quality is easily overcome with proper use, getting th paint to the right consistancy and using flow improvers (Future Floor Finish is awesome for that, called Johnson's Klear in the UK) or drying retardants. Many hobby-paints already have these added to them, which is why they vary in consistancy from brand to brand, and they use differant concentrations of pigment, which is why vallejo yellow covers better than GW yellow. But all these additives are easy to get and add to the craft paints to suit your own tastes and painting style, it's just that most gamers won't be bothered to try it out and just want their miniatures painted as quickly as possible.

For both Folk Art and Delta Ceramcoat, you can buy them online. I don't know what the shipping would be to the EU, but I'm sure that there are also similar brands in local art stores, just ask for acrylic ceramic paints.

@Kalamadea: Thanks, exhausting info about these two paint lines/products. Will try them one day. And thanks for additional info about paints. That answers some of my questions about paints that I thought I'll never know.