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Over the years, I reviewed pretty much ALL miniature paint ranges out there over on Tale of Painters, and it was finally the time to compile my favourites in a single "Best of" list

In recent years, miniature paints have made a great leap forward in terms of quality, especially in terms of opacity and pigmentation. Even if you’ve been using the same paints for years and are used to them, I recommend to leave the beaten path and check out one of the more recent paint ranges. Hobby time is too valuable to waste it with subpar paints!

Here is my list, sorted by categories - best acrylics, best metallics, best washes, and best airbrush paints:
https://taleofpainters.com/2023/08/stahlys-best-acrylic-paints-for-painting-warhammer-miniatures-2023/

(I also ranked all Contrast / "one coat" paints a while ago, check my tier list here: https://taleofpainters.com/2023/04/review-all-one-coat-contrast-paints-ranked/)

Hope this helps, and I'd love to hear about your favourite ranges (and which range I might have missed).

No love for Tamiya or Mr Color water-soluble paints?

 tauist wrote:
No love for Tamiya or Mr Color water-soluble paints?

I love Tamiya and Mr Hobby varnishes, but I feel that their paint ranges are too niche for most (tabletop) hobbyists.

Would love to hear about your experiences with them though, and which colours you can recommend specifically

I have to say, I'm disappointed that you haven't mentioned Scale75 or P3 paints, both of which are high on my list of best paints.

Scale75s metallics in particular are wonderful (just don't mention their attempt at Contrast paints )

Also, TT Paints? I've never used them, but I'm assuming that they are a budget option, like most TT Combat stuff? I'd be honestly very surprised if they were as good as some other manufacturers, but hey, maybe I should give them a go?

I've picked up a big chunk of the reformulated Game Color line, with a few AK Interactive 3rd Gen paints (I like their metallics and do you know how hard it is to find a teal color in a miniature paint line ). Now I just need to get my arse in gear and actually paint something.

 stahly wrote:

 tauist wrote:
No love for Tamiya or Mr Color water-soluble paints?

I love Tamiya and Mr Hobby varnishes, but I feel that their paint ranges are too niche for most (tabletop) hobbyists.

Would love to hear about your experiences with them though, and which colours you can recommend specifically

Well, I don't have too much experience with them.. They are both somewhat solvent-based and as such, exhibit slight self-levelling and grip to the surface much firmer than regular acrylics. Big downside for them being, they cannot be used on a wet pallette (solvent evaporates and the paints dry on the pallette). But I think they are good paints whenever you need a solid foundation (basecoats etc), wouldn't recommend them for layering work

Paints mighthave improvea but availability isnt. If i need to order online bad. Order from outside my country? Yep not bothering with paint i can't get when i need free of extra charges even if it's just 1 bottle

 Undead_Love-Machine wrote:
I have to say, I'm disappointed that you haven't mentioned Scale75 or P3 paints, both of which are high on my list of best paints.

Scale75s metallics in particular are wonderful (just don't mention their attempt at Contrast paints )

Also, TT Paints? I've never used them, but I'm assuming that they are a budget option, like most TT Combat stuff? I'd be honestly very surprised if they were as good as some other manufacturers, but hey, maybe I should give them a go?

Overall I'm not a huge P3 fan, but some of their paints are awesome, particularly their white. It's my favourite white at the moment.

But there's so many paint ranges it's hard to include them all.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Undead_Love-Machine wrote:
I have to say, I'm disappointed that you haven't mentioned Scale75 or P3 paints, both of which are high on my list of best paints.

Scale75s metallics in particular are wonderful (just don't mention their attempt at Contrast paints )

Also, TT Paints? I've never used them, but I'm assuming that they are a budget option, like most TT Combat stuff? I'd be honestly very surprised if they were as good as some other manufacturers, but hey, maybe I should give them a go?

Overall I'm not a huge P3 fan, but some of their paints are awesome, particularly their white. It's my favourite white at the moment.

But there's so many paint ranges it's hard to include them all.

True, but the title of this thread is "the best miniature paints you can get in 2023", rather than "the best paints that I have used" or "my favourite miniature paints"

It makes it sound like Stahly has tried every paint range to the extent where he can make that bold claim, something that I'm not sure is completely accurate?

One option I haven't seen mentioned a lot is Jo Sonja paints. They are creamy, opaque, and can thin WAY down and keep their colors. Currently, I have a tube of Pearl, an off-white, that I thinned to airbrush consistancy and use that for zenithal priming. I only used about half the tube so far in 4-5 years, and the 4 oz bottle of thinned down stuff is still pretty full too.

 TheChrispyOne wrote:

One option I haven't seen mentioned a lot is Jo Sonja paints. They are creamy, opaque, and can thin WAY down and keep their colors. Currently, I have a tube of Pearl, an off-white, that I thinned to airbrush consistancy and use that for zenithal priming. I only used about half the tube so far in 4-5 years, and the 4 oz bottle of thinned down stuff is still pretty full too.

They don't seem to fit in the 'miniature paints' category but seem to be more of a general artist's paints.

 Undead_Love-Machine wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Undead_Love-Machine wrote:
I have to say, I'm disappointed that you haven't mentioned Scale75 or P3 paints, both of which are high on my list of best paints.

Scale75s metallics in particular are wonderful (just don't mention their attempt at Contrast paints )

Also, TT Paints? I've never used them, but I'm assuming that they are a budget option, like most TT Combat stuff? I'd be honestly very surprised if they were as good as some other manufacturers, but hey, maybe I should give them a go?

Overall I'm not a huge P3 fan, but some of their paints are awesome, particularly their white. It's my favourite white at the moment.

But there's so many paint ranges it's hard to include them all.

True, but the title of this thread is "the best miniature paints you can get in 2023", rather than "the best paints that I have used" or "my favourite miniature paints"

It makes it sound like Stahly has tried every paint range to the extent where he can make that bold claim, something that I'm not sure is completely accurate?

Scale75 are good, but they barely didn't made it onto the list. The regular range is too matt for my taste (and easy to rub off), the Fantasy & Games range nice but doesn't do anything the other paints on my list don't, and while the Alchemy paints have very fine particles, I feel that the metallics on my list are better in terms of opacity. Some of the lighter Alchemy paints are a bit weak.

Formula P3 has a few good colours, but overall their age shows. IMO their formula can't compete with recent advancements in miniature paints, which is why most of the ranges on my list are rather new paint ranges.

TTCombat paints are actually quite nice (the acrylics firstmost, the metallics & washes are decent but not spectacular), I reviewed them a while ago: https://taleofpainters.com/2023/07/review-ttcombat-paints-washes/

Of course, it's all based on my experiences and preferences, so your mileage may vary

Thanks for this! I'm familiar with most of those ranges, but you highlighted some paint colors that I haven't tried and now might.

I'm a pretty big fan of Scale 75 metallics, although I agree that the regular paints are excessively matte (my ideal miniature paint would be more of an eggshell). And I have a bottle of Citrine Alchemy that I just can't figure out. Doesn't seem to work well for any application that I've tried. *shrug*

I agree that the Warpaints Air range is surprisingly good. I'm not a fan of most of their regular range, but I tried them based on a recommendation and glad I did.

For metallics (or at least silvers), I don't think it gets better than Vallejo Metal Color (for acrylics, at least). Just curious...did you leave them out because of bad experiences or because they're primarily an airbrush paint?

 gorgon wrote:

For metallics (or at least silvers), I don't think it gets better than Vallejo Metal Color (for acrylics, at least). Just curious...did you leave them out because of bad experiences or because they're primarily an airbrush paint?

For a variety of reasons. First and foremost because they are targeted at scale modellers, not Fantasy/Sci-fi painters. The colour selection reflects that, missing a lot of key colours from the GW range. Note that my list of metallics pretty much follows the template set by the Citadel range, as I feel this is the approach of our audience - Tale of Painters is a Warhammer-centric website after all.

Also, Metal Colors' airbrush-friendly formula is quite thin, and you can hardly drybrush with them.

Overall I feel they don't do much more than the metallics on my list don't, and because of the reasons above they aren't something I would recommend to a beginner or average painter, who might only be familiar with Citadel or Army Painter paints.

 gorgon wrote:


I'm a pretty big fan of Scale 75 metallics, although I agree that the regular paints are excessively matte (my ideal miniature paint would be more of an eggshell). And I have a bottle of Citrine Alchemy that I just can't figure out. Doesn't seem to work well for any application that I've tried. *shrug*

I use Citrine Alchemy as a gold highlight, but from what I can gather it's a very "marmite" paint: you either love or hate it.

Speaking about paints that you can't figure out, I tried a gold wash from Secret Weapon once. It was way too light to be of any use at all.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 stahly wrote:

 gorgon wrote:

For metallics (or at least silvers), I don't think it gets better than Vallejo Metal Color (for acrylics, at least). Just curious...did you leave them out because of bad experiences or because they're primarily an airbrush paint?

For a variety of reasons. First and foremost because they are targeted at scale modellers, not Fantasy/Sci-fi painters. The colour selection reflects that, missing a lot of key colours from the GW range. Note that my list of metallics pretty much follows the template set by the Citadel range, as I feel this is the approach of our audience - Tale of Painters is a Warhammer-centric website after all.

Also, Metal Colors' airbrush-friendly formula is quite thin, and you can hardly drybrush with them.

Overall I feel they don't do much more than the metallics on my list don't, and because of the reasons above they aren't something I would recommend to a beginner or average painter, who might only be familiar with Citadel or Army Painter paints.

Personally I feel that they are borderline useless without an airbrush.

Personally I feel that Vallejo Metal Color give a much better result than any other metal acrylics I've tried...but I understand the thinking behind leaving them out for the purpose of this review (not beginner-friendly, don't fit the GW/Citadel approach, etc.).

Regarding Citrine Alchemy...yeah, I bought it to highlight gold. I'm just not happy with it in any way I've tried it. It might just be me.