[WM / Epic] Paint brand recommendations?

[Ironhelm]

Hello all,

So one thing you find when you open that huge collection of GW paint bottles from 10 years ago, is that you now own the largest collection of "drop pods" - a little modeling and they will make great drop pods.

They will not, however, be of any use whatsoever as actual paint to put on the minis.

Realizing that I am about to wade into a brand new inventory of paints, I query first ... which brand?!

Please post what you recommend and why -- I get that there is a lot of personal preference involved.

Very much appreciated, cheers in advance.

[Blindhorizon]

Something that i wish i looked into more before i started painting was the drying out of pots. Personally if i where to start over(i plan to soon) I would look for a paint company that use's dropper tips so i can squeeze what i want to use onto a wet pallette.

Blind-

[David Wasilewski]

As well as the GW range, I mainly use Wargames Foundry's range. Good coverage and you get big pots that don't dry out.

Dave

[Jimmy Zimms]

I'm a huge fan of Vallejo Game Color. The Heavy [insert color] ones are also formulated to match the previous GW paint range which helps transition between ranges. I'm pretty impressed by the Army Painter line of colored primers as well. I use them and the color matching paint droppers extensively with Grey and Reds now. Kyussinchains uses them on his Imperial Fists to great results ad well.

[Stormwind]

Using dropper bottles with a wet palette makes a lot of sense.

I still use GW paints simply because I had started with them and am familiar with them.  The new range plugs some gaps so I have some of those, too.

I have bought Army painter sprays and they are so much better than GW ones, and are 100% colour matched to their dropper bottles which are very high pigment and great for base coats.

[forbes]

I like Vallejo. As said above the game colour range matches closely to the GW range, the model colour range is vast. I like the dropper bottles, seem to stop the paint drying out, and great for getting reasonable amounts on to a palette, this helps with both mixing and thinning the paint.  Also value wise they are much better than GW.

I would now struggle to go back to flip top pots where you need to scoop some paint out to work with.

Army Painter sprays are very useful for giving a good base colour for your army - with 10mm this can really speed up production. I have also recently discovered Kobra brand sprays on Amazon that come in a huge range of colours at a good price.

[Ironhelm]

These are fantastic recommendations! You've helped a lot already. I've invested into a dozen of one kind and am going to give them a whirl to see how I like the end results *and* the process to get to the end results.

Who knows, maybe I'll even dare to post some results at some point!

Please continue to post your suggestions as they come in as I'm still reading this thread and will try different options out.

[amnar]

I'm a big fan if P3 also. Great paints. I mainly used P3 and Vallejo game colour.

[kyussinchains]

as Jimmy says, I make heavy use of army painter sprays, their washes are also top notch, I used the red wash on my speed freaks, and the strong tone quickshade is a dead ringer for devlan mud

I'll also recommend P3, if you like the whole pot-painting feel, then they're great, they also come full to the brim rather than a small dribble, you probably get 2-2.5 times the paint in a pot that GW sells, they're also liquid pigment so don't dry out as much and work really well in an airbrush, they also have a long drying time so if you're into layering and wet-blending they work really well, they are loaded with pigment but also thinner than GW paints so are best built up in layers

the only things I can find fault with P3 about are their somewhat limited range of colours (they encourage you to mix up your own shades which is fine but not always consistent) and limited availability.....

[Dave]

Coat d' Arms, P3 and Foundry paints are all the same manufacturer, if you can't find a color in one range check another.

I've used CdA since GW switched from them back in the late 90s. I like them, just be aware that batch colors can be different (they mix by eye not weight). Not sure if that's how they do it for the other two.

I also have the Army Painter bottle range. They're good, but limited in selection.