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.

Howdy all
I was wondering, because I'm tired of GW paints
What's the best bang-for-your-buck paint out there?

Vallejo or P3.

Both use dropper bottles (which means they don't dry out as fast).

Vallejo has game color (brighter colours), Model color (more earthy and realistic colours for historical WW2, etc) and Model Air (formulated for Airbrushing).

Generally available at better hobby stores, too.

Army painter have their own spray paints and dips, too.

Vallejo's awesome. I have products from both their Model Color and Game Color lines and am very happy with them both.

So Vallejo is the way to go?
(haha rhymes )

GW paints are the best only because I get them for free.

I like Vallejo for general use, but still prefer GWS's metallics and washes.

I use Vallejo for its cost and quality.
I use Reaper for its variety when I need a specific color.
I use GW for its washes.

Vallejo all the way!

I use Vallejo for paints and GW for their washes.

There really is no easy answer for this question, and I'm halfway conviced that most of the people who automatically spout Vallejo Vallejo have never tried anything else.

Now, each of the major paint brands; GW, Vallejo, Reaper, P3, have their strong points and their weak points. To say hands down that one is better then the other is a load of gak IMO.

GW paints are the most common in the industry. Its pretty much gunarenteed that if you walk into a hobby shop that carries minatures that you'll find this line of paint. In my mind avalibility adds value to a product, its not always possible or conveniant for me to special order another brand of bank or drive farther from my house to buy paint that many consider a better value. The majority of the GW paint line tend to be rather middle of the road in terms of characteristics. When I use the term middle of the road I'm refering to their pigment density, adhesion and opacity. This makes them a great all around paint line and in my opionion the most versital in the industry. They take well to blending, layering or simple drybrushing, but they are by no means the best at any single method.

Vallejo paints seem to be the most often recommended by the "experts" on the internet. There really isn't any doubt that they aren't a great line of paints, but again they aren't really a replacement for any one other line of paints. The strengths of the Vallejo lines of paint is their high pigment density, hands down they have the highest pigment density in the industry. What this meens to the average painter is that these paints are going to be great for blending and acheiving a consistant color with the least number of coats. This is a double edged sword however. Vallejo's high pigment density makes for a very Opaque paint which doesn't easily allow for layering techniques.

Reaper paints are probably the least commonly seen paints in the hobby, I attribute this to the multitude of colors in the Reaper line, it has a very large buy in cost for a hobby shop so most of them tend to skip it. With that being said its still a fantastic line of paint with some fantastic properties. Reaper paints are the polar opposite of Vallejo paints in that Vallejo paints are very opaque where as Reaper paints are more transparent. What this meens is that a paint from the Reaper line is going to require more coats to cover the color underneath then Vallejo. This meens that the Reaper line is better for layering then the other lines.

P3 paints are a relative new commer to the playing field. The easiest way to describe the P3 line is that the overall characteristics of the paint are similar to the GW line, which shouldn't come as much of a suprise since they were designed by the same person. Where P3 paints shine however is that the color pallete is completly different then any other line.

So to summerize what I said before:

- GW Paints:
- Pros:
- Readily Avalible
- Good at Any of the Major Techniques
- A Fantastics Range of Foundations, Washs and Mettalics
- Cons:
- Pot Design

- Vellajo Paints:
- Pros:
- High Pigment Density
- The Best Coverage
- Works Fantastic for Blending
- Dropper Bottle Container
- Cons:
- Highly Opaque
- Low Adhesion
- Subpar Metallics

- Reaper Paints
- Pros:
- Largest Line of Colors in the Industry
- Works Fantastic for Layering
- Dropper Bottle Container
- Cons:
- Highly Transparent
- Difficult to Find

- P3
- Pros:
- Good all Around Paint
- Different Color Pallate
- Cons:
- Different Color Pallate
- Poor Pot Design

Basically there isn't a good answer for which paint provides the best bang for the buck since alot of it comes down to painting style. All of the best painters I know use multiple lines of paints, and they use each of those lines for their various strengths and weaknesses, and all agree there isn't one "best".

I use tamiya paints a lot. They're not always the best for minis, but their flat white paint is IMO far superior to citadel or Vallejo white and I've tried em all.

Vallejo.

I use GW and Vallejo.

Anyone else tried Tamiya? I recently picked up a few of their metalic range for some terminators (saw them in the hobby shop and it looked the perfect shade of Blue Metalic I was after) and they turned out fantastic. The paint was harder to work and in a crap screw top bottle like the old GW ones, but it produced a fantastic colour.

Honestly, I use a lot of folk art acrylic paints, which have a lot of different colors to choose from and work fairly well. They are also much more value minded than GW, and can be pick up at Wal-mart or Hobbly Lobby.... They work pretty good in my opinion.