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So I've been painting for about a year now and I feel I do pretty well, but I've always used basic hobby paint and brushes. Do you think it'd be worth it to upgrade to a set like Reaper or Vallejo paints? Also, any links for basic sets would be awesome. I love GW washes and their metallic drybrush is nice, but their paints never really struck me as great.

"Upgrading" will change the look of your models, so it really depends on what you're looking to do, and how the paints look now. How in depth do the color choices go for the brand you're using, and what brand is it?

It would be good to let us know what you mean by "basic hobby paints".

Honestly I don't find a hell of a lot of difference between the different water based acrylics from GW/Vallejo/Reaper/P3/Army Painter**. They all intermix fine and they all behave much the same with only slight differences with pros and cons for each one. It's only the alcohol based acrylics (Tamiya, Gunze) that behave a LOT differently. And of course enamels are also very different, but it's hard to say which ones are better and which ones are worse, enamels require harsher solvents and have longer drying times so they're typically not favoured by wargamers, but they go on smoothly and are better for blending than acrylics.

**When I say I don't find a hell of a lot of difference, I mean in the basic colours, the speciality ranges obviously have their own pros and cons. GW have their bases which I like and I do like the Army Painter washes.

 troa wrote:
"Upgrading" will change the look of your models, so it really depends on what you're looking to do, and how the paints look now. How in depth do the color choices go for the brand you're using, and what brand is it?

Fairly in depth I'd say. They have about 60 different colors, it's Anita's All Purpose Acrylic Craft Paint.

Do you have a local hobby shop? Always best to test out a few different colors (there are behavioral differences between various colors within a line - a single bottle may not give you a proper feel for a line, and some brands offer multiple lines, like Vallejo) from any given brand before you dive right in and buy a big, expensive set. Even if you don't have a local source, there are plenty of online stockists that carry a wide enough range that you can try a few different brands at once to dilute the additional shipping cost. Not like they'll go to waste... unless they're truly terrible, which is a pretty low risk with any of the established hobby lines.

I painted almost an entire cadian army with paints like what you are using when I first started this hobby. I thought it was fine, but to quite honest, craft paints cannot compare to genuine miniature paints. Paints like GW paints have a lot more pigment so even when thinned (and their already much thinner) you will get much better coverage. This means that you will get better coverage in less coats with fewer brush marks and better detail with miniature specific paints. I would never go back to using craft paints. You are probably painting good table top quality (3 colors at least in the right places) but switching paints will be necessary to step up your game. When I switched over I started to enjoy painting instead of tolerating it.

 oadie wrote:
Do you have a local hobby shop? Always best to test out a few different colors (there are behavioral differences between various colors within a line - a single bottle may not give you a proper feel for a line, and some brands offer multiple lines, like Vallejo) from any given brand before you dive right in and buy a big, expensive set. Even if you don't have a local source, there are plenty of online stockists that carry a wide enough range that you can try a few different brands at once to dilute the additional shipping cost. Not like they'll go to waste... unless they're truly terrible, which is a pretty low risk with any of the established hobby lines.

Yep, my LGS sells a pretty good amount. I was leaning towards Reaper or Vallejo, the GW paints just don't seem to be worth it in terms of price to quantity.

Whatever you do, don't just commit to a line and drop a ton of money on all their paints.

I have seen some citadel paints that are fantastic, and some that are terrible - some minitaire that are perfect, and some that are rubbish - some Vallejo model air paints that I couldn't do without, and some that I probably won't finish the bottle with.

GW paints are absolutely not worth it for the price, and I am exceedingly happy with Vallejo paints, but it is a very personal taste thing.

kb_lock wrote:
Whatever you do, don't just commit to a line and drop a ton of money on all their paints.

I have seen some citadel paints that are fantastic, and some that are terrible - some minitaire that are perfect, and some that are rubbish - some Vallejo model air paints that I couldn't do without, and some that I probably won't finish the bottle with.

GW paints are absolutely not worth it for the price, and I am exceedingly happy with Vallejo paints, but it is a very personal taste thing.

Right on. I think that's definitely what I'll do. I have some Bloodletters and Pink Horrors I have yet to paint, so I'm thinking I might buy a red and a purple or pink from each line and see how I like them, as those are gonna be mainstays for the rest of my army.

kb_lock wrote:
Whatever you do, don't just commit to a line and drop a ton of money on all their paints.

Especially when you consider all of them mix together fine anyway, so there's not much motivation to stick to only 1 brand (personally I stuck to GW for quite a while simply because they were the only acrylics sold in nearby shops for many years, but that's a different matter).

You have no idea how close I was to buying the Citadel ultimate paint set. The fact that they actually sell tells me that I am not the only idiot there is.

kb_lock wrote:
You have no idea how close I was to buying the Citadel ultimate paint set. The fact that they actually sell tells me that I am not the only idiot there is.

I think they are good paints, I just don't think they are worth the price.

Some of them are, absolutely - but if I now had $500 to blow on paint and stuff, it would be ~$200 of paints I specifically needed and $300 of models.

Buy paints and brushes made for miniatures. Craft paints and the like are pretty crap in comparison.

I'm going to be the devil's advocate and say save the bucks and stay with what you have.

I started painting with hobby grade paints (GW, P3 and the like) before transitioning to craft grade paints. To be honest, I can't tell any real difference in color quality, and the sheer variety of colors blows craft grade paints clear out of the water.

The only real issue is that hobby paints have a higher pigment density than craft paints. This pretty much forces you to use multiple thin coats instead of one heavy coat like you can get away with using hobby paints. In my experience, this makes for more even coats and more subtle transitions.