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REVIEW: Games Workshop paints

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General Biakal –

WHATS THE PRODUCT?

GW range of pants, washes and foundations

PRICE?

£2.25 per pot moving up to £100+ for the big sets

WHATS THE THINKING THEN?

I know what your thinking- this fat twats lost his mind. Why review a product we all use all day every day?

well, thats exactly my point. th GW paints are SO ubiquitous we sort of forget about them. like in "Shawshank" when Red talks about a mans shoes. Sometimes the obvious is easy to miss.

so what do we have? well, a large range of paints in colours that are pretty much household names. Mithril Silver, Red Gore, Bleached Bone- all very old, very inspiration names to any GW geek.

The newer products also deserve some recognition- the washes are actually awesome. and the foundations have started to become more popular in my little world too. and one can (if one tries) spot a few puns within the newer colours. for instance, Adeptus Battlegrey is exactly the same colour as the bare sprues your new toys come on.

the major problem with paints is: when you start the hobby you want to buy tanks and soldiers and stuff. paints are a little bit of a un budgeted expense that you really cant be bothered with. it makes the first stage of the hobby pretty intimidating and if i were them id be tempted to take a hit on the big paint sets as a loss leader... but then again the GW business model of "lets be a cunt" wont allow it.

In all i rate the paints from GW. I know thee are other brands and even copycat colours (vallejo) but on many counts GW paints win. see my 6 point plan below to see why

6 GOOD THINGS ABOUT THIS PRODUCT:

1. available pretty much everywhere
2. consistant high quality (by and large) and you knowif you buy a dodgy one they will swop it NQA...
3. the colours you want with the manly names you want
4. fairly confident about stock stability (except minority colours)
5. each pot is pretty much pocket money price- one pint of beer
6. longevity of product- some of my paints are very very old (10 yrs ish or more)

6 SHIT THINGS ABOUT THIS PRODUCT

1. When your starting out paints are a MASSIVE expense
2. the lids are just plain shit- dried paint chunks, wont close properly- you know the score
3. hunt the colour when they are all in your toolbox
4. as with all GW products Id be happier if they were 15% cheaper (but they are not that bad really)
5. 12 fl/oz is not a huge amount
6. did i mention the lids? and how paint can run over the label?

LONG STORY SHORT...

for sheer "fuck it- its a couple of quid" ease of purchase as well as a decent level of quality you cant go wrong. and i know people buy Vallejo to save 50p per pot but, honestly, im really not that tight.

WORD.

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SamuelF

Re: REVIEW: Games Workshop paints

Cool review

A note about Vallejo paints. They are 17ml as opposed to 12.5

General Biakal wrote

for sheer "fuck it- its a couple of quid" ease of purchase as well as a decent level of quality you cant go wrong. and i know people buy Vallejo to save 50p per pot but, honestly, im really not that tight.

GW - 16p per ml

Vallejo - 9p per ml

Yes I am that tight.

Schmoke and pankake?

General Biakal

Re: REVIEW: Games Workshop paints

hmmmm 7p... i think i will treat myself.

but seeing as how most of my paints came from a very very cheap source im not really in a place to comment!

"WAAAAGH! VROOM VROOM!!! DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA! Dead gud innit yoof?!" - typical Mekboy sales pitch

MortiS-the-Lost

Re: REVIEW: Games Workshop paints

Best value paints out there have to be Coat 'd Arms, I've probably mentioned this before but Coat 'd Arms are the company that used to make paints for Citadel in the late 80's and 90's. What's more is they still carry the old Citadel range (under slightly altered names) so you can get the original Citadel paints for nearly a quarter of the price!

Bong and a Taco?

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~The ravings of a single mad Goblin is bad enough, but such a power-hungry, malice-filled creature as Mortis can never hope to be understood~

Umboman

Re: REVIEW: Games Workshop paints

This post was updated on .

In reply to this post by General Biakal

I agree with your review.Somethings you did not mention:1/Paint the colour on the lid to ease finding what you want,2/Always store upright to minimise the lid problem,3/Every 4 months or so check every pot to see if it is drying out & top up with water & stir-this will save you a lot of wasted money,4/Invest in a couple of those Boa constrictor jar openers(one for the lid & the other for the pot)-they will open difficult lids without damaging them &/or save you chucking out good paint,5/I recently bought one pot of No33 Black Humbrol acrylic paint but the lid is very unsatisfactory & I will not buy anymore,6/Andrea color is 17ml in plasic bottle with a dropper under the lid-forgot the price but these also can dry out if you do not top up regulary with water available from www.arcaneminiatures.co.uk,7/Tamiya color is a fantastic lid & glass pot, but a short while back they halved the size of there paint pots to compete with Gamesworkshop-now 10mls & I believe more expensive than gamesworkshop?Worth the extra expense due to the secure,easy to remove lid & the glass jar stops the paint evapourating more than plastic tubs do & the paint quality is better in my opinion,8/Citadel choas black spray paint is too fiddly/expensive to use as a base coat,unless you are spraying a large item or multiple miniature-instead I buy Wilko Matt Black for interior & exterior wood & metal one litre for £6 & touch dry in 30mins;available from Wilkinsons or get something similar?,9/Do not keep the paints from the £100 kit in the plastic tray inserts,as lying them at an angle is conducive to leaks & exaccerbates the problem with the sticking lids,etc10/I tried Coat d'arms 401 grass green & it is not that good & it's expensive-instead add sand or grit(sweep some off a tarmac pavement) to your paint to save money,11/The Toyshop in Trowbridge sold 59mls permanent acrylic paints 'Inscribe'much cheaper & perfect for larger projects;with a great lid,12/Lastly I have used artists oil or acrylic paints in tubes(available from stationery shops)to great effect & they last a long time ,do not need topping up with water & because you dilute them they go much further.Oils do take longer to dry,unless you mix more turpentine substitute in with them-even then they take days but they are perfect if you want to blend colours over a couple of days.I think thats it,hope it may help someone & I look forwarded to learning from all of you on painting & construction,etc.Happy painting.

The Prodigal son

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