"Your favorite lines of paint?" Topic

To complement my thread on necessary tools for mini painting, I've decided to ask about paints.

What are your favorite brands of paint and why? Do you like different brands for different tasks or colors? i.e., does some company have THE metallics, or THE reds, etc, that you need?

Reaper and Vallejo, They both cover well.

Army Painter Warpaints and Washes work best for my painting style.

No preference, even the cheap paints cover well if well stirred and relatively fresh. I suspect that like gasoline it all gets made in the same couple of factories and is just labeled differently for retail.

Brushes on the other hand are worth spending extra on.

I like Americana and Folk Art acrylics. They have everything I've needed and are easy to work with.

Craft paints.

Can't say I have one. I use a hodge-podge of manufacturers -- mostly craft paints -- with a few name brands thrown in for some specific military uniform colors. Ral Partha and Musket Miniatures had a solid line of paints that served me well for many years.

Craft paints nowadays-- great range of colors limits the need for a lot of special mixing. Back in the day Humbrol enamels were my choice: stinky, messy tins that never sealed well, pigments separated and required lots of stirring, but coverage and color selection was great. I still have a few tins remaining that are usable after about 30 years.

Vallejo but some craft paints for terrain & bases.

In general I find the craft paints I can get easily to be poorly pigmented with low covering power. It seems that the brands available in the US are better that the rubbish we get here in the UK.

I'm with GildasFacit. I use some craft paints for buildings, but wouldn't use them on miniatures.

Testors Model Master (Enamels), Vallejo and LifeColor.

I use a lot of either GW paints or Vallejo game/model color for figure painting. GW is very available & has a wide range of colors. The bottles suck however. Vallejo has a few similar colors, but their historical range is very useful for painting historical figures…

Damon.

Craft paints.

Craft paints, some Vallejo & some very old GW (80's) paint

I use a lot of craft paints, but Reaper and Coat d'arm are my real go to for serious work.

All of the above.

Though some of the craft paints have terrible pigmentation and don't cover well at all. Nobody wants to do three thin layers for every application – and that doesn't include highlights or anything else. I reserve craft paints for covering large surface areas, buildings and terrain pieces.

The best miniature paints – Vallejo, Reaper, Citadel, P3, Army Painter, go on in one stroke for the most part. Every time you have to go over an area a second or third time you have another opportunity to apply a stray stroke or create some other mishap. Honestly it will make a significant difference if you are just starting out.

Reds and yellows are their own thing, but I've had successful one-stroke application with Vallejo and P3 on black undercoats no problem. Americana reds? Forget it. Next to worthless. Black, browns, and greens – no problem. Great for horses.

Generally, gamers are far less picky than painters, because they favor speed over quality. That's not a criticism, you just need to decide where you fall on that spectrum.

I'm with the Craft Paint crowd.

You can find those beauties on sale for 49 cents sometimes!
Amazing! WOOHOO!

A mix of many different manufacturers, model paints like Vallejo and Cote d'Arms, Artists paint like Galleria and W&N, but also craft paint.

Tony

A combination of Foundry and Citadel.
In both cases for reasons of reliable availability.
(well ok Citadel keep changing their range every few years with ever dismal TM'd names)

I have some Vallego and Warlord stuff.

Foundry because you get the triads, which means painting by numbers nearly so I can paint late into the evening/early morning which is when I do most of my painting and I therefore do not need to worry about custom mixes on the thumbnail or mixing between ranges.

Humbrol and Testor enamels.

Vallejo, Scale75 and Games Workshop Foundations. Some Coat d'Arms and Foundry triads. Andrea Color has some shades I like.

Liquitex, Vallejo, Americana, Delta Ceramcoat in that order.

Reaper is my go to paint, but I also use some AK Interactive, Scale75, and Vallejo.

Used to like GW paints, but the combination of being outrageously expensive and an almost nonexistent shelf life caused me to drop them.

Vallejo, although I use a few colours from other makes. I only need to replace a few bottles a year so cost is totally irrelevant to me. I like VJ as I can buy them one at a time and don't have to buy a set or somebody else's idea of a triad. I can go into a couple of shops in my area and buy them.

However, by far the most important reason I like them is that they mix beautifully and have a lot of pigment and little body so I can paint very thin layers, which is exactly how I like to progress each paint job. I've used them for about 20 years and doubt I'll ever change. I have about 25 key colours and about another 25 that are bright colours and some specific aviation colours.

I use Humbrol enamels and GW washes.

I like GW but also Vallejo

POLY S

Craft, Poly S and Vallejo

Americana,Folk Art, and Vallejo.

Craft paint, mostly Ceramcoat and Americana.

Delta Ceramcoat

Crikey, I have about 20 different manufacturers in my acrylic collection, but the ones I use the most are Foundry, Coats d'arms, Vallejo, Reaper, Miniature Paints & Humbrol.

I use many different acrylic paint lines: Vallejo Game Color, Citadel, Army Painter, Reaper Master Series and P3. For large terrain pieces, I use craft paints.

Probably 80% Vallejo.

All enamel mostly Humbrol with a few Testors Model Master.

Coat d`Arms

Delta Ceramcoat
GW for metallics & washes

For the last 15 years or so, Vallejo.

Ceramcoat.

Also just like Doc X, I like the GW metallics.

Chalfant

Vallejo and Army Painter for figures, Delta Ceramcoat for terrain and buildings.

My favorite of all time are the ancient Polly S brand. They were great paints with vivid colors for ancients through 19th century and excellent drab paints for 20th century and modern.

Vallejo for brush work. AK, MIG and Tamiya for airbrush work.

Polly's. Yeah, still have some that still work!

+1 rvandusen. I miss the Polly S paints. Great selection of colors, great coverage, thin coats. Most of the Testors Model Master line are just as good, but the range of colors isn't as big.

I had quite a few Partha Paints I liked too, though the lids had a tendency to cement shut. I actually broke the glass trying to get a lid off once. I have a couple jars that are 2+ decades old but still in use because they're perfect aircraft colors.

- Ix

Foundry and Vallejo.

Christopher

I have tried most of these types, but have now bougth some Andrea paints. They cover better, are easy to paint with and when they say they are matt they are 100 % matt.
Vallejo, GW and Warpaint red and yellow colours are not matt, and the yellow is not covering.
I have bougth the andrea paint sets, and very nice sets.
I have painted a lot of white and grey uniforms with rheir white paint set, and the combinations of the 6 shades give great results.
They are based in Madrid and even have courses in painting, combined with looking at museums.
Unfortunately they are not in any shop in Denmark.

What, no Winsor and Newton oils!?

Liquitex soft body acrylics.

Compared to hobby or craft paints, artist paints are higher quality, with better ingredients. One way you can tell this is different colors cost different amounts -- this reflects the cost of the highest quality pigments.

Games Workshop and Vallejo. Tempted to start using Foundry.

Foundry and Vallejo