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I've been really wondering if vallejo game colour paints are better than the GW paints. A lot of people seem to have a half and half opinion on DakkaDakka and I want to take my time with my new armies, painting them so they actually look good. Although, I find the GW paint pots a joke. the amount of times paint has ran down the side of the pot onto the floor or table is incredibly annoying.

Vallejo is amazing, and I love most gw products. I would definitely go vallejo!

Thanks Psychadelicmime, I wasn't too sure. I will hopefully order some within the week. I'm going to go with a dark grey and red theme for the korps, I will maybe put some pictures up if they don't look awful.

The vallejo range is gigantic, it's also hit and miss.

my breakdown:

game color-tried these, bad knock offs of GW paint, not as good. I like the ink and these paints are ok for base coating to save money.

model color-i think these are probably very good. havnt tried many but ive seen people that paint to an insanely high level using these. they are highly transparent which is great for blending. The bad thing is i hear they rub off easy so if you just want a decent tabletop standard these might not be the best choice. varnish might fix the problem, not sure.

model air-tried them. meh, not bad, not that great either. metallics highly overrated. GW metallics much much better.

liquid gold-hate them. theyre fussy, messy, stinky, annoying to work with, brush doesnt like alcohol and they have a limited shelf life.

i have to strongly disagree with you on the Vallejo Air metals, kb305...
i think they are great...
good coverage, and very strong tones...
it took me a while to get used to how powerful the colors are, but they are my go to mid-tones and highlights...
they are also thinned nicely, and mix well with other brands...

i like GW's old metals, but don't bother with yet another new line of paints from them...
P3 is my go-to line of paints, but i throw Vallejo in for things like metals, brush-on primers, and varnish...
i still use Bolgun Metal as a tone between P3 Pig Iron and VA Aluminium...
once my last pot of BM is gone, i'll just go with P3 Cold Steel...

if you are really interested in Vallejo Game Color, i would just go with Coat'D Arms instead...
Model Color seems to be a safe bet, especially for military colors...

cheers
jah

I'm just trying to create a dirty looking army, y'know mud covering the ends of their trenchcoats. The tanks will also be covered too, I'm going to make a custom base for the commissar-general.

But aye, appreciate the feedback. My friend recomended me paints I think they were called reaper paints. Isn't coat'D arms GW's old paint line?

kb305 wrote:
The vallejo range is gigantic, it's also hit and miss.

Most paints are hit and miss if the users have no idea what to do with them.

my breakdown:

game color-tried these, bad knock offs of GW paint, not as good. I like the ink and these paints are ok for base coating to save money.

Why do I have a feeling you didn't shake the bottles so they mix thoroughly, and they should be thinned.
GW knock offs? hmm no I very much doubt that lol...

model color-i think these are probably very good. havnt tried many but ive seen people that paint to an insanely high level using these. they are highly transparent which is great for blending. The bad thing is i hear they rub off easy so if you just want a decent tabletop standard these might not be the best choice. varnish might fix the problem, not sure.

Yes, like all Vallejo paints these are also excellent, infact they have amazing pigments. 1 bottle of Vallejo black mixed with Vallejo smoke
produce the amazing black washes that puts GW Badab Black to shame, not to mention mixed with water they can easily be made into 10 more bottles.
You mentioned great for blending, yes because they have incredible pigments.
They rub off easily? ALL acrylic paints NEEDs varnish if they are handled often like in gaming and transporting.
The transparent part? what paints are ever transparent? not even GW's.
Are you talking about their inks? because inks != paints.

model air-tried them. meh, not bad, not that great either. metallics highly overrated. GW metallics much much better.

Model are are designed for airbrush, are you using them with an airbrush? I have a feeling not?

liquid gold-hate them. theyre fussy, messy, stinky, annoying to work with, brush doesnt like alcohol and they have a limited shelf life.

You dont own a bottle of 99% rubbing alcohol im assuming?
Liquid gold produce the most realistic gold people always seem to drool over.
Brush doesnt like alcohol? why...? because GW brushes?
And I assure you, even liquid gold will out last GW paint bottles.

You might think im biased due to how lowly I think of GW paints, but... I do own atleast 5 brand of paints, from GW to Vallejo to P3 and others as well,
I like to think im saving people money by telling them the truth, and sharing the experience : )
So before you throw away your vallejo products, try using them as the way they are intended, and Im sure they'll yield a jaw dropping result for you.

 LunaHound wrote:

kb305 wrote:
The vallejo range is gigantic, it's also hit and miss.

Most paints are hit and miss if the users have no idea what to do with them.

my breakdown:

game color-tried these, bad knock offs of GW paint, not as good. I like the ink and these paints are ok for base coating to save money.

Why do I have a feeling you didn't shake the bottles so they mix thoroughly, and they should be thinned.
GW knock offs? hmm no I very much doubt that lol...

model color-i think these are probably very good. havnt tried many but ive seen people that paint to an insanely high level using these. they are highly transparent which is great for blending. The bad thing is i hear they rub off easy so if you just want a decent tabletop standard these might not be the best choice. varnish might fix the problem, not sure.

Yes, like all Vallejo paints these are also excellent, infact they have amazing pigments. 1 bottle of Vallejo black mixed with Vallejo smoke
produce the amazing black washes that puts GW Badab Black to shame, not to mention mixed with water they can easily be made into 10 more bottles.
You mentioned great for blending, yes because they have incredible pigments.
They rub off easily? They should be varnished, ALL acrylic paints NEEDs varnish if they are handled often like in gaming and transporting.

model air-tried them. meh, not bad, not that great either. metallics highly overrated. GW metallics much much better.

Model are are designed for airbrush, are you using them with an airbrush? I have a feeling not?

liquid gold-hate them. theyre fussy, messy, stinky, annoying to work with, brush doesnt like alcohol and they have a limited shelf life.

You dont own a bottle of 99% rubbing alcohol im assuming?
Liquid gold produce the most realistic gold people always seem to drool over.
Brush doesnt like alcohol? why...? because GW brushes?
And I assure you, even liquid gold will out last GW paint bottles.

You might think im biased due to how lowly I think of GW paints, but... I do own atleast 5 brand of paints, from GW to Vallejo to P3 and others as well,
I like to think im saving people money by telling them the truth, and sharing the experience : )
So before you throw away your vallejo products, try using them as the way they are intended, and Im sure they'll yield a jaw dropping result for you.

Thanks for the advice Lunahound, greatly appreciated.

 Repifist wrote:
I'm just trying to create a dirty looking army, y'know mud covering the ends of their trenchcoats. The tanks will also be covered too, I'm going to make a custom base for the commissar-general.

But aye, appreciate the feedback. My friend recomended me paints I think they were called reaper paints. Isn't coat'D arms GW's old paint line?

Buy a bottle of Vallejo smoke, and thats all the dirty wash you'll ever need.
Take this ork for example, the wash and the base are actually the same product, just diluted differently yields totally different looks.

Lunahound summarised nicely where people have problems with Vallejo and how to not have them. If you do what he suggested you'll find that they are excellent paints with good bottles, a great range of colours, paint types and much better prices compared to GW.

I'd also suggest a good understanding of different mediums when using any paints, but especially vallejo. When to use distilled water, thinners, matt medium, flow and and drying retarder is good to know if you don't already.

Has anybody else experienced problems with some paints being too thin from the model color range? I can understand ivory and skin tone, but German Fieldgrey?! The uniforms of the Fatherland's finest must be pristine!!!

but really, the paint seems to somehow coagulate around the lip of the bottle and wont mix back even even under violent stirring. I tried scratching at it with a plastic rod but its so awkward an angle I couldnt get it all. Right now they come out very heterogeneous and watery. Ideas?

Vmc , vma are good. Gw are good. P3 is good.

VGC are garbage. Don't waste your money

Vallejo Smoke is definitely a good one to have in the arsenal...
i like it for dirty metals, especially...

Coat'D Arms is a few generations of GW paints ago, when they still had Ghostly Grey and Midnight Blue...
great colors...

i'm not a fan of Reaper, because they have a very matte finish...
i prefer a satin finish to my paints...
i keep giving them another chance, and always have to paint over them with P3, but that is just personal taste...
i recently got Reaper Black, and have to mix it with P3 Armor Wash to liven up the matte finish, but their Pure White works for me on final highlights when painting white...
it's just a matter of what you like...

cheers
jah

Thanks guys, again, I appreciate it. Since that Reaper paints have a matte finish, I might need to get a bottle of dark grey for some trench coats and Vallejo for the finer details like the weapons and stuff.

i am in the process of switchign over to Vallejo from GW - just got soem older pots of GW paint left now.

For the most part i have foudn the vallejo paints to be as good as GW paints. You havw to shake them more (apparently they have a higher pigment count so sediment can settle in the bottle) but you get a dropper built in whcih helsp you save paint, A LOT.

if you shop arudn on ebay you can also get good deals - the vallejo pots are a bit bigger than the GW paints as well so they usually owrk out a better deal.

I've only tried the Game Colour for the most part but i have foudn that Model Colour black has a really nice Matte finish with is a near-perfect match for GW black spray.

I only use GW for the washes these days.

 Praxiss wrote:
i am in the process of switchign over to Vallejo from GW - just got soem older pots of GW paint left now.

For the most part i have foudn the vallejo paints to be as good as GW paints. You havw to shake them more (apparently they have a higher pigment count so sediment can settle in the bottle) but you get a dropper built in whcih helsp you save paint, A LOT.

if you shop arudn on ebay you can also get good deals - the vallejo pots are a bit bigger than the GW paints as well so they usually owrk out a better deal.

I've only tried the Game Colour for the most part but i have foudn that Model Colour black has a really nice Matte finish with is a near-perfect match for GW black spray.

I only use GW for the washes these days.

Thanks, I'll get that instead. I wanted to do a black or dark grey trenchcoats on them so that will help! Also those Necrons look awesome!

if you are going for a more matte/drab look then your best bet might be the Model Colour range - they tend to work best for WW2 colouring.

The Game colour range tends towards brighter colours.