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I'm just curious what are the worst brands of paints you have been working it. I'm personaly not satisfied with:
- All the Lifecolor brigher tones. The paint is so damn watery, but their dark tones are just great.
- Citadel White - is this white?
- Yellow of any brand. I've been tru Revell, Valejjo, Lifecorol etc. Not a single one can be thinned or thickened enought to paint what I want without appllying 10 + layers.

A few of my least favorite: ( many acquired before learning that wonderful world has more options than Citadel/GW, bought my first bottle of reaper MSP last month, LOVE IT)

Imperial primer -- dear Lord I can never get it to mix. Replacing this as soon as it's gone

Sycorax Bronze -- perfect "golden color" for my Salamanders, can't ever seem to get it to not be globby despite thinning attempts (like cottage cheese). I finally dried out the bottle and use it more like a dry brush paint.

Lamenters Yellow (wash)-- technically nothing wrong with this one, but creating a wash with what I feel is such limited use compared to Guilliman Blue or its other siblings makes me... well... lament...

Honorable mention: I do like Citadel metalics, but Rune fang Steel is an absolute bear to get recombined despite crazy amounts of shaking, once it is, great paint though.

I like this thread idea, I was worried it was going to be a rogues gallery of eBay wonders with less than perfect paintjobs, those threads tend to degrade quickly.

FM Argos

Yellow is just plain hard imo, despite brand of paint.

paints I've used are humboldt, testors (enamels); GW, vallejo and reaper's

I think of those, Sycorax bronze (sp) is horrid to work with, like you say, it just tends to be chunky. My first pot of it, I just threw out. My second I've had better luck with and actually use it a bit now, but it does require more effort overall. Here's a funny note too - I just went to look at it? all my other GW metallics (in their original pots mostly) are fine, but the Sycorax bronze has separated (again). Something about the pigments is just off I guess, it won't stay mixed.

Pallid Wych flesh - I don't like this one much. It also separates easily in my experience. But then I don't use it much, which may be part of it.

Other than the thickness of the GW bases, and layers, I don't have too many problems with the others, nothing that mixing doesn't seem to fix.

Vallejo has a gunmetal blue, that I really like, but I can't seem to get its consistency right :( It's pretty thick, or at least this bottle is, and kinda hard to get on without brush strokes imo. Most likely user error but at the same time it's just harder than the other metallics of their's which I quite like.

Those are the only paints I can think of off the top of my head.

OP:

Try Vallejo Game Colour Heavy Ochre (1-2 coats). That's a great yellow base. Takes a couple of coats (important- let each dry) over black, but it's a great go to.

As for my worsts:

Imperial Primer. Yep, it's gak.
Vallejo Fluorescent Orange. Just horrid to use.
GW Ceramite white. Lumpy, horrid, pidgeon poo in a pot.
GW Ulthuan Grey. See above.


Pretty much everything else I can see where it might be useful. The above are ones I wouldn't use again given a choice (and there is).

I've found Vallejo Game Colour Dark Green to be dreadful. Never mixes properly no matter how long you shake it for and covers apallingly, which is surprsing as the slightly lighter Sick Green is fantastic.

GW Ceramite White dries/becomes lumpy after no time at all and requires constant management to stay useable.

The few new GW metallics I've tried have suffered from separating and going lumpy very quickly, an issue I just don't have with other ranges so they've gone into the never buy column for me.

Forgemaster Argos wrote:

Honorable mention: I do like Citadel metalics, but Rune fang Steel is an absolute bear to get recombined despite crazy amounts of shaking, once it is, great paint though.

FM Argos

I tried to use mine the other day, and I must've shaken it for a good 5 minutes in all, and it's still a bit watery to use really. So yeah I agree haha.

GW Ceramite White dries/becomes lumpy after no time at all and requires constant management to stay useable.

Couldnt agree more Evil sunz scarlett went the exact same way.
But then I own a 3 year old pot of warlock purple and chaos black which are ok. I wonder if its just dodgy production runs (luck of the draw?) or an overall flaw.

I've found Vallejo Model Color Ivory is a much better alternative to GW White.

Forgemaster Argos wrote:
Lamenters Yellow (wash)-- technically nothing wrong with this one, but creating a wash with what I feel is such limited use compared to Guilliman Blue or its other siblings makes me... well... lament...

Lamenters Yellow and Gulliman Blue are glazes, not washes. Are you using them as intended?

GW white scar.
Wrecked one of my Series 7 brushes. Something horrible in there. I use Masters to clean too.

GW bleached bone, or whatever the new one is.
GW thunder hawk blue.
Both dry out silly quick. Can't find a perfect match for them either

GW's Imperial Primer is awful.

 Ratius wrote:
Evil sunz scarlett went the exact same way.

I've been using my pot for over a year, and it's fine

The paints themselves have been great so far no matter what I've used... For me the type of container it is in is the issue. Vallejo and Army Painter dropper bottles are my favorite. Pots like with Citadel and P3 are okay but I tend to be clumsy with them. Reaper paints are cool except I hate that the agitator they put in their bottles gets stuck sometimes.

Most GW paints are great, but there are a few I hate more than my social studies teacher:

- All white paints. Oh man where do I start? They're runny, soggy, and just awful.

- Yriel Yellow. It won't cover anything.

- Any metallics that aren't Leadbelcher or balthasar Gold. o pigments, just floats away.

Vallejo primers.

They are absolutely terrible, not fit for purpose.

I've tried everything to make them more durable, but they chip easier than regular paint does, even on plastic figures!

Joining the Imperial Primer haters club. Actually, I didn't have any problems mixing it (though it did come in lumps). The workst part is that it wouldn't stay on the miniature and would come off even with most subtle handling. Keep in mind, I did wash the miniatures before priming.

Also Vallejo White Primer. It just stinks so badly. And ends up coating the miniature in some rubbery substance (not sure if that's intended?), which, if nof applied by airbrush, sometimes even ends up bubbling. Also doesn't hold that well.

Some non-bronz like gold paint from GW. Thinner and pigment just won't mix with each other. Ends up with some redish thinner on top, and whole gold on the bottom.

Citadel white isn't really any worse than any other white. They can all be made a lot more palatable if you use flo-aid

Also, Averland Sunset is probably the least offensive yellow. Yeah, they all require a lot of coats to cover black.

My least favorite paint of all brands: I will join the Imperial Primer hate club. No matter how you cut it, this stuff is useless -- as defined as, absent of any use GW would have been better packing black acrylic gesso in a pot.

You guys are using imperial primer wrong.

It worked perfectly last time i used it to make bunny prints through the house for easter.

No good for miniatures though

I finally learned how to mix Citadel's White to make it actually cover an area. Still haven't found out with their Yellows though on anything larger than a shoulder pad. I can hand paint a full white model, but I can't do yellow without it losing EVERY detail it had on it in the layers.

 Talys wrote:
Citadel white isn't really any worse than any other white. They can all be made a lot more palatable if you use flo-aid

Mate, it really is. I use/have used Vallejo Model Colour White, Reaper Pure White and P3 Morrow White in addition to Ceramite White and none of them have gone lumpy and dried out (though I'll concede I've only had the P3 a little while and I've found P3 paints can dry out around the lid in the past). I've had the bottle of VMC white for almost 4 years and it's maybe only slightly less viscous sraight out of the bottle than when I first bought it.Nor do those other paints separate as severely. I tend to be of the opinion that I shouldn't need extra products to make a paint behave the way it ought to, so far water has been enough with all mine and Vallejo comes out streets ahead. I'd like to think that my work on my Crimson Tears demonstrates that I've a bit of using white paints and gettin good results.

Guys, just use normal craft paints for white. Saves you a LOT of pain.

I use P3 whites and yellows. Best coverage ever for those colours. Worst paint I ever used are Vallejo Model Colour yellows and reds.

Forgemaster Argos wrote:


Lamenters Yellow (wash)-- technically nothing wrong with this one, but creating a wash with what I feel is such limited use compared to Guilliman Blue or its other siblings makes me... well... lament...

This one really works well when glazing greens depending on bright you want to go. I would exoeriment with this one! Really nice when working with Nurgle army also!

Ceramite White for me- dries up in a bottle way to fast, such a waste of money.

i got citadel white scar once. ive never used it again due to how terrible it was. strangely enough ive never had any dramas with ceramite white unlike some others seem to have..

Rackham's short-lived paint range. Very chalky. They must've been using acrylic gouache, or something.

Hmm: oddly enough i think i have had far more "BEST" paints that i like than i dont like.

GW Whites i cannot stand though.
Minitaure metallic i dont like ether.

:/

Really old citadel light flesh wash and non silvery metallics. From the days citadel paints looked like P3 paints do now.
The coloured metallics just became silvery if not used properly and the flesh was was way to transparent and light.

Ow and "Smelly primer" yuck that stuff didn't do at all what I expected it to do.

Modern paints I dislike: Whatever a store owner sells me as "the new substitute for chestnut ink"


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Skipp that all.

Some spray cans are worse. Gw used to have spray paint that coated your mini in a grainy white powder :\

not sure if they still use that one, I don't dare to try it.

I hate all golds, by any brand. So far in 15+ years the only one I can get to cover is the new base gold themed for Stormcast Eternals. Can't remember the name, but a pure coat of that and a coat of Devlan Mud (still using a bottle!) looks beautiful. Every other pot of any gold just ends up as a crappy clumpy pseudo-wash that won't cover any raised details.

Also hate most Vallejo Game Colours. Other than a really old pot of their Snot Green analog, which I love for drybrushing, they all are idiotically thin and never cover, and seperate badly.

Been running into horrible coverage problems with some Army Painter colors, too, though I am in love with their Gunmetal as a replacement for my old love Boltgun Metal.

I want to go back in time and get the old GW range back, with Scorched Earth, Snot Green, Warlock Purple, and the like. Anything I have used that claimed to be a match for that old range never has been as good.

 oldzoggy wrote:
Ow and "Smelly primer" yuck that stuff didn't do at all what I expected it to do.

What's wrong with Smelly Primer? I still have a couple of bottles that I use from time to time.

gohkm wrote:
I use P3 whites and yellows. Best coverage ever for those colours. Worst paint I ever used are Vallejo Model Colour yellows and reds.

i can second this. also reaper reds chalk like a mother for me. Gw and p3 reds are way better. prob gw makes the best reds imo

also to OP white needs to be thinned down and I try to only paint yellow over white. white is easier to paint than yellow and simply glazing yellow over white is the easiest way to get a strong yellow. then you just can shade down and its no problem