Vallejo Game Colour Paints

[Firedrake Cordova]

Hi guys,

 

I've finally managed to find some time for painting. ;) Unfortunately, due to the demands of work and life, my paints have been lying dormant for a while, and on opening them, those from the post-Coat D'Arms era and pre-Foundation era (the hexagonal pots with either the screw-top or mixed screw and flip-top lids) have either gone a bit gloopy or totally dried out. :) Amazingly, my original Citadel paints from the mid 1990's are all fine (as are my Foundation paints bought when they came out). :lol:

 

Given the current cost of GW's paints, and the small pot size (I remember when it was £1.25 for an 18ml pot, so £2.30 for 12ml seems a bit steep!), I was looking at trying Vallejo Game Colour paints, as they seem to be a bit more "sensibly priced".

 

So, I was wondering what they were like, and how they compared to GW's ones? I remember reading mostly favourable things about them in the past. I'm interested in how well they cover, as trying to paint my Salamanders before the Foundation range came out was driving me insane - painting Snot Green over a Chaos Black undercoat took 9 coats to get a flat colour, even going via Dark Angels Green (the Foundation range reduced that to 2 coats of Orkhide Shade and 1 coat of Snot Green/Dark Angels Green mix). :P

 

Also, can anyone suggest a decent/reliable UK mail-order stockist?

 

Ta :)

[Tanhausen]

I can't help on the stockist (other than net-shops like maelstrom, wayland and so on).

 

Vallejo is a spanish supplier, which started out at historical models paints and slowly evolved towards airbrush (still having their WWII line alive and kicking).

 

Some years ago, GW contacted them and wanted to make the new paints... but something went awry and GW chickened out... and Vallejo had all the data to simply go out by itself. That's why you have the charts that translate GW to Vallejo.

 

So basically, 3 lines:

 

Game colour: this is exactly as the GW range.

 

Model colour: thinner, more in the line of their historical paints. Quite a range (dozens upon dozens upon dozens of colours...)

 

Model Air: very thin, thought for airbrush. The total range is something like 100 colours. Their metallics are reflective... EXTREMELY reflective. So silver shines like silver and its "hard" to kill the shinyness.

 

My suggestion is that you go for model air: if you ever get an airbrush, you'll appreciate having this range. And if you paint by brush only, they still cover decently.

 

Hope it helps!

[Firedrake Cordova]

Thanks - didn't know Vallejo were in talks with GW to make their paints for them at one point. Well, you know what they say about learning something new..! :)

 

I had had a look at Vallejo's web site, and I was surprised by the size of their Model Colour range - think they said 220 paints? <_<

 

I can't help on the stockist (other than net-shops like maelstrom, wayland and so on).

Actually, that was the kind of thing I was meaning. :)

 

So basically, 3 lines:

 

Game colour: this is exactly as the GW range.

 

Model colour: thinner, more in the line of their historical paints.

 

Model Air: very thin, thought for airbrush. Their metallics are reflective... EXTREMELY reflective. So silver shines like silver and its "hard" to kill the shinyness.

Hmm ... think I might just order a pot from each range and see what happens - might be the easiest way! :)

 

 

My suggestion is that you go for model air: if you ever get an airbrush, you'll appreciate having this range. And if you paint by brush only, they still cover decently.

I only paint by brush, although I do have an (Badger) airbrush and compressor - amusingly I've only ever used it to touch in scratches on car bodywork! I have toyed with the idea of doing undercoating, or basecoat where the model is mostly 1 colour, with an airbrush, but have never got around to trying it ...

 

Hope it helps!

Sure does - thanks! :)

[Razblood]

This is the best price I've seen on Vallejo Paints, although they don't have the full range: antenocitis workshop

 

They're prices are really good on the majority of items.

[SCC]

For the most part VGC paints have better pigmentation than their GW counterparts and thus will cover more easily/consistently (especially yellows and reds). Personally I also prefer the out of the bottle consistency of VGC over GW/Citadel paints.

 

The Vallejo dropper bottles are something of a mixed blessing - they keep paint forever, it's really easy to use drops to get the right ratios for mixtures but they need a helluva shake before use (especially if they've been unused a while) and if you just want a teeny-tiny touch of paint they can be a bit of a hassle. Still, if I had to choose between pots and dropper bottles, the bottles would win every time.

 

But, before you go spend that money have you considered trying to revive your existing paints? It's simple enough to do and, if you don't mind a bit of vigorous stirring and shaking, pretty effective too. First use a scribing tool, barbecue skewer or something similarly pointy to poke a bunch of holes in the paint. Then add your preferred thinner (I use Model Master Acrylic Thinners but honestly water does the job almost as well) to the gluggy or solid paint, I usually add 5 or 6 drops at a time, and let it sit for a little while.

 

When that's done give it a really good shake for a few minutes and see how it is. The gluggy paint should be reviving at this point and the solid paint should be beginning to taint the thinner with colour. Keep stabbing, stirring and shaking the paint to bring it back to life adding thinner/water as you go to get the right consistency.

 

I've revived dozens of paints this way including metallics and I figure a little bit of shaking and some clean water are worth trying before splashing out on new paint, eh?

[Firedrake Cordova]

@Razblood - Thanks for the heads-up! -_-

 

@SCC- Thanks for the input - all duly noted. :) As to reviving my paint ... yeah, that was the first thing I tried. Some of it (typically, all the Snot Green <_<), is beyond help - I mean dried poking-it-with-a-dental-scribe-doesn't-really-dent-it solid. :( I have managed to revive some of the paints that were dodgy (most of the newer flip-top ones, and a couple of the old screw-tops) by adding water and stirring with a stick. However, with some of them it hasn't worked, as there's little bits of gloop that won't go away (even with the addition of a ball-bearing mixing aid and a solid shake), or "it's just not right" (bad consistency).

 

What appeared to have happened with the newer ones is they'd separated into a large amount of thick pigment pigment at the bottom, and a clear watery medium at the top (say, 20%?), which then evaporated off. With the older ones, I guess paint got into the threads, meaning it didn't seal, and dried out that way (which is a known design flaw with those pots).

 

It's not many pots I'd be buying at this point - maybe 10, so thankfully not that much! :)

[MajorKhaos]

http://snmstuff.co.uk/VallejoGameColor.aspx

 

Cheaper. :)

[Firedrake Cordova]

Hi guys,

 

I ordered a couple of pots of Game Colour paints this week (White Primer, Sick Green, and some thinner) as a test, and have been impressed. I've found them to be a bit thinner than my "modern" GW paints (more in line with my old round flip-tops), but to have a better covering power. You could almost use the Sick Green neat out of the pot, although I was using it thinned around 3:1 with water - that totally covered the primer in 2 coats, and dried very flat. I also noticed that unlike my GW Snot Green, Vallejo's Sick Green dries mat (GW's is slightly shiny - kinda satin), and it's a little less vibrant.

 

Happy :)

[IronKobra]

I did exactly the same thing!

 

went to get a scab red from my local GW and felt cheated by how little paint you got for the money so got a bunch of vallejos from weyland to try out. Not given them a proper go yet but initial tests are proving positive :) My girlfriend lives in Spain and obviously Vallejo is her go to paint and she has never had a problem with them, and has produced some lovely finishes with them