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Which do you prefer? I'm especially looking at the metallics I have and I wonder why the Game Color metals look "brighter."
Also, If you use Game Color or Model Color, do you water down your paints?

 Vininator1618 wrote:
Which do you prefer? I'm especially looking at the metallics I have and I wonder why the Game Color metals look "brighter."
Also, If you use Game Color or Model Color, do you water down your paints?

Game Color paints are more vivid because they were designed as a direct replacement for the older Citadel range, paints used for fantasy-style models. Model Color, on the other hand, is designed for military modelers and has an overall muted and earthy tone grounded in real life.
As far as what I prefer, I'm not a fan of the metallics in either of those ranges. However, I love Vallejo's Model Air metallic paints and their Liquid Gold line of alcohol-based paints. I also like the P3 metallic paints, as well as their other offerings.

I use a combination of both. The Game color metals are definitely brighter since they are meant to copy the original GW colors for gaming minis. The model colors are meant more for military models but there metallics are also excellent and you can get some great looking unique colors like VMC bronze and old gold ( my favorites for chaos trimming)or Oily silver. But the top of the crop are the Model Air Metallics and the Liguid Gold line of alcohol paints, they are silky smooth and insanely vibrant. I always thin both VGC and VMC paints, they are alittle too thick out of the bottle to paint straight on.

So what do you use for thinning? Just water or a special thinning agent?

i use vallejo airbrush thinner mixed with water to thin about everything.... both paints for my airbrush and for regular brushwork... could use it pure but that makes the hobby more expensive

heavybolter wrote:
I use a combination of both. The Game color metals are definitely brighter since they are meant to copy the original GW colors for gaming minis. The model colors are meant more for military models but there metallics are also excellent and you can get some great looking unique colors like VMC bronze and old gold ( my favorites for chaos trimming)or Oily silver. But the top of the crop are the Model Air Metallics and the Liguid Gold line of alcohol paints, they are silky smooth and insanely vibrant. I always thin both VGC and VMC paints, they are alittle too thick out of the bottle to paint straight on.

Where do you get the Liquid Gold range here in the US? Even Ebay is spotty on tracking those down, but I'd love to get a hold of the line.

 Vininator1618 wrote:
So what do you use for thinning? Just water or a special thinning agent?

I use 2 VMC gold variants. Definitely thick out of the bottle. A little water is all I need to thing them up. Too much water and they can have coverage issues. I think this is may be why people rave on the VMA metallics, they have a nice consistency to coverage mix.

Evertras wrote:

heavybolter wrote:
I use a combination of both. The Game color metals are definitely brighter since they are meant to copy the original GW colors for gaming minis. The model colors are meant more for military models but there metallics are also excellent and you can get some great looking unique colors like VMC bronze and old gold ( my favorites for chaos trimming)or Oily silver. But the top of the crop are the Model Air Metallics and the Liguid Gold line of alcohol paints, they are silky smooth and insanely vibrant. I always thin both VGC and VMC paints, they are alittle too thick out of the bottle to paint straight on.

Where do you get the Liquid Gold range here in the US? Even Ebay is spotty on tracking those down, but I'd love to get a hold of the line.

I too was picking them up from eBay but the entire line is now available at TheWarStore.com.

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:

Evertras wrote:

heavybolter wrote:
I use a combination of both. The Game color metals are definitely brighter since they are meant to copy the original GW colors for gaming minis. The model colors are meant more for military models but there metallics are also excellent and you can get some great looking unique colors like VMC bronze and old gold ( my favorites for chaos trimming)or Oily silver. But the top of the crop are the Model Air Metallics and the Liguid Gold line of alcohol paints, they are silky smooth and insanely vibrant. I always thin both VGC and VMC paints, they are alittle too thick out of the bottle to paint straight on.

Where do you get the Liquid Gold range here in the US? Even Ebay is spotty on tracking those down, but I'd love to get a hold of the line.

I too was picking them up from eBay but the entire line is now available at TheWarStore.com.

Yup, The Warstore or ScaleHobbyist is where I get them.

Depends on what look I'm going for. If Im painting more realistic military style schemes then model color does just fine. If I'm painting something bright like my eldar them I get game color.

There is a very extensive FAQ section on the www.acrylicosvallejo.com website which recommends what to use to thin and why, and the different natures of the paint they produce.

Fra Charmelandro wrote:
There is a very extensive FAQ section on the www.acrylicosvallejo.com website which recommends what to use to thin and why, and the different natures of the paint they produce.

Vallejo recommends Vallejo Medium/Thinner to thin their paints. I'm shocked.

Metallics - Vallejo liquid gold is the best no doubt about it, but harder to use. Vallejo Model Air is next best, goes on smoothly via brush or airbrush.

Game and Model colour: pick the colours you like from each range (and from air as well).

Thinning agents: Vallejo thinner (for airbrushing), distilled water for brush work, drying retarder for airbrush and detailed brush work, flow aid can be useful too. I have premixed bottles of various ratios of distilled water, drying retarder and/or flow aid.

I have switched over to Vallejo except for metallic paints. I tried the Vallejo version of Boltgun metal, and found it to be very chalky with prominent metal flakes in it. Also some of my Vallejo game colors are idiotically thin no matter how I mix them, and as such I don't like how they paint I actually have to let them dry on the pallet so they will thicken up!

I have had much better luck with my experimenting with the Army Painter "Warpaints" line. They are 18ml droper bottles, and are only $2.50 per bottle from The Warstore! I bought their "Gun Metal" color on a whim to try to replace the aforementioned Vallejo stand-in for Boltgun metal, and it's completely awesome. I can paint it on existing areas of Boltgun Metal on painted miniatures, and I can't even tell where I have painted the new color on, it matches so well.

I use both depending on use - and yes, I thin them down.
I use acrylic thinner, though and not water. Works better.

I don't generally use VMC because I paint fantasy but they are both lovely lines.

I pretty much refuse to use VGC metallics because the "sparkles" are gigantic compared to every other model line I've used.

I thin with water generally as I find VGC accepts it nicely. I do also use Flow Aid/Retarder when necessary. It generally doesn't need to much thinning. For flow aid and retarder I just use Liquitex. If I want to thin out the colour but keep a thicker consistency I use Liquitex's Matte Medium.

VGC also smells nice.

 skullgrl wrote:
VGC also smells nice.

lol ive never considered that to be one of the criteria to chose my paints... but i used to do a bit of painting with oils so the turpentine pretty much killed my ability to smell...

I only have experience with:

Model Colour
Model Air
Liquid Metals

I find the model colour to be pretty thick, when thinning them I use airbrush medium. I don't have access to game color where I live so I still use some GW paints.

Model Air - this stuff is awesome, brush paint right from the bottle, I find it still needs significant reduction for airbrushing.

Liquid line - I got some old gold and tested it out before I committed it to my models... Unreal. I can't suggest this enough; the only downside is finding 90%+ isopropyl.

DijnsK wrote:

 skullgrl wrote:
VGC also smells nice.

lol ive never considered that to be one of the criteria to chose my paints... but i used to do a bit of painting with oils so the turpentine pretty much killed my ability to smell...

If the paint works well then I use it even if it doesn't smell good, I'm just saying that the vaguely tea tree oil smell I get from VGC nice especially when compared to the... stink from this old pot of Thraka Green wash I have. If it was a larger container then I'd wonder if something had died in there.