"Best Paint sets available?" Topic

As seen in my last post, I'm stoked to play some SAGA, when I can finally get my hands on the products. After my three day waiting period, I can reply to the helpful community here on the miniatures page.

However, in the interim, I have another query.
I've done Warhammer and 40K in the past, I play FOG 15mm now, but miss the detail of the bigger 25-28mm sculpts and really enjoy painting the figs at that scale. I have some of my old Games Workshop paints in storage ( Do they expire???) and know that my local (and never helpful) Hobbytown USA ( They carry trains and the same mini stock they've had since 2001) has gameworkshop paints, and was curious as to what other brands people are using for paints, and if there are sets/kits/starter packs available that have a bunch of different colours and such that a guy getting back into the hobby would need?

I did like the colour palette of the games workshop colours if that helps.

Thanks again,
Matt

I sell the Coat d'Arms range. They used to make GW's paints for them back in the day. They come in nice flip top bottles and have a variety of starter sets available.

link

Be sure to read the shipping policy…..

YES. Games Workshop paints expire (dry out)- that's why I don't buy them any more.

For some colors I prefer craft paints. There's absolutely no need for "premium" black for example. Dark or Burnt Umber is perfect in craft paint form too.

Foundry has nice three colors sets if you're in the UK.

Reaper is among quite a few offering sets.

reapermini.com/Paints

Some years back (maybe a couple of decades) I opened a bottle of fairly recently purchased GW silver. It looked like cottage cheese had been mixed in. Age and poor sealing lids CAN work against you. But not to bash only GW, they've gone through several styles of containers through the years.

It's a matter of how much you can afford to risk on a bad container or two. And whether a set or a single color, go back and find a management type at the store to demonstrate any problems with new purchases. Employees may try to move the oldest stock first, but a manager may be more concerned with you being a satisfied customer (in front of others especially.)

Matt, the following is very useful if you want to jump from one brand to another (or even use multiple brands):

link

It's not 100% perfect but I've found it very handy moving on from GW to Vallejo.

Cheers, RC.

Can't beat the Coat d'Arms range!

I'm really fond of Reaper. I also like some craft paints (Americana, FolkArt, etc.) and some Vallejo colors.

Besides the quality and shelf life of paint, availability is important too. I don't want to have to scramble to replace colors that I like and depend on. (In that regard, I'm blessed to live in a city with some really good game and hobby shops, which is Austin, Texas.)

I'm really sorry that Polly S is gone. That doesn't help you with your query, but I couldn't help saying that.

By the way, thanks for that handy paint chart, Cullen!

My pleasure. Credit goes to the unknown hero who put it together, it's very thorough!

Jeigheff, you are showing your age, but I mourn the demise of Polly S too. 😄

Okay Extra Crispy, I'm giving Coat D'Arms a shot. Order sent.

As far as I know Coat D'Arms doesn't have a US distributor.

Matt, in my opinion:

games workshop are pretty good, especially if they are locally available in case you need to just pop out to the store and pick them up.

I use mostly Vallejo. You'll need to shake them well to make sure they are mixed, but I find the dropper style bottle allows them to last for years and years. Vallejo also carries a wide spectrum of colors. You could pick up a Vallejo paint set like this Medieval version, but if you are doing SAGA any set that is chock full of earth tones will be fine.

I also use craft paints because of their low price and availability, but mostly for terrain, or large subjects (horses, long cloaks or banner, etc.) I find craft paints a little inconsistent and hard to work with when using them for small details (highlighting a figure's nose or painting designs on the edge of a tunic for example)

I also put together some paint suggestions for painting dark ages figures when I was starting my own SAGA warbands.

All of this is my experience of course. Best of luck with your new period!

Erm, Extra Crispy IS our USA retailer…

Mike

You guys are a wealth of information. Thank you all for the replies,

Cullen, That is an excellent chart. Brilliant.

JSears, Thanks for the tips and tricks.

To follow up:
I went to the local Hobbytown USA and perused their limited selection of paints, they seemed a little pricey at 4.50 a bottle for the games workshop ( or now, citadel paints, and they changed all the names!) They also had some Vallejo paints to my surprise at 3 something a bottle but supplies were a bit limited.
The colours were a little different too.

Using craft paints for the big areas and base coats makes a ton of sense to me, hooray for savings!

Just FWIW, I switched to artist paints. The quality control is far better than in the hobby world, and the paints are rated for opacity and lightfastness so you know what you're getting. They are meant for canvas painters so the paints come thick but have high color saturation so you can thin them to the consistency you need; sometimes you want thick anyway, for drybrushing or touching up, and it's better to start thick and need to thin versus the other way around. Also there is plenty of support from the manufacturer for using their paints for airbrushing, mixing colored fillers, thinning with varnish for magic wash, etc. The range of premixed colors is less varied, but rudimentary color mixing is good to learn (and not that hard), and the upside is ultimately you have to buy fewer paint bottles. Cost is higher per bottle but you get a lot more paint in the container so it lasts far longer. Price does vary from color to color but this is a sign they don't skimp on ingredient quality.

So presently I use Liquitex which is a premium art store brand. There other other good brands and frankly, IMO even the art store house brands still meet a higher quality standard than most hobby paints.

Before I figured out the above about artist paints, I used Coat D'Arms and was very satisfied. I have some I haven't opened in 8 years and I bet they are still good.

I used Games Workshop / Citadel before that; this was back with the old bolter style bottles that would get stuck and dry out from dried paint on the threads, which was why I started switching. I never tried the newer bottles that were supposed to fix this problem.

Before that going back a couple decades I used the popular hobby paint brands of the era: Grenadier, Armory, Floquil, Testors, Polly S, Ral Partha, etc. My typical experience was I would want an arbitrary color range (light, mid and dark green for instance) and would pick and choose from whatever paint racks the hobby store had. When I would get home some paints were too translucent, some would be chalky, some jars wouldn't seal well, etc.

I currently use Vallejo, Army Painter, Coat D'Arms and GW paints. Like it or not, I find the GW paints to be the most consistent across the range but they do need to be thinned regularly (with a proper thinning agent such as Liquitex Matte Medium or the Golden equivalent which is supposed to be excellent).

Another vote for the coat d arms paint's so pleased these kept going As I much preferred this paint to the ones gw changed to.

I've noticed that Army Painter has a sweet mega kit available that has a ton of colours, quickshade inks and three brushes. A decent deal for 125USD? So far I've got a lot more reccomendations for Vallejo and only a few for Army Painter, is Vallejo higher quality or are they similar?

Winsor and Newton oil paint followed by Talens Rembrandt and Pebeo.

12-14 tubes will last you a lifetime.