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What kind of paints does Dakka use? Are citadel paints the norm or are other brands better? Do you buy other brands because they are cheaper, better quality or a different colour?

Personally I only have a couple of citadel paints, the rest are a mix of German paints by Revell and Spanish paints by Game Color. I did buy them because they were cheaper (stingy Brit ) but I am quite happy with the quality as well, especially the Revell paints (the Game Color paints are a bit watery but nothing that a couple of layers can't fix).

What about y'all, what are your favourite paints to use?

P3. Much cheaper, the pots are much nicer, more even in consistency, and I don't really care about the limited palette because I tend to do everything in a bunch of thin layers/glazes anyway so I can get a lot of different colours out of not very many colours of paint.

Definitely a mix... GW has amazing colors and by far the best Washes... but Vallejo and P3 are more my goto for most things.

This would probably be a more interesting poll if you broke down "other" in to more than just "not citadel".

Just what initially comes to mind...

Vallejo
P3
Army Painter
AK interactive
LifeColor
Humbrol
Testors
Tamiya
Gunze
Gaia

But yeah, I use a mixture. If I added them up I probably use Vallejo the most for hairy brush painting and Tamiya the most for airbrush painting. Beyond that I use Gunze for airbrush priming and Tamiya for spray can priming and use a bunch of individual colours from a heap of manufacturers.

Vallejo and Army Painter for me.

Currently, I just use Citadel paints with some Vallejo Primer. I'll probably pick up some Vallejo paints soon, cause they're cheaper with more paint and they've got dropper bottles. I can't attest to P3, but if it works for WM/H, it probably works for GW. Army Painter has some good paints, especially their color primers.

I use
GW
Vallejo
Reaper

Reaper is my primary paints they honestly are the best and smoothest paints I have used, thin down really easy and blend amazingly also they have the best taste, I'm a brush licker.

I use Vallejo game air because premixed air paints rock and they have some of the best metallic paints I have used.

From GW I use their washes, and their golds/metallics becuase aside from Vallejo you can't compete with GW on that end. Also there are some colors GW has that you just can't match. Ubshati bone namely, I have brought around 40 bucks or pints from various companies trying to match that, and nothing match GW's so I still use it.

Imo reaper is some of the best paints you can use.

This is also going to depend on where you are; I live near Seattle and Privateer Press is local so P3 paints are easy to find, but Vallejo is far off and hard to keep in stock. Presumably if you lived in Spain you'd have a hell of a time finding P3 paints and a much easier time finding Vallejo paints.

I use paints from three ranges.

Vallejo
Scale color 75
Army Painter

Vallejo Model Color paints are highly pigmented they cover well and can be thinned with ease. My goto paints.
Scale 75 have extremely matt finish which is great shadowing and creating contrast.
Army paints are a bit less covering more watery which are great for highlighting and glazing.

I just love dropper bottles. They are really convenient. Paint will last for years. Easy to mix paints.

IMO citadel are not worth it. They are the most expensive out there with the crappiest pot.
It's not 1990 anymore. There's much more competition.

You have Vallejo, P3 formula, Scale Color 75, Army Painter, Reaper paints and more.

Depends, Vehicles I usually airbrush with Mister Hobby and Vallejo to some degree, but afters I do the details with acrylics. For normal paintbrush work here is how it works:

GW: 80%
Vallejo: 5%
Mister Hobby: 5%
P3: 2.5%
Lifecolor: 2.5%
5% - some other random brands I have, some reaper, some AK, one pot of Italieri and etc.

As my old Citadel paints run out, I'm gradually replacing them with Coat D'arms, P3, Valllejo or Army Painter.

I perfer GW and Vallejo for most minis but whatever works, works, especially large models that require a lot of paint. I have been using the Plaid/Martha Stewart metallic colors lately to make strange vehicles and armor. Also, anybody that uses non-generic paint and products for basing and terrain is nuts.

Oh...

Citadel (overpriced, but sometimes you find an honest-to-goodness pot of vomit brown in a model shop and it must be yours)
Vallejo model color (nice enough paints but not fussed on droppers. I still find stray spots of cork brown after a clogged nozzle explosion)
Vallejo model air
Vallejo panzer aces
Vallejo acrylic gouache
Coat d'arms
Ral Partha Europe miniature paints (more hobbyists should check these out. A range with some interesting variety. Their deep red and mustard yellow are well pigmented and pretty opaque)
Humbrol
Turner acrylic gouache
Anita's craft paint
Folkart craft paint

Primarily Reaper.
Army Painter washes and dips
Minitaire airbrush paints
Vallejo primers, mediums, and finishes
Craft paints for terrain

Almost exclusively vallejo apart from:

Agrax Earthshade
Reikland Fleshshade
Nuln Oil
Tallarn Flesh (old foundation).

97% Vallejo (mix of Game Color, Model Colour, Panzer Aces etc.)

P3 for me...
72 colors is quite a lot of variety...
i probably only use about 50 of them on a regular basis...

Citadel gets a little love, for their Technical paints like Martian Ironearth, Blood for the Blood God, and Nihilakh Oxide, or Shades like Druchii Violet and Reikland Fleshshade...

Vallejo Smoke is great for weathering, and the brush-on primer and matte varnish are essential in high humidity months...
Vallejo Air Gold and Aluminium are the brightest metallic paints i have found for final highlights...

Coat d'arms are great if you fell in love with some of the original Citadel colors, like Midnight Blue or Ghostly Grey...

all of the paints i like have quite a satin finish...
paints like Reaper dry way too matte for my taste, but i am looking to try the Scale 75 paints, even though they dry quite matte...
usually, i buy a pot of black paint to try a new brand, and see how i like the finish...
that way, if it is too matte for me, i can just mix it with P3 Armor Wash (which can dry a bit glossy) and still get some use out of it for black lining or shading steel...

cheers
jah

Mostly GW for the sake of consistency. Every store in the area has the full range and plenty in stock, but availability of other brands is less consistent. The quality is good enough, and honestly the price difference is too small to care about when a single pot regardless of brand lasts for so long.

A few non-GW miniatures paints for specific colors that I needed. Burnt umber for terrain, the specific blue-gray shade I use on my tanks, an off-white that GW doesn't have without mixing, etc. Some Vallejo, some Reaper, depending on what was the right match.

Testors dullcote and brush-on gloss for clear coats. Dullcote simply ends shine, and the bottle of gloss varnish I bought years ago for decals is still almost full.

Art store paints for weathering. There's a thicker canvas-painting black I use for sponge chipping because it doesn't dry out and stop applying properly as fast as gaming paints, and of course oil paints don't exist at all in the gaming products.

 insaniak wrote:
As my old Citadel paints run out, I'm gradually replacing them with Coat D'arms, P3, Valllejo or Army Painter.

Same here. As my citadel paints go, I am using more and more Coat d'Arms. Only point I won't budge on is that I will continue to use the GW washes and glazes as they are very convenient.

One thing that annoyed me recently was coming back to a particular GW colour that I needed but hadn't opened in a while only to find it was all dried up. Not had that problem with other paints before, it seems to be systematic of GW's crappy pot design.

 mrhappyface wrote:
What kind of paints does Dakka use? Are citadel paints the norm or are other brands better? Do you buy other brands because they are cheaper, better quality or a different colour?

We have this discussion quite a lot and it' basically boils down to this:

- in terms of the paint quality, there's generally not much to choose between the various brands; every one of them has a few duff colours (poor consistency)
- what kind of finish do you prefer? Reaper, Scale 75 and a lot of Vallejo Model Colour dry super matte without any additives, whereas Citadel tends to dry more satin or even straight up glossy.
- which colours appeal to you? Every range has some cross over, but also have a bunch of colours you can't get from anyone else.
- cheaper will depend on where you live a lot of the time and your proximity to stores. Some people don't like buying paints on the internet, especially ones they haven't used before, as they often look very different in the bottle than in a photo or digital swatch.


I'm 85% Vallejo with the rest being Reaper, Scale75, Army Painter and P3 thrown in. I've got a couple of pots of Coat D'arms and Citadel.

For me it's a combination of all things mentioned: cheaper, I prefer a matte finish and they come in different bottles/pots. GW pots are, and have been for quite some time, Godawful at drying out. None of my other paints require me to bring them back to life every few months. I used to have more Citadel, but like others I've gradually replaced it for both this reason and the fact I can get most other things for less.

Cheaper primarily means less up front cost, but also includes how much you get for that. 12ml of Citadel paint is generally more expensive for me than17ml of something else like Vallejo. So, unless it's a colour I really want to use and can't find an equivalent for in another range, Citdale is a non-starter.


I'd dispute whoever said GW's washes are the best, Army Painter easily matches them on quality and when you factor in 12ml vs. 17ml plus a dropper bottle (which has the handy benefit of not spilling everywhere when you knock it over as I seem prone to doing with washes, in addition to other positives) then it become a bit of a no-brainer I'd have though. If their range is too limited then Vallejo and Secret Weapon all have wash ranges that exceed what GW offers,

I personally prefer to use Vallejo model air and game air ranges for the majority of work on each miniature. Sometimes I will use citadel washes as I find them better than washes I've used from other brands (I'd again imagine this a varied personal opinion). Also when working on metallic areas of models I'll tend to use Scale 75 colours or Vallejo metal range.

Edit: I really like the colour of some of the citadel range, however whilst they refuse to use dropper bottles that are far better to work with, I won't be purchasing their paint range.

 sockwithaticket wrote:
- what kind of finish do you prefer? Reaper, Scale 75 and a lot of Vallejo Model Colour dry super matte without any additives, whereas Citadel tends to dry more satin or even straight up glossy.

IMO this shouldn't be a factor since it's so easy to change the finish with a clear varnish layer. A quick spray of dullcote will make even gloss finishes completely matte and decals/inks/washes/etc will change the finish several times over the painting process, so there's not much point in worrying about what the finish is at any particular layer.

 Peregrine wrote:

 sockwithaticket wrote:
- what kind of finish do you prefer? Reaper, Scale 75 and a lot of Vallejo Model Colour dry super matte without any additives, whereas Citadel tends to dry more satin or even straight up glossy.

IMO this shouldn't be a factor since it's so easy to change the finish with a clear varnish layer. A quick spray of dullcote will make even gloss finishes completely matte and decals/inks/washes/etc will change the finish several times over the painting process, so there's not much point in worrying about what the finish is at any particular layer.

While that's true, personally I find it much easier to judge colour/tone transitions with a matte finish prior to any varnish stage, satin and certainly gloss reflect enough light to inhibit that sometimes.

Also, some people don't varnish their models, particularly for non-gaming pieces. If it's just going to sit in a cabinet because all you wanted to do was paint the thing, why would you?

Of course there are various additives (I use Reaper Anti-Shine extensively) that can help you achieve a matte finish, but when your painting time is seriously limited it's a lot quicker and easier to just have something that's as matte as you want straight out of the bottle.

 sockwithaticket wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:

 sockwithaticket wrote:
- what kind of finish do you prefer? Reaper, Scale 75 and a lot of Vallejo Model Colour dry super matte without any additives, whereas Citadel tends to dry more satin or even straight up glossy.

IMO this shouldn't be a factor since it's so easy to change the finish with a clear varnish layer. A quick spray of dullcote will make even gloss finishes completely matte and decals/inks/washes/etc will change the finish several times over the painting process, so there's not much point in worrying about what the finish is at any particular layer.

While that's true, personally I find it much easier to judge colour/tone transitions with a matte finish prior to any varnish stage, satin and certainly gloss reflect enough light to inhibit that sometimes.

Also, some people don't varnish their models, particularly for non-gaming pieces. If it's just going to sit in a cabinet because all you wanted to do was paint the thing, why would you?

Of course there are various additives (I use Reaper Anti-Shine extensively) that can help you achieve a matte finish, but when your painting time is seriously limited it's a lot quicker and easier to just have something that's as matte as you want straight out of the bottle.

The other reason you might care about the sheen of paints is if you use use variations in sheen to create contrast in your final model. While you could still do that with varnishes it makes the process a lot more annoying and fiddly.

Primarily vallejo..and createx airbrush urethanes.

I've been slowly moving away from Citadel the last couple of years. The change over in 2012(?) made the decision for me. As my "old" Citadel range paints dry out/get used up, I replace them with VGC or Army Painter. They match the old Citadel line either exactly, or close enough that after washing/high lighting, you can't tell the difference.

P3, Reaper, Coat D'Arms aren't readily available around me, Vallejo and Army Painter are. I may be in the minority here, but IMHO, Army Painter has the best washes. I find they pool far less than Citadel.

Ratio? Probably ~40% Citadel, 60% "other" ATM. In the future, the percentage of Citadel will continue to drop, mostly because they insist on using pots. While dropper bottles may not be perfect, they enjoy some distinct advantages over pots.

ETA: As far as primer, it's strictly Army Painter these days. Top coat is, and mostly always has been, Testors Dullcote. Putridy Seal is an exercise in futility, as well as satin, and I prefer dead matte. As others have said, quality paint is quality paint. Citadel is quality, to be sure, but on the economic scale, it's towards the bottom.

Ive got alot of colors of cidadal now, some washes and layers and shades.

Ive got a few inks from army painter (i think)

and a ton of craftstore paints.

if i have the color ill use it.

I'm with Skink - more options in the poll would be better.


Here's what's currently sitting in the hobby room:

Minitaire
Vallejo (Model Color, Model Air, Game Color, Panzer Aces, Primers, Pigments, & Varnishes)
502 Abteilung
AK Interactive
Forge World
MIG
Tamiya
Woodland Scenics
Createx
Testors
Daler Rowney
Master's Touch
Rust-Oleum

Sometimes I wonder if I'm a miniature painter or a paint collector...

 Nodri wrote:
Sometimes I wonder if I'm a miniature painter or a paint collector...

I know the feeling I swear I have about 20 greens, but somehow I manage to to think "hmm, I could really use this other green".

Minitaire mostly-most of their colours are amazing, and their ghost tints can add some great effects. The exceptions are their metals-bit dodgy.

Vallejo air for metals-easily best I've seen, although I've been hearing more about Scale75, so may try them.

Army painter for black wash.

GW for other washes-mainly cause I haven't needed to replace them yet, and they're good. I also still use their old Dark Angels green-haven't quite found the same among other ranges.