Paints, what do you use

As my brother and i are just starting out we dont have too many paints. we have a few citadel paints (the new lids are much uch better than the old ones), and also hace some tamiya acrylics. The clear colours are good for doing gems as they are quite shiny.

Tamiya and citadel are both OK, but I find they can be incompatible. I use Tamiya Flesh, which is a reasonable flesh shade Smoke for metal work and like you say, the clear colours are good - apparently clear red makes good blood, but I haven't tried it.

(I don't know how many of you will remember, but when citadel paints first came out theire flesh was excellent, and their pale flesh shade even better, Then over the years they've gone to that orangey peachey colour all flesh paints seem to be. Have you ever seen flesh anything like flesh paint?)

I have never used Vallejo colours, but I hear they are good.

Pricey but also good are Foundry's paints; Each colour comes in three shades, shade, main and highlight, which makes them ideal for painting up armies quickly.

I use a lot of inks, both the citadel types and windsor and newton artists'. W&N metallics are very good, and I usually keep a bottle of their chestnut.

Artists acrylics are pretty useable, available in a huge range and often fairly cheap (but you need to dilute them).

The warehouse often has cheap acrylics - I picked some up for $2 recently. I don't use them on figures, just terrain (although I have used them for washes on figures).

I only use water based paints for convenience now, but I used to ues enamels. I still think enamels are superior in many ways - better coverage, pigment density, shading and blending ability, durability et cetera - but they are too much hassle. I still use enamel varnish and spray enamel undercoat.

I dabbled with oils, but never really got away with them, but do intend totake them up again fro flesh tones onlarger figures. You can blend oils like no other paints, achieving effects you would otherwise need an airbrush for. I'm busy doing a 1/6 woman who is showing a fair bit of flesh, so when I get round to painting that I'm going to use oils.

Speaking of undercoat (aerosols), the warehouse do a light grey called "grey undercoat" surprisingly, for $4.99. it's agood spray, especially if you are on abudget, but my favourite is VHT Quick Dry spray enamel. It has the "grabbiest" texture of any undercoat I have used. (by which I mean paint sticks to it really well.

Modelcrafts and Hobbies in Wellington has Vallejo colours, but a limited range.

I understand the flames of war paint sets are also vallejo?

Oh awesome, I'll check out modelcrafts and hobbies. Perhaps if people start buying the paints from them it will encourage them to increase the range!. I see they do mail order too

www.modelcraftsandhobbies.co.nz/

Totally in agreement with you there on supporting the local guy. Over the years I have seen so many businesses leave or die due to larger competition.. There used to be a butcher, and a green grocer just 2 minutes walk from my house. Pak'n'save came along and they went... now if I forgot to get something out of the freezer for tea I have to get myself down to pak'n'save.. plus you just don't get the same personal kind of service. My butcher had only the best meats. and would cut it up to order for me. He even sharpened up my knife and used to let me weigh stuff on his scales so I could quote someone for postage without trundling all the way down to the postoffice

The thing is sometimes big chain stores offer a false sense of economy... sure their pricing might be cheaper, but is their quality the same? and don't forget to factor in such things as shipping and handling, currency conversion, transport costs (if you're going to them) and the other biggy -time-

naw we're not laughing at you.

usually price relates to how much actual pigment is contained within a pot or tube of paint. You can get big tubes of paint fairly cheap, but chances are they will only have the same amount of pigment as the smaller dropper bottle style paints at the same kind of price. the difference is the bigger tubes have more medium involved in the mix. This isn't so bad for people who use acrylics to paint large pictures or other creations, they want their pigments bound in a medium that gives them more quantity and texture. These paints need to be thinned well for use on minis, several light coats to build up a depth of colour problem with the acrylic tubes it tends to take many more, or you are tempted to paint it on alot thicker to get the same kind of coverage.

When I first started painting minis I thought there was only two options, tamiya and citadel, but reading forums and asking others what they used and checking out reviews I've learnt there are a heap of paints out there, and probably more that I don't know about. If you're happy with the paint you are using, stick with it. But if you're looking for something different asking on forums like these or trying a pot or two of a brand to test them out is a great way to learn more. That's why I asked, I'm looking to replace the set I haven't got anymore and am pondering over which ones to buy. And my asking here has actually got me the information that one of the brands I was interested in is actually available in NZ!!

Actually on that subject, I've found a few reviews on vallejo model colour and they suggested it wasn't very lightfast. I'm not sure that anything I paint would be displayed in full sun or partial but it would still be nice to confirm if it lacks light fast qualities before I splurge in a set

I use those chromacryl ones also and the big a$$ bottles of acrylic artist paint (green and black mainly) for scenery.

Ive used them both on my minis (those orcs on trademe and they seemed fine)
I have bunch of the small pottles from the BGIME mags too
My favorite so far must be Citadels chestnut ink. Dude..slap that over anything an it makes it look great!!

-LW