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So, I was looking arround a webshop I use for gaming stuff that the local toy store dont have (That is, any non GW stuff) and stumbled across Army Painter. I noticed a rather nice looking paint set, That contains 42 paints, And 3 brushes, And a painting guide. And then I checked on the GW site for GW paint sets, To compare the prices. And on the GW site for a fraction less, You get half as many paints, With half as big bottles (So.. 1/4 of the paint..?) No guide and no brushes.. so I thought the Army Painter stuff looked rather nice, But I cant find many real reviews on it.. So, I decided to ask here. Are the Army Painter paints any good?

Army Painter are ace

I use colour primers and the dropper bottles along with my GW paints, they have a lovely consistency and coverage.

Their black and brown washes are near exact copies of the old GW Badab Black and Devlan Mud. They're the only two that I have used but I love them.

The quality is comparable to GW or Vallejo. The value (price per unit of volume) is far better than the former and slightly better than the latter. I don't like the idea of paint sets, personally (any bulk savings is usually negated by scarcely/ never used colors, some colors that are more or less a necessity for certain schemes may be missing, entirely), but the AP offering is as good as any.

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:
Their black and brown washes are near exact copies of the old GW Badab Black and Devlan Mud.

Are they now?
That's good to know.

I love quality of the paints, its just a shame every spray can ive had from them dies after a couple of uses.

Floyd73 wrote:
I love quality of the paints, its just a shame every spray can ive had from them dies after a couple of uses.

The paint that comes from the AP rattle cans is really thick; I think that's a contributing factor in a bunch of them. You really need to hold it upside down and give it a good, 2 second spray after you're done, and then wipe off the tip with a paper towel. Otherwise, like you say, certain colors are awful for jamming up :(

On the bright side, you can take the spray head off, dunk it in isopropyl for a while, and clean it out. Or swap spray heads with another one.

I swear by Army Painter's sprays, and the colors that match them are lovely for the most part. However, Greenskin was a great primer but literally the worst bottled paint I've ever used. It manages to both be thick and require a lot of thinning, yet also require 3-4 coats just to cover a previous coat of the same color with a light wash. It's a garbage paint.

Their Crystal Blue, Angel Green, and Bone are all colors I've used plenty though, and I like them a lot.

I currently own the whole range (the zombie paints excluded) and i´ve used the black spray primer. I do think some of the paints are great, while others are complete garbage.
The reds and yellow have horrible coverage, even if i try to mix it with a darker colour first, i think i´ve had to apply about 11 thin layes to actually get a decent coverage. On the other hand, the browns and silvers are fantastic, they have great coverage and gives a really nice finish. The gold and brass colour is good to, but they require a couple of coats to actually cover (which is a shame).
But the best part about the army painter are the washes, i bloody love them! Green, purple, blue, red, dark, strong and soft are superb, and gives excellent shading with a good flow to them. I really like to play around with the blue, green and purple one to get a really sickly colour on my VC zombies.

An other note though is the spray primer, while it does give a solid cover, it feels like it comes out to thick, so be really gentle if you´re going to use it!

I use the black primer spray and like it.

The Gun Metal and Weapon Bronze look nice with no thinning.

I particularly dislike the lava orange I have a grot wearing a hat in that color aND I could never make it right.

I use Greenskin and do indeed have trouble with it. I thin it it gets too thin immediately and if I don't thin it it goes on poorly. Almost looking forward to trying the paint pot of GW Waaagh Flesh that came with newbie kit

Army Green looks nice and did well on grots, and might be great for a more realistic look - 2 paint to 1 thinner.

Dragon Red, Alien Purple.. worked nicely.

Leather Brown, Fur Brown, worked nicely 2 paint to one drop of flow improver.

Still a painting novice, my advice last

 deacoy wrote:
I currently own the whole range (the zombie paints excluded) and i´ve used the black spray primer. I do think some of the paints are great, while others are complete garbage.
The reds and yellow have horrible coverage, even if i try to mix it with a darker colour first, i think i´ve had to apply about 11 thin layes to actually get a decent coverage. On the other hand, the browns and silvers are fantastic, they have great coverage and gives a really nice finish. The gold and brass colour is good to, but they require a couple of coats to actually cover (which is a shame).

This is very true. However, remember that in fairness, *most* paint ranges have problems with colors like red and yellow. Until Mephiston red, Citadel was god-awful for trying to cover red over black. I recall an old White Dwarf Masterclass segment that bemoaned how red had weak pigments; I think they suggested painting brown or some flesh tone first to prepare the area. In the recent Druthu GW guide, they suggest Averland Susnet onto black primer before red. Ever tried to airbrush red over black using VMA? It's so painful. But toss on sand first, and the red looks gorgeous in 2 coats.

I think this is why many miniature painters end up losing their "brand loyalty" and start using different pigments from different brands. For example, I absolutely love Leadbelcher, and Runefang super useful, but Ironbreaker I never use, and when I want a bright silver in a single coat (like for studs)? It's Vallejo all the way. And, I've recently switched from Abbadon Black to Thamar Black (P3), for everything other than basecoat.

 Snrub wrote:

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:
Their black and brown washes are near exact copies of the old GW Badab Black and Devlan Mud.

Are they now?
That's good to know.

This is the exact reason I first tried army painter's line of paints.

The ones I've tried have been good, similar to all the other acrylics I've tried... I find them all pretty similar other than the alcohol based acrylics which behave very differently (Tamiya/Gunze).

The AP washes are great. I've mostly swapped over from GW washes to AP washes because the AP washes are like the old GW washes which were great.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Talys wrote:

 deacoy wrote:
I currently own the whole range (the zombie paints excluded) and i´ve used the black spray primer. I do think some of the paints are great, while others are complete garbage.
The reds and yellow have horrible coverage, even if i try to mix it with a darker colour first, i think i´ve had to apply about 11 thin layes to actually get a decent coverage. On the other hand, the browns and silvers are fantastic, they have great coverage and gives a really nice finish. The gold and brass colour is good to, but they require a couple of coats to actually cover (which is a shame).

This is very true. However, remember that in fairness, *most* paint ranges have problems with colors like red and yellow. Until Mephiston red, Citadel was god-awful for trying to cover red over black. I recall an old White Dwarf Masterclass segment that bemoaned how red had weak pigments; I think they suggested painting brown or some flesh tone first to prepare the area. In the recent Druthu GW guide, they suggest Averland Susnet onto black primer before red. Ever tried to airbrush red over black using VMA? It's so painful. But toss on sand first, and the red looks gorgeous in 2 coats.

I think this is why many miniature painters end up losing their "brand loyalty" and start using different pigments from different brands. For example, I absolutely love Leadbelcher, and Runefang super useful, but Ironbreaker I never use, and when I want a bright silver in a single coat (like for studs)? It's Vallejo all the way. And, I've recently switched from Abbadon Black to Thamar Black (P3), for everything other than basecoat.

I roughly divide my reds and yellows in to 2 categories. Those that give good coverage but are duller tones and those that have terrible coverage but are more vibrant tones.

For the most part the vibrant ones simply don't cover well. You just have to use them differently, if you want a vibrant red/yellow, buy one of the vibrant ones (that typically have poor coverage) and use the appropriate undercoat. If you are happier with more muted tones, buy the ones that cover better but they usually aren't as vibrant.

The most annoying reds were the darker reds in the old GW range before they brought out the foundations. They were both muted tones AND they had poor coverage, the worst of both worlds

Thanks for all the replies! Dont know if I will buy the big box, Even though you save a lot (You get like 12 paints for free if I counted right), But I might get a few of the paints to try them out ^_^