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I'm looking at buying a paint range from Vallejo and I'm wondering about which one I should get.
The choices are Vallejo Game Color or Vallejo Model Air, and I'm talking about the full sets of 72 bottles.

I'm figuring the Game Color set would have everything I need for Warhammer painting, but since the
Model Air range is more suitable for airbrushing and is nicely diluted straight out of the bottle I feel that
maybe its a better option to just go for that right away?

Anyone have any input? Do the two color ranges differ a lot from eachother, is one of them to be preferred over the other, etc?

Thanks and have a great weekend! I'm going fishing

Buy GC if you are painting by brush. It's no hardship to thin to whatever you want to do with it.

You could well find that the Model Air range is too thin to paint by brush, then you would have 72 pots of milky paint to look at.

Unless you have an airbrush I don't think Model Air is the lazy route you are looking for.

 notprop wrote:
Buy GC if you are painting by brush. It's no hardship to thin to whatever you want to do with it.

You could well find that the Model Air range is too thin to paint by brush, then you would have 72 pots of milky paint to look at.

Unless you have an airbrush I don't think Model Air is the lazy route you are looking for.

Yeah I realize thinning the GC is probably no big fuss, but have you experienced the MA range to be too thin to paint by brush?
I just watched some review on youtube and the guy seemed to be doing a great job with the metallics by brush.

I do have an airbrush, which is also a factor as I dont know how big the difference between GC and MA is with regard to airbrushing them.

I've got to say that I absolutely love VMA.

I, quite recently, got myself an airbrush and I had a terrible time finding the right consistency (consistently) with VGC and VMC. I was tearing my hair out with frustration and I nearly abandoned the airbrush altogether. I know that it can be done and many people do it, but I found it such a hassle. Occasionally I would get it right but usually it was just a spattery, clogged pain in the arse. I bought the airbrush to for smoothness, efficiency and relative quickness, but it turned into the opposite of all these things.

Switching to VMA was world changing for me. It's always perfect straight from the bottle (although some peolpe still thin it a little).

I should also say that I find it lovely to use with a standard brush, Nice and thin. Very smooth and layers really well. I use it as much as I can and it's pretty much all I buy now for my regular needs (apart from the occasional P3 paint, which I've also recently discovered).

So yeh, big thumbs up for VMA here. Love the stuff.

 Tommy wrote:

 notprop wrote:
Buy GC if you are painting by brush. It's no hardship to thin to whatever you want to do with it.

You could well find that the Model Air range is too thin to paint by brush, then you would have 72 pots of milky paint to look at.

Unless you have an airbrush I don't think Model Air is the lazy route you are looking for.

Yeah I realize thinning the GC is probably no big fuss, but have you experienced the MA range to be too thin to paint by brush?
I just watched some review on youtube and the guy seemed to be doing a great job with the metallics by brush.

I do have an airbrush, which is also a factor as I dont know how big the difference between GC and MA is with regard to airbrushing them.

I don't, but the consistency that I thin GC to for airbrushing would not be good enough for painting; far too opaque for me.

I'm sure there's good/great painters out there that will do that for 4-6 coats but I'm a bit more agricultural in my approach and don't have allot of spare time.

99% VMA and 99% brushed on.... (they got a very light zenithal coat of grey with the air brush just after the black undercoat and before anything else)

You paint to 198%, very impressive.

VMA seems like a really good choice, at least considering ease of use. Does the MA and GC color ranges differ, as in does the MA range have the same vivid colors for fantasy models as the GC package, or is it more inclined towards realistic military models?

 notprop wrote:
You paint to 198%, very impressive.

I sweat quite a lot.


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 Tommy wrote:
VMA seems like a really good choice, at least considering ease of use. Does the MA and GC color ranges differ, as in does the MA range have the same vivid colors for fantasy models as the GC package, or is it more inclined towards realistic military models?

Yeah, you could struggle a bit for very bright pinks and greens, but most is covered. Although I don't know what exactly is in both the 72 pot sets that you're looking at. You may have to pick some colours up seperately anyway, nomatter what box you choose.

I heard good things about the VMA metallics. think I might might some of there golds in ikley today.

I love my VMA steel. I bought it to experiment if looks ok when painting with a brush, and oh my, it's the perfect metallic. It's smooooooth, unlike when I'm painting leadbelcher where I have to thin until I hit that sweet spot or risk having a bad layer.

With VMA Steel is smoothness straight from the bottle.

VMA is still good and thin even when brushed on. I use it and I do not have an airbrush. I never use any black except Model Air Black.

With that said, it lacks color variety that Model Color and Game Color has to offer. Model Color has some nice, subtle color options that are not too striking while Game Color has a good variety of bright, saturated colors. I use all three ranges interchangeably and limitng myself with just one of those three will severely affect what I can produce.

I've switched my bottle-by-bottle paint purchases to VMA. I do slightly thin them, but more to get more retarder into the mix as my airbrush gets dry tip syndrome far too easily.

Model Air, easily. Whether you're airbrushing or brushing by hand, that stuff is fantastic. Easily the best metallics you'll ever find, as well. Even the GW metallics can't hold a candle.

I use VMA and I love it. That said, the colour range is limited compared to game colours. It generally has everything you'll need for painting 2nd World War stuff, but sometimes I need to pick up some game colour if I need something bright and vibrant. Also, I'm using game colour (or citadel) for the metallics. I've never tried the VMA metallics, but I haven't heard good things.

I recently switched to Game Color from GW pains and I love them. Painting with a wet palette, you don't need more than a tad of flow medium to get a nice thin layer down. Can't say anything about VMA, but there seems to be a lot of love for them as well. Although, does anyone else find the GC black to be a bit too glossy?

I'll agree the GC range come up too glossy for me

(unless I'm planning to use dullcote or similar varnish)

I also find brand new bottles can be hard to mix as (nearly) pigment free medium can end up stuck in the dropper due to the consistency of the paint

But once it's mixed up it's good stuff

The G range doe include a Matte medium if glossing is an issue.

I know this as I bought 3 bottles of it mistakenly thinking it was bottles of acrylic thinners!

So if anyone wants a bottle....

I've heard that Matte medium is itself a decent thinner. Never tried it myself. Now Matte varnish is a different issue.

I too LOVE VMA. I also have used it with an airbrush and manual, and it works equally well. Coverage is great, while I did find it went on glossy, it doesn't matter. Matte or Satin varnish fixes that.

I can't personally attest to it, but some have stated coagulation issues with VGC in airbrushes. That could be from countless reasons including thinning medium, so that comes with salt.

VMA is design for military scale modelers, so as others have said, some of the super bright colors may not be present but it isn't difficult to supplement those with GW, GC, or whatever.

I don't thin the VMA, but for paints that do require thinning, I use Future. Nothing beats it.

I would rather use VMC to paint by brush and Badger Minitaire to paint by airbrush. VMC can also be thinned to run through an airbrush.

Army Painter Warpaints are excellent brush paints as well. Too bad their color selection is low but you can always mix colors.

Buy the range with the colours you want. VGC has a more vibrant fantasy/sci-fi colour range. VMA has a more muted, realistic colour range. Either range can be brushed or airbrushed fine.

If you only paint bright heraldic stuff, you'd be better off with VGC imo. If you like your camo and military colours, you could pick up the VMA set and cherry pick the vibrant VGC (and VMC) colours that you need. I'd probably recommend the second option, especially if you airbrush a lot.

Also look at picking up the Vallejo Liquid Gold for your metallics, at least for golds since they're the smoothest golds you'll find. VMA silvers (Chrome, silver, gunmetal, steel) are all really good and I tend to use them rather than VLG just for ease of use, but VMA gold not so much.

I own both complete lines. Got both on smoking deals a while back. Anyhow, I do not think it is an either or situation.

VMA brushes on and airbrushes smooth as silk. The metallics are sublime and if the colors in the line are what you are looking for, they are top notch. But they do lack the saturated more game like cartoon colors. Also realize that not the entire range is in the suitcase. For example my favorite Black Metallic is not in the suitcase as I recall. So check around.

VGC is also excellent, but offers a very different color palette. I find it annoying to thin them for airbrushing as the amount of thinning varies from one color to the next, but thinning them for regular brushing is easy and works very well. One of the great things in the VGC line that is not in the suitcase as I recall is the Heavy color range in VGC. Basically they are very highly pigmented foundation colors and well worth getting regardless.

 Badger_Bhoy wrote:


I don't thin the VMA, but for paints that do require thinning, I use Future. Nothing beats it.

Using future floor polish as a thinner... its more of a glazing medium in my eyes. People use it as a protective clear coat, so it has to be boosting the transparency of your paint. Which isnt neccessarily a bad thing,It probably does spray really nicely, and detailing work with airbrushes does usualy use highly transparent paints in a million layers.
But; to suggest that nothing beats it is a farse! What if we actualy wanted solid opaque colour? Using a '(not) varnish' as thinner is not doing you any favors as far as opacity goes.
Its much more reasonable to refer to future as a medium than a thinner because rather a lot of it is left behind when it drys. An actual thinner would leave next to no trace behind and not affect the paint all that much.

I can't say I've ever had any opacity issues. It's not increased any transparency in my usage. You would have to use substantial quantities to do so in my experience. It's worked far better than anything else I've used. I'd recommend actually trying it, as your theory isn't at all how it behaves.

 Badger_Bhoy wrote:
I don't thin the VMA, but for paints that do require thinning, I use Future. Nothing beats it.

I've been using Winsor & Newton Flow Improver for acrylics--straight, no diluting-- and it has worked fabulously without affecting color or finish. For the VMC colors, I have been using a 3:1 ratio of thinner to paint.

I may try that. I've found the VMA do dry fairly quickly sometimes. A little retarder would be good.

Wow, what great response on this inquiry!
I'm still pondering what way to go, I'm quite taken by the overwhelmingly positive feedback on VMA, but at the same time I do like the VGC vivid colors.

My options are as far as I've figured;

Get VMA suitcase range + VGC Basic colors (or other bright ones)

Get VGC suitcase range + VMA metallics pack

I dont know which one of these would be better for me in the end, I will probably start airbrushing models somewhere down the line, which would be a shame to have VGC clog up and be difficult to work with compared to VMA.

Its probably impossible for anyone to give a definitive answer to what is best as I can't tell how many vivid colors I would be missing from the VMA suitcase range.

I will have to check if my local model store has VGC colors, then I can hand pick the ones I miss from the VMA I suppose.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I just found this, which seems like a great opportunity to mix and match the best of both VGC and VMA ranges! Does anyone have an idea of how I can figure out which paints I need/dont need? Any colors that are must-haves or paints to stay away from in these ranges? I'm pretty sure to get the VMA metallics at least.

You're paying a £17 premium over the one at Wayland, the first site I checked. If you're sure you know which paints you want or don't want it might be worth it, but getting an extra 9 paints for the same price is fairly compelling.

 Yonan wrote:
You're paying a £17 premium over the one at Wayland, the first site I checked. If you're sure you know which paints you want or don't want it might be worth it, but getting an extra 9 paints for the same price is fairly compelling.

Neat! The shipping wasnt too bad either, thanks for the link, Wayland seems to be quite a good shop overall, are there other ones in the UK that ship to Sweden I should be aware of?