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I last painted a mini in 1990, so it has been almost 26 years (man I'm getting old) since I last touched a brush to a mini. I am looking into getting back into the hobby and would like to hear advice on recommended paint lines.
My old GW paints are all dried up as unfortunately the pots where not sealed air tight so I need to invest in new paints, I have heard some disparaging things about GW and their business practices, and I am unfamiliar with their new paint line or other paint lines on the market. I would like to be able to by from local shops (I live in whitby, Ontario, Canada), but I am not sure what lines are carried in my local hobby shops. I am on a bit of a budget so would like to know what is recommended as really good value for the buck. Also it would seem that I need to replace most of my brushes as my young children have got a hold of my old ones at some point and pretty much destroyed them, what brushes would you recommend that are not to prohibitive in cost. I still have a bunch of painted and unpainted RAFM and Ral Partha metal mini's from back in the day and I thought I would take a crack and gettting those painted up and seeing if I could even sell some of them once I get them finished.
Thanks for any advise in advance

I just started painting miniatures and am having a really great time so far.

I have only used GW paint and really like them, but have no basis for comparison with the others. I like GW paints because you can get the colors you need to paint the full line of Warhammer Miniatures and have plenty of direction on what colors relate to what miniature and army, etc.

I first bought cheap synthetic hair paint brushes but very quickly realized that the better tools you have to paint with, the more you will enjoy it and the better you will get. That being said, you don't have to spend a ton on brushes, but I bought three top of line brushes (size 0, 00, and 000) and have found that they are just amazing to paint with. I have other brushes which cost $3-$5 each and I use those a lot, but when I need precision for detail work, I use my Winsor and Newton Series 7 brushes. I still have A LOT to learn about painting, but the brushes do make a world of difference. The best advice I got from my wife, who paints as well, is that you need to try them out and eventually you will find those that you have the most success with and that "feel" right. One of my favorite brushes cost me $1.50. Once I found I really liked that one, I bought a few at once as it wears out quickly!

Good luck!

A consistent and reasonably priced paint line is Vallejo. You can get them on Amazon in box sets. Make sure you do not buy "model air" as those are not the brush paints.
And for primer you can use any acrylic aerosol or brush on primer. A good colour to use when starting again is white, as black can be frustrating to get good coverage over, and make you feel cruddy.

I use multiple different brands for different reasons.

Vallejo- I like the metallic paints but i have noticed the go on thick and don't really enjoy being thinned with water. a bit harder to work with IMO but the colors are fantastic if you figure them out. An important note though, i have recently received a few dud bottles that did not work well at all. the regular colors are very good at about the same quality as army painter, maybe a bit better.

Army painter- CHEAP, high quality and the shades are amazing. you can pick up the entire paint line and some brushes that they include for 100 dollars (american) or so on amazon. I highly recommend taking a look at these. the paints need to be thinned only slightly, the metallic looks nice and goes on smooth. this is probably one of the best deals for your money i can think of. the name of the set is "the army painter mega paint set"

P3- Fantastic. These work great right out of the pot and have some very nice colors. probably the smoothest paint that I have ever used. I still need more time with these paints but so far they have exceed every expectation.

GW- the technical brand is great and extremely useful but aside from those nothing that you cant find elsewhere.

As for brushes I use mostly synthetic brushes, they feel stiffer to me when wet which is a quality I like in my brushes. I do however use my kolinsky sable brushes quite a bit for very very fine work, Sable holds paint much better and is easier to clean paint off of. I use a no-name brand of brush that are sold by ZEM on amazon.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
A consistent and reasonably priced paint line is Vallejo. You can get them on Amazon in box sets. Make sure you do not buy "model air" as those are not the brush paints.
And for primer you can use any acrylic aerosol or brush on primer. A good colour to use when starting again is white, as black can be frustrating to get good coverage over, and make you feel cruddy.

i have a couple of of those and fund they paint better than normal paint, maybe its just me.

When talking about old paint, it’s worth bringing up Coat D’Arms. They are the same paints that used to be branded and sold by GW. So if you are trying to replace/replicate your old paints/paint jobs, it might be worth looking into.

 PeffGoesPunk wrote:


GW- the technical brand is great and extremely useful but aside from those nothing that you cant find elsewhere.

I second the technical paints, I also use (and really like) their colored shades. Their base/layer/drybrush lines are nothing special.