Experience and opinions working with Vallejo paints?

[Helias_Tancred]

Subject line says it all. I'm curious about the experiences and feedback of working with Vallejo paints? I was at my local big box hobby store and noticed their prices are a bit less than GW paints. I was considering buying a handful and trying them out?

 

Do any of you use Vallejo and what is your opinion on them?

 

 

Thanks.

[Atia]

I love them - and use them together with GW (for specific colour tones), FW Airbrush, Tamiya, Inks and Oil Paint ^^

[Helias_Tancred]

Ok so it wouldn't be a big mistake if I picked up a couple bottles and played around with them?

 

Thanks.

[Atia]

Ok so it wouldn't be a big mistake if I picked up a couple bottles and played around with them?

 

Thanks.

do it :)

 

also, you have different kinds of paints from them afaik:

 

game colour - exactly what it sounds like - ideal for game models, as it's more resistant against damage

model colour - more for display models afaik

 

aswell as their airbrush sortiment - but you can normally use any airbrush paint also with a brush (this is also true for the FW airbrush range btw - it's awesome for brush work too ^_^)

[sockwithaticket]

Their lines all behave a bit differently. Generally speaking the Game Colour stuff dries a little bit glossy whereas Model Colour is very much a matte finish. Model Colour alos tends to be a bit thicker in the bottle and require more thinning. That of course is moot if it's MOdel Colour Air.

Their range is huge and alongside the colours you've got all sorts of technical stuff like blood effects, basing pastes, plastic putty, mattemedium etc.

As a general point, it's not for nothing that they are one of the leading paint brands out there, so you definitely can't go wrong with picking up a few bottles.

For what it's worth the bulk of my paints are Vallejo, with the rest largely being Reaper.

[Peredyne]

I'm another one whose bulk of their paints are Vallejo, with some GW, P3 and Army Painter mixed in. I have VGC, VMC, VGA and VMA. All of them do behave differently as mentioned above, The dropper bottle is the best thing they have, but I have noticed that anything Vallejo that has a strong yellow component will dry out unless it gets used regularly and shaken quite a bit. Reds will as well, but not as bad.

 

For the metallics, I prefer the VGAs as they are already thinned for brush work right out of the bottle.

[Lucien Eilam]

I can't get on with the Game Color range at all. Weird consistency, plasticky finish. Smokey Ink is the only paint I use from that range (it's neither smokey nor an ink - it's a semi-translucent, greasy brown paint).

 

The Model Air metallics are pretty much best in class. I haven't used anything else for a while now.

 

I prefer Scale75's ScaleColor (ridiculously high pigment, perfectly flat matt) to the rest of the Model and Model Air range where the colour exists, but if you need 12,000 very precise shades of drab grey, green and brown, they're practically guaranteed to be in the Vallejo Model range somewhere.

 

For me, Citadel are still top when it comes to washes, glazes, the dry and edge paints, etc.

[Razblood]

I have a bit of everything and have recently been buying up every 16 bottle Game Color Set on the market when I find a good deal.

 

As said by others the different ranges behave quite differently from each other, so here's a bit of a breakdown based on what I've encountered.

 

Game Color -

 

Vibrant colours for the most part with a similar finish to late 90's Citadel paints.

 

Really good colours I've found are Ultramarine Blue, Lightning Blue, Sick Green, Scarlett Red, Gory Red, Smokey Ink, any of the red based Browns, Greys, White, darker metallics.

 

Mediocre/fiddly colours Ive found are Silver, any of the yellow based Browns, Yellows, some of the darker Greens.

 

Bad colours are Bloody Red (seperates a lot and has really bad coverage, but can be mitigated with mixing with a darker Red), Black (Just terrrible, bad coverage and really glossy)

 

Model Color -

 

A massive range with varying levels of vibrancy and tone, tends toward the matte side, will need either varnishing or mixing with harder wearing paint otherwise can rub off easily.

 

I've not used many of these yet, but can highly recommend Flat Red and Ivory.

 

There are a lot of browns and greens in the range, aimed at military modellers.

 

Metallics are pretty meh.

 

Model Air -

 

I have one of these, that being Aluminium which is amazing, bright and smooth, great for highlighting every shade of metal though it does dry pretty fast when used with a brush.

 

The other great thing about the Vallejo stuff is the wide range of mediums available (I'm fond of the Glaze Medium) including a Metallic MEdium which will let you turn any other colour into a metallic paint, which is handy if you want to take a crack at the Viva Metallica style or a true metallic metal scheme.

 

I'd happily recommend Vallejo to anyone and whilst they dont require you to relearn how to paint or anything there can be a bit of a learning curve with regards to thinning and minimising waste.

 

Hope this helps :tu: