Warhammer Tone Pro Paints + Drybrushes

[darkhorse0607]

2 minutes ago, Sete said:

So explain how this works? I just prime, slap one thick coat and it just dries Miraculously well?

 

That's what they say, one or two coats.

 

Really what they did is made a bunch of denser colors (not specifically the tones, but more that they are super opaque) and then added the leveling agent. Other companies already used something like that for primers, GW just added it to an actual paint range. If you jam half the bottle on there it'll still clog details, but the leveling agent helps spread it out so you don't get brush strokes or whatever

[Valkyrion]

7 minutes ago, Lord Marshal said:

 

Looks like it. From Louise of Rogue Hobbies:

 

 

 

 

 

Whaaat?!

[Oxydo]

11 minutes ago, Lord Marshal said:

 

Looks like it. From Louise of Rogue Hobbies:

 

 

 

 

Colour me impressed.

 

[Cactus]

That is witchcraft. 

 

I'm eagerly awaiting the paint that only clings to the area I intend to paint. My aging eyes would appreciate it.

[Karhedron]

1 hour ago, Sete said:

So explain how this works? I just prime, slap one thick coat and it just dries Miraculously well?

 

The intention seems to be that you basecoat with the darkest colour and then drybrush on these new paints, working your way up through the shades. Certainly they are launching a set of assorted new drybrushes at the same time. This Land Raider was painted using the Hawkshroud Yellow series straight over a Chaos black undercoat! 

Edited Wednesday at 08:28 PM by Karhedron

[Karhedron]

1 hour ago, Cleon said:

I haven't been keeping up with these, is there any word on what the colours actually are? for example the reds, where do they sit compared to Mephiston? or old Blood red?

 

There isn't an exact correlation so you will not find a match for Mephiston red in there. Instead you use the Bloodtoof range to create what Mephiston red would look like if you shaded and highlighted it. Mephiston Red is somewhere between Bloodtoof 3 and 4. You do not need to use all 5 shades every time but in practice you would probably want to use at least 3 to created a shaded appearance.

 

Link below contains the closest colour matches.

 

https://www.fauxhammer.com/reviews/paints/ultimate-guide-warhammer-tone-pro/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAcGRvZgJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA81NjcwNjczNDMzNTI0MjcAAad2jDjWx5bsnCNERJM7NW1fV3jcLtLT2AfOSuQ5vyIePk_9JsokloVZTeYi7g_aem_SRmYWr8-yW5ucdSW8GSe1A

[Sete]

1 hour ago, Lord Marshal said:

 

Looks like it. From Louise of Rogue Hobbies:

 

 

 

Perfect for a terrible painter like me.

[Hfran Morkai]

1 hour ago, Karhedron said:

 

The intention seems to be that you basecoat with the darkest colour and then drybrush on these new paints, working your way up through the shades. Certainly they are launching a set of assorted new drybrushes at the same time. This Land Raider was painted using the Hawkshroud Yellow series straight over a Chaos black undercoat! 

 

 

As in that's not airbrushed?

 

Oh my...

[Dark Shepherd]

3 hours ago, Lord Marshal said:

 

Looks like it. From Louise of Rogue Hobbies:

 

 

 

I think it was very petty of GW to invent a whole new paint range to get revenge on Duncan 2 Thin Coats

[appiah4]

I am really apalled to see that people are surprised by self leveling paints in 2026.  I am particularly equal parts entertained and enraged by Louise, who is a professional miniature painter, showing it off as if it is a GW novelty:  Ammo by Mig's IONIC Smart Color paints have done this for two years now.  It is not sorcery, it is most likely because there is self leveling gel medium and possibly some acrylic flow improver in the paint.

 

And there are downsides to this:

 

1. The paint will fight you about staying where you want it to when you thin it down.  That is EXACTLY why people found it difficult to glaze with the Tone Pro paints, very very probably.

2. The paint does not take to adding water very well and tend to break up on a wet palette (as reported by many influencers already) and this is possibly the reason why they had to come up with the new mediums to thin it with

3. The gel medium, when mixing paints, will greatly decrease the value of your color, ie. desaturate it.  That is also probably why the range was prepared with a lot of mid tones, and not for mixing. 

4. They will be to airbrush with (do not take well to thinning, gel will cause clogging and spiderwebbing, pain in the ass to clean afterwards)

5. They will probably mix badly with paints from other brands, or the normal Citadel line.  For reference, check out Scale75 which also uses gel medium (but not for self leveling); when mixed with a liquid acrylic paint will likely cause it to gum up in consistency, if that experience is anything to go by.

 

TLDR version: This is a double edged sword and not sorcery.

Edited Thursday at 07:30 AM by appiah4

[LittlePlasticHomies]

I can’t really tell what the market is for these. As best I can tell, people who want to batch as quickly as possible without an airbrush. None of the colors really seem to pop.

 

Still, looking forward to trying them out and hoping to be wrong.

[Antarius]

50 minutes ago, appiah4 said:

I am really apalled to see that people are surprised by self leveling paints in 2026.  I am particularly equal parts entertained and enraged by Louise, who is a professional miniature painter, showing it off as if it is a GW novelty:  Ammy by Mig's IONIC Smart Color paints have done this for two years now.  It is not sorcery, it is most likely because there is self leveling gel medium and possibly some acrylic flow improver in the paint.

 

And there are downsides to this:

 

1. The paint will fight you about staying where you want it to when you thin it down.  That is EXACTLY why people found it difficult to glaze with the Tone Pro paints, very very probably.

2. The paint does not take to adding water very well and tend to break up on a wet palette (as reported by many influencers already) and this is possibly the reason why they had to come up with the new mediums to thin it with

3. The gel medium, when mixing paints, will greatly decrease the value of your color, ie. desaturate it.  That is also probably why the range was prepared with a lot of mid tones, and not for mixing. 

4. They will be to airbrush with (do not take well to thinning, gel will cause clogging and spiderwebbing, pain in the ass to clean afterwards)

5. They will probably mix badly with paints from other brands, or the normal Citadel line.  For reference, check out Scale75 which also uses gel medium (but not for self leveling); when mixed with a liquid acrylic paint will likely cause it to gum up in consistency, if that experience is anything to go by.

 

TLDR version: This is a double edged sword and not sorcery.

I get that you really want these paints to be bad and that you want people to "just learn to paint properly" or whatever, but this comes off as being angry at your cat because it's not a good dog.

I haven't tried the paints (maybe I will, maybe I won't), but of course they have downsides, especially if you use it in ways it's not intended to be used. These paints seem to be designed for pretty specific tasks, so it's hardly surprising that they may not perform different tasks than the ones they were designed for equally well. I put different bits in my screwdriver depending on what type of screw I'm using and this is pretty much the same thing.

They're a tool that some people, for example people who don't have an airbrush and want to paint vehicles by hand, might find useful. That's going to be genuinely useful for a lot of people and they're probably just not aimed at you.

[appiah4]

13 minutes ago, Antarius said:

I get that you really want these paints to be bad and that you want people to "just learn to paint properly" or whatever, but this comes off as being angry at your cat because it's not a good dog.

I haven't tried the paints (maybe I will, maybe I won't), but of course they have downsides, especially if you use it in ways it's not intended to be used. These paints seem to be designed for pretty specific tasks, so it's hardly surprising that they may not perform different tasks than the ones they were designed for equally well. I put different bits in my screwdriver depending on what type of screw I'm using and this is pretty much the same thing.

They're a tool that some people, for example people who don't have an airbrush and want to paint vehicles by hand, might find useful. That's going to be genuinely useful for a lot of people and they're probably just not aimed at you.

I don't want them to be bad.  From my point of view they are overpriced done-befores that are probably not aimed at me and come in terrible pots that will cause them to dry out.  If someone finds use out of them and it facilitates more people to get into the hobby, that is not a bad thing for me.  I just can't stand the disagreeable marketing around them.

[Antarius]

I'm glad to hear it. I just thought it seemed that way with the way you were talking about them and how people should just learn to paint yellow properly. If you don't intend to sound like someone who thinks people who might not already be expert painters can go hang, I think you might want to look at how you post about this subject, because that's honestly the impression one gets from reading your posts.

 

As for marketing, from my point of view, I expect any company to market their things in a way that highlights the product's useful properties and I expect every product to also have downsides and/or be dependent on its intended use. If people actually get a highly opaque, self-levelling yellow that's a good thing in my book. I'll just not buy it, because I don't need it myself. Everyone's got the right to their opinion, of course, but getting appalled that GW markets their new products and sell them at their usual price point seems less than productive to me.

Edited Thursday at 07:47 AM by Antarius

[appiah4]

4 minutes ago, Antarius said:

I'm glad to hear it. I just thought it seemed that way with the way you were talking about them and how people should just learn to paint yellow properly. If you don't intend to sound like someone who thinks people who might not already be expert painters can go hang, I think you might want to look at how you post about this subject, because that's honestly the impression one gets from reading your posts.

 

As for marketing, from my point of view, I expect any company to market their things in a way that highlights the product's useful properties and I expect every product to also have downsides and/or be dependent on its intended use. If people actually get a highly opaque, self-levelling yellow that's a good thing in my book. I'll just not buy it, because I don't need it myself. Everyone's got the right to their opinion, of course, but getting appalled that GW markets their new products and sell them at their usual price point seems less than productive to me.

I would have thought me disagreeing with a price point and arguing against it would be the part of my entire argument that people who look forward to buying these paints would find most productive and agreeable.. but 40K gonna 40K I guess.  Enjoy your +150% more expensive IONIC paints :)

Edited Thursday at 07:54 AM by appiah4

[Antarius]

I don't think you quite get what I'm saying. Nor do I think everyone is super excited about GW prices, but that's neither here nor there.

[Arkley]

33 minutes ago, Antarius said:

I don't think you quite get what I'm saying. Nor do I think everyone is super excited about GW prices, but that's neither here nor there.

Don't we all complain every time GW ramp up the prices? I certainly do... I do think the £4.10 price point (£3.50 LGS) is a major barrier for these paints. We are talking £530 or there abouts to go all in you would have to be insane to do that.

 

To be fair I am not a "professional painter" and I don't keep up with all paint brands that they are supposed to. Hell I only found out about IONIC 2 days ago. 

[sarabando]

i just find it really funny that we can have a paint that basically is magic one coat, washes for shading and then clear and easy drybrush shades for high lights and texture paints in pots and preglued tufts of grass etc its never been easier or quicker to paint and i know i just KNNNNOOOOWWWW that people will still find some excuse for how they have an unpainted army. 

[Antarius]

56 minutes ago, Arkley said:

Don't we all complain every time GW ramp up the prices?

Sure. But you've got to admit there is a certain irony in complaining about how something has been done before, while also complaining about GW prices.

That being said, I expect everyone to at least low-level complain about the price of these. They're expensive just like other GW products and that, combined with already owning a huge collection of paints, will probably keep me from them. It's just that being "appalled" and "enraged" and so on about it seems a bit like tilting at windmills. I mean, those of us who are deep into the hobby know there are cheaper alternatives and will probably use those. But equally, we also know about GW prices at this point, so most people just shrug and don't buy it, if they can't afford it or make an informed decision to buy it anyway.

[de Selby]

26 minutes ago, sarabando said:

 i just KNNNNOOOOWWWW that people will still find some excuse for how they have an unpainted army. 

The only innovation that ever moved the needle on this was GW offering 10 victory points for painting your army. Suddenly the impossible was made possible.

 

Appalling as it is, I haven't used a self-levelling gel-based paint on a mini before and it does look like these will actually be useful for getting really neat basecoats then doing my usual thing on top. The Eavy Metal approach to painting has never really worked for me and they seem to be marketing this range to be used in that way but the coverage could still be really useful in combination with other time-saving techniques.

[Evil Eye]

I'm intrigued; the coverage looks incredible and the self leveling is pretty cool. I don't see myself replacing my existing paints though. For basecoating they look ideal but the issues with glazing/thinning they apparently have will limit uses.

[sarabando]

14 minutes ago, de Selby said:

The only innovation that ever moved the needle on this was GW offering 10 victory points for painting your army. Suddenly the impossible was made possible.

 

Appalling as it is, I haven't used a self-levelling gel-based paint on a mini before and it does look like these will actually be useful for getting really neat basecoats then doing my usual thing on top. The Eavy Metal approach to painting has never really worked for me and they seem to be marketing this range to be used in that way but the coverage could still be really useful in combination with other time-saving techniques.

ive used gel based scale 75 paints and the one thing i noticed is that when they separate they really separate. I went off using them because of it. 

[StraightSilver]

From the feedback I have seen so far I would say (IMO) it is unfair to compare these paints to paints by other manufacturers at this stage. These are, by all accounts, completely new and unlike anything else on the market.

 

Are they comparable? yes. Are they unique? Maybe, but that's the sense we are getting from people that have them in their hand.

These paints have been in development for 5 years by the largest company in the market so it isn't surprising to me that these paints can combine the benefits of other paints on the market without the flaws.

I will reserve judgement but for now, with the videos I have seen I don't think we can compare these to Ionic, Army Painter etc.

What we can compare is pricing and I don't disagree that there is a huge discrepancy there. However we also have to factor in availability. I am happy to pay more for a product if I can just walk into a store and pick it up - which I can't do for most non-GW paints.

Edited Thursday at 10:21 AM by StraightSilver

[de Selby]

I often basecoat with un-thinned paint, relying on a wet brush to keep it smooth during application. Would that work with scale 75 or is any amount of water enough to split this kind of paint?

[Arkley]

1 hour ago, Antarius said:

Sure. But you've got to admit there is a certain irony in complaining about how something has been done before, while also complaining about GW prices.

That being said, I expect everyone to at least low-level complain about the price of these. They're expensive just like other GW products and that, combined with already owning a huge collection of paints, will probably keep me from them. It's just that being "appalled" and "enraged" and so on about it seems a bit like tilting at windmills. I mean, those of us who are deep into the hobby know there are cheaper alternatives and will probably use those. But equally, we also know about GW prices at this point, so most people just shrug and don't buy it, if they can't afford it or make an informed decision to buy it anyway.

 

I will try the Ultramar Blue well for reasons. But yeah you can pick so many other brands these days.. When I started it was a very narrow market. Now you have so many choices its unreal and some paints are outstanding. 

 

I do get people scepticisms, Its yet another over inflated GW product in a very saturated market. 

 

It will be interesting to see it in the hands of people not paid by GW.