New to WH, Seeking Painterly Advice

[Onibocho]

Hey folks,

Just got my starter set and am looking for advice on cost-effective alternatives to the GW brand of paints. I wanted to ask if anyone has compiled a list of what other brands' paints/washes/sprays that are similar in quality/color to those made by GW, for example:

GW Blood Red ≈ Brand X Red
GW Devian Mud ≈ Brand Y Wash
GW Chainmail ≈ Brand Z Silver
GW Chaos Black Spray ≈ 3M Black Matte
GW Dheneb Stone ≈ Brand A Gray
and so on...

In general terms, I'm looking to get enough paints to be able to take care of my starter set, and once I get the hang of it, I'll look into getting paints for Dwarven and Ogre armies.

Any advice, tips, or links would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Thornblood]

Gw paints are really good but I've been slowly trying to replace my GW colours with Vallejo, alot cheaper per bottle. Sadly I havnt found anything as good as the foundation paints and inks/washes that GW does.

For me Vallejo 'Game Colour' is a little too thin but has brighter colours. However I swear by the 'Model Colour' range.

However, I believe this is what you are looking for- http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Paint_Range_Compatibility_Chart

Incidently Privateer Press' colours- 'Formula P3' were originally made to cover colours that no other paint manufacturer makes.

[wittdooley]

Gw paints are really good but I've been slowly trying to replace my GW colours with Vallejo, alot cheaper per bottle. Sadly I havnt found anything as good as the foundation paints and inks/washes that GW does.

For me Vallejo 'Game Colour' is a little too thin but has brighter colours. However I swear by the 'Model Colour' range.

However, I believe this is what you are looking for- http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Paint_Range_Compatibility_Chart

Incidently Privateer Press' colours- 'Formula P3' were originally made to cover colours that no other paint manufacturer makes.

Also incidentally, the Privateer paints are very nice. Presently, I think they have the best warm colours in the business (reds, oranges, yellows).

I recently tried the army painter paints as well. Pleasantly surprised.

But the moral is use good paint. You're going to spend "about" the same amount on any made for minis paints. Do so and your paint jobs really will look better, and it'll be easier to paint them.

[Onibocho]

Wow....excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor.

{scrape, tape, staple, tape}

Thanks for the helpful link! I knew going into this that the paint supplies were gonna be the costlier part of this hobby/game. Being a former art student, I have most of everything else that I will need in terms of the tools, brushes, etc., so I wanted to maximize my dollar-for-paint purchases.

I saw one of miniwargamer.com's videos about painting and saw that for the black primer, they used a can of 3M's black matte primer that can be picked up from most hardware stores. Is there any reason not to go that route for the primers—in terms of quality—seeing how that's probably going to be the one thing that will need to be replenished more than my regular paints over time?

[faolan]

Being a former art student, you should know that you can get tubes of high quality, fine ground acrylic paint paste and just thin it down, much as you can with oils, and that cuts your costs down to a fraction.

For the minis, I suspect you'll find 95% of your art brushes are useless, entirely too large, so you'll want to invest in some decent 3/0, 5/0 and 10/0s, and a 20/0.

Down here in Australia, I've not yet made the leap to the tubes of paint, although one of the Daemon level paints locally raves on them. However, I have moved almost entirely to P3 and Vallejo, as they're cheaper than GW for more of a better quality paint.

The only real problem with the P3s is that they don't tend to do well on the wet palette, they're more a "shake well and paint out of the cap" paint.

---

Edit: Also, I have to say, skip on the black primer. Locally we've largely gone to using a medium to lighter grey primer, it makes painting over it a lot easier, and actually properly grips to metal and resin parts, unlike the GW stuff (which you aren't using). It also sucks less of the brightness out of your colours, meaning you don't have to put down anything like as many layers to get a good, solid coating with the luminosity you originally choose that paint for.

[Thornblood]

Im a fan of the black primer- sorry.

Although for shading- if you want really bright colours mix in some of the opposite colour.

In an effort to get really bright red I have a Red Templar with Dark Angels green in the shading. Worked out pretty well.

[wittdooley]

I mix my primer colors, but I never spend more than $5. Krylon makes great primers for plastic in black, grey, and white.

[Onibocho]

Being a former art student, you should know that you can get tubes of high quality, fine ground acrylic paint paste and just thin it down, much as you can with oils, and that cuts your costs down to a fraction.

For the minis, I suspect you'll find 95% of your art brushes are useless, entirely too large, so you'll want to invest in some decent 3/0, 5/0 and 10/0s, and a 20/0.

Down here in Australia, I've not yet made the leap to the tubes of paint, although one of the Daemon level paints locally raves on them. However, I have moved almost entirely to P3 and Vallejo, as they're cheaper than GW for more of a better quality paint.

The only real problem with the P3s is that they don't tend to do well on the wet palette, they're more a "shake well and paint out of the cap" paint.

---

Edit: Also, I have to say, skip on the black primer. Locally we've largely gone to using a medium to lighter grey primer, it makes painting over it a lot easier, and actually properly grips to metal and resin parts, unlike the GW stuff (which you aren't using). It also sucks less of the brightness out of your colours, meaning you don't have to put down anything like as many layers to get a good, solid coating with the luminosity you originally choose that paint for.


Thanks for the tips! Yes, I had considered using some of the acrylics I had, but I wasn't sure if they would be suitable for modelling, or how far I would need to water them down to remain consistent for miniature painting (I have some Liquitex tubes at my disposal).

[Onibocho]

My only concern would be any paints not chemically suited for miniatures. Granted this shouldn't be such a big case with water-based paints (as some petroleum-based paints—especially the kinds formulated for metal—could potentially eat or 'melt' the miniature), but I wanted to be fairly certain I make the right choices.

[pauljc]

To be honest, don't scrimp on your hobby supplies. It's not really going to be the costly part of this hobby, when you consider that paint is going to last you months, if not years at a time, forking out an extra .50 cents a pot (or whatever) is no biggie, really. I still have a pot of Shining Gold from the ancient hexagonal pots from GW. It's about 12 years old now, and still going strong.

I tend to use whatever I like, though. Be that Citadel, P3, or Vallejo. For example, when it comes to primers, I have tried about a dozen or so different brands over the years, but for me, nothing quite matches the Citadel black primer. The finish just always turns out to be superior.

P3 paints are also excellent quality. As said earlier, their warm colours, like red and yellow can be applied in much less coats than Citadel versions.

I'm also painting up some 28mm USMC for Force on Force. For their Marpat camo, I use a Vallejo base colour, combined with Citadel paints.

At the end of the day, you've got to assess what you want out of your miniatures and simply buy whatever you need to acheive that. Whether it's cheap'n'cheerful '3 colours and a wash' for the gaming table, or Golden Daemon standard. Don't limit yourself because of cost. You can always eat noodles and carrots.

Again, a pot of paint could last for years at a time. What's €3 spread across 2 years? Nuttin'! :D

[DaveLL]

I'll also toss in a general cheer for P3. I do like GW's "washes," which are arguably not real washes but are still nice, but other than those I haven't bought a GW paint product since finding P3.