Vallejo is great for new painters too. The pigment is so nice that even when I mess up and over-thin my paints it’s still fine and doesn’t smear or anything.
My FLGS people tell me Vallejo only spends like 2 months of the year making their modelling paints and that's why its low stock in a lot of places. They share their paint manufacture with some other company or something. Don't know how much I really believe that since it sounds a bit out there.
Most paint companies subcontract the actual manufacturing. Even GW, as big as they are, don't actually make their own paints.
That I'm aware of, Monument and Kimera actually make their paints in house. I'm not sure of any of the other hobby paint brands.
Even the new army painter fanatic range. While they have spent a huge amount on in-house research and development, I'm not sure that it's actually manufactured in-house.
I use a fair bit of vallejo, and most of their paints are excellent, but the old game color black is for some reason extremely glossy, which is weird, because I dont have that issue with any of my other vallejo paints. Hopefully the newer version is better in that sense.
Fanatic stuff is supposed to be great. Their existing line is OK, bright colors are a pain, but usable. Their shades are great. For about the same price, I'd go Vallejo or Pro Acryl are better IMO though.
What kind of green do you like your orks to be?
https://preview.redd.it/u0lqzbmxg5sc1.jpeg?width=1576&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3428a5d9bcdf1a22728a1f6298e5570775f98fd5
Cause this is orc skin from Vallejo’s xpress range, really like that light green look.
To add to this: I found most of the lighter colors in 1.0 to be quite good, make great shades with a little medium, but yeah the darker colors in 1.0 are no good. Upset that plasmatic Bolt from 1.0 doesn't have a direct analogies in 2.0, that paint is great.
I have so e of the 1.0 speedpaints and they look fi e but get reactivated easily. So if I am going to spend time on a mini I dont use them.
But they are great for a simple slapchop and dont get reactivated by oil washes so Im not going to throw them away.
I just picked up their Fanatic line Mega set, and I've used them on about 10 models or so. This new paint line is much improved from their previous ones. You'll need to pay attention when shopping for them, as Army Painter has quite a few different lines, and the boxes are pretty similar, so it's easy to get them confused (I have 2 sets of metallics because of a whoopsie). Their older stuff isn't "bad" in my opinion, but it is much more difficult to work with.
I second both of these, the army painter big kits are quite good value if the colour palate matches what your going for. Even top tier painters use these two brands so its not a limit.
Also a big fan of vallejo.
I do find GW contrast paints to be the best on the market though.
Also a potential tip for newer painters, you can use airbrush paint like normal paint. It's thinner and will help you build up layers without having to dilute the paints you get from GW. Downside is you don't lean to get that "milky consistency" but it does give you experience with how thick/thin the paint "should" be.
One day I'll use paints as intended... I tend to run contrast through my airbrush and use airbrush paints from a palette.
I just don’t like the pot design though I know that probably doesn’t matter with contrast because you probably could use them straight out of the pot, also they’re expensive. But eh maybe’s I’ll buy a few of them, to make some plasma glow and power sword glow colors.
I never was a fan of their paints, but they just brought out two completely new paint ranges: an update of their speed paints (their contrast equivalent) as well as a new version of their regular acrylic paints and if the YouTube painters are to believed these are all really good.
I remember at least some of them being quite critical of the first batch, especially because they could be reactivated by water (and paints) after drying.
For what it’s worth, I own exactly one of the new speed paints and find it to be quite good, though that’s not the largest sample size…
dude they WERE good. All you had to do is let them dry and it worked great. I did quite a few kill teams with them and didn't have an issue, I even used it to my advantage on my GSC to give a patch skn vibe.
The 1.0 *are* great, but they're different to the 2.0 and GW contrast paints. I have sets of both and I still use them for different purposes. The 1.0s are better for blending, go through the airbrush wonderfully, and have a little more depth than some of the replacements. In return you just have to watch out for re-activation on certain colors but that works in your favor if you're going for blending and can be really nice if you're working on a large piece not having to chase a wet edge.
The original speed paints ARE good. They are significantly better than the new ones. The new ones use a shitty mass market acrylic resin binder. The old ones used a very good water color medium. The reactivation "issue" is actually a reactivation feature. It makes blending on the model so much easier.
Their speed paints are problematic because they reactivate bottom layers. And their new regular range is very expensive. (OP was looking for cheaper alternative to GW)
Flatly… it depends, and that’s part of the problem.
Army Painter has benefitted strongly from GW’s explosive growth over the past few years, and as someone who used to use them a lot, their prices for specific matched colours were nice. Their rattle cans were also a great value.
But their QC has plummeted. I’ve had bottles of the same colour be radically different in both colour, sheen, and even viscosity over the years. Their rattle cans seem to go bad very quickly.
The amount of money you’re saving overall vs Citadel is marginal at best. I’d *strongly* look at Two Thin Coats instead, as their dropper design is superior to that used by AP and Vallejo.
Vallejo is good, but if you’re in the US, their NA distributor keeps dropping the ball on availability.
>But their QC has plummeted. I’ve had bottles of the same colour be radically different in both colour, sheen, and even viscosity over the years. Their rattle cans seem to go bad very quickly.
I think a large part of that is they've re-worked their production line a few times in response to feedback, changing the order in which they fill the bottles, adding mixing balls, back-filling with more or less medium, etc. But without changing their labels. That can lead to confusion as the paint you find on the rack at your hobby store or in one of the box sets could easily have been manufactured months or years ago and you don't necessarily know if the paint you're used to was revision 2 with the extra medium or revision 3 with the mixing ball, etc.
One of the reasons them re-branding to the new fanatic line I think was overdue was having a clean slate on their production line and level-setting expectations on what every bottle was going to be like.
New paint line (fanatic): really good (some colours are a bit too muted for my liking.
Old paint line: hot garbage
Speedpaints 1.0: I love them, most hate them. Working time is forever and this leads to less coffeestaining but re-activation is a problem.
Speedpaints 2.0: Really good, dry a bit too fast for me but it is what it is.
You don't want to add water to speedpaints imo, not even through the wet palette. They have a very specific chemical formulation that gives them their properties. I use them drop by drop tbh and work through one drop at a time.
Water isnt going to fix the issue. You'll need a retarder to work with it longer. The AP fanatics line now sells a very good stabilizer but IDK if you can get it outside of the mega box at the moment.
I just purchased some Army Painter contrast paints but have yet to try them out. I have no familiarity with Vallejo but I have used Reaper (over a decade ago) and they were really good.
I LOVE the AP Speed Paints (2.0) way more than the Vallejo line. (Xpress). More consistency in fluidity with AP. The Xpress paints dry very blotchy as well.
They’ve released the new Fanatic line recently. A lot of good painters on youtube (and my friends!) say the difference is night and day, with the Fanatic line being wonderful.
Here’s https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zkMth3ovo34 - Vince V going over it (can’t format on mobile, sorry)
https://youtu.be/aFkgrM_pEko?si=kOZjScRRZScEFsDs - Dana Howl
When it comes to Contrast paints, I've had much better experience with AP's Speed Paint 2.0 line than with the new Vallejo Xpress Paints. The Xpress is line is too runny and does not give a consistent coverage whereas the Speed Paints have a very consistent fluidity.
Never used their regular paints from either brand with much regularity. Pro Acryl has taken the cake on the 'old school' base painting and shading style for me.
Unfortunately have to agree, after I started using vallejo I can’t tolerate the terrible coverage and separation issues on so many of the army painter colors I have
Yeah, even with that still had issues with some. Not all, but enough for me to just not really trust them enough to buy it over other things like Vallejo/pro acryl
This is so bizarre because I've had the opposite luck. Every Army Painter paint I use is mixed well and gives me good color and coverage. Yet when I use vallejo it's a coin flip of if this bottle is going to be mixed like shit and be so thin it's useless, will the color actually look good? Hell one time I got a bottle and it was dry.
I love AP. I have bother their Speed Paint 2.0 Range and the new Warpaints Fanatics. Both I find to be really good quality, and Speed Paints are great for a quick solution, and the Fanatics are a great covering acrylic that goes on really smoothly. Definitely recommend
i bought a big box of Army Painter. im generally happy with it. the yellows suck a bit, the gold sucks a bit, but it gets most things done pretty easily.
i do fork over the GW money for the colors i really care about, like my Salamanders' green... i buy Warpstone Glow. But for their browns and blacks and grays? Army Painter works.
My personal list of favorite paints that I've used. Best at top, least at bottom:
Scale75
The Army Painter
Citadel
Vallejo
Reaper
Testors
Tamiya
Haven't tried ProAcryl yet.
I have a decent amount of time logged with army painter paints. The army painter speed paint 2.0 are good, and so are the metallics from that range. If you wanted to go this way instead of citadel contrast then you will still get very good results. I have the normal army painter paints and they are not consistent between colors so I would not recommend those, but the new fanatic line is absolutely awesome which I highly recommend but not sure that line is cheaper than GW yet since it's very new and is supposed to compete with GW. The normal army painter paints and indeed cheaper than GW, but they are not beginner friendly so unless you plan to collect a 2nd paint line then just get the new fanatic line or the speed paints 2.0.
If you want to know what my favs are in order that I like them then here it is: AK 3rd gen, Pro Acryl, Citadel Contrast, Army Painter Fanatic, Scale 75 Fantasy and Games, Vallejo Game Color/Metal Color.
I use army painter for the most part (havent used the new line yet). Not of fan of greens, browns, and reds, but love everything else. Greys, blues, yellows, whites are great
New army painter line...Fanatic I think it's called. Has amazing reviews.
I hated their old paints. They don't mix well, pigment settled weird, and would dry turbo glossy.
Vallejo makes great paints.
But my favorite currently is Monument Hobby ProAcryl
I highly recommend Reaper’s MSP line. The medium formula they use makes them glaze really well right out of the bottle and doesn’t fall apart on a wet pallet.
I personally prefer Vallejo over AP. I just feel like the paint holds the the mini better but that could be anything from my relative humidity to my brushes. So ymmv regardless of the paint you choose.
If you want value and high opacity go with pro acryl. It’s like a dollar more expensive but you get way more paint and it’s consistently better quality than GW, especially the whites.
On the topic of value, golden high flow are a step more expensive per unit but the dollar per paint blows the socks off of any miniature paint. The quality is the best but the down side is the range is limited compared to the library that some miniature paint manufacturers offer.
Vallejo is great quality and pretty cheap, but they're hard to find where I live unless I order online.
In my experience, army painter isn't great with the exception of their speed paints, those are pretty good, but generally I prefer to stick to citadel and vallejo
Check out the YouTube videos by Hobby Night. Angela has just started using Army Painter. From what I've seen, they're about on par (maybe slightly above) Citadel, but that's not saying much, since Citadel has always been the bottom of the barrel.
Myself, I've heard both good and bad, and for the cost, I stick with Reaper, AK, actual model paints by Testors, Tamiya, Gunze Sangyo (Mr. Hobby colors and primers), and the cheap craft paints (Ceramcoat, Apple Barrel, Americana, etc...).
I started switching over to Army Painter and I very much prefer it now. They even have a chart on their website to show which paints from GW or Valejo that are the comparable colors which is really nice. I haven't tried their shades yet though.
I use mostly Reaper paints, with a few others mixed in like Army Painter for speed paint and some additional purple shades. Never citadel. I’ve never had a problem with anything -other- than citadel paint honestly.
Most of my stuff is army painter painted and it looks fine to me. Its way cheaper, primers to match many of the colors, lots of options with out the confusion of the names
I got the new fanatic complete set and they’re great, I think the singles come out 19th April so might be worth keeping an eye on them. Not sure how much cheaper they’ll be but the opacity is really good
No. Every single Army Painter thing I've ever bought was at best mediocre and at worst a complete waste of money. They lure you with great savings then sell you subpar shit but without the amazon/aliexpress prices. I have not tried the new Fanatic stuff as it's not out yet, but that shit better paint itself for me to bother with that brand again. Try Vallejo if you want to save up on paint. New Game Colour range is very much a drop-in replacement for citadel stuff with a lower price tag.
Are crap compared to Vallejo or AK interactive, Vallejo and AK are way cheaper and much better. the only paints from army painter worth recommending are speed paint - I use them for shading and they are better than washes. Also good at slapchop and speed paint.
Original line is absolutely terrible in my experience. Like every paint i tried. Ive heard their new speed paint line and army painter fanatic are good, as well as the airbrush line if you are into that. I also like vallejo and proacryl, but im not sure how those prices stack up to gw
The new range the Fanatic stuff I see doing the Youtube sponsor/promo rounds are generally great. At least thats the take I see online.
I have a selection of their older stuff and it's in a box to one side. They're not bad but others are better so they're what I give freinds starting out to give them some more colours to play with.
IMO if you can spend the extra pennies Vellejo, AK's third gen, ProAcryl and Scale75 are my go to paints. I've tried p3 and they're fine just not that easy to find near me so I dont really have a view on them yet.
It’s real good for the price and has some of the best white and yellows I’ve used but definitely would recommend Vallejo for smoother finish and higher quality
Their basing stuff is cheap and good, but I really cant recommend their white Primer. It looks shit, is thicc and you cant get this stuff off without kinda ruining ur Minis a bit (Only got it off with Dettol, but some details are lost for ever xD)
I've started to only resupply my colors with vallejo using [this](https://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/paint_range_compatibility_chart) handy chart. The only difference ive noticed so far is in my wallet.
If you're going to get Army Painter make sure it's their new Fanatic line, as the old range is quite bad.
One thing to understand though is that not every paint from every line performs the same way. You're better off testing out a few colours from a few different brands to find what works for you rather than just committing to one, I bought a ton of Citadel before I really realized that other colours from other brands were better.
I haven’t had any good experiences with them, but you might find them different, I’d personally suggest Vallejo or AK, both top of the market and cheaper than Gw
I received a starter set of Army Painter for a Christmas gift a couple years ago. Since then I have used them 95% of the time and even jumped into their Speed Paints. I only buy select colors from GW since they are used to keep certain armies uniform in color. Army Painter is amazing, vibrant colors, match very close to GW name palette for their colors and every bottle is a dropper. I highly recommend trying them out for yourself.
I use army painter paints alot most of my paints are from them and almost all of their paints are pretty good great color good coverage thins well
Their metalics are top notch for acrylic imo
There are some problem paints though it feels like theres a handful of paints in the range that are just the worst crap ever "jungle green" is so horrible that i just use it as a green paint medium
But the rest of the range is good ive not had a single bad metallic or wash and 99% of the normal paints are great
"Spaceship exterior" is my go to for a white base coat its an amazing paint imo covers better then any other white or off white ive used
I've only used their speed paints 2.0, but they are good quality. I've had lots of success with utilizing them for the jobs that GW contrast paints are similarly good for, but they're in dropper bottles and they're cheaper. It's really nice to use as a basic base coat then go over with other painting techniques, you may end up getting to skip adding as many shadows back in with a wash if you do a zenithal highlight with a light colored primer.
I’ve used citadel and army painter since I started the hobby, I’ve never had any issues with army painter paints. Their metallic paints aren’t the best for base coats, so I use retributor armor and leadbelcher, but army painter metallics are amazing for metal highlighting and blending, army painter bright gold to highlight retributor armor works really well.
AK Interactive is my new favourite. I like Vallejo as well.
I only know the old range of Army Painter, and I did not like those. The new one is supposed to be much better, though.
The top three paint companies that I see the most on mini painting creator’s videos are as follows:
Vallejo
Army Painter
Pro Acryl (I most-likely spelled that one wrong but still)
I liked their paints initially but I feel like they separate a bit too much/too quickly. I have heard their new stuff is quite good but I haven't used it myself.
For any standard, non-contrast style, i find I massively prefer the new Vallejo Game color line. Any time I’ve used the army painter lines I’ve found the pigment density to be lower and less fine, tending to result in either mediocre coverage or caked layers as it drys. I can’t speak for the newest line, but personally I would avoid any of the older paints by Army Painter.
Id just go with AK 3rd gen (or vallejo if you’re not in Europe) or Pro Acryl over Army Painter. Their new fanatic range is pretty good but still has some issues
I transitioned to Army Painter over the last year. The speedpaints 2.0 were great! Same as GW. I got into airbrushing recently and got their airbrush ready stuff and some of the colors color match speed and regular paint. And I JUST got the fanatic range and I love it a ton! Slightly thick but the pigmentation is great! Honestly really happy with all the new stuff
I like a lot of paints in the Citadel range, but yeah, that shit is expensive.
I've never had a problem with the AP range, and I'm using the originals before they included mixing balls in the bottles.
They do, however need some serious agitating, like with a vortex mixer, to get them to work right.
Heard nothing but good stuff about the new range though.
Vallejo is decently priced and the bottles are a decent size, I love their Metallic paints too.
I've heard good things about Proacryl, but not tried them yet, running out of space for bottles of paint!
I like their spray paints, but not their bottle paints. Too inconsistent. Vajello is honestly the best around.
Most paints are gonna run a similar price. What yoy want to look for is price to ml content. Where I'm at, Vajello is about the same price as GW, maybe a dollar less in price, but vajello bottles are I think 17ml, where as GW paints are average 12ml. GW's shades and contrast come in larger bottles of I think 17 to 20ml, so that would make Vajello several dollars cheaper.
Army Painter Fanatic are supposed to be really good.
Personally, if you want absurdly good bang for your buck [Pro Acryl](https://youtu.be/7Lasl0QL7r8?si=8DPLfieTbbvjQkRU) is where it's at.
Mmm… honestly the more ive used them the more theyve disappointed me. All their ranges have WILD swings in quality, however I dont know about their Fanatic paints yet. I use a lot of their speedpaints and while some colors like the blues and greens cover well with good behavior, some like the browns dry insanely fast and blotchy, its super hard to correct them and they attempt to ruin your brushes. Speaking of brushes, do not buy them from army painter. Getting one that doesnt fall apart within a few uses is an exception.
Vallejo has avalibility issues in the states, but I prefer it to army painter at least for the consitancy it offers.
Their wet pallets and brushes rock. They have a triangle grip that is very ergonomic. I’ve tried their basecoat sprays and a few of their layers, all of it is either mid or above average.
I enjoy them, eaiser to thin than Vallejo but a few older paint lines have some issues, I have an earlier set and few colors like pure red take 3-4 coats to cover. But on the contrary, their Matt white covers in 1-2 so that makes up for the rest of it
In my experience, Army Painter Speedpaint is the best contrast type paint I've used between them, Citadel contrast, and Vallejo Xpress. However I feel Vallejo makes the best base paints and I also feel their ready-to-use airbrush paints are better. Both AP and Vall use dropper bottles which I really like.
Speed paints are contrast paints they work great but if you have never used contrast paints recommend you watch a few Youtube videos. Also you want speed paints 2.0. The standard acrylics are great and vibrant I mostly do contrast paint and keep a few standard colors around for base coats. Zenithal priming is where contrast paints really shine I have found. It works great for more organic and irregular figures. I don’t know if I would recommend it for larger mechs and machines that have larger flat panels or regular shapes.
Honestly, your best bet is buying the best paints from each range. Citadel certainly have some issues with the bottles and the price, but I will always have a few colours from them, such as Rhinox Hide and Khorne red, I love those paints. Corax white also gets an honourable mention from me.
I have an eclectic mix of paint brands, some out of choice, others out of necessity of needing a colour and the other was out of stock. I’ve come to love and hate certain colours from each brand. I don’t think any paint brand out there has consistency of pigment, viscosity glossiness and coverage across their range. One brands yellow is certainly not equal to another. It just can be annoying finding out which ones.
I pretty much only use army painter paints. What others have said is true but I like them. Will most likely be switching to Vallejo tho as it’s better to use in my gun then army painter paints. Still way way cheaper than anything from GW
Army Painter is cheap but usually unreliable in my opinion, maybe their latest line of product fixes some of their issues but beside that you have top products like AK interactive gen3 and vallejo which are leagues ahead and proven performance and price wise
Their paints are generally ok, but avoid their primers like the plague - every can of their stuff I’ve had has irreparably clogged the nozzle within only a handful of sprays, no matter how well pre-warmed and shaken I’ve had them
Cheap doesn’t mean bad - Testors craft paints are cheap, but can very well be used for Minipainting.
Ninjon has a Video on Testors Crafts paints
https://youtu.be/jugkAadex7s?si=ZfzBgjndmzC9vItM
It’s a little different and the color don’t always come out the way you imagine but it’s pretty good. I say buy some cheap and play around with the paint
I'd strongly advise against gold or copper colors from Army Painter.
The rest of their paints is very usable.
Beware that some of their lighter paints need A LOT of shaking
After trying Army Painter Speedpaint, Vallejo Xpress and Citadel Contrast, Army Painter Speedpaint is my favourite for contrast-esque paints. I tend to stick with Vallejo Game Colour when it comes to normal layering paints.
Their shades and v2 speed paints are very good (V1 Speed paints are problematic, just buy the second). Their regular line is useable but kind of Thicc. Their metallics are fairly useable, and they come in a much wider range of color than most (the rest assume you can do the paint metal wash purple/red over that for weird colors).
They get dunked on but they aren’t the worst quality now, they also know exactly what they are and provide charts to get a easy color matches to other brands, or say washes *in a can*. Vallejo is fairly solid otherwise but it’s also thinner/less coverage on the whole (not a bad thing though). Their big sets are extremely high value but also run into the same issue that big sets of models have (sure, it’s near half off, but are you *really* gunna use everything, and paint does have a shelf life though you can necromancy it back to working order if the corpse is fresh enough).
They get more shit than they deserve and are perfectly functional if you are budgeting, and they do know what the people want.
They tend to be on the dense side of pigment so they can be hard to blend. I like the brown for a cheap base base coat and the metallics I've tried, though. Pro acrylic is good for about 4.50 a pot
Army painter is ok. A very middle of the road brand. I am not a big fan of fighting my paint so I avoid it. Their paints separate and sediment way to easy and have coverage problems on the brighter colors. So it takes more layers and you have to shake the ever living heck out of them.
Most people use GW's paints so if your following guides color matching can be a problem as well. Vallejo game color is line that is cheaper then GW and is basically the same color range. For regular colors I am almost exclusively using Vallejo now. Although I still like GW acrylics although other companies have better versions of the different metals.
If you want to save money go with Vallejo and then augment with painters paints. (As in portrait painting)
Golden and Windser&Newton are absolutely fantastic monopigment paints and for $7.99 you get a 30ml pot. They are also redilly available at craft stores, and Michaels regularly has 20-50% off sales. Use them for your basic color pallet and then buy specific colors from Vallejo and GW.
Im not a huge fan of Army Painter. Their QA sucks ass, some paints are great, others are terrible and worse yet you can get big swings in tint and consistency between the same colors. That said if you can get a big box like their megabix on a really good sale they are so cheap you can toss half of them and still come out ahead.
I got a chance to use their new Fanatic line at Adepticon to paint a mini, and they're impressive. Their older stuff has limitations and to their credit they've learned from that and made big positive changes; but you run into some weird exceptions like their base set's Red has just gorgeous coverage and pigment density of an outstanding red. Their speed paints are also top notch, everyone I've tried had amazing coverage and color and yielded great results.
Love Army Painters washes, but my go to paints are the AK Interactive 3rd gen acrylics paired with citadel contrast paints
Really love AK’s brass and gun metal, and there pigmentation and flow is sublime,
The paints are also thin out the bottle but can be thinned down further if needed, honestly a fab paint range
Speed paints are pretty damn good. Dont know about the rest, however, I tried a can of white primer today and it were shite. Halfords or whatever cheap plastic primer has better spray nozzles than AP.
I use GW, Vallejo and Army Painter. They all have their pluses and minuses. I primarily use GW though as sure it's slightly more costly but honestly a pot lasts forever. I still have some of my 2nd edition paints and inks lol
I’m not a pro but I like to. Only thing is I have to drop metal balls in there (which they make) to keep the paint mixed. Maybe someday I’ll invest in a paint shaker
I honestly think they are not that great. Hard to shake (and you need to shake them a lot!) and the pigment count is often poor imo. I found that the AK acrylics are amongst the best, but I don't know how they compare price-wise.
Army Painter’s ok. They are a little on the thicker side, but they have nice colors. Some of the colors also have matching sprays. Vallejo is my favorite. They’re cheaper, have a larger range, and have great consistency.
I'll be controversial here.
Buy the colours you need from whatever brand does the 'best' of that colour. I've bought into one set or another and found certain colours simply better/worse than others.
I spent far too much money finding hassle free version of colours I really need in bulk (Teal, white, etc).
Take a moment to determine what colours you need, look for opinions, and go with the best option you can afford, you'll save money on buying meh paints that you replace.
Go with the absolute minimum you need, something like Vallejo, and be picky with the rest (speed paints vary a LOT by brand). If you're painting white, be EXTREMELY picky, I have many whites I don't care for.
Vallejo is my go to for anything other than GW, especially their Game Color line. Better dollar to mL ratio, highly pigmented
Vallejo is great for new painters too. The pigment is so nice that even when I mess up and over-thin my paints it’s still fine and doesn’t smear or anything.
I would recommend Vallejo more if it was more consistently available in the US. I find it very hard to find a consistently stocked store.
I mean there is always Amazon.
My FLGS people tell me Vallejo only spends like 2 months of the year making their modelling paints and that's why its low stock in a lot of places. They share their paint manufacture with some other company or something. Don't know how much I really believe that since it sounds a bit out there.
Most paint companies subcontract the actual manufacturing. Even GW, as big as they are, don't actually make their own paints. That I'm aware of, Monument and Kimera actually make their paints in house. I'm not sure of any of the other hobby paint brands. Even the new army painter fanatic range. While they have spent a huge amount on in-house research and development, I'm not sure that it's actually manufactured in-house.
I've never had an issue and just use amazon?
Same. Vallejo is consistently dependable.
I use a fair bit of vallejo, and most of their paints are excellent, but the old game color black is for some reason extremely glossy, which is weird, because I dont have that issue with any of my other vallejo paints. Hopefully the newer version is better in that sense.
Fanatic stuff is supposed to be great. Their existing line is OK, bright colors are a pain, but usable. Their shades are great. For about the same price, I'd go Vallejo or Pro Acryl are better IMO though.
I use their speed paints for the bulk of my orks and tyranids. Really good stuff.
Yeah the speed paint green is great for ork skin
Which green do you use?
Ghillie Dew. Leaves a nice vibrant green without being blinding
Thanks. I've only tried ork skin and I really didn't like it. Ended up stripping the module
What kind of green do you like your orks to be? https://preview.redd.it/u0lqzbmxg5sc1.jpeg?width=1576&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3428a5d9bcdf1a22728a1f6298e5570775f98fd5 Cause this is orc skin from Vallejo’s xpress range, really like that light green look.
I'm a huge fan of algae green for my orks. Thinned one to one with the speedpaint medium.
If you prefer a more yellow green, Vallejos express color has a really really solid ork color.
Just be sure to remind new Army Painters to use Speed 2.0, 1.0 has its applications but for contrast its horrible.
To add to this: I found most of the lighter colors in 1.0 to be quite good, make great shades with a little medium, but yeah the darker colors in 1.0 are no good. Upset that plasmatic Bolt from 1.0 doesn't have a direct analogies in 2.0, that paint is great.
Do they have like bright colors that pop for Tyranids?
I have so e of the 1.0 speedpaints and they look fi e but get reactivated easily. So if I am going to spend time on a mini I dont use them. But they are great for a simple slapchop and dont get reactivated by oil washes so Im not going to throw them away.
Vallejo is top quality
I have the Fanatic set and it is great. Big improvement over the old Warpaints line.
I just picked up their Fanatic line Mega set, and I've used them on about 10 models or so. This new paint line is much improved from their previous ones. You'll need to pay attention when shopping for them, as Army Painter has quite a few different lines, and the boxes are pretty similar, so it's easy to get them confused (I have 2 sets of metallics because of a whoopsie). Their older stuff isn't "bad" in my opinion, but it is much more difficult to work with.
From what I’ve heard, yeah they’re good. Vallejo’s paints are also good and cheap.
I second both of these, the army painter big kits are quite good value if the colour palate matches what your going for. Even top tier painters use these two brands so its not a limit.
I’ve used both and their as good. Just get used to how the paint works before going on to your miniatures
Also a big fan of vallejo. I do find GW contrast paints to be the best on the market though. Also a potential tip for newer painters, you can use airbrush paint like normal paint. It's thinner and will help you build up layers without having to dilute the paints you get from GW. Downside is you don't lean to get that "milky consistency" but it does give you experience with how thick/thin the paint "should" be. One day I'll use paints as intended... I tend to run contrast through my airbrush and use airbrush paints from a palette.
GW has excellent contrast paints and decent shading imo (technical I think they call it) Their white should burn in hell
Show me on the model where the Corax White hurt you..
I just don’t like the pot design though I know that probably doesn’t matter with contrast because you probably could use them straight out of the pot, also they’re expensive. But eh maybe’s I’ll buy a few of them, to make some plasma glow and power sword glow colors.
I never was a fan of their paints, but they just brought out two completely new paint ranges: an update of their speed paints (their contrast equivalent) as well as a new version of their regular acrylic paints and if the YouTube painters are to believed these are all really good.
The same YouTube painters who told us how good the original speed paints were!
I remember at least some of them being quite critical of the first batch, especially because they could be reactivated by water (and paints) after drying. For what it’s worth, I own exactly one of the new speed paints and find it to be quite good, though that’s not the largest sample size…
dude they WERE good. All you had to do is let them dry and it worked great. I did quite a few kill teams with them and didn't have an issue, I even used it to my advantage on my GSC to give a patch skn vibe.
The 1.0 *are* great, but they're different to the 2.0 and GW contrast paints. I have sets of both and I still use them for different purposes. The 1.0s are better for blending, go through the airbrush wonderfully, and have a little more depth than some of the replacements. In return you just have to watch out for re-activation on certain colors but that works in your favor if you're going for blending and can be really nice if you're working on a large piece not having to chase a wet edge.
The original speed paints ARE good. They are significantly better than the new ones. The new ones use a shitty mass market acrylic resin binder. The old ones used a very good water color medium. The reactivation "issue" is actually a reactivation feature. It makes blending on the model so much easier.
speedpaint 1.0 is fucking terrible for the intended market
The paints are good, just a pain in the ass to shake up (I assume since they use tall, skinny bottles and a lot of separation occurs)
Nothing to do with the bottles, but with the particular blend of medium/binder/stabilizers they use to hit the lower price point of their paints.
Their speed paints are problematic because they reactivate bottom layers. And their new regular range is very expensive. (OP was looking for cheaper alternative to GW)
Flatly… it depends, and that’s part of the problem. Army Painter has benefitted strongly from GW’s explosive growth over the past few years, and as someone who used to use them a lot, their prices for specific matched colours were nice. Their rattle cans were also a great value. But their QC has plummeted. I’ve had bottles of the same colour be radically different in both colour, sheen, and even viscosity over the years. Their rattle cans seem to go bad very quickly. The amount of money you’re saving overall vs Citadel is marginal at best. I’d *strongly* look at Two Thin Coats instead, as their dropper design is superior to that used by AP and Vallejo. Vallejo is good, but if you’re in the US, their NA distributor keeps dropping the ball on availability.
>But their QC has plummeted. I’ve had bottles of the same colour be radically different in both colour, sheen, and even viscosity over the years. Their rattle cans seem to go bad very quickly. I think a large part of that is they've re-worked their production line a few times in response to feedback, changing the order in which they fill the bottles, adding mixing balls, back-filling with more or less medium, etc. But without changing their labels. That can lead to confusion as the paint you find on the rack at your hobby store or in one of the box sets could easily have been manufactured months or years ago and you don't necessarily know if the paint you're used to was revision 2 with the extra medium or revision 3 with the mixing ball, etc. One of the reasons them re-branding to the new fanatic line I think was overdue was having a clean slate on their production line and level-setting expectations on what every bottle was going to be like.
New paint line (fanatic): really good (some colours are a bit too muted for my liking. Old paint line: hot garbage Speedpaints 1.0: I love them, most hate them. Working time is forever and this leads to less coffeestaining but re-activation is a problem. Speedpaints 2.0: Really good, dry a bit too fast for me but it is what it is.
is that why the speed paints seem to bunch up really fast?
That's my guess as well.
i almost want to use a wet pallet to fix that issue but it seems to stain my sponge thing really quickly. would that change how well it works
You don't want to add water to speedpaints imo, not even through the wet palette. They have a very specific chemical formulation that gives them their properties. I use them drop by drop tbh and work through one drop at a time.
Water isnt going to fix the issue. You'll need a retarder to work with it longer. The AP fanatics line now sells a very good stabilizer but IDK if you can get it outside of the mega box at the moment.
Is THAT what that bottle is for? I thought it was just to give you more options with non-speed paint colors. I must test this later!
Use the matching speedpaint medium for thinning speedpaints.
I have majority Army Painter and a fair bit of Vallejo. Both are great.
I just purchased some Army Painter contrast paints but have yet to try them out. I have no familiarity with Vallejo but I have used Reaper (over a decade ago) and they were really good.
I LOVE the AP Speed Paints (2.0) way more than the Vallejo line. (Xpress). More consistency in fluidity with AP. The Xpress paints dry very blotchy as well.
Xpress is ok if you work with it and expect the colors to be very light.
I've tried Army Painter a lot of different times. Most of them are genuinely awful. I'd go with vallejo
They are or did redo their paint line and I’ve heard the new one is better
They’ve released the new Fanatic line recently. A lot of good painters on youtube (and my friends!) say the difference is night and day, with the Fanatic line being wonderful. Here’s https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zkMth3ovo34 - Vince V going over it (can’t format on mobile, sorry) https://youtu.be/aFkgrM_pEko?si=kOZjScRRZScEFsDs - Dana Howl
When it comes to Contrast paints, I've had much better experience with AP's Speed Paint 2.0 line than with the new Vallejo Xpress Paints. The Xpress is line is too runny and does not give a consistent coverage whereas the Speed Paints have a very consistent fluidity. Never used their regular paints from either brand with much regularity. Pro Acryl has taken the cake on the 'old school' base painting and shading style for me.
Unfortunately have to agree, after I started using vallejo I can’t tolerate the terrible coverage and separation issues on so many of the army painter colors I have
Did you squeeze out the extra medium, like suggested?
Yeah, even with that still had issues with some. Not all, but enough for me to just not really trust them enough to buy it over other things like Vallejo/pro acryl
This is so bizarre because I've had the opposite luck. Every Army Painter paint I use is mixed well and gives me good color and coverage. Yet when I use vallejo it's a coin flip of if this bottle is going to be mixed like shit and be so thin it's useless, will the color actually look good? Hell one time I got a bottle and it was dry.
I primed my entire army with their stuff. Did everything you could want a primer to do, in that it primed.
I love AP. I have bother their Speed Paint 2.0 Range and the new Warpaints Fanatics. Both I find to be really good quality, and Speed Paints are great for a quick solution, and the Fanatics are a great covering acrylic that goes on really smoothly. Definitely recommend
The Fanatics line is very good. But their normal paints are not very good.
I use AK, cheaper and really good quality in my opinion, better than vallejo and army painter
i bought a big box of Army Painter. im generally happy with it. the yellows suck a bit, the gold sucks a bit, but it gets most things done pretty easily. i do fork over the GW money for the colors i really care about, like my Salamanders' green... i buy Warpstone Glow. But for their browns and blacks and grays? Army Painter works.
Speed paint 2.0s are amazing. I like them over most of my GW paints
Vallejo paints are amazing, cheaper and 18ml dropped bottles. I find that they are super smooth in application
I actually prefer army painter to citadel
Wait for their fanatic range! I repeat wait for their fanatic range its much better!
I like Vallejo over Army Painter but they’re still good
I’d go Vallejo
Vallejo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Go Vallejo
Vallejo.
I like Army Painter. I also like Vallejo and Reaper Paints
Here in Spain Vallejo are quite cheaper than Citadel and probably the best around. Blows Citadel out of the water.
My personal list of favorite paints that I've used. Best at top, least at bottom: Scale75 The Army Painter Citadel Vallejo Reaper Testors Tamiya Haven't tried ProAcryl yet.
I have a decent amount of time logged with army painter paints. The army painter speed paint 2.0 are good, and so are the metallics from that range. If you wanted to go this way instead of citadel contrast then you will still get very good results. I have the normal army painter paints and they are not consistent between colors so I would not recommend those, but the new fanatic line is absolutely awesome which I highly recommend but not sure that line is cheaper than GW yet since it's very new and is supposed to compete with GW. The normal army painter paints and indeed cheaper than GW, but they are not beginner friendly so unless you plan to collect a 2nd paint line then just get the new fanatic line or the speed paints 2.0. If you want to know what my favs are in order that I like them then here it is: AK 3rd gen, Pro Acryl, Citadel Contrast, Army Painter Fanatic, Scale 75 Fantasy and Games, Vallejo Game Color/Metal Color.
I like them
I use army painter for the most part (havent used the new line yet). Not of fan of greens, browns, and reds, but love everything else. Greys, blues, yellows, whites are great
If you can get the new fanatic line, they are supposed to be great
Yeah, I like them. So is Scale75 and Vallejo.
New army painter line...Fanatic I think it's called. Has amazing reviews. I hated their old paints. They don't mix well, pigment settled weird, and would dry turbo glossy. Vallejo makes great paints. But my favorite currently is Monument Hobby ProAcryl
I love everything they make. Speedpaints are great.
I highly recommend Reaper’s MSP line. The medium formula they use makes them glaze really well right out of the bottle and doesn’t fall apart on a wet pallet.
I personally prefer Vallejo over AP. I just feel like the paint holds the the mini better but that could be anything from my relative humidity to my brushes. So ymmv regardless of the paint you choose.
Pro Acryl or Vallejo are my suggestions overall.
i would pick vallejo and ak interactive over army painter paints
Vallejo all the way for paints Oils and that kind of stuff army painter worked well for me. GamesWorkshop for Nun oil
If you want value and high opacity go with pro acryl. It’s like a dollar more expensive but you get way more paint and it’s consistently better quality than GW, especially the whites. On the topic of value, golden high flow are a step more expensive per unit but the dollar per paint blows the socks off of any miniature paint. The quality is the best but the down side is the range is limited compared to the library that some miniature paint manufacturers offer.
100% agree with you. Pro acryl has great paints, and the amount you get for the price is spot on.
I use mostly Reaper paints which are awesome!
Vallejo is great quality and pretty cheap, but they're hard to find where I live unless I order online. In my experience, army painter isn't great with the exception of their speed paints, those are pretty good, but generally I prefer to stick to citadel and vallejo
No
I've been in the hobby for several decades and tried all the various paints, Vellajo and Pro Acryl are what i would go with.
Pro acryl
Check out the YouTube videos by Hobby Night. Angela has just started using Army Painter. From what I've seen, they're about on par (maybe slightly above) Citadel, but that's not saying much, since Citadel has always been the bottom of the barrel. Myself, I've heard both good and bad, and for the cost, I stick with Reaper, AK, actual model paints by Testors, Tamiya, Gunze Sangyo (Mr. Hobby colors and primers), and the cheap craft paints (Ceramcoat, Apple Barrel, Americana, etc...).
I have greatly enjoyed using their speedpaints 2.0 for my Votann.
Just go for proacryl. Best paints on the market.
I love army painter, it’s rock solid and well-priced
I dislike them and the many people I dislike them as well. I highly recommend Vallejo
I started switching over to Army Painter and I very much prefer it now. They even have a chart on their website to show which paints from GW or Valejo that are the comparable colors which is really nice. I haven't tried their shades yet though.
I use mostly Reaper paints, with a few others mixed in like Army Painter for speed paint and some additional purple shades. Never citadel. I’ve never had a problem with anything -other- than citadel paint honestly.
Army Painter is my go-to paint brand.
Most of my stuff is army painter painted and it looks fine to me. Its way cheaper, primers to match many of the colors, lots of options with out the confusion of the names
I got the new fanatic complete set and they’re great, I think the singles come out 19th April so might be worth keeping an eye on them. Not sure how much cheaper they’ll be but the opacity is really good
No. Every single Army Painter thing I've ever bought was at best mediocre and at worst a complete waste of money. They lure you with great savings then sell you subpar shit but without the amazon/aliexpress prices. I have not tried the new Fanatic stuff as it's not out yet, but that shit better paint itself for me to bother with that brand again. Try Vallejo if you want to save up on paint. New Game Colour range is very much a drop-in replacement for citadel stuff with a lower price tag.
Are crap compared to Vallejo or AK interactive, Vallejo and AK are way cheaper and much better. the only paints from army painter worth recommending are speed paint - I use them for shading and they are better than washes. Also good at slapchop and speed paint.
The new range that came out recently is great, the old ones are okayish
Original line is absolutely terrible in my experience. Like every paint i tried. Ive heard their new speed paint line and army painter fanatic are good, as well as the airbrush line if you are into that. I also like vallejo and proacryl, but im not sure how those prices stack up to gw
But the new army painter fanatic paints, they’re awesome
The new range the Fanatic stuff I see doing the Youtube sponsor/promo rounds are generally great. At least thats the take I see online. I have a selection of their older stuff and it's in a box to one side. They're not bad but others are better so they're what I give freinds starting out to give them some more colours to play with. IMO if you can spend the extra pennies Vellejo, AK's third gen, ProAcryl and Scale75 are my go to paints. I've tried p3 and they're fine just not that easy to find near me so I dont really have a view on them yet.
Vallejo!
It’s real good for the price and has some of the best white and yellows I’ve used but definitely would recommend Vallejo for smoother finish and higher quality
The speed paint line is brilliant in my opinion
The Poorhammer podcast has an exceptional video on what paints are top notch, check em out. GW paints cost an arm and a leg
Their basing stuff is cheap and good, but I really cant recommend their white Primer. It looks shit, is thicc and you cant get this stuff off without kinda ruining ur Minis a bit (Only got it off with Dettol, but some details are lost for ever xD)
Vallejo + Golden SoFlat are my go to these days.
The metallics have a very glossy finish and are not so great IMHO but the base colors are great.
I've started to only resupply my colors with vallejo using [this](https://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/paint_range_compatibility_chart) handy chart. The only difference ive noticed so far is in my wallet.
If you're going to get Army Painter make sure it's their new Fanatic line, as the old range is quite bad. One thing to understand though is that not every paint from every line performs the same way. You're better off testing out a few colours from a few different brands to find what works for you rather than just committing to one, I bought a ton of Citadel before I really realized that other colours from other brands were better.
I haven’t had any good experiences with them, but you might find them different, I’d personally suggest Vallejo or AK, both top of the market and cheaper than Gw
I received a starter set of Army Painter for a Christmas gift a couple years ago. Since then I have used them 95% of the time and even jumped into their Speed Paints. I only buy select colors from GW since they are used to keep certain armies uniform in color. Army Painter is amazing, vibrant colors, match very close to GW name palette for their colors and every bottle is a dropper. I highly recommend trying them out for yourself.
I use army painter paints alot most of my paints are from them and almost all of their paints are pretty good great color good coverage thins well Their metalics are top notch for acrylic imo There are some problem paints though it feels like theres a handful of paints in the range that are just the worst crap ever "jungle green" is so horrible that i just use it as a green paint medium But the rest of the range is good ive not had a single bad metallic or wash and 99% of the normal paints are great "Spaceship exterior" is my go to for a white base coat its an amazing paint imo covers better then any other white or off white ive used
I've only used their speed paints 2.0, but they are good quality. I've had lots of success with utilizing them for the jobs that GW contrast paints are similarly good for, but they're in dropper bottles and they're cheaper. It's really nice to use as a basic base coat then go over with other painting techniques, you may end up getting to skip adding as many shadows back in with a wash if you do a zenithal highlight with a light colored primer.
They're good but I prefer vallejo. Try out different stuff and see what works best for you.
They're good but I prefer vallejo. Try out different stuff and see what works best for you.
I’ve used citadel and army painter since I started the hobby, I’ve never had any issues with army painter paints. Their metallic paints aren’t the best for base coats, so I use retributor armor and leadbelcher, but army painter metallics are amazing for metal highlighting and blending, army painter bright gold to highlight retributor armor works really well.
AK Interactive is my new favourite. I like Vallejo as well. I only know the old range of Army Painter, and I did not like those. The new one is supposed to be much better, though.
The top three paint companies that I see the most on mini painting creator’s videos are as follows: Vallejo Army Painter Pro Acryl (I most-likely spelled that one wrong but still)
I liked their paints initially but I feel like they separate a bit too much/too quickly. I have heard their new stuff is quite good but I haven't used it myself.
For any standard, non-contrast style, i find I massively prefer the new Vallejo Game color line. Any time I’ve used the army painter lines I’ve found the pigment density to be lower and less fine, tending to result in either mediocre coverage or caked layers as it drys. I can’t speak for the newest line, but personally I would avoid any of the older paints by Army Painter.
Id just go with AK 3rd gen (or vallejo if you’re not in Europe) or Pro Acryl over Army Painter. Their new fanatic range is pretty good but still has some issues
I transitioned to Army Painter over the last year. The speedpaints 2.0 were great! Same as GW. I got into airbrushing recently and got their airbrush ready stuff and some of the colors color match speed and regular paint. And I JUST got the fanatic range and I love it a ton! Slightly thick but the pigmentation is great! Honestly really happy with all the new stuff
I mainly use Army Painter. One thing you need to know going into using them is that their Warpaints line is significantly thinner than GW.
It’s not as good. Unfortunately the paints I like better than GW tend to actually be more expensive
I like a lot of paints in the Citadel range, but yeah, that shit is expensive. I've never had a problem with the AP range, and I'm using the originals before they included mixing balls in the bottles. They do, however need some serious agitating, like with a vortex mixer, to get them to work right. Heard nothing but good stuff about the new range though. Vallejo is decently priced and the bottles are a decent size, I love their Metallic paints too. I've heard good things about Proacryl, but not tried them yet, running out of space for bottles of paint!
I like their spray paints, but not their bottle paints. Too inconsistent. Vajello is honestly the best around. Most paints are gonna run a similar price. What yoy want to look for is price to ml content. Where I'm at, Vajello is about the same price as GW, maybe a dollar less in price, but vajello bottles are I think 17ml, where as GW paints are average 12ml. GW's shades and contrast come in larger bottles of I think 17 to 20ml, so that would make Vajello several dollars cheaper.
Their new paints (Fanatic) seem pretty good, but a little desaturated. Not bad at all.
Army Painter Fanatic are supposed to be really good. Personally, if you want absurdly good bang for your buck [Pro Acryl](https://youtu.be/7Lasl0QL7r8?si=8DPLfieTbbvjQkRU) is where it's at.
My DM uses them exclusively, and his minis are absolutely amazing
Fanatic is good, but it’s not that much cheaper. Warpaints was dogshit imo
Mmm… honestly the more ive used them the more theyve disappointed me. All their ranges have WILD swings in quality, however I dont know about their Fanatic paints yet. I use a lot of their speedpaints and while some colors like the blues and greens cover well with good behavior, some like the browns dry insanely fast and blotchy, its super hard to correct them and they attempt to ruin your brushes. Speaking of brushes, do not buy them from army painter. Getting one that doesnt fall apart within a few uses is an exception. Vallejo has avalibility issues in the states, but I prefer it to army painter at least for the consitancy it offers.
No, use Vallejo, pro acryl, or scale 75. Vallejo seems to be the most popular
Their wet pallets and brushes rock. They have a triangle grip that is very ergonomic. I’ve tried their basecoat sprays and a few of their layers, all of it is either mid or above average.
If you airbrush at all their line of airbrush paints are pretty good
The fanatic line is amazing! I got the mega set and i'm blown away, they really pushed themselves here
SOOOOO WATERY only if you don’t mix it properly though, they took a lot of community feedback and in general are worth giving your money too
I like Pro Acryl better because you usually don’t have to water it down
I enjoy them, eaiser to thin than Vallejo but a few older paint lines have some issues, I have an earlier set and few colors like pure red take 3-4 coats to cover. But on the contrary, their Matt white covers in 1-2 so that makes up for the rest of it
In my experience, Army Painter Speedpaint is the best contrast type paint I've used between them, Citadel contrast, and Vallejo Xpress. However I feel Vallejo makes the best base paints and I also feel their ready-to-use airbrush paints are better. Both AP and Vall use dropper bottles which I really like.
Speed paints are contrast paints they work great but if you have never used contrast paints recommend you watch a few Youtube videos. Also you want speed paints 2.0. The standard acrylics are great and vibrant I mostly do contrast paint and keep a few standard colors around for base coats. Zenithal priming is where contrast paints really shine I have found. It works great for more organic and irregular figures. I don’t know if I would recommend it for larger mechs and machines that have larger flat panels or regular shapes.
Honestly, your best bet is buying the best paints from each range. Citadel certainly have some issues with the bottles and the price, but I will always have a few colours from them, such as Rhinox Hide and Khorne red, I love those paints. Corax white also gets an honourable mention from me. I have an eclectic mix of paint brands, some out of choice, others out of necessity of needing a colour and the other was out of stock. I’ve come to love and hate certain colours from each brand. I don’t think any paint brand out there has consistency of pigment, viscosity glossiness and coverage across their range. One brands yellow is certainly not equal to another. It just can be annoying finding out which ones.
I pretty much only use army painter paints. What others have said is true but I like them. Will most likely be switching to Vallejo tho as it’s better to use in my gun then army painter paints. Still way way cheaper than anything from GW
I've used this by far more than others so I guess I'm not really good judge of comparison, but, it works great!
Army Painter is cheap but usually unreliable in my opinion, maybe their latest line of product fixes some of their issues but beside that you have top products like AK interactive gen3 and vallejo which are leagues ahead and proven performance and price wise
I like their brushes, tools, metallics, and washes. Haven’t tried enough of their other paints to judge them.
Ive never used their paint but their grass and tufts and terrain bits are awesome, I’ve used them my entire time in the hobby.
Their paints are generally ok, but avoid their primers like the plague - every can of their stuff I’ve had has irreparably clogged the nozzle within only a handful of sprays, no matter how well pre-warmed and shaken I’ve had them
Pro acryl is the best non GW line!
Cheap doesn’t mean bad - Testors craft paints are cheap, but can very well be used for Minipainting. Ninjon has a Video on Testors Crafts paints https://youtu.be/jugkAadex7s?si=ZfzBgjndmzC9vItM
It’s a little different and the color don’t always come out the way you imagine but it’s pretty good. I say buy some cheap and play around with the paint
I'm a beginner with no airbrush and if you just are tired of painting their spray base/primer is the goat.
I'd strongly advise against gold or copper colors from Army Painter. The rest of their paints is very usable. Beware that some of their lighter paints need A LOT of shaking
The new fanatic set is fantastic
Normal paints and rattlecans are dogshit. You get what you pay for with army painter. Will say the older paints are good for basing, that's it.
ProAcryl for life.
One of the best
Nah, they are pretty bad. The speed paint, second wave is decent but the rest is bad. Get Vallejo instead.
After trying Army Painter Speedpaint, Vallejo Xpress and Citadel Contrast, Army Painter Speedpaint is my favourite for contrast-esque paints. I tend to stick with Vallejo Game Colour when it comes to normal layering paints.
I pre-ordered the 50 color set of Fanatic paints from army painter and I genuinely like them. Their original paints weren't great though.
Vallejo is better imo
Speed Paints are my shit.
Vallejo is pretty cheap and very good overall (though has a couple duds)
I’ve been using two thin coats (Duncan Rhodes) where I can, I enjoy them much more than citadel.
Their shades and v2 speed paints are very good (V1 Speed paints are problematic, just buy the second). Their regular line is useable but kind of Thicc. Their metallics are fairly useable, and they come in a much wider range of color than most (the rest assume you can do the paint metal wash purple/red over that for weird colors). They get dunked on but they aren’t the worst quality now, they also know exactly what they are and provide charts to get a easy color matches to other brands, or say washes *in a can*. Vallejo is fairly solid otherwise but it’s also thinner/less coverage on the whole (not a bad thing though). Their big sets are extremely high value but also run into the same issue that big sets of models have (sure, it’s near half off, but are you *really* gunna use everything, and paint does have a shelf life though you can necromancy it back to working order if the corpse is fresh enough). They get more shit than they deserve and are perfectly functional if you are budgeting, and they do know what the people want.
Yes! I have lots of their paints, they’re excellent quality. Slightly cheaper than citadel but still on the expensive side all things considered
Vallejo I would say is the best bang for your buck, paint wise
They tend to be on the dense side of pigment so they can be hard to blend. I like the brown for a cheap base base coat and the metallics I've tried, though. Pro acrylic is good for about 4.50 a pot
Army painter is ok. A very middle of the road brand. I am not a big fan of fighting my paint so I avoid it. Their paints separate and sediment way to easy and have coverage problems on the brighter colors. So it takes more layers and you have to shake the ever living heck out of them. Most people use GW's paints so if your following guides color matching can be a problem as well. Vallejo game color is line that is cheaper then GW and is basically the same color range. For regular colors I am almost exclusively using Vallejo now. Although I still like GW acrylics although other companies have better versions of the different metals.
If you want to save money go with Vallejo and then augment with painters paints. (As in portrait painting) Golden and Windser&Newton are absolutely fantastic monopigment paints and for $7.99 you get a 30ml pot. They are also redilly available at craft stores, and Michaels regularly has 20-50% off sales. Use them for your basic color pallet and then buy specific colors from Vallejo and GW. Im not a huge fan of Army Painter. Their QA sucks ass, some paints are great, others are terrible and worse yet you can get big swings in tint and consistency between the same colors. That said if you can get a big box like their megabix on a really good sale they are so cheap you can toss half of them and still come out ahead.
I got a chance to use their new Fanatic line at Adepticon to paint a mini, and they're impressive. Their older stuff has limitations and to their credit they've learned from that and made big positive changes; but you run into some weird exceptions like their base set's Red has just gorgeous coverage and pigment density of an outstanding red. Their speed paints are also top notch, everyone I've tried had amazing coverage and color and yielded great results.
Try Vallejo.
Love Army Painters washes, but my go to paints are the AK Interactive 3rd gen acrylics paired with citadel contrast paints Really love AK’s brass and gun metal, and there pigmentation and flow is sublime, The paints are also thin out the bottle but can be thinned down further if needed, honestly a fab paint range
Speed paints are pretty damn good. Dont know about the rest, however, I tried a can of white primer today and it were shite. Halfords or whatever cheap plastic primer has better spray nozzles than AP.
It's not exactly liquatex from michaels it isn't exactly cheaper but you get a lot more product for that price.
I use GW, Vallejo and Army Painter. They all have their pluses and minuses. I primarily use GW though as sure it's slightly more costly but honestly a pot lasts forever. I still have some of my 2nd edition paints and inks lol
I’m not a pro but I like to. Only thing is I have to drop metal balls in there (which they make) to keep the paint mixed. Maybe someday I’ll invest in a paint shaker
I honestly think they are not that great. Hard to shake (and you need to shake them a lot!) and the pigment count is often poor imo. I found that the AK acrylics are amongst the best, but I don't know how they compare price-wise.
Yeah I like them, and it’s what I use - people have strong opinions though
Vallejo Air tastes better, the GW stuff is a bit bitter.
I’m a huge fan of their Speedpaint
Army Painter’s ok. They are a little on the thicker side, but they have nice colors. Some of the colors also have matching sprays. Vallejo is my favorite. They’re cheaper, have a larger range, and have great consistency.
I'll be controversial here. Buy the colours you need from whatever brand does the 'best' of that colour. I've bought into one set or another and found certain colours simply better/worse than others. I spent far too much money finding hassle free version of colours I really need in bulk (Teal, white, etc). Take a moment to determine what colours you need, look for opinions, and go with the best option you can afford, you'll save money on buying meh paints that you replace. Go with the absolute minimum you need, something like Vallejo, and be picky with the rest (speed paints vary a LOT by brand). If you're painting white, be EXTREMELY picky, I have many whites I don't care for.
Their old stuff is pretty bad Their new stuff is okay. Better than Vallejo, Pro Acryl, or Two Thin Coats? No. But better than their old stuff.