"The Exciting World Of Paint - How Do You Buy Yours?" Topic

Now up on the blog.

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I too mostly use Coat D'Arms and Foundry triads, have done so for many years.

I used to collect all my paints at the various shows up and down Scotland and the North of England.

Nowadays I get them via the internet as most of the dealers I see at shows don't carry them anymore and none of my local outlets carry them.

I do have a few Citadel colours and also some Army Painter washes.

I use craft paints -- pick them up at Wal-Mart and Michael's Craft Stores. Recently I switched to using acrylic paint pens: I discovered that the inexpensive pens are just as good as the name brand pens. I buy these off of Amazon due to their wide selection of both colors and low prices. Cheers!

I also use craft paints almost totally. I do have a very few Vallejo WW2 colors.

Jim

I have been using craft paints for years. Get them at local craft shop. Work well for me and variety of colors. Maybe I should try the paint pens. I can imagine certain benefits for belts and straps.

Most of my collection is Vallejo and Reaper, with a handful of Foundry, P3, Scale 75, and others.

My new favorite paint line is Pro Acryl. I pick them up at the local store as "table rent" whenever I get a game in.

Craft paints for common colors and Vallejo for some specific colors.

How do I buy my paint? Retail, usually with a credit card. Not what you meant? OK. But next time SAY "what paints and when?"

Craft shop for terrain and sometimes soft plastic figures. Usually wargame acrylics from my local for metals, hard plastics and resins. Since I visit the shop most Wednesdays, I just make a note of anything that looks low, when I notice--or of any color I can't get quite right or consistently have to mix.

The shop carries GW, Vallejo and Warpaints. I normally use Seifried system--now called "speed paints" or "contrast"--for large areas, then pick out details with undiluted paints. I keep a few metallic pens around, mostly for buttons, piping and eyeballs.

I mostly use Reaper paints, which are available in triads. When they came out, they were available at lots of stores, but lately they are becoming harder to find. I try to make notes of what I am running low on and replace them at the local store. Lately, they have been having trouble getting stock in. Last year, I bought most of what I needed at a hobby store when I was traveling. I have also ordered from Reaper--toss a couple bottles of paint in with the figure order. I like the triads because I have a slight color vision deficiency, and this gets me the correct colors for shades and highlights, rather than take my chances mixing paint.

Aside from that, I have a number ow WWII colors from Vallejo, and some GW paints, since people on the internet will call out a specific color to achieve a certain result.

I also have craft paints bought at the local craft stores, usually for painting things that need a lot of paint, like buildings.

Grelber

I buy my paints from brick and mortar shops. I have never bought paints from the interwebs. I use many types of paint or media. All have been useful, from cheap craft paints to brand name fine pigment types, speed or contrast paints, and even inks and homemade washes

Coat d'Arms, Battlefront, Dollar Tree, craft stores.

Foundry triads, mail order, so a couple of packets of figures accidentally get added to the order and smuggled in. ;->

But.

Citadel/GW
Washes
Metallics
Off colour that Foundry hasn't got quite right, or I've run out of.
Bought in , local branch as part of my Tesco run (its right next door to the supermarket, Polish cake shop etc, dead handy

Some random Coate d'arms,

Army Painter sprays
Halfords Black Primer, and grey and now brown primers.

Revel Colur Mix

Craft paints. No game/hobby stores with 50+ miles, so just relying on my supply of paints acquired decades ago… ;-)

+1 myxemail. Exactly the same for me.

Oh my. A big subject for me. I have five huge "Paintier" carousels loaded (overloaded) with paints from all sources and eons. Some are Armoury that are still good after 40-plus years. Many Polly S and Humbrols, equally old in some cases. Testors gloss enamels for a few select things -- Pactra is now defunct in my collection, but once I used a number of these. Ral Partha and IWM successor paints (have to mail order these), similar with Reaper, which I once could buy at my local shops but not since I moved to another state (and I miss the pots, I hate dropper bottles). I have a bunch of Vallejo's, Army Painters, P3, newer Reapers, and a handful of Citadels and one-off brands. Those are my hobby paints, which I usually buy locally but will mail order when stores here will not stock them.

At the same time, I use more and more craft paints obtained from places like Michael's and Hobby Lobby (and once, Jo-Ann's) because they are so much cheaper and have better distribution and reliability. These are not created equal, and some have coverage issues because hobby paints do tend to have better or more pigment and seem harder wearing -- but it is hard to justify the expense and inconvenience (I hate dropper bottles!) of hobby paints for things like buildings, terrain, or common colors when craft paints fill those needs just as well.

And I mostly use spray primers from hardware stores -- Krylon, Rustoleum, those guys. I try to spray prime in large batches whenever I fill a cookie sheet-worth of assembled minis. Brush-on primer is for winter months or for one-off minis I need right away.

Spray undercoat from Halfords.

Vallejo and GW paint from one of three shops in town.

Coat D'Arms and Colour Party from shows.

Humbrol mail order, as few shops stock the acrylic range now.

An interesting mix from everyone. A new FLG has opened up not too far away so i will try them. I think indepedent FLG's are really struglling to be able to afford to hold stock of everyones favourite paint.

I have also used craft paints alot but sometimes struggled with coverage due to lower pigmentation as well as wear.

Alot of local FLG's in the county closed down 5-10 years ago.

I dont like dropper bottles either which is why i tend to stick with Coat D'Arms and Wargames Foundry although these are prone to age related/high usage deterioration/cracking. You can buy replacement lids though cheaply.

I have some Humbrol, Vallejo, Tamiya, MIG, AK, and others as well, more for doing the odd plastic scale model aircraft should the mood take me.