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So i got out of the 40K for a few years (about the time age of sigmar came out) but recently decided to get back into the hobbying side of things. Thought id go back to the old Dark Angels. Only issue is pretty much all my old paints are absolutely shagged at this point.

Should i just bite the bullet and re buy all the citadel paints again or would it be better to try some alternatives? I've been looking at the 72 pot vallejo game colour set but im not sure as the only vallejo ive used previously is Royal Purple, which admittedly was my favourite paint to use.

Alternatively if youve got any over recommendations for some relatively cheap options im all ears.

Vallejo is arguably the best overall paint brand. Huge range, cheap prices, great dropper bottles. Had almost zero issues and I own maybe 150 bottles of Vallejo. Only thing I don't own is any of their washes, so I don't know anything about them. Have a few buddies who swear by their Air Colour range for airbrushes as well.

Only consideration is if you plan on going "by the book" from GW tutorials. GW still sells gakky designed pots with less paint for more money. It's good paint, excellent even...but that's irrelevant if you bottle dries up, and you're paying $4.50 for 12mL....instead of $3 for 17mL.

 Elbows wrote:
Vallejo is arguably the best overall paint brand. Huge range, cheap prices, great dropper bottles. Had almost zero issues and I own maybe 150 bottles of Vallejo. Only thing I don't own is any of their washes, so I don't know anything about them. Have a few buddies who swear by their Air Colour range for airbrushes as well.

Only consideration is if you plan on going "by the book" from GW tutorials. GW still sells gakky designed pots with less paint for more money. It's good paint, excellent even...but that's irrelevant if you bottle dries up, and you're paying $4.50 for 12mL....instead of $3 for 17mL.

How close would you say the colours were between the two?

If you're concerned about matching the colors of your original models then you should purchase the same paints you used for the original models.

https://redgrimm.github.io/paint-conversion/vallejo-model.html?fbclid=IwAR25HBXJynUjDzvQ5o_R8UV2h4owZ8wzAGz1WMdw40pjXmBNdV7XCf_w9So

This paint comparison may be of interest.

Vallejo is very very good, I use it a ton. The considerations you'll want to take on board are:

1) Be extremely vigilant about cleaning your droppers. Keep a paperclip or other metal object handy to clean out the dropper tip, and clean up any spillage that occurs after you drop paint out. The biggest problem I have with Vallejo is the tips getting clogged.

2) I have found the consistency of vallejo paints to be a little on the variable side. Some bottles are perfectly thinned, some are very watery/separated, and some are very thick and chunky. You will find the exact same stuff with GW or any paint brand really - just have a bottle of thinner handy and be prepared to do some extra customization.

3) Working with a wet palette is essential for any dropper paints. They're very easy to make, requiring only a plate or tupperware container, a paper towel or sponge, and parchment paper. The surface of a wet palette will keep your paints at the consistency you ant them and prevent them from drying out as you work.

I use a mix of vallejo, I love there extra opaque colours for base coating, I personally prefer gw washes so use them, and also army painter washes, finally I also recently started using scale 75 paints which are of decent quality.

It's a bit of an oversimplification to just say "Vallejo," but it's also pretty much always the best choice to form the core of a collection, unless you have a very specific reason to use another brand. Those reasons tend to be:
-Availability: Vallejo is usually only found at well stocked gaming/hobby shops
-Matching GW paint schemes: a legit reason to go GW, but there are plenty of ways to work around it
-Desire to buy a "starter set" Vallejo has a lot of sets, but no go-to starter like GW, Army Painter, Reaper, and PP. Vallejo does make some starters for historicals though.
-Overwhelming range: Vallejo sometimes is too much for people, with no clear idea of where to start (although Game Colors is a great start IMO).

There's a Vallejo Game Colour starter set:

https://acrylicosvallejo.com/en/producto/hobby/sets/basic-en/advanced-72298/

Along with the redgrimm paint conversion chart, I find this one to be handy too: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Y4IRCsIk0tFiFjP0nZHwMfTnSoLxRptNnB5Vz7HLKto/edit#gid=4

Personally I'd find a scheme or tutorial I like, build a paint list with a few different brands and see how I like each.

Ever since GW changed up its paint line a few years ago, I find Vallejo doesn't match as well as it used to because GW added and changed so many colors that just don't have true equivalents in Vallejo Game Color.

Not sure how available Army Painter is in the UK, but Tale of Painters has a great review and has his own equivalencies to GW paints: https://taleofpainters.blogspot.com/2019/03/review-army-painters-complete-warpaints.html

If I had to pick one to start from scratch again I'd definitely say Vallejo or Army Painter. Dropper bottles are superior in every way I can find and you get more paint for your money than GW.

This is something to add, yet a question at the same time. In the past I've had pretty good results with Testors Model Master Acrylic paints (the metallics not so much.... went with Tamiya for that). This was more of a test run on vehicles and to see whether if I'd take to the hobby or not. Readily available at hobby shops and I've found a small selection of paints at Michaels and Hobby Lobby ..... with price ranging a bit over $3-$4 .... then throw in a 40% or 50% coupon if your patient enough. What I found important was determining if I was going to be patient enough to stick with the hobby to warrant purchasing a larger set.