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Hello all,

So I've recently gotten back into 40k as a hobby, however, my fundage isn't what it once was... life commitments and all that. I'm going to be using Army Painter sprays as my basecoat, even though I know its a bit pricey, they always worked well for me.

My issues is: what paints are great but won't break the bank? I used exclusively Citadel in the past, but they're extremely expensive to pick up, so I'm looking at alternative model paints people have had success with. Any help would be great!

Check out our newly launched INSTAR range, Citadel matches shades in handy dropper bottles, two different bases and at a lower cost compared to Citadel, Vallejo and Army Painter without compromising quality!

INSTAR Paint Webstore

Reaper master series is an excellent option, and they offer free shipping in the US for orders of only $35. (That would be 11 bottles)

Ulfhednar_42 wrote:
Reaper master series is an excellent option, and they offer free shipping in the US for orders of only $35. (That would be 11 bottles)

Thats amazing and might be what I was lookin for! Thank you

 Zid wrote:

Ulfhednar_42 wrote:
Reaper master series is an excellent option, and they offer free shipping in the US for orders of only $35. (That would be 11 bottles)

Thats amazing and might be what I was lookin for! Thank you

Note that the Reaper Master Series paints are extremely matte which some (like myself) do not like. You may wish to pick up a few bottles first to try them out.

You can also find Vallejo for roughly $2.65-2.75 per bottle routinely online at various retailers.

Unless you're extremely sloppy, a standard Vallejo bottle can last you a year or two - unless you're base coating tanks or something. I just always buy one or two bottles with every order I make at common retailers.

Army Painter Mega Set is under $100 and is like 50 paints

https://www.gamersroll.com/tapwp8021-army-painter-warpaints-mega-paint-set-2017.html?utm_source=google_shopping&m=simple&gclid=Cj0KCQiAnuDTBRDUARIsAL41eDpuESVOTJrkjdmK8co1NZOUeRZNQFhK03O3rVH-j2662_0158Jh6ukaAumhEALw_wcB

I have one set inside a cabinet organized on a nail polish rack. It's fantastic and really improved my painting just by having all access from the start.

 womprat49 wrote:
Army Painter Mega Set is under $100 and is like 50 paints

https://www.gamersroll.com/tapwp8021-army-painter-warpaints-mega-paint-set-2017.html?utm_source=google_shopping&m=simple&gclid=Cj0KCQiAnuDTBRDUARIsAL41eDpuESVOTJrkjdmK8co1NZOUeRZNQFhK03O3rVH-j2662_0158Jh6ukaAumhEALw_wcB

I have one set inside a cabinet organized on a nail polish rack. It's fantastic and really improved my painting just by having all access from the start.

I just got one of those sets off of Amazon. I'm going to use it tonight, and I'll throw my opinion of it on here later, but I've heard great reviews about it from my friends.

Army painter warpaints are a bit inconsistent, with some thicker than you'd like, while others don't have great coverage. I also disliked the Greedy Gold metallic (but gold paints are notoriously difficult).

I bought big into Reaper Master Series, and it's nice if you like having your triads laid out for your clearly. All the paints are grouped by threes, so you have a shadow, midtone, and highlight. I find that they clog a lot, but they were my main paints for over a decade.

Vallejo game colors are probably the best place to start.

I like MSP. Little bottles under five bucks. If you keep them clean you get to use all the paint

I would advise you go with reaper master series as they are an acrylic based paint not a latex based paint like GW or vallajo, how ever when using it, you have to seal your model with a sealer when you are done or else it will chip off really easy. I suggest testors laquor sealer.

Note how ever, in this hobby there are two things you really dont wanna be cheap on, 1)Your brush, its night and day between a good brush and a cheap on. and 2) Paint, If all your have used are GW paints you are in fore a big surprise when you start to use Reaper paints.

 Backspacehacker wrote:
in this hobby there are two things you really dont wanna be cheap...2) Paint, If all your have used are GW paints you are in fore a big surprise when you start to use Reaper paints.

This is far from true; Citadel paints are consistently good (particularly their acrylic metallics).

Each of the major paint ranges have pro's and con's: Reaper is useful because of the Triad system and colour range; Vallejo is good for their value and colour range (across all of their ranges); Citadel is good for their consistency and availability; P3 is great for their use of liquid pigments, which make them great for glaze painting and wet blending; Scale 75 is great for their matte finish and interesting metal range; Tamiya is great for military colours and airbrushing, etc.

Truthfully, its largely down to personal preference (for things like the bottle size and shape, paint finish, etc.), and honestly provided that you treat your paints right (correctly thin them, seal them correctly, etc.) there is very little difference for most people. In fact half of the display painting community use artist acrylics/oil paints, and skip the miniature ranges.

Pick the right paint for what you are doing, and don't limit yourself to one brand.

I personally like army painter for their color range, price, and dropper bottles. feth citadel.

Winter wrote:
Truthfully, its largely down to personal preference (for things like the bottle size and shape, paint finish, etc.), and honestly provided that you treat your paints right (correctly thin them, seal them correctly, etc.) there is very little difference for most people. In fact half of the display painting community use artist acrylics/oil paints, and skip the miniature ranges.

Also simply shade consistency in terms of old armies. I have NO IDEA what paints I would need from army painter range to do exact same shades as my sons of horus now or if it's even possible! And having different shades of green would suck in terms of consistency. So I'm rather stuck with GW paints for those. For blood angels meanwhile it's vallejo airbrush paint range and again loathe to change in case shades don't match.

Also simply availability. While I love vallejo the only convenient store for quick purchases doesn't stock them having switched them to army painter range. I thus need to order them which often means either 40e minimum order or shipping prices and 2 weeks wait. Not good if you just need 1-2 paints and quickly.

Convenience has it's own value.

edit: And according to this https://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Paint_Range_Compatibility_Chart army painter has NEITHER colour I use for sons of horus. Albeit could be out of date. Kabalite green + sybarite green.

Op asked for paints that won't break the bank.

I really would not recommend citadel paints as they are one of the most expensive if not the most expensive miniature paints
on the market.

Vallejo Model Color range is very consistent and similar quality to citadel range.
Citadel is more expensive than Vallejo and you get just 12ml compare to 17ml.
Also they have the worst bottle possible. Paint has a tendency to dry out quite fast.

Though then you have to factor in other prices. For me vallejo is lot more expensive unless I buy like 10+ bottles at the same time which isn't common. For 2 bottles for example I can more than double the price due to postage.

AP might be cheaper but then again all the initial waste bottles to find correct match or need to buy multiples to mix shades adds up into issue as well

He's buying a new range I doubt he'll pick just a few paints. He can pick sets which then it comes even cheaper per bottle.
You have so many options buying online. I'm pretty sure you can get free postage from some online stores.

 Modock wrote:
He's buying a new range I doubt he'll pick just a few paints. He can pick sets which then it comes even cheaper per bottle.

Yes. And as we all know you buy one set and never ever ever buy more eh? One bottle lasts your life time and all that.

Of course not. Usually when I buy miniatures online, let's say from Wayland, I pick paints as well so that I break the postage threshold.
So no postage for me. It's not science fiction you know. I really don't need to buy 1 or 2 paints per week.

 Modock wrote:
Of course not. Usually when I buy miniatures online, let's say from Wayland, I pick paints as well so that I break the postage threshold.
So no postage for me. It's not science fiction you know. I really don't need to buy 1 or 2 paints per week.

This assumes you always have cash and something to buy. I don't buy models weekly. Or even monthly. I do periodically run out of bottle of paint or two though.

I use Vallejo partly because it's the cheapest but mainly because the nearest hobby shop to me carries it. Though I do buy other brands from time to time (a store maybe 20 minutes drive away carries damned near every range of paints, and another one 30 minutes drive away carries some of the more obscure paints you won't find in wargaming shops, like lacquer paints).

IMO buying paints online sucks***, so the paint brand you can actually buy from a physical store is a big plus.

These days I avoid citadel, I have had way too many dry out. At first it didn't bother me until I added up the monetary value of throwing out paints and it was absurd, so I only buy citadel if they have a specific paint I want and avoid them for the bulk of my range.

***I find buying paints online sucks overall, it works okay for the first batch of paints, but then you actually get painting and you'll hit a point where you go "oh, I need X colour to do this" and if you're buying online you have to wait for it, you have to pay shipping on a single pot or you have to wait even longer to build a bigger order so you can avoid (or minimise) shipping. It's just so inconvenient. When I was buying paints online my painting got halted more often due to lacking a colour and I ended up buying a bunch of junk I never use because I didn't want to pay shipping on just 1 or 2 pots of paint. I had to start keeping tallies of paints I needed instead of, ya know, just buying the paints and getting stuck in to painting

Now I just drive down the street and get the paint I need when I need them.

I don't have the luxury of a shop nearby. There's only one FLGS that carries miniature paints and it's 1 hour drive away.
I would spent more on gas than on postage.

Also that shop has just citadel range which I avoid like a plague.

If you don't have a shop nearby then the decision is made for you, still sucks though

The other point I didn't mention was actually being able to see the paints. When I was buying online I bought way more paints thinking they'd turn out differently to what they actually did.

So far I've used 5 of the Army Painter paints I got. One thing is that you have to shake them EXTREMELY well, otherwise they are thin and you don't get good coverage, or color. I'm happy with the quality, once I shake it in ways that would have Child Services wondering about my parenting abilities. Going to invest in a paint shaker off of Amazon (around $40, and has multiple uses for me personally).

I would reccomend the matte and gloss paint ranges of Kreul, if price is your primary concern. The cost of a pot is half that of a GW one, and the pot also has almost twice the ammount of paint. I would say that as far as quality is concerned it's about the same, with some aspects being better, and some worse. The only major downside is that the paint is a bit more easily chipped, but if you seal it it isn't a problem. Stay away from the metalic paint range, it's absolutely terrible.
http://www.c-kreul.de/KREUL-Acrylic-matt-paint.249.0.html?&L=1
http://www.c-kreul.de/KREUL-Acrylic-gloss-paints.248.0.html?&L=1

While Vallejo is a great brand to use, I would also look into testors model master line. I have aquired some excellent paints from that line. Tamiya is also a paint that I use, it works well but it is alcohol based. If you go with tamiya it would be a good idea to purchase their thinner also.

Modock wrote:Op asked for paints that won't break the bank.

I really would not recommend citadel paints as they are one of the most expensive if not the most expensive miniature paints
on the market.

Vallejo Model Color range is very consistent and similar quality to citadel range.
Citadel is more expensive than Vallejo and you get just 12ml compare to 17ml.
Also they have the worst bottle possible. Paint has a tendency to dry out quite fast.

tneva82 wrote:Though then you have to factor in other prices. For me vallejo is lot more expensive unless I buy like 10+ bottles at the same time which isn't common. For 2 bottles for example I can more than double the price due to postage.

AP might be cheaper but then again all the initial waste bottles to find correct match or need to buy multiples to mix shades adds up into issue as well

Modock wrote:He's buying a new range I doubt he'll pick just a few paints. He can pick sets which then it comes even cheaper per bottle.
You have so many options buying online. I'm pretty sure you can get free postage from some online stores.

I would seriously suggest that people take a look at our INSTAR Range after seeing all the comments on here, not only do we provide our paint in superb dropper bottles that are easy to handle and dispense from, but we also do reasonably priced worldwide postage (We've just sent some of our paint out to Thailand) at a fast delivery speed and we are cheaper than Citadel, Vallejo and Army Painter.

But just because we are cheaper doesn't mean that we compromised on the quality of the product, our paints provide excellent coverage compared to the other three major brands and because we provide our paint in different sized bottles means you can pick and choose the exact amount of paint you need, got a lot of minis to base coat, pick a 50ml or 100ml bottle, only doing tiny details or small parts that won't require much paint, choose a 2ml or 5ml bottle or alternatively if you're not sure, go for the 10ml or 20ml bottles. We had people all over the world test our product prior to our launch with extremely positive reviews and feedback.

Our Metallic range is also fantastic quality at a lower cost compared to the top three and being pre-thinned means it's extremely easy to paint with and we are planning to add some new colours to the range away from the norm so we'll be adding reds, greens, oranges etc.

Our normal paint range is also useable straight from the bottle with very little (If none) thinning required and still give a great finish as good as a mini that has been painted with thinned paints and not to mention our Vintage line which is bringing back OOP colours using our INSTAR formulation.

And last but not least, we are currently working on six colour sets along various themes. They're not ready yet, but they will be soon

as they are an acrylic based paint not a latex based paint like GW or vallajo,

Latex based? They're acrylics.

I can confirm that supershandys' paints are pretty good.

Actually the real reason I like MSP is because they all say non-toxic on the bottle. Makes me feel better about my cats insistence on drinking used paint water.

Seriously, nothing you can do to stop him. I've even stuck old brushes in the pot so he can't fit his face in there. He just shoves his face in the pot anyways, brush in the eye? Who cares, paint water tastes good.