Paint and You(r models)

[travisb7]

Hello all.

 

After a few years of using Citadel paints, I decided to try out cheaper alternatives. Thanks to dating (and now engaged to) an art major, I had a ready supply of free acrylic paints. Unfortunately for me, these were Liquitex basic paints. $5 a tube for 118mL isn't too bad considering its less than 20% the cost per mL than the Citadel equivalent. However, other than painting terrain, covering large areas, or drybrushing, these paints have not satisfied me.

 

I've recently decided to up my painting standard for my regular gaming armies. I'm moving back to a gaming model paint, though I have not decided on a brand yet. I'm looking at either Army Painter, Citadel, or Vallejo paints.

 

In the end, the Citadel paints that I DO have give me much more control and detail opportunity when I paint. Lesson learned: don't settle for cheap beginner quality paints.

 

What paints do you recommend for what uses? I'll never go back to using model paint on terrain, especially if I've made it from cereal boxes... Liquitex Basics all the way!

 

-Travis

[Subtle Discord]

I've used Citadel paints for years, due to availability. I think some people are a bit too harsh on criticism of Citadel paints, and I find that they perform well. Seeing that they are about to change their paint line, it will be interesting to see how their new brand performs. Time will tell soon enough.

 

That said, I've started to use Vallejo Model Color and Game Color, and they're quickly becoming my new favorite. They tend to blend a bit easier (especially the metallic colours) and the dropper bottle is hard to beat. But, the biggest draw is the colour range - it's huge. Vallejo Game Colour give a base range of colours that closely matches the Citadel range, and the Model Color range has everything in between. I am comfotable mixing custom colours, but many are more intimidated. Even if you're comfortable mixing, it's always nice to be able to open a bottle and get consistent results for some obscure shade. Especially if is a colour you're going to be using a lot of.

[AdeptusDavidus]

I'm terribly fond of Liquitex paints (and, even moreso, their acrylic inks). They're a beast to use on models, but that's only because the heavy body paints (which are by far the easiest to obtain for me) require a tremendous amount of thinning and mixing with flow improver and retardant to be usable for models at the scale of the GW stuff. The soft body Liquitex paints require less work, and the inks can be thinned for fabulous washes, or applied in layers to produce magnificent jewel-like tones. I wouldn't touch the Liquitex Basics for models, though. (I've never used them on models, but I've used them on canvas.) The Basics range is great for canvas, but the pigment is not ground as finely, so they're ill-suited to minis. The normal range, though, has a finer pigment grind than even Citadel paints, from what I can tell. They're more work to use, but the colors are much richer, and mix much more readily. If nothing else, Liquitex soft body Payne's Grey is positively vital. It's a magical little mix that livens up most anything! (You can make it yourself, of course, with Ultramarine - actual Ultramarine, not Ultramarines Blue - and Sienna. The blend of cold blue with warm brown means that it'll effectively shade most any base color. It does tend to desaturate anything it's washed over, creating a grimmer look, but that suits my style - might not suit yours.)

 

On the subject of the inks, though - On a lark, I glazed an unprimed resin pauldron with blue Liquitex ink just to see what I could do. The result was quite stunning, at least to a crappy painter like me, with rich color and an instant highlight from the layering. I'll snap a photo and upload it, it's quite beautiful for being naught but a gag.