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3 Colours Up Review – Citadel Paints
August 17, 2011 by elromanozo
If there's a question I've been asked a hundred times, it's this one: What's the best brand for miniature paint?
There's one very simple answer: the one you like.
It's true! A painter will always excel with his own favorite paint pots, if he is used to them, whatever brand they are... And no one holds alliegance to a single brand : all acrylics can be mixed, wherever they're from!
Now, there are certain paints that are more adapted to certain situations, but all of them have their perks and their disadvantages... and if you're a beginner painter and don't know where to start, it's useful to know about it before diving right in and buying a plethora of pots.
Citadel Paints
That's the brand most people start with... the most well known, made by Games Workshop. Those weird looking paint pots (I'm told they were supposed to look like bolter ammo, or something) are omnipresent in the hobby... the whole range is readily available in pretty much every brick and mortar store, even the non Games Workshop ones.
The price is high, especially if you start buying accessories. Usually, for paints, price is relative... the average paint pot will last you a long while. However, a weakness of the range (that you can turn into a quality) is that it dries quicker than most... the more you use it... the more it dries inside the pot.
They're also beginner-friendly: by dividing the range into Foundation paints (more natural, opaque colors), colour paints, and pre-mixed washes, they have made it so that you can achieve tabletop result in very little time, with very little training... If you want more, however, there is a steep learning curve. Many painters use this range quite well, but have to find ways to compensate its biggest flaw... it's glossy.
All the washes and all the paints have a "satin" finish that makes your minis look like toys. It's all right when painting armor, chitin or vehicles, but it's annoying when painting cloth, mud, flesh... Or when shading. It doesn't help that the Games Workshop spray varnish is "satin" as well!
Not only that, but Citadel "blood red" and "sunburst yellow" are notoriously thin and the Chaos Black spray tends to go slightly gray when it dries... although I'm told that's not as bad as it used to be... however, the Skull White spray is good.
Finally, I would say that the Citadel range doesn't have many colors... Which forces the painter to mix pigments a lot. That means there's little chance of getting that exact, complex tone you spent ten minutes to find by mixing YESTERDAY... Not too good if you're painting your whole army with it. Unless you mix large quantities of it and store it in an empty pot, of course... Another hassle altogether.
Here are my thoughts:
All in all, this is quite a good brand. Ideal for beginners who want quick results, their limited palette is specific to the Games Workshop universe, which makes it easier to pick... And they also have some good surprises for the more experienced painter.
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I really like these new series from you, Romain.
Even though I’ve been in the hobby quite some time it feels like a two minute read gives something new.
That said, I will be partially moving from GW to Vallejo unless your coming (?) review turns up something dreadful about them.
Not on all colours though, I will be using foundation paints for base coating since they are easy to airbrush and give good coverage, homemade wash with Les’ recipe, main colours mostly from Vallejo and since Vallejo’s metal colours are a bit odd here and there i will be trying them out to see if it will be GW or Vallejo.
Cheers
That’s the ticket ! Use what you need from the brands you want. The Foundation paints are quite matte and the pigments are fine as well.
BoW Romain
Nice review Romain, thanks!
I’m a long time user of Citadel paints, until around six years ago I switched mostly to Vallejo as they became more readily available where I live. I found the “bottlepot” desing much more efficient to use.
I resently made a small switch back Citadel paints in the form of the Foundation paints. They did gave a small surprice how easy it was to paint larger consistant colour surfaces.
Really waiting for the P3 paints review 🙂
Was a God send when the Foundation Paint Red came out…red gore before hand was just awful and took like a billion coats to even get right.
Still, it’s only one type of red, unfortunately.
Luckily, there are other brands !
BoW Romain
Twenty, ten or even five years ago for me it was Citadel paints or nothing. Now they just dry out too fast. It’s a shame the GW brand is no longer a guarantee of quality.
I remember when Romain recomended me, directly on this site Vallejo paints instead – and to be honest, I havent used anything else at all since then and I find them to be better than GW’s paints – just wish I knew about them years ago. I love the bottles and how they actually have nozzles so you can squeeze a drop of paint out and don’t dry out in the bottles. I guess GW are alright to start with – but I am glad I moved onto a better range.
Thank you !
Wait for my reviews of other brands, and see if there’s something you like !
BoW Romain
I like Vallejo paints, but quite simply they are hard to get by and when you start the hobby you pretty much only know about GW paints. And to be honest, I really like Citadel’s metal paints and washes.. other colours, i’m favoring Vallejo now, just have to use up (or dry up *gring*) my citadel paints first
Oops, meant to say hard to get by where I live, unless I use internets and not support my local shop (who sadly just announced he is closing down.
I know what you mean !
Tamiya paints are easy to get by in model stores. Have you tried those ?
I’ve written a review for them, it’s awaiting publication.
BoW Romain
Looking forward to the review – I’ve just bought two of the Tamiya metals and they are very nice but I had very poor results thinning with water – and they’re quite cheap so a quick trial won’t break the bank lol 🙂
try thinning Tamiya paints with Tamiya x20 (or whatever its called) but DON’T thin GW paints with Tamiya thinner, it will ruin them.
Great thorough review- I would have liked a word or two about the metallics though- am I right in thinking these are still pretty well regarded in comparison to others?
They’re perfectly all right… Nothing to say about them really. You get the basic “gun metal”, silver, gold and copper/bronze tone. You may have more choice in other brands, but these are quite all right, and all you shoudl need…
Metals are meant to be slightly glossy after all, so there’s no problem with the main flaw of this brand.
BoW Romain
Like many in my age-group, I started off with Humbrol enamels. Mainly because that was what was readily available! I made the switch to acrylics about 20 years ago, starting with the Tamiya range which I find excellent for airbrushing (not so great for brush painting IMHO!) Their translucent colours are great for jewels and lights etc! I’ve used vallejo, Revell, Andrea, Humbrol and Citadel paints and, for most uses, Citadel gets my vote particularly the metallics. I use Vallejo paint if I’m doing ‘authentic’ uniform colours (WW2 etc.) I ALWAYS mix on a pallate of some kind and add a drop or two of water to make things ‘flow’ nicely! If the paint in the Citadel pots looks like getting a bit thick, I just stir in a little water before returning it to the shelf. The product that I use for matt effects is Tamiya flat base, a ‘paste’ that when a little is added to the paint while mixing, produces a very matt finish (does make it dry out quicker on the pallate though….. needs refreshing with water now and again!) The finish is porous and lends itself to some interesting ‘staining’ techniques! 🙂
Of course, if you “come” from Humbrol enamels, you’re used to the trouble of mixing, stirring, having separate thinners and pastes, and all that…
Alas, not everyone is like you !
Most people mind if their paint isn’t as “ready made” as possible, and I for one find it a hassle to have to use the Tamiya flat base, for example, or stir pots with a tool before and after use.
Also, the Humbrol enamel pots are freaking awful.
That said, when used properly, all those products open up a new world of textures and shines ! Still, I’m writing this for beginners, mainly.
BoW Romain
Oh dear! 🙂 I AM showing my age!! 🙂 I have to admit to a level of OCD…… I treat painting miniatures like an adventure in alchemy! 🙂 Don’t even get me started on all the things I can do with Johnson’s Klear………. Ha Ha! It’s all come a long way from adding talcum powder to enamel paint for a matt/textured finish! Maybe I should log in as “Grandad” !? Love the site, keep up the good work guys!
Please… I’m thirty and I know what you’re talking about.
Besides, you’re only as old as you feel !
BoW Romain
Excellent! 🙂 I’m a very young 54 year-old! And despite all that I have achieved, I still look forward to learning something new with every miniature that I paint! It’s SO important to keep it all fun… stress can burn you out… painting-time is when I am at my most mellow! 🙂
@wolf357 “keeping it all fun” should be every gamer and painter’s motto 🙂
I personally use a bit of 3 brands. Most of my paints at first was Citadel paints but now most are Vallejo paints. They have a larger range that meets my needs, yet I do have many Citadel foundation paints as they do cover just as good as vallejo paints. Also I use a few of the Formula P3 paints.
Over all I feel that Vallejo is the company that forced the others to change due to its great quality. After all Vallejo only focus is on paints so they became specialists in this field. As apposed to the other brands that just make paints to go along with the core sale of models. I’m not saying that the paints from them are bad but you got to take into account a companies true passion lies in. Is it the paints or the models?
ive become a fan of the p3 range. My only problem is they also have kind of a plasticy (is that even a word?) finish
They do, sometimes, but it’s not as bad as GW… It’s the same sort of “satin” finish as the Vallejo Game Color range, so not quite as matte as possible, but very matte indeed.
BoW Romain
I’ve only ever tried 1 Vallejo paint, and found that to be very very shiny when dry, so I’ve never tried any others. But it was in the Game Color range, so I wonder if that was it. Or maybe I just got a shoddy pot, as I’ve got some Citadel ones and they always seem completely random to if they dry glossy or not.
I use the Vallejo Model Colour range and find it very good for a dull matte finish, brush or airbrush painting.
Really, @stebloke ? What did you use ?
the game color are a bit “satin” but rarely glossy… I only know of a few colors that are glossy in that range, and they’re usually inks.
BoW Romain
It’s called Night Blue. The dark blue I’d had for years (Citadel’s Marine Dark Blue from the early 90s – I don’t paint very often) had just run out. Was just experimenting looking for a similar colour as they dont make that one any more. Grr. In the end, had to mix black, blue and grey to get as close as possible, as nobody seems to make a really good dark blue that I can find.
That’s strange… My night blue is perfectly blue and quite matte. Barely even satin.
Maybe it’s a faulty product, or maybe it hasn’t been shaken enough.
I’m sorry to hear you have a problem with such a good color, a staple of their range !
BoW Romain
I know exactly what the problem was with your Vallejo paint Stebloke. You haven’t stirred/shaked it enough. If there ever was a problem with the Vallejo paints it has to be the fact that they separate quite easily in the bottle if you don’t use it for a while. Particularly in new bottles this can become a problem with either the color coming out in the wrong hue or becoming shiny as hell when dry. Now you’re probably saying that you shook the bottle quite vigorously before you used it. Well I can tell from personal experience that sometimes that is not enough. Sometimes you need to shake the damned things harder and longer than a type 4 hurricane.
There has been such issues for older Vallejo pots, ones you don’t use often, and from a supply that was faulty… Now, the problem is corrected for the most part, but they DO need a good shaking.
If the paint is still separated on the palette, or if it separates during painting, give the paint on your palette a good stir, and that should do it.
I’ve had an old pot of Earth (brown) that separated and was granulous beyond simple annoyance, but as far as I know, the rest of the range is all right and it could very well have been a faulty item.
BoW Romain
Thanks for the advice guys. If I ever use it again I’ll be sure to give that bad boy hell, just to see if that was the issue.
I find that putting something like a couple of BBs, beads or something similar into the paint pot helps mix the paint better. Sometimes a lot of the pigment settles to the bottem of the pot so having something to agitate it really helps.
@mortician that’s a good idea – just like spray cans have ballbearings in.
I really liked this quite fair. Often here you can get alot of good feedback by simply bashing GW and I am glad that this not the case it’s far more about actual review than opinion. I love the GW paints because I can get them. All those other companies out there unless I want to do an internet order, well downunder is dried up.
Great article, I understand it must remain a bit short, but would love a bit more in depth, like container design and what problems it has/ ways to overcome them, a few more words on each paint category and how it behaves or should be used.
For example while you write correctly in the picture worse ration in the market, you do not explain the pots are half full, I have seen many people disbelieve me that Vallejo has more paint in its droppers, because the droppers are smaller than the big pots GW uses, but GW fills them only in half.
on the Brand, I have left GW more than a decade ago, the paint drying in the pot did it for me, had a big period of inactivity in the painting side about a year and when I happily took a brush to paint I found every single colour had dried, I had to by everything back, I decided to try Vallejo and never looked back.
Thank you for your interest, @psychoticstorm…
There’s not much to tell in lieu of “paint behavior”… Foundation is more matte, thicker, and more covering, but the palette is limited. Regular paints are thin and glossy, but vivid. Washes are definitely glossy, but have fine pigments.
What use you make of each of the three “ranges” (four really, with inks) is up to each painter. For example, I’ve never used Foundation paints for basecoats, but I’ve used some for highlights, since they offer a good, matte coverage and mix quite well. I don’t really use the Citadel washes, but it’s a matter of personal taste…
The paint pots are indeed not quite full, but you get the amount promised on the label…
You get 12.5ml per pot for the Citadel brand, about 15 ml for the old Coat d’Arms or P3 paint pots, and 17ml (perhaps more) for the Vallejo brand, if memory serves… And every brand out there has a lower price than GW. Not just “about every other brand”… EVERY other brand.
I’m not one to me stingy about a few mililiters of paint, but I know a con when I see one, especially since you can find decent paints from Ral Partha and such at about 0.90 £ a pot !
BoW Romain
Thanks, I found especially for the other brands, like Vallejo some colours like the glazes hard to understand how they work, or should work and not enough documentation about them, for example the new Vallejo washes are something that still mystifies me, I have seen people that make them work wonders but I have yet to understand how they managed it.
Interesting concept of using the foundations for highlights, never thought about using the new basecoat paints for highlights, does the strong pigmentation help achieve the highlight with less layers of colour?
The Vallejo site isn’t exactly a mine of information, but about washes it says:
“The Washes and Inks, developed with a new resin, are used for shadows and for the application of colors in layers. When applied over a basecoat, they enter into the folds and grooves of the figure, and instantly brings forth the features. They can also be mixed with the regular colors, or with the Mediums.”
Sounds a similar idea to the GW ones. I haven’t tried them though. Romain?
Admittedly their FAQ has more information than the site or brochures provide, but still not much.
Highlighting with foundation paints : that’s the idea…
Although highlighting with P3 paint gives you pretty much the same result… Or even with the dead and buried Rackham paint range. Some people still have pots of those lying around… But the ones you now buy in stores from old stocks are hopelessly dried up.
As for Vallejo washes, I can’t imagine them working any differently from any other type of wash… And @quirkworthy just confirms that, it seems.
I have tried one vallejo brown wash, but found it a bit glossy… I wondered if it was one of their first tries, and it was too close to an ink. The dark fleshtone wash, however, is perfect and matte.
BoW Romain
Do you dilute them and how much?
Yes, I do dilute them… Quite a lot, but it’s hard to tell how much… I think 60% is the bare minimum, but it’s COMPLETELY imprecise.
I don’t believe I ever use undiluted paint anymore, anyway. In my opinion, no one should ever use pure paint… Or undiluted ink. Even for lining the very edges with a thicker mix, you still want to use a little bit of water to avoid paint clotting. I think even most washes should be diluted.
For highlights, the paint and water mix should have the consistency of a clear wash or glaze, be tanslucent, the better to apply many coats. Test and try what you need, and be careful when painting not to take too much on your brush, otherwise it’ll flow in the creases just like a wash… And we don’t want that.
Optimal dilution and consistency depends on the effect you’re looking for, on the miniature, on the paint consistency, on the sizes of the drops of water and paint you use, on the pigment finesse… It’s not an exact science, it’s something you have to be shown, and, especially, try out for yourself. It’s quite intuitive.
I don’t think anyone has any right saying “this should be diluted 50%” or “that shoudl be 66% pure”… It’s wrong, not only because it’s subject to change for every single drop or brush stroke of your mix, but also because it’s simply not possible to achieve that sort of control on such a small scale without precise scientific equipment… It’s not like molecular cuisine, it’s like trying to kill a mosquito with a bazooka. It’s inefficient, it doesn’t work, and it removes all spontaneity.
Plus, it’s just plain silly.
BoW Romain
Thanks, I was not looking for exact ratios, I think I understood, Ill give it a go do some tests and see how it will turn out.
acording to the p3 paint pot it contains 18ml dont know about coat d’arms though I personally find the p3 paint line to be great really versitile too
Thank you for your precision, @zombiesrcool !
Coat d’Arms pots are the same as P3, same as Reaper, same as Foundry, same as the old Citadel pots… To the best of my knowledge. There may be a 1ml difference here or there whether they fill the whole pot or not…
The point is, paint is just as good or better elsewhere, and also quite cheaper. Plus, there’s more variety.
I say, take the best from all the brands you like, take what can be useful to you. No one has to be married to a company or another…
BoW Romain
great review again, I think the inks are quite nice, if you mix them into other paints to tone down the sheen on them, the metallics like boltgun metal just work, better than vallejo equivalents to be honest, but you do have to pick out the useful stuff.
Saying that, its no different with any other range in my experience, they all have some weak spots here and there.
Actually, try the Vallejo Air range for metallics… they’re shiny and the pigments are extra fine. you’ll be surprised how good it is !
BoW Romain
THE WORDS OF ROMAIN ARE NOW LAW!
lol, good review mate, I’ve been tryin to get away from GW paint except for the washes, foundations and I like the GW metals a little more because the flecks of shine are different, in a way that I personally like. I started a few armies where all I use are vallejo and p3 paints, they look rather stunning, and since I use an alcohol thinning agent it does make it alittle faster to dry, but it goes on smooth and surprisingly matte
Aw… Please, feel free to question what I’m telling you !
Experiment, that’s what it’s all about.
We must all kill our buddhas !
BoW Romain
buddha murdering sounds like a good time to me! I started it gw stuff but i find that the dropper bottles and larger assortment of color in vallejo is a better decision (and its cheaper!!)
I love GW washes, especially gryphon sepia, I was able to make some realistic looking wood for my Uncharted Seas fleet using only that color
i can forgive GW (almost) anything just for them creating Devlan Mud
@pangloss and @ramboscoob, I know what you mean…
They’re the go-to colors of many a painter !
I like them fine, but I’m more of a Hull Red person, as you well know. Hull Red, and now Greatcoat Grey and Battlefield Brown from P3.
But I am trying to get away from the “go-to” colors, at the moment, to try new things and new color harmonies, new methods… because I find one can get “stuck” sometimes. It’s always good te renew oneself, especially when one’s job is to teach people how to paint !
BoW Romain
Greatcoat Grey and Umbral Umber are two colours that find their way into nearly everything I paint now. They are quite true to life for a range of greys and browns. Another colour that I’ve been using more and more is Deneb Stone (sic). That colour’s great for stone, armour, banners… it’s just the perfect shade of off-white, with a hint of a rose hue.
Love it.
Roman can you pleeeeeeeease do a “How to…” on using pigments (as in MIG pigments) if you have a chance??
Cheers dude 🙂
I’ve done a quick little video for youtube as part of Santa Barbara Wargaming, as I’ve gotten this question A LOT recently. I’ll post a link when it finishes loading;)
Please do !
BoW John is also the man to talk to, about pigments…
In the meantime, I’ll look into it, but it might be a while.
BoW Romain
yeah thatd be great. Im not even sure how you make the pigments stick to the mini. So far all iv used them for is mixed in with oil paint to creat a mud effect on a tank.
I moved to Vallejo two years ago, mainly due to the fact that GWs paints cost about double (per ml) than Vallejo (and almost any other brand for that matter) and I haven’t really looked back. That said, I find some of their foundation paints useful and I can’t get enough of their washes, they are so damned good! However, I do know that Vallejo makes substitutes for those as well, I just haven’t found any store (in Sweden) who can provide some for me!
Personally I haven’t found the GW paints to be very glossy but that just might be due to me never using anything but matte varnish, though I do agree that they have serious problems with opacity (with the obvious exception of foundation paints of course). Yellow in particular is almost impossible to use with just one or two coats. Heck, I’ve devised entire sets of paints that needs to be applied before you can get to the actual yellow colour.
When talking about GW paints it is impossible to not talk about their pots. As far as I am aware they have used five types of pots. Mark one and two was very similar with the exception that mark two used a hexagonal shape instead of a round one. Both of these were very good and kept the paint in shape almost no matter what you did to them. In fact, they are so good at their job that I still have some of those old pots where the paint haven’t dried! Also of note is that Privateer Press use pots that are very similar to the mark one GW pot. Mark three was a horrible disaster though, instead of a flip-lid it had this horrible threaded lid that you screwed on and off. On top of that, they dried up in an eye blink and even brand new unopened pots could dry up by themselves. Mark four and five are more like the older mark one and two but they have never reached the same type of superb quality that the older ones had.
I couldn’t agree with you more, @macrossvf1 !
BoW Romain
Ditto. When I worked there I was shown the prototype for the mark 3 (as macrossvf1 calls it) and was told it was supposed to look like a bolt gun round. An absolute abortion of a piece of design in any practical sense, unless you imagine that they actually want the paint to dry so you have to come back for more. I have paints in mark 1 ans 2 pots that are still fine now, but 90% of my mark 3s have just dried up on their own. At least the current GW pots look nicer.
A word of warning though. I have discovered that some of my oldest GW paints in mark one and two pots seems to have changed chemical composition somewhat. And by that I mean that the end result is glossy in the extreme, even when stirred properly. I can only assume that this is due to old age (some of the pots are 20-25 years old!) so I advice everyone that still has these old relics to try them out first before painting large areas!
A question to Romain, I’ve heard that the Vallejo Air range have particularly fine pigments, to suit airbrushes. Apparently this also applies to the metallic paints as well and is supposed to give a better metallic look than just about any other metallic colors. Have you tried these paints Romain and if so, are there any truth to what I’ve been told?
Dear @macrossvf1,
You’ve heard right.
They have.
It does, and it does.
I have.
And so, yes, it’s true.
I hope that’s all clear… But you’ll get all the details in my Vallejo review, coming soon to Beasts of War !
BoW Romain
There used to (and may still) be some very fine pigmented metallic paint that you could actually buff up to a shine when it was dry. I think it was Humbrol and may even have been enamel, and was made for the aircraft modellers (painting shooting stars and the like). That was the shiniest metalic paint I ever used.
I think you’re referring to enamels, indeed !
Some painters use acrylics, and highlight their metallics with enamels.
Finer pigments, but trickier to use… Crappy paint pots and oil or alcohol based.
BoW Romain
Humbrol, now that brings back memories of how crappy they were. As a wee lad, building airplanes kits and whatnot, I only had access to Humbrol paints. To this day, none of the people I’ve talked to has ever had anything nice to say about them, and I must say that I agree with them. Heck, at my local gaming club we usually call them Humbug-paints with a certain disdain and loathing usually reserved for your worst enemies.
Another great article and I’ll be asking Santa for new paints, but not until I have read your other articles 😀
GW used to do a huge range, a metallics set included. Shame they went the way of the ghost. It was a sad day when my smelly primer ran out and my tzeench pink got used up 🙁
Ah, bah !
Do yourself a favor and grab some Murderous Magenta and Carnal Pink from PP, or some Old Rose, Magenta (or better yet, Magenta Fluo) and Squid Pink from Vallejo… or something like that.
All is not lost !
BoW Romain
I always find the gw metallics other than the silvers to be very thin and make life hard for people that don’t know what base to put down before you paint the gold very dificult to get a decent coat with it I have never bought a gw gold that has given a good coat on black or white undercoat straight from the pot/pallette
Tin Bitz is your friend 😉 Even if I undercoated or do directional lighting with white, I’ll always put down a coat or two (watered down!) of Tin Bitz before doing ANY metallics. I find the GW range of metallics quite good, actually, just as long as you water down and do a few coats/washes. A very fine, easy ‘gold recipe’ that I use is Tin Bitz (nice, smooth undercoat, watered down)->Shining Gold with a tiny blend of a brown non-metallic mixed it (depending on your sought-after hue)->Devlan Mud (water that down!)->another coat of Shining Gold->a few fine, thin coats of Burnished Gold->a light wash of Gryphonne Sepia.
This looks like actual gold, but, a caveat: it’s not cartoony, it’s realistic, so may look abit ‘flat’ on the table, if you’re used to extreme highlighting.
Also, remember: along with watering paints/washes down, window cleaner can be your friend, as can sparing use of vallejo mixing medium. 🙂
PS Experiment! 🙂
Abso-bloody-lutely, @ironmonger !
I like my gold a little reddish, but your recipe is quite interesting.
BoW Romain
And here is the perfect example of the difference of a beginner/average/lazy painter and a veteran/pro painter. The first group will go something like “What! That many layers for gold? Fuck that, I’ll just slobber on more Shining Gold instead.” The veteran painter goes like Romain. “Interesting… though that mix just might need a bit of tweaking. Let’s see if we add this or that…” 🙂
Of course a lot of this has do with the fact that mixing paints and working in several complex layers isn’t something that you just learn on a whim. How paints work together in layers and in mixes is something that need experimentation, a lot of brush time and a certain scientific/artistic understanding about colors in general. I consider myself a decent painter but I have barely touched mixing three colors, I’ve just started trying the fairly difficult technique of seamless blending, non metallic metals is a no go as of yet, and object source lightning is something I’ll probably never try since I think it is a bit gimmicky. So many things to learn, so little time.
Love the 3up work Romain and a very useful review.
I find the GW paints just right. That is, a good style for fantasy. The minis don’t look real, but they found a surreal look for their paints and set them apart from the other brands.
Personally, I use their metallics from time to time, but most of my painting is from traditional artist brands (much cheaper, in bulk and more variants) Folk Art being the most used. This is because I started as a traditional artist and moved into painting up minis later on. I was quite frankly shocked at the cost-to-quantity (sometimes, quality) ratio in miniatures.
I tend to mix my “special” colors for the heroes and go with already set colors when doing larger troops/armies.
Thanks again for the cool painting sections!
Will you do a review of Reaper paints as well? They are not available in Germany, I don’t know how it is in the UK though…
Currently I use GW paints, and I don’t really like the pots. The Foundation paints are very useful for me for doing the first coat of a colour. I like the washes too.
I use Valejo Game colors as well, but I’m not really sold on them. Some do seperate very easily, some are nearly too thin in the pot. I’ve got a white color (dead white) that does not go together at all (crappiest color I’ve ever seen). But I do love the dropper bottles. So I’m really interested in Reaper paints, maybe they are the colors I’ve waited for. I also really like the “color traid” system.
By colour triad do you mean they sell a shade and highlight to go with each colour? If so, Foundry do that with their paints too. It’s a good idea.
I meant “color triad”, sorry.
@serrin, we’ll see…
Reaper paints aren’t easy to get a hold of where I am, and I have yet to see a store that sells them in the UK… Maybe I’ll order some for a review, but I’ve got to weigh the success of such an article against the fact that few people are going to bother ordering them online when they’ve got perfectly good Vallejo or P3 paints available in store…
Nevertheless, we strive for proper content and information, and Reaper is well known, if difficult to obtain.
So…
Yeah, we’ll see !
BoW Romain
After many years Ive started to craft my own paints Its cheaper and I can get the exact shades I need. I find that citadel paints are just fine for those starting out but you can get the same quality out of a high quality craft paint made by plaid their Folk art brand is nice and all you have to add is flow improver and some dye if required.. You can pick the Folk art up for about .99 to 1.20 depending on where you go. All I do is mix a pot with the paint a little water an some flow aid and if i want a certain shade to match I go to my local paint shop I can have them add dye to it for almost nothing. I can make 3oz of paint or 88.5 ml for about 2 dollars American. Like i said this is my system but acrylic paint is acrylic paint IMO and Romain was right you do best when using paint that you like. I just got tired of paying $3.50 to $4.00 a pot for my armies and commission work.
You’re right, of course, but few people, outside of fine arts school students and professionals, have the expertise to do that, and most would pay for great, ready-made paint (yes, it’s possible !) instead, rather than toying with dyes and thinners.
As you do commission work, you have an entirely different approach to painting : you have to have your own mixes, you have to have large quantities, you know exactly how paint is made and how it “works”, and you have to be cost effective…
Most people simply don’t care as much, or don’t need such specificities.
BoW Romain
Question for all, is there an additive you can put into GW paint to keep it from drying too fast?
There are mixing mediums that do just what you are asking about. Now I haven’t tried these out myself but so called retarder mediums will slow the drying time of acrylics and since GW paints fall in that category they should work just fine together. I have little to no idea where to get such mediums though.
Any art or craft shop should have them. Ranges of acrylics for artists have retarders in routinely. I’m not sure if any of the hobby lines include them.
P3 has a mixing medium that’s essentially a retarder, as do Vallejo. I’ve never used them with the basic paints, as my wet palette works well for this, and once off the palette I want them to dry pretty fast (hence the windex). For washes they work brilliantly, I must say, and there’s no reason I can think of why they wouldn’t do as well for acrylic paints…
The vallejo medium is quite nice, and works very well with acrylics… I use it once in a while for large surfaces or difficult looking gradients.
BoW Romain
I tend to use a watered down base of shining gold and calthan brown mixed so you can still see a hint of gold then gradually overbrush with pure shining gold then wash with Devlan mud then mix some mithril silver into the shining gold and do some highlights then finish with gryphonne sepia
that works for me I get much better coverage than just tin bitz as a base but that’s just m preference
Nice review.
Fortunately for me, Citadel washes are like “Talent in a Jar.”