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Don't stress too much about which brand you are buying***. They're all very similar and they all mix together so you can buy paints from different companies and they'll work together if you need them to work together. Focus on figuring out what colours you need and then figure out who makes them later, otherwise you're going to end up buying a whole bunch of paints you won't use.

The only thing to not like about GW paints are the prices and the pots. I have almost every brand of hobby acrylic paint on my shelf and frankly they're more similar than they are different.

***Assuming you stick to the known brands, Vallejo, Army Painter, Reaper, Citadel, P3 and so on. The only thing you want to be aware of is alcohol based acrylics (Tamiya and Gunze) don't mix well with non-alcoholic based acrylics (pretty much all the others).

 Minimachine wrote:
I mean they are about the most expensive paints out there, the pots they come in are awful to use and prone to drying out if not sealed correctly, and they're far thicker than most brands which will lead to visible brushstrokes & clumping unless they're carefully thinned which is something a beginner may struggle with.

All paints need to be thinned, I've not noticed GW paints being any thicker than any other paints. I'd say my thickest paints are my Reaper ones. GW base range are similar thickness to my Vallejo Model Color, GW layers are slightly thinner than Vallejo Model Color. Thinning is just one of those things you have to learn to do, and it's tricky! It's best if you can get someone to teach you as it's a hard thing to learn on your own or from online sources. The only paints I don't thin is when I hairy brush paint with my airbrush paints (Vallejo Model Air), however I wouldn't recommend you buy airbrush paints if you don't intend to use an airbrush.

The pots are the main reason I don't recommend GW paints. I've wasted a lot of money over the years on paints simply because they dried out and I had to replace them. But I still buy them when they have a colour I like.

If you had to describe my personal buying pattern, it would be I buy whichever brand makes the colour that I want. If multiple companies make the same paint, I tend to go favour the one in dropper bottles first and avoid GW's crappy pop tops (I don't mind the pop tops from P3).

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Don't stress too much about which brand you are buying***. They're all very similar and they all mix together so you can buy paints from different companies and they'll work together if you need them to work together. Focus on figuring out what colours you need and then figure out who makes them later, otherwise you're going to end up buying a whole bunch of paints you won't use.

The only thing to not like about GW paints are the prices and the pots. I have almost every brand of hobby acrylic paint on my shelf and frankly they're more similar than they are different.

***Assuming you stick to the known brands, Vallejo, Army Painter, Reaper, Citadel, P3 and so on. The only thing you want to be aware of is alcohol based acrylics (Tamiya and Gunze) don't mix well with non-alcoholic based acrylics (pretty much all the others).

 Minimachine wrote:
I mean they are about the most expensive paints out there, the pots they come in are awful to use and prone to drying out if not sealed correctly, and they're far thicker than most brands which will lead to visible brushstrokes & clumping unless they're carefully thinned which is something a beginner may struggle with.

All paints need to be thinned, I've not noticed GW paints being any thicker than any other paints. I'd say my thickest paints are my Reaper ones. GW base range are similar thickness to my Vallejo Model Color, GW layers are slightly thinner than Vallejo Model Color. Thinning is just one of those things you have to learn to do, and it's tricky! It's best if you can get someone to teach you as it's a hard thing to learn on your own or from online sources. The only paints I don't thin is when I hairy brush paint with my airbrush paints (Vallejo Model Air), however I wouldn't recommend you buy airbrush paints if you don't intend to use an airbrush.

The pots are the main reason I don't recommend GW paints. I've wasted a lot of money over the years on paints simply because they dried out and I had to replace them. But I still buy them when they have a colour I like.

If you had to describe my personal buying pattern, it would be I buy whichever brand makes the colour that I want. If multiple companies make the same paint, I tend to go favour the one in dropper bottles first and avoid GW's crappy pop tops (I don't mind the pop tops from P3).

A new line of paints just came out, Warcolors, and I've seen a few review for them and they seem to be really good paints at a fraction of the cost of competitors, with the only problem being the layer paints for it are a bit thicker than usual and require thinning. Other than that, I've heard nothing but praise for them.

Here's the site for Warcolors: http://www.warcolours.com/index.php?route=common/home

Do you happen to know anything about them? From the reviews so far, I might just up and buy the entire set of paints since reviewers said they almost never dry out or build up into gunk within the dropper bottles. They seem like the perfect paint.

You can always transfer paints into dropper bottles but understand even droppers will clog and get particles. and a particularly bad clogging can cause a massive problem (iv had vallejo silver bottle explode all over my pallet )

But in general they will waste less paint than GW ones.

There is also something to be said about color stability in the sense that the company wont change the formula on you suddenly. which is why i stay away from GW line. (i shall forever miss you charadon granite)

But for a newby get whatever paints you fancy and try and practice. its the only way for you to figure out how YOU like to paint.

Just remember to thin your paints

 Desubot wrote:
You can always transfer paints into dropper bottles but understand even droppers will clog and get particles. and a particularly bad clogging can cause a massive problem (iv had vallejo silver bottle explode all over my pallet )

But in general they will waste less paint than GW ones.

There is also something to be said about color stability in the sense that the company wont change the formula on you suddenly. which is why i stay away from GW line. (i shall forever miss you charadon granite)

But for a newby get whatever paints you fancy and try and practice. its the only way for you to figure out how YOU like to paint.

Just remember to thin your paints

Thanks for the advice! What are your opinions on a white/red color scheme for a Tau army (White Scar White for hard armor, and Mephiston Red for soft armour and highlights.) I would use a white primer to make painting the white easier and to make it pop more, along with brightening the red. However, people tell me that white is a bad color for newbs for several reasons, including it being unforgiving when it comes to mistakes, layers/shades looking or contrasting too sharply, and the like,

What do you think?

P.S. Have you had any experience with Warcolors paints, Reading reviews about them and watching videos of enthusiasts using them to paint, they seem like the ideal paint, both in quality and cost. It's almost too good to be true, which is why I'm asking.

Be forewarned that white is one of the more painstaking colors to get to look good. Blues, greens and browns are much more forgiving colors for a beginner.

 Ghaz wrote:
Be forewarned that white is one of the more painstaking colors to get to look good. Blues, greens and browns are much more forgiving colors for a beginner.

I'm fine with using a blue centric color scheme, it's just white looks really nice on the Tau's futuristic, sleek and clean models.

Blue is the opposite of white in the spectrum of difficulty

It's almost impossible to mess blue up, hehehe. It's such an easy color to paint, and it's very easy to wash. And there are so many shades of blue that finding highlights becomes preference instead of pain.

Incidentally, Cyngar Base and Cyngar Highlight are two of my favorite blues, especially for blending. Magic and Electric blue are my 2 favorite standard blue from Vallejo Game.

From GW, there is a very wide variety of them. The standouts, though, are the really bright ones -- Temple Guard, Hoeth, Lothern, Blue Horror, because they're not available from other vendors, and they're super bright.

Fenrisian Grey (or Wolf Grey from Vallejo) is another nice color to use as highlights for blue.

The great thing about blues is that from *everybody* the blues are consistently good.

 Singleton wrote:

 Desubot wrote:
You can always transfer paints into dropper bottles but understand even droppers will clog and get particles. and a particularly bad clogging can cause a massive problem (iv had vallejo silver bottle explode all over my pallet )

But in general they will waste less paint than GW ones.

There is also something to be said about color stability in the sense that the company wont change the formula on you suddenly. which is why i stay away from GW line. (i shall forever miss you charadon granite)

But for a newby get whatever paints you fancy and try and practice. its the only way for you to figure out how YOU like to paint.

Just remember to thin your paints

Thanks for the advice! What are your opinions on a white/red color scheme for a Tau army (White Scar White for hard armor, and Mephiston Red for soft armour and highlights.) I would use a white primer to make painting the white easier and to make it pop more, along with brightening the red. However, people tell me that white is a bad color for newbs for several reasons, including it being unforgiving when it comes to mistakes, layers/shades looking or contrasting too sharply, and the like,

What do you think?

P.S. Have you had any experience with Warcolors paints, Reading reviews about them and watching videos of enthusiasts using them to paint, they seem like the ideal paint, both in quality and cost. It's almost too good to be true, which is why I'm asking.

Its do able with proper planing and testing.

The problem is the army will look VERY bright. you can tone it down with washes but if you do not do it right it can look really bad.

Personally if i had to do this as a beginner. id prime white. touch up with thinned white in a few coats.
CAREFULLY paint in the red areas with (do not get it on the white areas or you will be in for hell)
Gloss or Sateen Varnish the whole thing with a spray can (testors i think makes them as well most art stores like Michale's) inside your garage if possible or no humid or super cold or super hot day.
Get some gw Nurn oil wash. thin it quite a bit with water. then take a big brush and wash the whole model. in one go if possible (having mutlple strokes will cause streaks to be visible.)
highlight up with slightly less thinned final highlights. (white you wont really need to. for red mix in a little orange to the final red color to make it lighter without going pink)
Touch up the red and white if need be with thin coats. then seal again with Sateen or Matt depending on the finish you are going for.

Warcolor i have yet to try it.

http://www.truevalue.com/product/Super-Glue-Liquid-Bottle-20-Gram/1143.uts?keyword=loctite - my favorite glue... its dries supppppper fast.

http://www.truevalue.com/product/5-Inch-Heavy-Duty-Diagonal-Cutting-Pliers/5274.uts?keyword=cuts - these are nice or even something a little smaller.

http://www.truevalue.com/product/Hand-Power-Tools/Knives/Hobby-Knives/29-Pc-Hobby-Knife-Blade-Set/pc/5/c/2547/sc/615/2395.uts - nice knife set but they also sell cheaper ones

http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=29&zenid=0dba9454678effc60b66450270022a7e - awesome brushes from what i heard.... 1000 times better then GW

For paint I use, GW, Vallejo, and Badger... going to try Scale 75 soon hopefully!

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the responses and help everyone! I'll dwell on which color scheme to go with, but blue looks nice and is easy to paint apparently, so most likely blue and black.

Well if you want the best, get Golden. Done deal.

For paints I would just get one of the miniature painting lines, citadel, vallejo, warcolours, army painter... They are all good. For a knife I would get a Swann Morton scapel handle and a box of no 11 blades. They are EXTREMELY sharp.

 Talys wrote:
Blue is the opposite of white in the spectrum of difficulty

It's almost impossible to mess blue up, hehehe. It's such an easy color to paint, and it's very easy to wash. And there are so many shades of blue that finding highlights becomes preference instead of pain.

Incidentally, Cyngar Base and Cyngar Highlight are two of my favorite blues, especially for blending. Magic and Electric blue are my 2 favorite standard blue from Vallejo Game.

From GW, there is a very wide variety of them. The standouts, though, are the really bright ones -- Temple Guard, Hoeth, Lothern, Blue Horror, because they're not available from other vendors, and they're super bright.

Fenrisian Grey (or Wolf Grey from Vallejo) is another nice color to use as highlights for blue.

The great thing about blues is that from *everybody* the blues are consistently good.

Personally I like the blues that GW used on the Tempestus Scions. Base with The Fang, wash with Agrax Earthshade, layer with Thunderhawk Blue and highlight with Fenrisian Grey.

I think there is a potential article here. I imagine this question comes up a bit, and I think there's plenty of approaches.

Really, the bare minimum for a new painter varies a lot, depending on the willingness or ability to buy in big. You can start painting minis for $20 if you hit the right walmart, or you can drop well over $100 on top of the line gear. Good stuff will last longer, but if you don't dig the hobby, it's not doing any good. Also, not everybody has the same access to hobby shops, or the patience to wait for online orders.

Generally, the bare minimum is the following, starting with supplies for building to painting to basing to varnishing:
1) hobby knife/x-acto
2) plastic cement & superglue
3) spray primer
4) brush
5) selection of acrylic paints
6) basing materials/flock
7) dull cote

The specifics within each category will vary depending on your means and interest level. There are also non-essentials that are so commonly use that they might as well be: clippers, pallet, files, green stuff, PVA glue.

 Singleton wrote:

A new line of paints just came out, Warcolors, and I've seen a few review for them and they seem to be really good paints at a fraction of the cost of competitors, with the only problem being the layer paints for it are a bit thicker than usual and require thinning. Other than that, I've heard nothing but praise for them.

Here's the site for Warcolors: http://www.warcolours.com/index.php?route=common/home

Do you happen to know anything about them? From the reviews so far, I might just up and buy the entire set of paints since reviewers said they almost never dry out or build up into gunk within the dropper bottles. They seem like the perfect paint.

I have these and they are fantastic, particularly the transparent line. That being said YOU'RE NOT READY for them. Start with something a little more manageable in terms of volume of paint pots.

As one of the earlier posts stated pick the colors you want to use for your army than go here: http://www.thewarstore.com/page747.html
these are Reaper Master Series Paints Triads. Pick three or so plus the Neutral Triad and pick up a couple packs of empty bottles.

Than get the Army Painter Quickshade paint set. http://www.thewarstore.com/product87800.html These will instantly improve your painting.

Than head over to Secret Weapon Miniatures and get http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=29&zenid=00f023de1ead464b40b81984cac27abd
If you can afford it go with a 2 and a 0. If you can only afford one go with the size 2. They are excellent brushes. I've been using mine almost daily for over a year. A high quality brush is essential to improving one's ability. Get some cheapo craft/synthetic brushes as well. After dropping $20 for a brush you don't want to use it for a technique which will ruin it (like drybrushing).

Get this http://www.amazon.com/Plano-23630-01-Stowaway-Adjustable-Dividers/dp/B000E3FKVC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1438641272&sr=8-3&keywords=plano+tackle+storage it holds reaper, vallejo, warcolour dropper bottles and you can hold your starting collection of tools / brushes in here as well.

Once you've painted for a few months than consider buying the warcolour line.

Take care and good luck

All my hobby supplies are from craft stores, but I really like gw paints, they got every color and wash you need with labels for each paints purpose to help beginners

GW paints are really good and there are guides how to piant every single model using them. Which is pretty invaluable to new painters. The bottles are awful beyond words but you will get used to them. Decanting paint is no fun and messy, wouldn't bother.

 Singleton wrote:

I honestly am stuck trying to decide which paint to get. Everyone says this and that about every brand and why this brand is good/bad and why this other brand is good/bad. It's all very confusing and since paint is fairly expensive, I don't want to just dive in blind, but at the same time, there's no definitive answer for which paint brand is best.

Most brands of hobby paint are just fine. If you know what you're going to be painting, you'll know the palatte you'll need. There are online color tables which will tell you what color red from vallejo, testors, etc match GW's blood red. Get the recommended thinner, don't use water.

All these people ragging on GW glue and Paint. ITS GOOD STUFF. Well as far as I'm concerned. People just have a prejudice against GW. I do too, some of their stuff is junk. My advice is; don't buy tools from them, paints and brushes are top notch IMO. Also there is no "best paint" just personal preference. I use GW stuff because I always have, I prefer the way the pots and brushes. Honestly you can't go wrong with GW paints; buy some basic colours ; silver and black wash are must haves as they are always useful.
Buy paint as you need it, painting some ultramarines? Buy some blue. Painting orks? Buy green. Etc. Etc.

 The Deathless Host wrote:
All these people ragging on GW glue and Paint. ITS GOOD STUFF. Well as far as I'm concerned. People just have a prejudice against GW. I do too, some of their stuff is junk. My advice is; don't buy tools from them, paints and brushes are top notch IMO. Also there is no "best paint" just personal preference. I use GW stuff because I always have, I prefer the way the pots and brushes. Honestly you can't go wrong with GW paints; buy some basic colours ; silver and black wash are must haves as they are always useful.
Buy paint as you need it, painting some ultramarines? Buy some blue. Painting orks? Buy green. Etc. Etc.

Its pretty junk.

Hell the first batchs of the stuff didnt even work.

This isnt prejudice.

There tools are over priced as feth
There brushes are also over priced as feth. you can get the same or better brushes of the same materials that they use for half the price. but they are not awful

The paints are ok.

GW is all about the Brand now. they are trying to be like gucci. all the same stuff at triple the price.

I think GW hobby supplies are a mixed bag.

Some of the brushes are great (especially the drybrushes), while others are mediocre at best. Some of their tools are a really nice quality, like the diamond files, mold line scraper, pin vice and nylon spreader. Some of them are horrid, like the new hobby knife.

Price per mL aside, very few of their paints are actually inferior to the competition, and the colors are really good if you like to paint models GW codex colors without too much work. If you're lazy about thinning, the layer paints are better than Vallejo, which look disastrous unthinned. On the other hand, if you're painting terrain, for instance, you'll get a lot more mileage out of Army Painter, which is really close for some stuff (like greys, black wash, brown wash, etc.) and a fraction of the price per mL, and nobody will be able to tell the difference.

By the way, I disagree about Golden Fluid Acrylics. I find that they are way too shiny for me. It's like someone hit my model with ultragloss -- the only way to use it, for me, is to mix it with matting medium, and that introduces its own problems (getting a consistent sheen, for starters, problems with wet palettes, etc.).

I think with experience, everyone should try some of everything and make up their own mind, because at the end of the day, every company offers something unique and useful.

Also, local availability is a big factor, at least for me. I love my Vallejo pure red primer, leather brown primer and Game Air, but it is such a pain needing a 2-3 week lead time, so I end up ordering like 3-5 bottles of everything at a time just so I don't run out mid-project. I won't even start something unless I have 2 spare bottles, and as a result, I have a shelf-ful of extras that I probably won't get around to using for a long time. So much for "cheaper", right?

 Talys wrote:
I think GW hobby supplies are a mixed bag.

Some of the brushes are great (especially the drybrushes), while others are mediocre at best. Some of their tools are a really nice quality, like the diamond files, mold line scraper, pin vice and nylon spreader. Some of them are horrid, like the new hobby knife.

Price per mL aside, very few of their paints are actually inferior to the competition, and the colors are really good if you like to paint models GW codex colors without too much work. If you're lazy about thinning, the layer paints are better than Vallejo, which look disastrous unthinned. On the other hand, if you're painting terrain, for instance, you'll get a lot more mileage out of Army Painter, which is really close for some stuff (like greys, black wash, brown wash, etc.) and a fraction of the price per mL, and nobody will be able to tell the difference.

By the way, I disagree about Golden Fluid Acrylics. I find that they are way too shiny for me. It's like someone hit my model with ultragloss -- the only way to use it, for me, is to mix it with matting medium, and that introduces its own problems (getting a consistent sheen, for starters, problems with wet palettes, etc.).

I think with experience, everyone should try some of everything and make up their own mind, because at the end of the day, every company offers something unique and useful.

Also, local availability is a big factor, at least for me. I love my Vallejo pure red primer, leather brown primer and Game Air, but it is such a pain needing a 2-3 week lead time, so I end up ordering like 3-5 bottles of everything at a time just so I don't run out mid-project. I won't even start something unless I have 2 spare bottles, and as a result, I have a shelf-ful of extras that I probably won't get around to using for a long time. So much for "cheaper", right?

While time is money that sounds like your own personal issue

The starter set is pretty good, it has a good range of paints, including metallic, a shade, a textured paint and the basic colours.

If there are any colours you feel are useless to you it can still be a good purchase as some shops will let you swap out individual pots for ones you want (provided they are of similar value).

The tools / paint might be overpriced normally, but if I recall correctly this is one of the few packages GW do where there is a substantial discount compared to purchasing the components individually.

 Desubot wrote:

 The Deathless Host wrote:
All these people ragging on GW glue and Paint. ITS GOOD STUFF. Well as far as I'm concerned. People just have a prejudice against GW. I do too, some of their stuff is junk. My advice is; don't buy tools from them, paints and brushes are top notch IMO. Also there is no "best paint" just personal preference. I use GW stuff because I always have, I prefer the way the pots and brushes. Honestly you can't go wrong with GW paints; buy some basic colours ; silver and black wash are must haves as they are always useful.
Buy paint as you need it, painting some ultramarines? Buy some blue. Painting orks? Buy green. Etc. Etc.

Its pretty junk.

Hell the first batchs of the stuff didnt even work.

This isnt prejudice.

There tools are over priced as feth
There brushes are also over priced as feth. you can get the same or better brushes of the same materials that they use for half the price. but they are not awful

The paints are ok.

GW is all about the Brand now. they are trying to be like gucci. all the same stuff at triple the price.

eh I guess, its all personal preference but I won't argue about the overpricing.

Its a question of preference really. You won't be a worse painter just because you paint with gw colors exclusively. I personally know golden demon winners who use them exclusively.
It's the technique you use and you'll learn with experience. The gw stuff in general is expensive but all their stuff is okay (well, let's not talk about the airbrush here).

And get a spray primer. For beginners I'd take a black one, once you get to know your way around a brush you might try white, grey or multilayered sprays but black is forgiving for beginners.

 tommse wrote:
Its a question of preference really. You won't be a worse painter just because you paint with gw colors exclusively. I personally know golden demon winners who use them exclusively.
It's the technique you use and you'll learn with experience. The gw stuff in general is expensive but all their stuff is okay (well, let's not talk about the airbrush here).

And get a spray primer. For beginners I'd take a black one, once you get to know your way around a brush you might try white, grey or multilayered sprays but black is forgiving for beginners.

Most of my models are painted with 85%-100% GW paints, excluding primer.

Definitely, black primer is by far the easiest to apply and paint over!

I would say pick a primer that suits the paint you are painting regardless of whether you're a beginner or not.

Funnily enough I actually would have said white is probably better for a beginner. There's a lot of colours that are hard to make look good over black (yellow, red, a lot of browns and beiges), not too many colours that are hard to make look good over white (silver? Struggling to think of anything else).

The only real advantage to black is if you don't get good coverage it can still look okay, but getting good coverage with properly thinned paint is one of the first things you should be learning anyway if you want to improve.

But either way, I'd say pick a primer that matches what you'll be painting.

If you suck at brush control, a problem with white is it's hard to neatly get into all the recesses, resulting in 'white cracks; where you failed to get the brush. A black crack is advance painting technique of black lining (the 90s alternative to extreme highlighting every edge).

It can take a surprising amount of time to learn how to move the paint from the pot onto the model in a controlled manner!

Yeah definitely if you don't paint within the lines black is better... but I don't think it takes that long to learn how to do that as long as it's something you are aware you have to learn.

The first 50 models or so I painted in my wargaming career were all white undercoated (bought 2nd hand) and you never would have known. After that I started priming everything black based on the suggestion from on of the local GW staffers, it took me a couple of years before I figured out to swap back to white for most things

Not everything though, I still paint my Night Goblins with a black undercoat

IMO it's easier to make a dull colour look nice over white than it is to make a vibrant colour look nice over black, that's largely why my recommendation goes to white (especially if oyu make use of filters and washes, which is one of the first things you normally learn).... but obviously depends what colour you plan to paint over it, no point undercoating a predominantly black model with a white undercoat.

use vallejo. The droppers help a lot with thinning!