Tuesday 14 December 2010

Paint brands

I have been thinking about the paint I use recently and have decided to branch out and try some other paints. A quick bit of history first, to hopefully explain where I am coming from. I started gaming and miniature painting when I was 12 and I am now 32, giving me 20 years of experience. In that time I have mostly used Games Workshops paints as they are easily available from a number of places in the UK and as I started (and sometime still do) playing GW games I used there paint.

Forward a few years and I have tried all kinds of things from tubes of artists paint to oils mostly with out much success. Also in this time Games Workshop changed there paint manufacturer with the resulting change in the qualities of the paint, which I had to adapt to. A few years I picked up some Flames of War models and wanting to paint them in (nearly) correct uniforms I also picked up some of the Flames of War paint sets. These sets came with what I now know are Vallejo paints and now I almost prefer to use them over the standard GW paints.

The next major thing that happened to affect how I paint was the release of the foundation paints and washes from GW, the foundation paints have a much higher ratio of pigment in them meaning that they cover a lot better and can be thinned down much more while the washes remove a lot of the guesswork involved when making a wash. Now my painting style is a result of learning to paint the GW way, basecoat, wash, drybrush highlight and the new paints and washes complimented that perfectly. It is also around this time I discovered pigments and dip, but will leave these for another time.

The last major thing that was a wet pallet, this has changed a lot about how I paint. Now I can make up colours and use them for 3 or 4 days without much worrying about drying out.

And so this brings me to now, I am considering getting some of the P3 paints to see what they are like and if I can get on with using them. I will most probably get the Everblight set as it appears to have almost the same shade of blue I am using for my Legion beasts and the basic Iron Kingdoms set for a base range of colours.

I wonder how this will change my painting?

1 comment:

  1. I like P3 a lot. It has good coverage and has a consistent consistincy (wow i bet i mangled those words, lol). My only real grip about GW paints is that almost every pot has a different consistincy. I still prefer GW metallics but its really just a preferance

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