"Vallejo vs Army Painter. Let me understand." Topic

I have tried them several times. Today again:
coverage is a lot less good than my Vallejo's. While one layer may be enough for a uniform cover with Vallejo, Army painter struggles a lot more and 3 layers might be just enough to obtain the same effect as with Vallejo.

Honestly, I do not understand all the rage about Army Painter. Let me understand because it gives me more work than anything else.

Or you have a different experience? I positively hate working with these colors.

Which Vallejo's are you referring to? The Vallejo Air Model has been well-received by display-level fantasy miniature painters, and Vallejo Model Color by military model painters. Vallejo Game Color was a pass by reviewers for generic fantasy miniatures.

AP is primarily for generic fantasy speed painting, with its color primers, dips, and washes. I regularly paint assembly-line with AP to advanced tabletop, but don't have the time or skill for display level.

We really need more detail on what Vallejo lines you're referring to and what Army Painter colors you're having issues with.

AP can be a bit thin, and I have had issues with separation. I put ball bearings into the bottles and this helps. I don't think AP are good for 1 coat coverage, like Citadel. They are creamy and a bit thin – best used for methods that require thinner paint, such as colouring over pre – shading. Or use a white undercoat for bright colours which can be shaded using the AP water based washes or the dips. Vallejo Game is also rather thin.

I am using indistinctly game color and model color from Vallejo. Game color has the advantage to take a bit more time to dry so I can do blending on the figure directly.

As for AP, I have been using their zombie set and the necrotic flesh or equivalent, desert yellow as well. The exact same colors from Vallejo give me rich tone and very good coverage in one go, even on a dark basecoat. AP is far behind.

As for the Vallejo air color, no way I'd use this on figures with a brush, it is mainly designed to be applied with an airbrush.

Just try AP vs Vallejo's equivalent. I am always trying new paints and I was not impressed by AP.

Dakka has an entire thread of painters who use Vallejo Game Air and Model air with brushes: link

Hmmm… Vallejo model color needs to be thinned before painting, where Reaper Master or Vallejo game color are meant to be painted on straightaway.

Vallejo Air can definitely be brushed on, and the metals are quite nice.

Lighter, more transparent colors, (whites, reds,yellows) should either go over an undercoat, or may require multiple coats to cover. Good example is VGC Iraqi Sand, (my usual undercoat for warm whites), which often takes two coats to cover over black primer.

I very rarely thin Vallejo Model colour – why would I want to if it covers well ? Thinning is only needed if the paint is too thick to flow or if you want to get some transparency.

Remember that Vallejo Model Color was not designed for miniatures, IRS primary purpose is for painting display models mostly plastic kits. Obviously it works quite well on miniatures, I have used it for years for that purpose.
The pigments used to make colors are really what determines how well any given color covers. That's why we typically have issues with reds and yellows, unless your using real cadmimium pigments, is weaker than say most blues and greens.

Reaper master, HD and BONES paints and Vallejo Game Color were designed specifically for miniatures and in the case of reaper by a miniature painter.

I say tomato and you say tomato. It is all the same and different. Experiment and use what you like.

Paint ABC was specifically manufactured by a left-handed, ginger painter so I doubt it will work for a right-handed blond painter. Use Paint XYZ, while the manufacture was a brunette it should work ok as long as your flux capacitor is throbbing. Or Whatever.

My 2 cents: I used Citadel for years and finally got fed up with the crappy paint pots that ooze paint out the back and make a mess plus the pots have a tendency of drying out prematurely, despite being vigilant about tightly re-capping after each use. The final straw was them changing the names of all the paints for the second or third time! They've given their paints these ridiculous names that don't describe the color at all and you just have to shake up the pot and eyeball it, hoping it's the shade you're looking for… Done with Citadel and now I've switched to Vallejo paints and I use the Army Painter dip for shading. I've been very satisfied with the results and I can get an army painted up in no time.

I have bought a nail varnish shaker and used it on all my dropper bottle paints including around 50 Army Painter. Each tube got shook for about 2 minutes. The AP now work extremely well. The colours are great and coverage is fine. Reds and Yellows are a bit thinner but this seems to be a fairly standard issue.