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Hey Dakka,

I'm on a pretty tight budget and I'm looking to purchase the paints I'll need to begin painting my army.

My question is: Which brand of paints provide the best bang for my buck?
I'm particularly interested in washes/shades. Wash based painting is my favourite method.

Have any other advice on paints? Please let me know!

Cheers ^_^

I always tell people not to stick to a single brand with paints, use whatever suits the job the best. That being said....

If you're on a budget, avoid Citadel. They're the priciest, and also contain far less per pot than the others ( a double whammy of poor value). The current generation of Citadel washes is also very poor.

I prefer AP to Vallejo generally, but Vallejo have a great range so if you're looking for odd colours you're more likely to find them there. If you're only after a few basic colours and are going to mix the rest then Army Painter will probably suit. Army Painter's Strong, Dark and Soft Tone washes are also excellent. They're brining out some washes in other colours shortly as well (red, blue, purple & green).

I would suggest Vallejo but voted Citadel.

Simple reason is the GW stuff in ubiquitous. You will almost certainly be able to get it in most towns, so if you need a colour you can easily go and get one. So you can pick up a basic GW (online discount) get and get cracking with the basics and add colours to what you have.

Vallejo is nice and thick so forces you to thin it (good practice), comes in dropper bottles and has a great range of colours, but as I say unless you have a hobby shop nearby you may get to the point where you are waiting to get paint. That's not to say you couldn't get a Vallejo set and pick up random other ranges of paints.

I'm not a fan of Army painter but I accept I am a very small minority.

Humbrol are okay but not great quality/coverage.

To flip the thread on its head, can you indicate what you want to paint and roughly what colours will be the main "themes".

This might help us suggest a specific starter set from one of the ranges.

 notprop wrote:


To flip the thread on its head, can you indicate what you want to paint and roughly what colours will be the main "themes".

This might help us suggest a specific starter set from one of the ranges.

Yep, no problem.

I'm going to be painting Red Corsairs (red, black, brown, metals) and Nurgle (green, brown, yellow, flesh, blood and everything inbetween).
My brother is sharing paints with me, he will be painting Tyranids (Grey,blue,green).

I would also suggest a mix, I currently use the following brands;

Vallejo Model Air -amazing metalics, especially silver based ones
Vallejo Model/Game Color - good all around paints, but I had certain colors go bad (they separate and don't behave well anymore, this mostly happened with red/orange)
GW Brand - mostly really good quality and never had paint go bad. I go to these for my washes/glazes almost 100% of the time, and get specific colors I want to experiment with. Easy access to these is the best feature, I can walk into the store, see the paint, get it and start within an hour.
Reaper - hands down the best color paints I used, their triads are amazing stuff.
Tamiya - have a few select colors and shades, these are alcohol based, so I don't use them often
Gundam Marker Pens - the gold paint contained in the gold marker is magic, it works amazing. I also use the other colors to sometimes do simple jobs like painting purity seals and so on.

If I were to start over and only buy a few paints;

GW - primary washes and base colors
Vallejo Air - silver/platinum
Reaper - one or two reaper Triads, one for skin tone that you want and one for their wonderful selection of red (either Lava, Fire or Blood)
1 gold gundam pen - this is a personal thing but I hate painting gold and this thing has made it easy. I usually drop some paint from the pen and paint using a paintbrush. Would not recommend using the actual pen. I also heard that Valejo liquid gold works amazing, so maybe that is a cheaper replacement for the gundam pen

Hope this helps

Badger minitaire. They have a great selection of colors that you can often get discounted, as well as great ghost tints...they are pre thinned for airbrushing and work great to brush on directly

Availability can be spotty for the best deals (e.g. Amazon). I've had an order in since 31 March, still waiting.

BrotherVord wrote:
Badger minitaire. They have a great selection of colors that you can often get discounted, as well as great ghost tints...they are pre thinned for airbrushing and work great to brush on directly

Vallejo model colour for me. They're cheap and have good coverage. Though if you don't mind the price the GW bases can be better.

for washes I'd recomend AP or P3.

BTW I recomend that you avoid enamal like the plague and also Tamiya if you can't transfer them to better pots/bottles than their Emperor-awful screw tops.

Thanks for the advice guys.

Oh I just remembered Huda. If you have a Modelzone near you they are selling all Vallejo stock for 50% off as they are closing down.

jb1981 wrote:


If I were to start over and only buy a few paints;

GW - primary washes and base colors
Vallejo Air - silver/platinum
Reaper - one or two reaper Triads, one for skin tone that you want and one for their wonderful selection of red (either Lava, Fire or Blood)
1 gold gundam pen - this is a personal thing but I hate painting gold and this thing has made it easy. I usually drop some paint from the pen and paint using a paintbrush. Would not recommend using the actual pen. I also heard that Valejo liquid gold works amazing, so maybe that is a cheaper replacement for the gundam pen

Hope this helps

Seconded.


However, if you plan on using washes you should consider making your own. Check out this article: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/261541.page