paints

[Madame M]

Right - another question poll thing. Anyone have thoughts on brands of paint that are good?

Considering what I hear regarding GW and the fact that Mort has pretty much banned me from buying their products off the shelf (but not second hand), it kind of cuts Citadel Paints out. And I need some paints. Otherwise my figures are going to blend into shadows REALLY well as they'll only be undercoated.

I've looked into Coat d'Arms paints, but really have no idea what I'm looking for in paints. Any suggestions would be great.

Cheers!

[MortiS-the-Lost]

I suggest Coat d'Arms as an alternative to Citadel Paints for 2 very important reasons first, they are slightly cheaper; and second Coat d'Arms made the original Citadel Paints so not only do most of the colour match any painting guide that refers to Citadel Paints but they are very high quality too.

Some people will recommend Vallejo Paints but personally I find them very thin, watery and lacking in strong pigment - they also take a long time to dry compared to Citadel and Coat d'Arms

Privateer Press's formula P3 are rather good and appear to be made by Coat d'Arms judging by the identical pots and the consistency of the paint

Humbrol and Tamiya paints are available most widely but are rather expensive (more than Citadel!), the quality is not the best and sometimes have problems sticking to plastics

Finally avoid any make of enamel paints all together!

[BobbieTheDamned]

MortiS-the-Lost wrote

Some people will recommend Vallejo Paints but personally I find them very thin, watery and lacking in strong pigment - they also take a long time to dry compared to Citadel and Coat d'Arms

Strange, I find them a little thick still, tend to water them down at least a little, maybe I just like thin paint.

One thing I would recommend from GW are the washes, they're really expensive but I find them a lot easier to work with than inks and I think they just give a much nicer effect.

[uncle phil]

As I put on another thread

I really like the MP paint range. You get a nice big volume for about half the price of GW.
 
For basic colours such as Black or White there is little point in buying the GW stuff when the MP paint does just as good a job and works out as so much better value. MP Chainmail, incidentally is the equivalent of GW Boltgun metal, so I tend to use this instead.
 
MP also has some very useful unique colours. Blue Steel is a very nice metalic blue. Use it on its own or to highlight Tamiya metalic blue. MP Gold is very nice for drybrushing over Brazen Brass etc. MP Pale Flesh is in fact a very light cream colour. It forms a nice highlight for bleached bone or rotting flesh and tends to get used for teeth and claws rather than skin. Canary Yellow, Violet, Heather and Porcelain Blue are all nice colours.
 
As Mortis says, "Black Primer" is very handy and "White Primer" is often used for painting eyes because it is nice and fluid.
 
The jar I most use, however, is their black ink. Diluted with just a flake of soap a wash of this finishes most models, adding shadow and realism.
 
I treated myself to the Foundry Paints set. These are expensive but they cover well, and are sold in sets of three shades, which is useful at times. Of particular note are their Brazen/Gold/Shiny ,  Burning Gold Set and Burnished Copper. These tend to cover with a single coat, so are preferable for some jobs as an alternative to MP gold.

Have quite a collection of tamiya paints since these are readily available. Some colours do tend to go a bit gloopy but I have found that storing the pots upside down seems to prevent this. Tamiya have several must have colours. Gunmetal is ideal for darker metalics such as guns (!) Nato Black is actually a very dark grey and is great for highlighting black or painting things that look black but are not actually real black, such as fur or clothing. Tamiya Metalic Blue is a nice colour and I use it for melta guns. Dark copper and Metalic Brown are also useful. Tamiya Clear Red aka TCR is great for blood effects.

Vallejo bottles can be a bit fiddly, but I use them for colours not found in the cheaper ranges. Pale Greyblue, Intermediate Blue (actually a sort of grey, useful for space wolves), German Army Cammo Brown (nice really dark brown), Jap Uniform Yellow (good for zombies).
The Vallejo game range includes many of the useful colours GW have decided to axe. Some of their colours have different consistencies to the GW paints which can be useful. GW Tin Bitz is a bit grainy, making it good for washes or adding wear to weapons. VGC Tinny Bitz is more plasticie, so give good cover for things you actually want this colour.

I have quite a few GW paints, but these tend to be in colours I cannot get in other ranges.