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Yep. There's another new acrylic paint line hitting the store shelves...

https://www.bearcavalrypaints.com/

Paints come in 20ml pots for $5.79 each from their website or from Michigan Toy Soldier Co.. The line currently looks to have 51 colors plus a water-based texture paint.

Uhhh... some of the reviews on their site are a little... off.

“This paint is significantly better than having a tooth ripped from your face”
— Christopher

But in all seriousness... I wonder what will make these guys stand out in the market.

I genuinely wish them luck.

Whilst I’m still predominantly Citadel Colour, I’ve relied heavily on Army Painter in the past year or so.

Competition is good. Options are good.

Even if this range happens not to last? They may have some Killer Colours, which others might adopt or replicate, overall improving options for the consumer.

Credit to them for actually naming the pigments they use.
Unfortunately, they're also not really naming the colors in a way that makes it clear what the color is.
Wondering how those canola oil based effect paints look.
But they're just one more miniature paint company in a sea of miniature paint companies.

If Golden ever decides to get in on the miniature paints action, that will be something truly amazing to see.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I genuinely wish them luck.

Whilst I’m still predominantly Citadel Colour, I’ve relied heavily on Army Painter in the past year or so.

Competition is good. Options are good.

Even if this range happens not to last? They may have some Killer Colours, which others might adopt or replicate, overall improving options for the consumer.

The sad thing is, I looked all over their website to see of the paints were matt or satin. I finally found the answer, on the Michigan Toy Soldier Co. website

Acrylic colors in a matt and opaque, water-based formula. Boutique paints revolutionizing the world of miniature painting with a blend of craftsmanship, sustainability, and fun.

I feel like we have enough paint ranges

Well, given the current situation, having a US-produced brand might be a good thing for the american hobbyists.

For the same reasons, it will probably not have a lot of traction outside.

I feel sort of lucky knowing that on my side I have a lot of locally manufactured paint brands (hm... Vallejo, AK, MIG, GSW, Scale75... I feel like I'm missing some...)

 Albertorius wrote:
Well, given the current situation, having a US-produced brand might be a good thing for the american hobbyists.

Ah yes fair

 lord_blackfang wrote:

 Albertorius wrote:
Well, given the current situation, having a US-produced brand might be a good thing for the american hobbyists.

Ah yes fair

Pro Acryl is a US produced brand.

I believe two thin coats is as well?

Think vallejo had a US factory for a bit too

chaos0xomega wrote:
I believe two thin coats is as well?

Think vallejo had a US factory for a bit too

While I can't pin down an exact manufacturer, everything I can find has Two Thin Coats being manufactured in the UK.

From the Acrylicos Vallejo LinkedIn page:

The Vallejo company was registered in New Jersey, U.S.A., in the year 1965. In these early years it specialized in the manufacture of colors for animated films (cartoons). The most sustained expansion of Vallejo started in the nineties, beginning with the introduction of new products directed at the Modelpainting and Hobby sector. The company became the first specialist in acrylic colors, with a long and varied experience in all aspects of this branch of manufacturing.

They moved to Spain in 1969 to be closer to the European cartoon studio scene, which was a major market for their "Film Color" acrylic paints.

The KS creator/Trans Atlantos Games are based in Philly. I assumed that w Duncan being based in the UK that meant the actual producers of the paint were in the US.

This would absolutely have to be a line of paint bought in person. The names mean absolutely nothing, however good the paint might be.

 lord_blackfang wrote:

 Albertorius wrote:
Well, given the current situation, having a US-produced brand might be a good thing for the american hobbyists.

Ah yes fair

It can alleviate the impact of tariffs, but not necessarily completely remove them. If a pigment or one of the chemicals involved comes from outside the country, tariffs would still be paid on that. But better to have tariffs impact only part of the product than the entire finished product.

I was more thinking that some companies might decide it's not worth their while and stop releasing stuff in the US, if things escalate.

Has anyone seen these colors in use?

Plus, I'm not quite up on what exactly Canola Oil based paints are.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Competition is good. Options are good.

lord_blackfang wrote:I feel like we have enough paint ranges

I agree with both of these views in equal measure.

Yeah same. Competition is good, but it needs to do someyhing different or provide a better value proposition to break through into the market

chaos0xomega wrote:
Yeah same. Competition is good, but it needs to do someyhing different or provide a better value proposition to break through into the market

The company is located in Eugene OR, so they're pushing the environment friendly POV (biodegradable packaging, etc.).

Yeah, the names fill me with unreasoning rage, TBH.

'Ultimate Cup of Coffee'... ? It's unclear from the pic if it's black or a dark brown. And I drink white coffee.

'Pale Blue Dot' appears to be a medium/dark blue.

'Hell Bent for Leather' is fun wordplay, but looks like more of a medium brown than the usual yellow or sandy-ish leather colour.

Geese come in a range of colours, none of which appear to be similar to 'Grey Goose'.

And I can't imaging a situation where it wouldn't feel extremely weird to walk into a store and ask for a bottle of 'Battle of Yellow Tavern'...


I'm all for creative naming, but for something like paint the names still need to be descriptive, otherwise you're just making it harder for people to buy your product.

 Quixote wrote:

Plus, I'm not quite up on what exactly Canola Oil based paints are.

Yeah, I still don't understand how these work. I understand just enough about artist paints to know that canola oil is not a drying oil like linseed or walnut.

 insaniak wrote:
Yeah, the names fill me with unreasoning rage, TBH.

Especially since they took one step forward of everybody else by actually naming the pigments used, but then two steps back by using edgy names for the colors.

Yeah, pointing out that the effects paints are Canola oil based on the labels makes it sound like it should be relevant information, but they don't appear to actually explain why on the website.

I'm curious about the mention of putting paint mixing machines into hobby stores. I'm sure the technology for in-store paint mixing has progressed in the 20 years since I did it, but that sounds like a nightmare. Means the store needing to allocate space for the machine and train staff to use it, and inevitable complaints ... The machines I used were mixing 10l tins of house paint, and miniscule errors with the pigment could have an effect on the shade. Doing that at a 20ml pot level seems like it's going to be massively prone to errors.

 insaniak wrote:
Yeah, the names fill me with unreasoning rage, TBH.

'Ultimate Cup of Coffee'... ? It's unclear from the pic if it's black or a dark brown. And I drink white coffee.

'Pale Blue Dot' appears to be a medium/dark blue.

'Hell Bent for Leather' is fun wordplay, but looks like more of a medium brown than the usual yellow or sandy-ish leather colour.

Geese come in a range of colours, none of which appear to be similar to 'Grey Goose'.

And I can't imaging a situation where it wouldn't feel extremely weird to walk into a store and ask for a bottle of 'Battle of Yellow Tavern'...


I'm all for creative naming, but for something like paint the names still need to be descriptive, otherwise you're just making it harder for people to buy your product.

And while I 'think' Iron Man might be a metallic paint, there's nothing to say if any of the other paints are metallics or not.

I feel like this is an April Fool's Joke and no one has let us know we're supposed to laugh.

The website seems purposely obtuse, with poorly named products, no color samples, vague/missing explanations, etc.

I think I'm going to hold off on investing until someone actually gets a hold of the product and tests these products.

There's too many decent paints out there to play a guessing game.

On the canola oil front - from a bit of very quick research, it appears that non-drying oils can potentially be used as a paint carrier if they are mixed with turpentine or some other similar solvent... but that would seem problematic for miniatures, so maybe they have found some other solution. Again, it would be useful if the website provided some sort of clue.

My wife also just pointed out that canola oil has a very limited shelf life before going rancid. So that would be fun.

It has to be an elaborate prank of some kind. "Our bottles are recyclable, and our labels are compostable" As are most paint bottles/labels if people were bothered to do it. They don't use recycled materials to make the bottles to start with.
Which model paint company doesn't show the colours of their paints as a swatch next to the name. Boasting of over 1000 colours, every paint range can do that when mix together,

Saw them in the flesh the other week. Nice looking paints. Best of luck to them!

My liege! You can't defeat Citadel just releasing another paint and ink range!

Look okay, if the quality is there I could overlook all the stuff everyone seems displeased about.

Hyperbole aside, I think for me at least it's not so much 'displeased' as 'bemused'... They may well be fantastic paints, but they've not really given us any way to tell.