3-Colours Review – Warpaints
September 28, 2011 by elromanozo
As you know, The Army Painter started out just doing spray cans and quickshade, and moved on from there... Always basic gear, with the wargamer in mind, aiming to offer both quality and a cheaper alternative to other brands.
Let's talk specifically about the paints, named "Warpaints"... I thought at first it was for colouring warriors.
The set I received contains nine colors... It's the general Mantic Paint Set (The Army Painter set contains ten). Either is pretty normal for a basic paint set, in my opinion... It's one or two over the Games Workshop ones, and it's cheaper for the quantity.
The paints come in dropper bottles... An excellent feature, unfortunately diminished by the fact that the nozzle is slightly different from the Vallejo ones. My set came with... a few pre-clogged pots!
I had to unclog them with a needle, something that I've never had to do before for paint pots.
Even if it were just a flawed set, it demonstrates a tendency to clog that other drop bottles do not have.
That said, the paint flows easily... It's very liquid, and although it isn't a wash, it requires very little water/medium. This is liberating for beginner painters who dare not fiddle with dilution, or for wargamers who can't be bothered with anything, but using paint right out of the pot...
(Yes, I'm looking at you, Darrell!)
The tones are pretty basic... so basic, in fact, that they don't have any special names.
None of that "gory red", "titillating pink", "ogryn flesh" (whatever that means...) or "Devlanese Off-Strawberry Puce" nonsense.
I kid you not... the tones are White, Black, Red, Blue, Green, Brown, Flesh, Silver and Gold. In other sets, you may find Bone, Yellow, and Armor.
That's it.
And that's all they have.
Literally! The entire Warpaints range is comprised of twelve tones.
While I'm all for teaching people how to mix properly, this is frankly disappointing.
Granted, the tones are useful. Deep green, Basic red, nicely saturated brown, "flesh" (arguably difficult to mix from primary colors)... and I love the baby-linen... almost lavender blue.
That's one problem. If they had included a deep blue, you could have mixed some white in and made sky blue. With sky blue, if you try darkening it with black, you will only get a greyish mess!
That also means no deep purple... there's no bronze either... all those lonely colours miss their pretty sisters!
Furthermore, even though their pigments are thin and their paints well loaded with them, all of those colours separate, inside or outside the pot. Even with vigorous shaking, the thinner will rise above whatever you drop on your palette... Unless, that is, the set I got was defective.
No wonder they're called warpaints... they are vivid, primitive colors to be dabbed on like the Celts used to do, before dipping in the muddy quickshade of the battlefield.
But I exagerate... of course, the purpose of these paints is not to cater to the experienced painter's needs.
They're basic, affordable bottles... they're sold in individual pots, for about two thirds of the price of a Citadel one!
Not to mention they contain more paint, 15 ml instead of 12,5. Which means, they're slightly cheaper than Vallejo per milliliter.
Even with their flaws, such paint sets are excellent for someone who doesn't want to invest too much to discover our hobby and it's everything you need in a single purchase, including one or two decent "hobby" brushes and either miniatures or half a can of primer, depending on the set you buy.
A sweet deal for introducing kids to the hobby without exposing them to the talons of a certain store chain's sales patter... if they like it... treat them to the real stuff when they're done with this one.
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You evil man – I now want, no NEED, “Devlanese Off-Strawberry Puce” 😉
Get an example and the reaper website will tell you how to mix it from their standard paints:
http://www.reapermini.com/PowerPalette
I#m using a mixture of paints, among those the complete game color range of vallejo except their washes and foundations, which i get from GW, also i ‘ve tested svereal different Primers and stayed for those with GW even if their expensive as, hell i don’t prime my miniatures that much so a can usually is enough for about 100 minis including some vehicles/Walkers. brushes come from da vinci. I also tried coat d’arms, and probably will expand into those as well, but as the army painter products are generally much to expansive and only repacked stuff i won’t buy… Read more »
My hero !
This is how a painter should rule : take whatever you want from whoever you want.
Personnally, I like the Army Painter spray cans, and find them better than the GW ones… But the GW are still fine, and they do a nice white.
BoW Romain
I agree. In the end I believe that serious painters should treat ranges like a buffet. Just take what you want and leave the rest. Some of the best metals I have seen are the Liquid Gold series from the Vallejo line but they are alcohol based and most gamers never consider alcohol based paints. So you miss out on the Mister Color line from Gunze Sangyo that has some of the richest tones I’ve seen in a paint line. Perfect for airbrushing. So I second Romain. Never restrict yourself to just one paint line. Find what you like, find… Read more »
Alcohol based paints and enamels are very cool, with extremely fine pigments… That’s all we used to have before special “airbrush” paints, actually.
They are indeed great… But they don’t mix with water-based acrylics, and it’s a pain in the arse to use with thinner and such.
Nowadays, luckily, there is the Vallejo Air range, and such !
BoW Romain
Sorry bout this… but haven’t you already done a review on these during Warpath weekend?
Btw I love the Army Painter sprays. Great basecoat and undercoat for whatever army.
This is a review of the Army Painter Warpaints range, the other article was about the Mantic set. You’re right, this is from the same set, but the content of the articles is different.
I didn’t talk about the paints (much) in the other article, and you don’t get a lot of specifics about the Mantic set from this one…
When in doubt, read both !
BoW Romain
Do you mean cheaper per ml than GW? Vallejo are 17ml bottles.
No, I mean slightly cheaper than Vallejo. Which means they’re also very much cheaper than Citadel. A pot of Warpaint is about 1,75 euros per 15ml, a pot of Vallejo is about 2,40 euros per 17ml (At least in my part of the world). Do the math yourself…
I do check my facts… sometimes… lol
It’s a matter of about three Euro Cents per milliliter. Still, in large amounts, to some, it matters.
BoW Romain
I understand Army painter are about to increase the range of their warpaints quite a bit. I enquired about the absence of a yellow, which they very promptly replied to, informing me that an extended range was scheduled for next year.
I mainly use the Warpaints range (with a few Vallejo additions) as I personally find them ideal for simple tabletop standard painting, cheap and easy to use.
Another great review, thanks Romain!
JP
It wouldn’t surprise me one bit that they would expand on their range… They can only improve. and after all, it’s a fairly recent addition to their range.
When the range spreads, I may do another review.
BoW Romain
Considering that this is a range that just has started it perhaps a bit unfair to judge it so harshly already. Maybe you should revisit this range in say a year or two and see what has changed? Though to be honest I don’t care much about their paints, instead it’s everything else that Army Painter makes that catches my eye. I like their brushes, When I need to prime something I only use their spray cans nowadays and the basing accessories they sell are also quite good. I can even see the appeal of the Quickshade series, though I… Read more »
There is no five star rating…. And I mentioned in a comment (just above, as a matter of fact) that I may do another review if and when the range spreads.
That said, I am in complete agreement with what you said !
BoW Romain
A simple question : do the warpaints match perfectly the spray colors ? I mean, is the “flesh” warpaint exactly the same color as the flesh spray ?
I have been using the army painter sprays, and i struggle a bit to find the exact match for them.
Interesting question ! I will endeavor to find out…
BoW Romain