Winston Smith | 17 Nov 2015 10:10 p.m. PST |
Well, they are nice to use. Decent coverage. But….. They are horribly expensive. $4.00 USD for 0.4 oz. The "pot" is fiendishly designed to waste and evaporate 80% of the paint I side. The lid is designed for… What is it designed for, but to waste paint? I broke out a pot if Catachan green that I used once a year ago. The contents were all dried up. What a waste. |
bracken | 17 Nov 2015 10:50 p.m. PST |
I have got to agree about the waste of space pots, terrible for paint building up around the seal at the back of lid. I still buy citadel paints because I like the colours and they are easy to pick up locally, but I cant see Games Workshop changing the pots anytime soon! Which is a shame but if it means you have to buy more paint in the long run they arn't going to loose any sleep over it. |
Cyrus the Great | 17 Nov 2015 10:53 p.m. PST |
Really! You opened a plastic paint jar a year ago and then went back to it now and expected to still have usable paint? Citadel paint would not be the only one guilty of dried out paint over a year's duration. |
Coyotepunc and Hatshepsuut | 17 Nov 2015 11:03 p.m. PST |
I still have workable paint I bought before I moved to Vegas… paint over 20 years old that is working fine. GW was sill using Coat d' Arms as their paint supplier, and some of THOSE are still good… the newer GW paint is crap, pure and simple. |
normsmith | 17 Nov 2015 11:12 p.m. PST |
I keep a bottle (empty Vallejo bottle) wit a mix of water (80%) and flow improver (20%), every time I open a GW paint pot I add two drops and shake. It keeps the paint good for a long time. I quite like the delivery system that the lid provides, but I tend to take a brush load of paint off and move it to a an old CD or a small home-made stay wet palette. |
bsrlee | 17 Nov 2015 11:40 p.m. PST |
Perhaps because it is the only paint available in some areas? There are a lot of B&M shops which carry figure painting stuff who don't have a clue about the quality or utility of what they stock and if someone offers them a 'system' with a decent profit margin, that is all they will stock. |
McWong73 | 18 Nov 2015 12:23 a.m. PST |
Noobs gotta start somewhere |
Green Tiger | 18 Nov 2015 2:26 a.m. PST |
I have just thrown away the last pot from my original citadel paint set that I bought in 1988 – I still have some of the ink from a couple of years later. The chief problem is that the current stuff just isn't the same and every time I go to replace an old colour I met with blank looks in GW as they change the names all the time and just phase out useful colours. As noted above the pots are rubbish – inclined to tip over and pop open. Finally,now I have stopped using it I don't have to go and discuss my latest painting project with the pimply youths manning the shop. |
Martin Rapier | 18 Nov 2015 2:32 a.m. PST |
"Really! You opened a plastic paint jar a year ago and then went back to it now and expected to still have usable paint?" My oldest usable acrylic paint in a plastic pot dates from mid 1997. Miniature paints iirc. I also have some useable Humbrol acrylics from the same period, and I only retired my pot of GW Bubonic Brown when it finally ran out a couple of years ago. |
MajorB | 18 Nov 2015 3:08 a.m. PST |
You can still buy the old Citadel paints from the 1980s. They are called Coat d'Arms now: blackhat.co.uk/coat-darms They are much better quality and last longer than the newer GW paints. |
79thPA | 18 Nov 2015 5:16 a.m. PST |
Cyrus: I don't think it is unreasonable to expect my paint to still be good. I still use some Musket Miniatures and Ral Partha paint that is probably around 20 years old. |
Cosmic Reset | 18 Nov 2015 5:55 a.m. PST |
It is not uncommon for paint to last for decades. I've got dozens of bottles of various brands dating to the 1980s, and at least one bottle of Pactra from the early 1970s. I've only ever bought 5-6 bottles of GW paint, all over two years old, four of them are still good to go. Not sure what the problem is. |
skinkmasterreturns | 18 Nov 2015 6:25 a.m. PST |
I have a pot or 2 of the original Citadel paint that are still going strong after 20 plus years.Didnt you hear the message that played when you opened it"This pot will self destruct in 5,4,3…." |
haywire | 18 Nov 2015 7:06 a.m. PST |
Their Technicals are pretty neat. |
Old Wolfman | 18 Nov 2015 7:58 a.m. PST |
Been there,done that too. |
Pictors Studio | 18 Nov 2015 9:04 a.m. PST |
"Noobs gotta start somewhere" Interesting, I've been painting for 30 years now, almost half of them professionally as my major source of income. I use GW paints. I don't only use GW paints but their base coats have fantastic coverage, the only thing on the market comparable to Cel Vinyl and they come in colours Cel Vinyl doesn't have. For my basic colours like black, red, raw umber and grey I use Cel Vinyl, but they don't have a Caliban Green. Nor have I found a bone colour anywhere as good as screaming skull. Probably 25% of my paints are Citadel/GW. You're missing out if you don't use them. |
Winston Smith | 18 Nov 2015 10:59 a.m. PST |
I'm not denying they are decent paints Scott. I am saying the pots are deliberately designed to waste paint. |
Cyrus the Great | 18 Nov 2015 11:18 a.m. PST |
Cyrus: I don't think it is unreasonable to expect my paint to still be good. I still use some Musket Miniatures and Ral Partha paint that is probably around 20 years old. Both of the examples you have cited do not have the type of plastic used in Citadel paints. My issue is with the type of plastic used in the manufacture of the bottles. The original post specifically mentioned Citadel paints. I still have the original GW inks. They have the same containers used in the RP and Musket Miniatures. @Martin Rapier Look at the composition of the bottle. |
ochoin | 18 Nov 2015 12:32 p.m. PST |
Citadel have some colours I really like. Winston's points are valid but I can live with it for a few pots. Mostly I get Vallejo though. |
Pictors Studio | 18 Nov 2015 12:38 p.m. PST |
"I'm not denying they are decent paints Scott. " Then to answer your question, people buy them because they are good paints. I had a problem with the old pots, the new ones have their annoyances also but are an improvement. Most of mine get used up before they can dry out though. |
Doctor X | 18 Nov 2015 1:14 p.m. PST |
I use very few GW colors. But the ones I have go back 25 years in some cases. I agree that the pots are poorly designed. |
Extrabio1947 | 18 Nov 2015 1:23 p.m. PST |
The latest generation of GW paints have the shelf life of a sick fruit fly. I use some of their washes, but that's it. Cyrus, I still have Ral Partha, Horizon, and original Polly S paints (pre Testors) that are still in perfect condition. Like Winston, I had some 6 month old GW paints that were completely dried out. Never again. |
MajorB | 18 Nov 2015 1:45 p.m. PST |
The latest generation of GW paints have the shelf life of a sick fruit fly. I use some of their washes, but that's it. Indeed. That's why you need to get Coat d'Arms paints!! |
ZULUPAUL | 18 Nov 2015 3:02 p.m. PST |
Stopped buying them years ago. I have some pots from the 80's that are still good but the last ones I bought went dry in a couple of weeks after one use. |
Syrinx0 | 18 Nov 2015 7:54 p.m. PST |
I only buy new GW if I really want a specific color and I intend to use a lot of it immediately. Every now and then I add more extender to my existing GW paints and have managed to keep a lot of my crappy GW bottle set still viable. I moved all my original GW inks to other bottles which has worked out well. Too lazy to do that for all the paints. My foundry and Coat d'Arms have held up well. My Cell Vinyl yellow and red have not aged particularly well but with occasional mixing are usable. Other colors don't seem to separate. |
Cyrus the Great | 18 Nov 2015 9:30 p.m. PST |
Cyrus, I still have Ral Partha, Horizon, and original Polly S paints (pre Testors) that are still in perfect condition. Like Winston, I had some 6 month old GW paints that were completely dried out. Never again. Once again, look at the composition of the containers. Polly S are in bottles, RP have a different plastic composition and Horizon in tins. Winston specified Citadel paints and I said Citadel was not the only one guilty of this. Some time ago, The Armory had a line of paints that were in plastic jars of the same composition. I never opened them and they dried out in the bottles. They eventually switched to glass. Problem solved! |
basileus66 | 19 Nov 2015 5:54 a.m. PST |
Because you are used to them? I have found that it is not the quality of the paint what motivates me, but how familiar I am with it; with its characteristics, the depth of the color, how it reacts when thinned, how well (or bad) it covers the surface, ecc. I have not a particular brand I use. In my painting cabinet co-exist Vallejo, GW, Scale 75, Andrea, 3G, even Humbrols and Tamiyas. |
DHautpol | 19 Nov 2015 10:59 a.m. PST |
I use GW paints because they're convenient, there's a GW store about 15 minutes' walk from where I live. I don't have to seek out a model shop (increasingly rare in London), do mail order or wait for a show in order to re-stock (all of which require planning). I agree that the containers are crap and, in my opinion, have been since they discontinued the screw topped pots where you could mix your paint to the desired consistency in the domed lid. As to thickening and evaporation, I keep a bottle of W&N Galeria Matt Medium to hand. |
Der Alte Fritz | 20 Nov 2015 8:49 a.m. PST |
We hate eye dropper paint bottles. Talk about a real waste of paint! (and they clog frequently, I can't seem to unclog the nozzles even after totally washing out the paint in the nozzle section of the bottle.) Fritz |
GARS1900 | 26 Nov 2016 6:54 a.m. PST |
To be honest, while GW does have genuinely terrible bottle designs, I just like their colors. Don't get me wrong, I love my Vallejo paints, but Citadel colors like Catachan Green, Vermin Brown, and Averland Sunset just look right to me. Perhaps it's because I got started in this hobby via 40k, but I'll still prefer to have at least some Citadel colors on hand. Also, my experience with GW Washes like Seraphim Sepia, Reikland Fleshade and Nuln Oil have been fantastic. |
Warcolours Painting Studio | 27 Nov 2016 12:55 a.m. PST |
In my line of work I mostly use Vallejo these days: I am slowly phasing out all remaining GW stuff. For historical miniatures Vallejo has a superior range anyway, and for the fantasy stuff their Game Color range provides close equivalents to the GW tones. Recently I am starting to use more and more Warcolours paints (and no, even though we share the same name I have no relation to them): the colors are excellent, the dropper bottle is one of the best I have seen, it never gets clogged and delivers only the amount of paint you really need. They have base paints, layer and technical lines and I am starting to like them more each day |
Simo Hayha | 27 Nov 2016 9:11 p.m. PST |
x2 Noobs gotta start somewhere. I buy NOTHING from games workshop anymore. There isnt a single thing there worth the price. |
Anthropicus | 28 Nov 2016 9:46 a.m. PST |
Eye dropper bottles are just so much more convenient. It's easy to dispense the right amount (counting drops so you can repeat mixture recipes and dilute precisely) and they'll never dry up unless the lid breaks. |
ced1106 | 03 Dec 2016 5:03 a.m. PST |
You can paint directly from the pot lids, rather than need to use a wet palette. Also, you can drip water and medium directly into the pot. And, if you use up all the paint, then it doesn't dry out. So what would you use it for? (: Brush-on priming. It's definitely a special case, but I've been using Imperial Black as an undercoat for the metallic parts of 100-some minions from the Mechs vs. Minions boardgame. I started with spray-on black, but am drybrushing grey the base and much of the rest of the miniature. Drybrush paint can get to places where you don't want, so I'm repainting these areas black. |