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I got a nice pile of cash from my tax return and was looking to replace my crappy Citadel paints for myriad reasons. I settled on one of the larger Reaper collections and some Vallejo for some colors I liked there. The Vallejo just didn't have enough colors I wanted or would use in their large sets. So I order from this company I've bought some minis from before that had the set in stock and for some reason it takes almost three weeks to get the damn paints even though I paid for faster shipping.

The paints get to me and they immediately don't look right before I even take the shrink wrap off. I open them anyway figuring it's just separated paint and set about shaking the living hell out of them (with a paint shaker) and testing them. The paints are bad. They have clearly been frozen and thawed a few times before getting to me. Many of the paints have what I can only describe as crystallized pigment filling the top portion of the jar, in the tip as well as all the way down to where the threads for the cap are - almost to the shoulder of the bottle. Some have that wonderful solid plug of pigment floating in tinted water that won't break up no matter what. A few seemed salvageable but even after some flo-aid and dremel whisk mixing the paint in those was still filled with grains of sand that wouldn't break up and mix back in.

I don't know if all the paints were bad quite frankly because after I got the fifteenth paint that way with the rest appearing in similar condition from looking at the bottles I felt it was appropriate to call it for what the set costs. I sent off an e-mail to Reaper to see if there had been a bad batch or if there was anything to be done to save the paints. I didn't ask for my money back because I hadn't bought them straight from Reaper. They asked me to try a few things which I had already tried and then to email them a list of the paints that were bad and they would send me out replacements for those.

I was completely shocked but set about testing the rest of the paints but they were all bad - even the damn mediums were messed up. I emailed them again and thanked them for the offer of replacing the bad ones but after testing them they all appeared bad and I would have to try and get my money back from where I bought them from.

They emailed me back again and asked me to discard the paints and they issued me a gift certificate for the full cost of the set plus shipping to my house. I am still in shock. When I purchased a smaller set from Citadel a few years ago and had a few bad paints they told me to go pound sand. Plus this is an American company on top of it - not a big deal for some of you I know but...

I found out later that the place I bought them from doesn't actually stock the big sets despite listing them for sale. When they get an order they order it from Reaper then repackage it and send it off to the customer. Which is why it took so long to get to me. They mail it without any precautions against freezing. So unbeknownst to me the paint first went from Reaper in Texas to the north, then from there across the northern states to me in Massachusetts in winter with none of the packaging that can prevent freezing.

So three things I have learned from this:

1) Never do business with the company I purchased these from again. (I've had issues with supposedly new minis I've bought from them as well and had to have Privateer Press send me the missing bits.)

2) Always order my paints in mid-May at the earliest in case they are not packaged or handled properly.

3) Always buy directly from Reaper if I'm not buying a one off bottle at my local store where I can see the paint.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/719252/9223768.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/719252/9223768.page GMT
They often send a freebie bones miniature or extra paint bottle in with your orders as well.

And this year as well if you order over $40 (may be slightly higher that's just what I recall) because it's their anniversary, every month they're including free anniversary models! This month's is really cool looking

Anyway, I hope your next set does ok - the Reaper paints are really nice! especially their HD series, they have some great coverage.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/719252/9223794.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/719252/9223794.page GMT
I had used nothing but Citadel until then. To be honest, I love the paints. I got 2 sets of their triad colors. They are awesome.

If I had not already painted 95% of my army with the Citadel colors, I would definitely use the MSP for most of my stuff.

Glad to hear they have good CS to back it up.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/719252/9224081.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/719252/9224081.page GMT
By my count if I don't order anything other than the paint set at the end of April or beginning of May I'll be getting 8 free models to test and get used to the new paints before they go on armies I care about. If I'm being honest I'll probably be getting 9 free models because I'll probably plunk down for a small set of the HD paints as well.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/719252/9225939.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/719252/9225939.page GMT