Good starter paint ?

[Darkn3ssF4lls]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00HC9YNZU/ref=pd_aw_sbs_21_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=1QF15A1MRTAHC1BEZ1FW

 

Is this a good set to start ?

[Khulu]

I have never used Army Painter paints, but I know several people who do and they all have been pretty happy with them.  I don't thnk anyone has ever had complaints about them.

[Darkn3ssF4lls]

Perfect! Thanks, and I can't remember what size magnets should I be buying ? I know it's two different sizes.

[Lemainus]

Army Painter products are great. I use them alllllll the time - prefer them, actually - and would recommend them to anybody. Their inks and shading tools are especially handy.

[Major_Gilbear]

They are fine. Like most paints, they are just paint though; please remember that by using them, you will not suddenly become a magically better painter!

 

I would suggest trying a few out before buying a whole case - and don't forget that you can mix and match any miniatures paints that suit you.

 

With regard to magnets... what are you magnetising? They are sold in pretty much any size you like! My tip is to buy the magnets first, and then buy a drill bit 0.5mm bigger to suit afterwards (much easier that way). :)

[Ovidius Incertus]

Only "complaint" I have with the AP paints is that, in my experience, they're relatively thick, such that instead of coming out of the bottle in individual drops, it's more like a stream.  Sorta defeats the idea of a dropper bottle and makes mixing and thinning ratios a little less precise.  Other than that, they're decent.

[The_Mad_Hatter]

Army painter are in my experience a mixed bag....... their inks and metallics are excellent, but their actual colours are a bit hit and miss. I'm pretty sure that it's just a few duds in my set but some of the colours have separated so no matter how much I shake the bottle it's more like tinted water.

 

Other than that though they are decent enough and I love the brushes that come in that set :)

[Darkn3ssF4lls]

Thanks all that is good to know, any recommended techniques to keep your color blends close to the eye during a whole army paint session.

[Ovidius Incertus]

A wet palette.  You'll be able to blend quantities to your heart's content and they'll stay viable for you.

[Bloody Legionnaire]

I've used 2 colors from Army Painter's Warpaint line and one of those color's is an integral part of how I paint my Space Wolves. That being said, I did find their warpaints are harder to thin with a good consistency. Water, in my experience, caused the paint to separate really easily so I recommend finding an alternative thinner to water if you plan on using warpaints. To my surprise though I found the AP Wolf Grey an excellent paint to go through my airbrush and I'm highly pleased with the results that I got. Definitely try out a few of their individual paints before getting the whole set and see how you like them. I highly recommend you take a look at Vallejo game color and model color paints as well...

[Guiltysparc]

I would say for a beginner (or people like me who don't know anything about color theory) just buy into the GW system because it allows you to basically paint by numbers. Even if you have zero color theory knowledge (what to paint), like me, you can follow along and build your painting technique (how to paint) and come away with very good looking armies.

[Major_Gilbear]

I would say for a beginner (or people like me who don't know anything about color theory) just buy into the GW system because it allows you to basically paint by numbers. Even if you have zero color theory knowledge (what to paint), like me, you can follow along and build your painting technique (how to paint) and come away with very good looking armies.

I have hesitated to respond to this, because whilst I see and can agree with your point to some extent, I also think it is not strictly true. Allow me to elaborate:

Years ago, GW used to put out lots of painting tutorials for free, regularly. These were of *very* mixed quality, with some being excellently-detailed step-by-steps (the 'Eavy Metal Masterclass series for example), and others being a three-steps-and-here's a finished Studio model that were totally useless. Having personally seen and experienced what the new GW interactive painting guides that they sell are like, I simply don't understand how they are worth the money or an improvement in any way over what they have produced previously.

The next issue I have is that the currently-sanctioned GW "painting system" is very laborious: For example, a typical tutorial may start off: painting a base coat twice, washing everything in a dark wash, and then re-painting 95% of the basecoat twice just to add a little bit of shading to recesses. Why? Why not start with a lighter colour, and then wash down with paint glazes in successively darker shades of paint until you you are happy with it? That's waaay less effort, and anyone can make a glaze from any paint or ink just by adding some clean water and glaze medium to it on your palette. This also gives you basic shading/highlighting instantly, and you only have to do a few final highlights (again, much easier and more natural-looking than the weird method of highlighting-around-the-edges-of-everything that GW recommends).

Then the paints themselves. Though very good quality nowadays, the GW ones are expensive, and you don't get much in a pot (which also means they tend to dry out faster, especially if you live somewhere warm). Plus there are lots of other companies making equally good or better paints (even sometimes made by the same manufacturer GW uses - HMG Paints Ltd), and they are all fully intermixable with each other.

Next up is how the range is presented. Rather than having a basecoat/wash/layer/edge system where all the paint thicknesses and such are determined for you, other ranges just make great paint that covers well and which you simply can thin yourself with some water to get a more translucent layer. Also, rather than locking you into a paint for a task (like the drybrush paints do), they often just present paints in Triads of base-midtone-highlight and that's it. So if you like a certain colour for a different task, you are not restricted in how you use it. Good examples of the Triad system are Reaper and Foundry who both sell their paints like this (as well as individually and in sets).

Finally, the learning/tutorial thing. I'll be honest here and say that in my opinion there are *way* better tutorials out there on the 'net for free than anything GW puts out. Even paint-by-numbers tutorials. Such tutorials not only explain and demonstrate colour and techniques better (thus helping you learn as well as tell you what order in which to do things), but they also often feature lots of clever ideas and helpful ways of painting.

A very high-end example of a Space Marine painting tutorial by Ben Komets can be found here. Keep in mind that it takes Ben about 8 hours to paint that model in total (including the base)... Yes, that's a lot of time for rank-and-file tabletop models, but when you consider that he's just produced an above-GW Studio level paintjob that would easily win awards in a painting competition, that's lightning fast. Plus, all the techniques are easy to follow along with, and you can easily use simplified versions of them on your own models for a quicker and great-looking paintjob. He shows you his palette and paint mixes/consistency at all times, and you get a super-close-up of all his work along with explanations.

At the opposite end is series of tutorials aimed at getting models completed to a smart gaming standard using a mixture of Army Painter and Citadel paints by The War Gamer, which can be found here. These are much simpler and faster tutorials that give you a good basis for how to paint lots of different Space Marine schemes quickly. I think that following these you should be able to knock out a ten-model squad in an afternoon (excluding drying time - but a small hair-dryer on a cool setting will assist greatly with this).

Something in-between in terms of speed and involvement can be found by Sorastro here, who used mostly GW paints. His Star Wars series is especially helpful is showing how rank-and-file can be given quick effective schemes, whereas elite/character units can make use of all sorts of different painting methods to get a great result that helps them stand out. In his Zombicide series, he shows you how to make the most of dipping, which is an old and well-known technique to get huge armies painted ridiculously fast (and which can look brilliant, if done well).

All of these are free, and all of these are interactive in the sense that you can ask the authors questions directly. There are loads of non-video tutorials too, including a huge detailed range put out by the folks at Tale of Painters specifically for GW models.

In summary (or TL:DR):

Don't feel you have to follow one official "paint system" or method of painting just because you're starting out, or aren't very good at painting. Artificially limiting/locking yourself in like this is the perfect way of limiting your knowledge, and turning what should be a fun and creative endeavour into a mundane chore that you soon get sick of. There has never been more choice or help available to all levels of miniature painting skill and interest, and you really should take advantage of that by looking around to see what people put out for free, and trying out lots of things yourself to see what you find works best for you.

[Darkn3ssF4lls]

Thanks! Do you have a good paint color chart across the major brands ? Example if I wanted caliban green you can get it by combining these two from this set etc ?

[Major_Gilbear]

Thanks! Do you have a good paint color chart across the major brands ? Example if I wanted caliban green you can get it by combining these two from this set etc ?

 

Firstly, I should point out that it is perfectly reasonable and possible to mix and different manufacturers' colours and paints, especially if you are trying to match an existing colour you've used.

 

Secondly, not all manufacturers make exact equivalents to each other's colours - some are close, some not so much.

 

Thirdly, if you are starting out, you can paint models in whatever colour you like. If you are following an official scheme, then close enough is good enough. Even GW don't have exact matches with their own previous paint ranges, and you can see this when new models like the Space Marine Tactical squad appear in a photo with models like the Rhino that were painted with the previous range of paints. Often, it's not really a huge issue to have *exact* colour matches anyway, because of how people paint their models using a varied cumulative process of basecoats, layers, shades, washes, glazes, and highlights. In fact, this is precisely why it's not hugely important - you can always "colour-correct" with a glaze or extra highlight to acheive a closer match.

 

Finally, very few people own all the paints and have made direct comparisons of all of them (even getting two or three ranges *fully* mapped out is tricky). Therefore whilst colour comparison charts like this one and this one do exist, they are not always complete - you may therefore need to do a bit of investigation to find some specific colour matches.

 

Of course, if you are looking to acheive a specific colour scheme, or match a particular colour, you are welcome to ask here and I'm sure that we'll be able to help you. :)

[Guiltysparc]

Those are all good points, I was just posting what worked well for me. I mean, I have done my entire 30k a world eaters with GW whites (which, from what I have read in the internet are terrible) and they have turn out great.

 

Beyond that I would say that the vast majority of free stuff on YouTube (at least that I have used) is using gw paints, plus Duncan's great videos, so I wasnt really even thinking about any pay-for tutorials.

[Major_Gilbear]

I mean, I have done my entire 30k a world eaters with GW whites (which, from what I have read in the internet are terrible) and they have turn out great.

 

Why does The Internet dislike them? And what generation of GW paints is The Internet reviewing? i'm not trying to be rude or difficult here, I'm just genuinely curious and bemused... Many people make lots of bold statements and then fail to really explain them or compare them to anything else (that is, people despairing of GW's whites, not you!). I would therefore discount such "wisdom" unless it's backed up in some way or I had confidence in the author and their explanation was sensible.

 

 

Beyond that I would say that the vast majority of free stuff on YouTube (at least that I have used) is using gw paints, plus Duncan's great videos, so I wasnt really even thinking about any pay-for tutorials.

 

Hmm, well, I respectfully disagree. I watch *lots* of painting tutorials for lots of models, and see all sorts of manufacturers' paints and products used. Examples were in my wall-o-text above, but there are many painters who use no GW paints at all even though they may paint huge numbers of GW models. Even Forge World uses/used other manufacturers' paints and products - including Tamiya and Halfords.

[Guiltysparc]

It's probably a bit of confirmation bias, I only have gw paints so I am looking for tutorials that use them when trying to plan or figure out a color scheme. When I am looking for technical videos like how to do x technique, then it doesn't matter what paint they are using.

 

Also, I am not saying that anyone shouldn't use non-gw paints, just simply that I found thier system really easy to pick up and that i got good results from it having no arts background.

[Major_Gilbear]

It's probably a bit of confirmation bias, I only have gw paints so I am looking for tutorials that use them when trying to plan or figure out a color scheme.

 

This is more what I was thinking, yes - well put. :)

 

And I agree - any results that work are good results.

 

I personally prefer to make more open suggestions if I can though, so please forgive me if I seem to argue the point! This is because after years of struggling without anything other than GW publications/tutorials/products to guide me (no internet when I was young!), the difference (and savings) it made when I began to explore other products and ways of painting/thinking had a huge impact on the improvement and understanding of my painting efforts. I feel that others should benefit from not falling into that same trap that I did, and instead keep an open mind on trying things out.