Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

You -can- use them straight from the bottle, if you really really want. They have a dropper, though, so you'll probably want to drip a bit onto a palette if you're doing more than fine detail work.

I've used them a couple times; they're thinner than GW paints, which makes me happy; depending on what I'd be doing I'd thin them a bit more anyway though. Also since you're not keeping the pot open all the time they won't dry out so fast.

One thing I really really like about them is the way the paints are matched up on the display. I've been mixing my own colors together for highlighting and whatnot, but I love how they have most of the shades arranged in dark/medium/light trios. And there are so many MORE shades (around 200 or so I think), so I wouldn't HAVE to mix my own colors together. I've already decided I'm going to switch to Reaper paints when my GW stuff wears/runs out.

If you just want to paint stuff normally, you'll be satisfied with how it behaves. If you want to end up doing really great paintwork, you'll really like this stuff.

I'm looking forward to what others have to say about these -- I was considering asking the same question, even though I have my own opinion!

djphranq wrote:Thanks for your input folks...

...I used some yesterday and posted this up because I wasn't sure if I was using it right. I think I just wasn't used to the matte look it had when drying... and it seemed to dry a little quicker than I'm used to with other paints. I've mostly been using Vallejo, P3, and GW prior to this.

So far, I'm impressed (I may even consider buying the whole set next time I'm up in the Bay Area visiting Black Diamond Games in Concord).

It does tend to dry very matte-style, and occasionally it can be hard to tell if it's drying on the palette or not. I'm actually a huge fan of the matte finish it gives everything. Some paint I used ages and ages ago had a super high gloss finish and looked terrible. I much prefer this finish.

If you're using a bunch at once, they have some kind of drying preventer you can mix in. Or, if you want to be cheap, just a drop of water now and again will do the same trick. Don't use too much at once, so you can keep the thickness of the paint. If I'm mixing my own colors like I do with my GW stuff now, whenever I wash off the brush after a few minutes of painting (this helping to prevent paint from gumming up half the brush over time) I leave a good amount of water on the brush before dipping it back in, mixing a bit, and resuming work.

These problems and solutions may or may not be resolved by the use of a wet palette. I've never used one myself so I can't speak to its effectiveness; I'm a fan of custom blending paints as I go and I'm not sure how a wet palette would work with that. For large amounts of the same color it might.

I wish I had the money to buy a whole set of paints -- heck I wish I had the time to spend painting to justify buying that many!!

Well, by 'large amounts of paint' I meant more painting two or three Chimeras at once or a squad of infantry, not a whole half-ounce bottle.

But I did not know about the empty droppers, that may be handy anyway as I tend to want to make my own washes!

Nice! I've only done details, not larger areas, but they looked pretty smooth.

Also, if those are meltaguns my IG army is crying. They have a serious supply problem with the Munitorum...

Give it a good shake, clean out the nozzle with a toothpick or a needle or somesuch the same you would with a clogged glue bottle or whatever, then another good shake. Give it a few hours for the bubbles in the paint to work their way out, and have at.