Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I had never used official Games Workshop paints before but I finally got myself a set. Since I had two similar models to paint I decided to see how different paints compared when applied by an untalented jackass.




The model with candles and not wearing a helmet was painted using GW paints. The model with a helmet was painted using generic acrylic paint that I got from a general hobby store, the type that comes in big tubes of 100ml or more. I don't see all that much difference in the results. The GW paint definitely has a smoother finish, whereas the cheap paint is a little too thick and has little flakes in it. This resulted in a few areas with excessive coverage and some lumps. The results from GW's products are definitely a little better, but I don't think it makes up for the extreme price difference. If I properly prepared the cheap paint by thinning it a bit then the results would probably be almost identical, but that would require way more effort than I could ever hope to spare.

Just thought this experiment might be of interest, so feel free to comment.

That about matches my experience, I've used cheaper craft acrylic paints for most of my time in the hobby, and they work fine. I only used a gw paints for the first time this year, and they're not bad, but I like my usual tubes just fine.

Jay from eons of battle on YouTube does a series of videos all about using alternative or cheep paints.
It’s quite fun to see what works, and what doesn’t.

It does help to understand what you’re buying as well, a lot of paints from store will be cheep craft and art for kids.
Which often will sacrifice what we may like for the ability for a child to lick the brush and be safe.
To varying degrees, so I wouldn’t do it… but it can be a big factor for some brands.

I get a lot of craft paint in black, white and browns since they are so common for mixing as well.

Art stores will also often have high quality paints for cheep that you can mix down ; j if you’re willing to put in the extra effort.
And hard chalks and others for pigments to blend your own mixes from scratch.
The more practice, the more you can do with any paint and that can be a lot of fun

I just finished a couple of immolators using the same comparison that I did before. The immolator with spikes on the front and a larger shrine at the back uses cheap craft store paints. The immolator with two cherubim and the more orangey gold is all done with GW colours.

Again, I think that both turned out pretty much the same. The GW paints definitely save a bit of time on larger areas because they tend to start out as more useful colours - the craft paint ivory, silver and gold are all not quite right so I have to mix them every time. Having said that I find GW's orangey gold pretty obnoxious on this scale and probably should have dulled it down a bit. I don't have red craft ink or yellow GW ink so that allowed a bit more variety on the stained glassrete window. I was glad for a chance to finally use the yellow ink for something but it turns out that is bad for this purpose too

Also, I found a source of Vallejo Xpress paints and they seemed pretty cheap, so I might give them a try at some point in the future. Thanks all for the advice!

Yep, good results on both.

Thank you!

I would actually say that there's quite a bit of difference, in particular on the two immolators. The one painted with GW paint looks so much smoother. The other one looks like some sort of texture was added all over it. To each their own, of course, but even "an untalented jackass" like you gets a (much) better result in my eyes with GW paints .

OK, that is interesting. I agree that the GW version is a little smoother but I didn't think it was that noticible. Still not sure that it is worth the extra cost though

Thanks for the feedback!

Well, it takes me forever to get anything finished but I finally have an update. I had three Retributor squads and the plan was to paint one using cheap hobby store paint, one using GW paint and one using Vallejo Xpress Color. However, I tested the Vallejo on a random Space Marine that I didn't care about and the results were absolutely shocking. I am amazed that they are allowed to sell a product that gives such bad results, so I am really glad that I didn't ruin any of my good models with that garbage.

As a result, I now have the squad on the left (Superior with sword) that used only cheap paint, the squad in the middle (Superior with hand flamer) that used only GW paint, and the squad on the right (Superior with book) that used a mixture of the two (but mostly GW). I think they all turned out pretty well, but the cheaply painted ones definitely look a little rougher, especially due to some poor colour choices on the cherubim.

At least those 21 models are done. Only another 60 and I will have completed my army

If anyone has any thoughts then please let me know

Very much not bad. Nice looking army!

Cool scheme, I like them alot!

Thanks a lot! I think I will work on my Penitent Engines next...