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Paint set recommendations


dalmer

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Hello there,

Doing my darndest to get back into painting minis this year.  A lot of my paints have dried up, so I know I'll be investing in more.  Figured that I'd ask here for input.

Army painter?  Vallejo?  Games Workshop?  Something I haven't heard of?

I'll be looking for a mega set or something and I know they all don't have those, but I figure that I can always add to the stockpile.

I don't use an airbrush, if that matters.

Any assistance is appreciated.

Stay safe,

don

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Army painter sets are a nice starting point - they are coming out with a new set of “contrast paints” soon as well which would be a good start as well.  
If your just getting back to painting- I’d really suggest looking into an airbrush- just for priming in the winter is a great step. Also look up zeinthial priming on YouTube to see some pretty good techniques to prime your figures that make the rest of the painting go easier. (Especially with contast paints, inks or washes). 
 

-d

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I’m really looking forward to the Army Painter Speedpaints. I like about half of the GW Contrast Paints that I’ve tried and every reviewer on YouTube that’s gotten early access testers from Army Painter has said they’ve liked them as much as (or more than) GW’s stuff.

Yeah, yeah, the usual caveats about skepticism of reviewers who were given the product apply, but Army Painter’s other products have always been excellent in my experience. So I’m inclined to believe that they got this one right too.

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I have steadily and deliberately worked my way through paint sets from many manufacturers (it's just a stupid painting nerd thing). I am currently on Army Painter and considering all factors including price, I recommend their sets for starters or people getting back into the hobby. I am also looking forward to their Speed Paints as I love Contrast paints. 

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I have lots of paints... 2/3 are GW - My biggest gripe is the pots lol. I have picked up an army painter set for my airbrushing - which are pretty nicely set up with tri-shades.

I have moved probably half of my favorite GW paints from their damn pots to dropper bottles over the last couple years.

-d

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I'd say my paint split is 50% AP, 30% Val, 20% GW. Army painter is my main line and mostly because the paints are good and the price point is fantastic. Plus, I've had some sitting for years and they still work great unlike my entire set of GW paints that dried in unopened containers. GW did start to make a comeback with the contrast stuff, but now that AP has a new set.... My vals are mostly for historical, though I do have some fantasy colors from them too.

I do have an airbrush and just got the whole airbrush line from AP, so hopefully will start testing that out soon and can provide feedback on those.

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Vallejo and/or Pro Acrylic seem to be the drug of choice for people with much, much, much more painting talent than me.

Army Painter seems to be the choice for people who know what they’re doing and are on a budget.

Citadel seems to be the choice for those of us that never thought much about what we’re choosing. 😊

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47 minutes ago, Ish said:

Citadel seems to be the choice for those of us that never thought much about what we’re choosing. 😊

I'm just so used to working with Citadel paints that I have only bought a handful of Vallejo and a few P3. Never tried Army painter. 

Basically whenever I see a paint article in White Dwarf or a GW video on Youtube, it's much easier to just grab the Citadel paint they use rather than try to color match from other lines. Of course, there are so many paints in the range now, I have to try to find the particular section (Base, technical, dry, etc) on the rack before finding individual paints. Otherwise, I will spend 10+ minutes trying to find it. 😲

 

Also, I realize the following statement may make me seem odd, but I still haven't tried Contrast paints. 😳

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I think most paint lines are pretty good nowadays... I mostly use Vallejo paints though have started adding Scale Color, which I really like. They have high pigment density so are great for glazing, and dry super matte. GW paints are good, but like people have said their bottles are craptacular. I use their shades and Contrast (stupid expensive but pretty useful) lines as washes and glazes but am transferring them over to dropper bottles. Next time I order paint (afaik there isn't a decent source for paints in Portland/Vancouver so I mail order) I'm definitely going to add in some Pro Acryl -- I hear their Titanium White is awesome.

I tried a few bottles of Army Painter but didn't really care for them, the colors I had were pretty thin and chalky but I probably just got unlucky. Every paint line has great paints and stinkers, I probably just chose the stinkers. AP has a lot of fans so they must be alright.

If I were starting over, I don't think I'd buy a mega-set. I suspect there's a lot of dead-wood colors I wouldn't use very often. Maybe I'd pick up a basic set and add to that depending on the colors included.

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On 1/5/2022 at 7:28 PM, dalmer said:

Continued thanks for all the replies... much appreciated!

I bought a bunch of dropper tubes to transfer what Citadel paints I have over to those, and decided on getting the Vallejo Game Color 72-set.  Thanks again for providing information, really appreciate it!

It's a good call and you will be happy with them. I do recommend adding Army Painter's metallic set. In all my experimenting, they easily have the best coverage. And bonus: the metallic set is cheap enough to add to any collection. 

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