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I only just realised these are a thing and I don’t quite get the need to have special paints for dry brushing when you can dry brush with any paint

You are correct in your deduction. I bought a dry paint once, then quickly realised it was pointless and a waste of money.

I have tried but in general found dissapointing. Especially as they don't seem to last particularly long. Only time I found it useful so far was with osgiliath ruins when I had enough I could use it all right away. Others been try once, next time find it's dried up into useless stage.

I can half dry paints by myself all I want already.

I mean, it's not like GW pots wouldn't help in that regard.

The one exception is Ryza Rust, which is really more like a technical paint. I've never used it for drybrushing, but it's great for blobbing onto models as rust. The lumpy texture is perfect for this. I've been using it today, actually.

I've been using Necron Compound recently for some metallic drybrushing and thought it was pretty good actually. Much more efficient than using standard paints for drybrushing where most of it ends up either left on the palette or wiped off the brush before painting.

I tried out necron compound and was pretty satisfied as it comes out a little lighter than my usual approach of drybrushing leadbelcher. Also tried terminatus stone, but was seldom really satisfied. It looks nice on top of turbans painted with white +seraphim Sepia though.

Yeah, the dry paints are great for edging, sometimes you have to add a bit of distill water and a drop of acrylic medium. They tend to be best for edge highlights as intended or glows on details.

There are some colors that are exclusively in DRY format.

FWIW, you still need to dab away excess dry paint off the brush prior to application anyways, so it kind of defeats the purpose.

I might have a Citadel dry I haven't used much, but I do have a Vallejo dry I use quite often. Seems like the same thing. I really like it, it's a very dark grey colour I use as a layer over black, before a mid grey edge highlight, and the extra dryness makes it a tiny bit less of a hassle drying the brush on a paper towel. It's a small thing, but since it's a colour I use all the time I'm glad of it. I've used it as a normal paint before too, I just mixed a bit of glaze medium to thin it.

Anything at all that makes the painting process smoother and easier I'm all for. You can certainly live without dry paints, but if you want a colour to use as a drybrush or edge highlight I'd go for it

Didn’t know Vallejo did this. I makes me think there might be something in it if more than one brand are making it. But I don’t consistently dry brush just a few colourS donut still feels like it would be a lot of ££ for something I can do with my existing paints

I've used Necron Comound a fair bit.

Did quite, a, few buildings with it for my Mars themed board, as well as all my Ryza stuff.

Just using Leadbelcher would have resulted in more wasted paint, IMO.

If you only occasionally use dry brushing or don’t use it on large areas then the dry paints are pointless. That being said they’re one of the few citadel paints that I still use, I waste less paint and make less mess when I’ve used them.

 feltmonkey wrote:
The one exception is Ryza Rust, which is really more like a technical paint. I've never used it for drybrushing, but it's great for blobbing onto models as rust. The lumpy texture is perfect for this. I've been using it today, actually.

Ryza Rust is the only Dry paint that I use too, except I don't use it as intended: I massively dilute it.

I then apply thin layers in a kind of targeted wash, to recesses or any areas where rain would puddle. Rust is less likely to form on the edges of metal, so a wash makes more sense than drybrushing.

I'll second the comments about Necron Compound. I got some with a conquest issue and used it when painting some chainmail and was pleasantly surprised at the results. I probably wouldn't go out of my way to buy another bottle, but it seemed to do as advertised rather well, so no complaints.

I'll be interested to see how it goes with terrain, as I have quite a bit that will require a metallic drybrushing.

They're nice, I've used the local store's bottles, but I've never bought them myself for fear of them drying out.

To me it seems like it's not just a case of them being very dry, but they also seem to have a lot of pigment per unit volume which makes it easier to control how much you build up on the model with each stroke.