Vallejo Game Inks

[Razblood]

Well here we are with the second in my non-existent review series :)

Just got a set of Vallejo Game Inks for Chrimbo (managed to convince the other half to hand them over early :lol: ) and after having a play with them thought I'd share my opinions and perhaps inspire anyone who purely sticks with GW stuff to give them a look.

Here is what the set looks like -

It comprises 8 colours in dropper bottles as well as a handy colour guide for the Vallejo Game Colour range. This even has a comparison chart for old GW, Reaper, Rackham and Model Master paints as well as a triads base, shade, highlight guide for the whole range.

As you'd imagine this is actually quite handy and shows that while GW no longer produce colours such as Necron Abyss or Midnight Blue that Vallejo have a very close match available in their range ;)

Now the colours supplied are as follows -

Red - Yellow - Blue - Green - Violet - Black - Black Green - Skin Wash

Please note that these are Inks and not Washes, therefore it is strongly advised that you add at least an equal amount of water to each before even letting it touch the brush, as pure ink can be very damaging to sable brushes and I don't think anyone would like to ruin that lovely new W&N Series 7 they just bought ;)

Now here is a model I've used the whole range on in sections -

Base coats were as follows -

Head - Warlock Purple

Left Torso - Army Painter Blue

Right Torso - Iyanden Darksun

Thighs - Army Painter Green

Left Greave - Orkhide Shade

Right Greave - Mephiston Red

Base - White Gesso

All Inks were mixed 1:1 with water before application as follows (With effects noted) -

Head - Violet - Could have maybe added a little more water as this one is very strongly tinted, enriched the base colour and provided a deep shadowing effect.

Left Torso - Blue - Very lightly tinged the base colour and added really nice shading, much nicer than Drakenhof Nightshade in my opinion.

Right Torso - Skin Wash - Slightly darkened the Yellow and added some nice shading.

Thighs - Green - Enriched the base Green and provided some very nice, light shading.

Left Greave - Black Green - Darkened the already dark Orkhide Shade, good shading wash for DA colours I think.

Right Greave - Red & Black Mixed 1:1 - Wanted to test this as a possible alternative to my Flesh Tearer Wash mix ( Baal Red & AP Dark Tone mix), but it does not produce the same colour or results unfortunately. It did however produce a grimy battleworn looking Red which I think would work well for BA or WE armies

Base front - Yellow - Tinted the White pretty nicely, might make a nice base for bright Yellow armour.

Base back left - Black - Very dark, will make a nice Armour shading colour as well as for adding heavy shadows to recesses.

Base back right - Red - Very vibrant and bright, good for enriching Reds and adding depth to bright Oranges but needs to be darkened to work as a shade. Will probably be extremely effective as a Glaze.

So there you go, thats my tuppence worth on this product. I've found them nice to use and am looking forward to getting some great effects out of them. there are other Inks in the range but I only have one of them and thats Sepia, which is very rich, can be effectively used to add "blacklining" to Reds and makes a great leather wash.

I hope some of you may find some use in this and hope to receive some feedback, which will help any further reviews I may do (hint, I'm expecting a couple of Coat D'Arms paints in the next couple of days and have not long had some P3 Metallics, which could probably do with being reviewed :tu: )

Anyway thank you for your time :)

[elmo]

Great review, thanks.

 

I use the black ink all the time - its great (but I do water it down about 50:50)

Just bought the devlin mud equivalent but have not used it yet.

[helosv]

Hello,

I have the same pack !

I use the dark grenen and the violet as washes to increase the shadows (skin, fear, wolves...).

the red for the mouth and the blood + black

 

the other colours to increase the shadow or basic color

[FormelyKnownAsSmashyPants]

 I found this very informative and I think I may have to try these out myself. I don't suppose there is any chance of seeing what the results are like after applying the inks over a silver base coat though, as I am curious how well they would work as a way of achieving different coloured metallics. Anyway thanks for the article and kudos on a job well done. 

[Razblood]

Cheers :)

 

I will do an update soon with a few experiments, work permitting :)

[Grey Mage]

Thank you, Ive been needing to update some of my paints- 10 years is a long time for a pot eh?- and this helps some.

[Razblood]

I've had some of my paints for around 16 years now and they're still going strong :lol:

 

Metallic effect update will be up hopefully within a week :)