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How do!

Bit of a silly thread. Not ridiculous. Not satirical, just a bit silly.

Because I want to know what you consider to be the greatest paints ever released. Maybe it’s one from when you got started. Could be your favourite from a given range which you considered a game changer. Acrylic, Oil, Spray, Air. Doesn’t matter. All that matters is the esteem you hold it in.

For me? I’ve got two. Mostly because I’ve relied heavily on them in the past six weeks, and really got on well. The first is Mechanicus Standard Grey spray. This was a revelation for me. A nice warm, neutral base coat. Easier to work from as a base coat than white or black. Lovely smooth finish, even spraying in British Winter.

The second is Army Painter’s Grim Black Speed Paint. That’s their take on Contrast, and for my money it’s the best Contrast Type black you can get. Solid coverage. Decent level of pigmentation without obliterating the undercoat and pre-shading stuff. Plus bonus points for coming in a dropper bottle. Yes I’m a convert. Dropper Bottles are the tits. Only drawback is fairly limited availability, but that’s more due to my FLGS rarely restocking.

I'm a biased Citadel fanboy, but I do have some other brands in my painting arsenal, like The Army Painter, and Tamiya.

I'm personally excited to try the new Warpaints Fanatic range coming from The Army Painter.

I don't think its a silly thread.

Gave me food for thought tbh.

Boltgun Metal was a game-changer for child-me; its just Mithril Silver with Nuln Oil mixed in but its still my basecoat of choice decades later.

The recent contrast paint range has been similarly useful because i cant really do skin tones properly, so Guilliman Flesh over a base of Wraith Bone is a must-have for me now

Thinking about it, there are a bunch of contrast paints that i see as essential now but Guilliman Flesh is just as big a deal for me as Boltgun Metal.

Amsterdam paints are what I prefer often over Citadel, especially when it comes to blends.

Although some of them are dilluted, but a bit of grey does wonders to get it back to proper density.

As for Citadel paints my favorite range are still the metal paints and in particular Runelord brass, Iron hands steel, Leadbelcher.

GW's fondation paints, those where great and did cover in one coat. painted my hole skaven army with them made a lot of things easy to do.

Agrax Earthshade has memes for a reason.

 Lord Damocles wrote:
Agrax Earthshade has memes for a reason.

The holy trinity, in fact. Agrax, Nuln Oil and Seraphim Sepia.

I used to be an AK devotee but have since found the wonders of Mr Color. If I had a workspace with adequate facilities and ventilation, I'd go all in on Mr Color Acrylic laquers and airbrushing.

For oils, I am on the fence.. perhaps I prefer enamel washes over oils? Still figuring it out tbh. Its hard to go back to acrylic washes and inks after witnessing the glory of oil washes.. but they are just so inconsistent that I hesitate to recommend them more..

I stoppped buying Citadel after returning to the hobby. They are convenient to source, but certainly not the best overall IMHO

It took me a while to be convinced to try GW contrast paints as I was pretty set in my ways regards painting minis but now I wouldn't go back, speeded up my production line by a large margin.

I’m going to say Pro Acryl Bold Titanium White…

Great coverage, not chalky at all and sturdy dropper bottle.

Best. White. Going.

For pure nostalgia, there's the original Citadel Colour 1994 range I started with back in 2nd Edition 40K. The old soft plastic hex pots.

Pro Acryl and GW's Contrast are probably the best ranges I'm using today.

For specific paints, I'll vote for two, and they're both mixes.
My Ultramarines are being painted with a 1:1 mix Talassar Blue and Ultramarines Blue, both from Contrast range, and thanks to Juan Hidalgo for pointing me towards that mix to find the blue I was looking for.
The other one is Vince Venturella's gold mix:
3 drops Vallejo metal color gold
2 drops Vallejo metal color copper
1/128th teaspoon Greenstuff World pure metal antique gold
1 drop flow improver

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Not ridiculous. Not satirical, just a bit silly.

The world could always do with a bit more of this!

I am an Army Painter hater. All their products are low quality in my experience. GARBAGE. Even their greenstuff is somehow bad

okay i did actually read the assignment though

WarColours are great. I don't hear about them that often, but they're some of my favourite paints. Similar ish to the Scale colour line in terms of their 'feel'.

Vallejo paints are also pretty unbeatable as a standard, solid, reliable paint brand. They're always good.

GW Contrast paints are also genuinely excellent. The rest of their stuff not so much.

Even if one prefers Not-Actually-Contrast, the mere existence of Contrast and its contemporaries is definitely a revelation.

There’s no way I’d be able to carry off my Hobby Challenge without them. And for painting Epic scale infantry, they’re an absolute god send. Even as a somewhat reluctant painter, they can see me belt through a box worth of infantry in an evening, start to finish.

I'd love to see a comparison of GW contrasts vs rattlecan primer & enamel wash on LI models. Sure enough, contrast paints are blazing fast to use, but dont they look about the same as acrylic washes, ie. not terribly rich and kind of plasticy with that peculiar acrylic paint sheen?

If I were to lose all my paints today, and start afresh I'd definitely be going all out on Scale75's Scalecolor range.
They don't have the widest range of colours, but every one that i've used has been fantastic. Great range of metallics as well. Their Decayed Metal is probably my favourite paint of all time.

Hmmmm such a tough one. I really like grey seer rattle can. It took me a few goes to get to grips with it but the satin finish is great especially if you want to use contrast type paints.

And I love citadels contrast paints.

Pro Acryl paints are superb especially their white. I have tried a few of the Green Stuff World Maxx Formula range and to be honest they are amazing aswell. For me they are on a level with pro acryl but I have only tried a few. I just ordered a load more so will be trying them out over the next couple of weeks.

And of course FW white ink is superb.

But if I had to say the bestest then I would say a combination of pro acryl white bold titanium and apothecary white as they have made paying white easy instead of impossible

Oooh.

Apothecary White.

Absolutely amazing stuff. It’s like bottle witchcraft. As anyone can tell you, painting white is a right sod. But not with this little bottle of miracle unicorn tears.

Sure, like all Contrast Paints it benefits from careful highlights to really make the most of it. But even applied on its own, it’s amazing.

And a special shout out to GW and other companies finally figuring out Decent Yellow Acrylics. I understand yellow is necessarily a tricky colour due to pigmentation levels and that. But what we have today are pretty easy to use.

I don't use contrasts that much because of how they tend to dry blotchy on flat surfaces and with all the Gunpla I do, that certainly is a problem. They're great for minis though. I've been using mostly contrasts on my Seraphon.

Going back to the topic of Gunpla (and other types of mechs/vehicles with large flat surfaces), Contrast paints do make great pin washes. Just run a little in the recesses and it usually turns out looking great.

The Army Painter's Warpaints are good paints, but fussy, and are a pain in the ass to get working properly. Their Metallics aren't like that, and they're washes are excellent.

Tin Bitz and its equivalents.

Hmm...kind of a tough question since I like parts of most lines and because the hues I use depend on the project. It's all so job-dependent. Sometimes I might want a wash with a little more staining action, and other times I may want something that stays in crevices more. Sometimes I want transparency from a paint and other times I need opaqueness. *shrug*

If the goal is to name an individual paint or line that I generally think is a rock star, I'd have to say Vallejo Metal Color. To me, they're easily the best acrylic metal paints on the market. They're basically airbrush only (I sometimes use them with a regular brush in special applications) and they're limited to one gold and one copper. But it's a great range of silvers, and they apply beautifully and give a very reflective result for acrylics. I like Magnesium as an interesting, slightly complex darker metal basecoat and then often layer brighter metals from there. Anyway, I'll give them the Wolverine "best there is at what they do" award.

I'm going to create some scope creep and mention some I think are underrated. I think Army Painter's air line is better than a lot of people realize, and so far I might put Two Thin Coats in that category also. The TTC stuff has a finish closer to Citadel and old Vallejo Game Color, so if you're looking for a replacement for those lines you should check them out.

There's colours in the Mk III (1998 Made in France) Citadel colours I have yet to find proper replacements for. Snakebite Leather (strong orange undertone), Scorched Brown & Dark Flesh (red undertones), Dark Angels Green (vivid emerald green undertone), etc.

While you can easily find paints that match the base or overall colour, they don't mix or layer the same. Consistency, finish and handling wise I've shored up my old collection with P3.

Fire_Forever wrote:
Citadel colours I have yet to find proper replacements for. Scorched Brown

Check out Vellejo's Game Colour Charred Brown. I found it to be an almost 1:1 match. Couldn't tell the difference at all.

Army Painter’s Babe Blonde.

No, not really. This paint is awful. It’s like it missed every development in yellow acrylics over the past three centuries, and someone figured “well we’ll just use Lemon Curd”.

Because that’s its colour, pigmentation and consistency,

Wretched paint!

I just used a colour forge primer (trench brown) for the first time and it was very good. I will use more of their stuff when I need a coloured primer

After getting a few paints of the new Vallejo Game Colors, specifically beasty brown and bloody red, I have noticed a significant change on color hue and finish that makes me no longer a fan of VGC. I have spent the past few months going through all of the different paint companies that I can get my hands on. I personally do like a lot of what I am seeing from Two Thin Coats, and I have been liking what I see from Coat d'arms, especially for older armies that need some additions. No paint line will have everything that you will ever want, but sourcing from two lines may be the way forward for me.

 skeleton wrote:
GW's fondation paints, those where great and did cover in one coat. painted my hole skaven army with them made a lot of things easy to do.

Yeah. Mechrite Red was such a game-changer.

Abaddon black. Chefs kiss coverage

 skeleton wrote:
GW's fondation paints, those where great and did cover in one coat. painted my hole skaven army with them made a lot of things easy to do.

Charadon Granite is my favourite paint ever.

I'm using Vallejo heavy Charcoal as a substitute, but its not quite the same.

The problem is that there is no "One paint to rule them ALL", because like brushes it's up to individual tastes and there is also big changes even within the same brand. For example, the old Dwarf Bronze from citadel I have has never dried out, despite being ancient pop-top. The screw-type lids died a horrible death early on- and I have a scar on my left hand where I gnashed a pair of pliers into it whilst trying to get purchase on one. And also, being a artist as a career I've come across various paints that did better or worse depending on what I wanted to do.
That said, I really like Jo Sonya craft paints for minis- specifically the "Gouche"-like brand. They thin WAAAAY down but still have a really great vibrancy in colors.
For transparent airbrush colors, I like the Golden brand- and these will work as an ink with just a touch of matte medium.
Oils (for mineral spirit washes) you can use most anything, so long as it dries. I got ahold of a tube of oil paint that had separated and no matter how much I squished the metal tube, it was basically oil and pigment that I had to wipe off after it hadn't set after 3 days.. What? I'm not bitter.. really!
Oils (for blends and painting) I prefer a water-mixable brand. I've built up a collection of Windsor & Newton, but use these primarily for "actual" art projects and they are expensive.
Vallejo is my go-to for mini paints- though I hates the inevitable separation that occurs and having to shake them up for 5 minutes. I wish they were like Army painter and included weighted mixing agitators- I've had a whole bunch of paints rust because I was using the wrong ball bearings.. I'm not bitter....
I have tried other mini paint brands and nothing's stood out as overly horrible.. Except when I was just starting out and accidentally used Testors Enamels on plastic minis, but that's more on my own stupidity.

Enamel paints do have their uses though. When applied over acrylics, you can play the subtractive game with them with white sprit, leaving the acrylics underneath untouched. Very, very useful for weathering and subtle blending fx. If only someone invented a similar "undo" feature for acrylics..