Check out This weeks sponsor on kickstarter! www.kickstarter.com/projects/shieldwolf/war-is-coming-reinforcements Which is your preferred brand of paint?
I like my base set Kimeras and ProAcryl. You've probably already ordered that ProAcryl Magenta, so this warning is too late, but in case it isn't: The ProAcryl Magenta has a buttload of white pigment in it, so it will not be what you are looking for as a primary mixer. They may have a good magenta in their range, idk, but I can tell you that it is NOT named Magenta - I was SO disappointed when I got mine! :P Yet another wonderful video. Thank you
@@NightfallTH Thank you. That's affirmative, the heads are separate (both helmeted and non-helmeted options). 21 different head sculpts total, 33 heads provided per kit.
@@shieldwolfminiatures8645 oh, thanks for the comprehensive answer! If I were to need some awesome nordic women heads fast (this sounds like a serial killer, omg), are the Valkyries heads the same as your existing Shieldmaiden set on your homepage?
While I agree that most people can skip War Colours, I feel that the review did them a bit of a disservice. War Colours are a gel based paint whose strength is their consistency and transparency. They are not a citadel like paint system, they are a specialized paint line with a specific purpose, wet blending and glazing. I'd highly suggest checking out other reviews that give a more indepth review to show how to really utilize them properly. Their black and white are some of the best I've used and allow you to have far more precision with the tone compared to other black/white paints. Similar to Kimera or Scale 75, they are NOT beginner friendly paints. But if you know how to use them you can get truly amazing results.
Don't particularly care for War Colours from Army Painter, my main issues being opacity and viscosity. Their Washes or Tones on the other hand I think are the best in the business. I find for what they are marketed for Vallejo does the job better. Army Painter has always been the odd outlier in the miniature painting space. Citadel, beyond the sheer brand recognition, makes a great generalist paint line. Best at nothing but VERY good at most everything. Vallejo on the other hand just makes great paint. Pro Acryl is a phenomenal paint line though, and if I didn't have the money tied up in Vallejo/GW the way I do, I would shift strictly to those.
@@clamus68 Warcolours isn't an Army Painter brand, it's an entirely different company. I've only used a couple of their colours at this time and like them but I don't have a strong opinion yet. I do like their naming convention though as it makes it easy to organize and work with shades.
@@NODHLAN Vince Venturella has a few videos on them th-cam.com/users/VinceVenturellasearch?query=warcolours Here's two of them, but I counted 7 direct videos and others where they are mentioned. Product Review 27 - Warcolours Glazes th-cam.com/video/P9VzeS7_vfE/w-d-xo.html Hobby Cheating 86 - How to Paint with Warcolours th-cam.com/video/e-ICWnMpnAw/w-d-xo.html I hope this helps.
I recently bought Golden Soflat basic sets and I'm in love. Single pigment, high opacity, consistent texture, very fine pigment. You can dillute the heck out of them and they don't disperse. Best white I've ever owned.
I own most of the proacryl range (can't justify the shipping cost for expansion 3 right now) and agree your notes. I strongly dislike the default lid and prefer their dropper lids over the screw top.
I have switched most of my paints to pro acryl. The vibrant color, good coverage, and extensive range have sold me. I swapped out all of the twist tops for flip tops, and they have been great. I painted some grey primer onto the flat lids, then painted on some of the color, which makes it very easy to see what the color will look like on the model, and find it in the rack. They also sell empty paint bottles, making it very easy to pour two colors together to make a bottle of a custom color. I use this mainly for transition colors between two colors. For example, I made two extra bottles for the mid points between Bright Jade, Jade, and Dark Jade.
I've got to agree on the Pro Acryl from Monument Hobbies! Every time I try one of their paints, I'm always impressed and blown away every, single, time. It is such good value for the money.
I absolutely fell in love with Pro Acryl paints from the moment I used one for the first time. If I could go back and tell younger me not to buy half the paints I did (ESPECIALLY the shitadel paints) and wait to get the whole Pro Acryl bundle off the bat, I would.
Vallejo's new line (the black-top Game Color ones) has become my go-to brand. Great coverage, great pigmentation, and just the right thickness. And they're not expensive, either.
I'm a professional oil, landscape artist so I am used to messy paint tube tops. My supplies are always a mess. LOL I don't think the Pro Acryl tops will be a deal breaker for me. Thanks for the great reviews, I'm going to try Pro Acryl soon.
Crazy how availability changes between US and EU. You cant find Pro Acryl in Spain but GSW, Vallejo, Mig, AK 3rd Gen is pretty much everywhere. The latter is my favourite so far, and I definitely recommend it to you.
I’m in the US, Ak Interactive and AMMO Mig are pretty easy to get in my area. Scale 75 isn’t sold locally and Vallejo always seems to run out of stock.
Have you ever tried the Reaper Pro or MSP colors. I use them most exclusively. They are made to be thinned, but I find that one base coat of untinned paint works well. I would love to hear you opinion on these paints.
Reaper Miniatures makes my favorite paints. If you like magenta, their Clear Magenta is a single pigment paint, works great for mixing and glazing, but opacity is low due to the nature of the pigment. They have a magenta with more coverage called Thuvian Sun Orchid which I think is lovely.
@@funchick202 no, I just wipe the tip on the pallette and leave it be. The paint on the top dries and falls off easily next time I use it. Also, the colored tip helps me find the right color I want when I'm looking into the box. Love your videos, they are really helpful for noobs like me!
Just a note regarding Green Stuff World, they're not the greatest company out there, whether it's trademarking other people's work, or putting a strike against a hobby youtuber (Sworde & Steele) I'd recommend choosing a different company to buy hobby supplies from if at all possible.
Lyla, first time I have seen one of your videos. I like your style of painting. Your minis look awesome. I really like speedpaints by army painter. Not a fan of their other colors so I agree with you there. Honestly, I have never found a brand of paints that were great across the whole color spectrum. Reaper, I have found is the most consistent, but their yellows aren’t great unless you use their HD line which they sadly discontinued. You mentioned Color Shift paints. I love using Color shift paints! The ones from Folk Art are amazing and surprisingly consistent. A trick I do with them- water it down, apply then wipe it off. You will leave the color shift part only on the raised surface without the color. gives the glisten without much color. Makes an item magic by giving it that color shift glow.
I love pro acryl but hate the tops too. However, to avoid too much mess or gushing when opening after shaking, I've learned that waiting roughly 10 seconds after shaking and a few seconds after applying paint to a palette makes less of a mess to clean from the top.
If I were to start buying paints now, I'd buy a combination of Scale75, Reaper, probably some Vallejo, and artists' fluid acrylics/acrylic gouaches. Reaper's browns and neutrals are generally very nice, both in consistency and color, Scale75 has brilliant metallics and quite good flat colors, Vallejo has everything, and artists' colors are heavily pigmented with excellent acrylic monomer density, though they do require a bit more knowledge of mixing (and the price per volume for artists' colors is quite good).
I started with Army Painter(the less said the better), then bought some Reaper paints... Now I have just about all of them, even some of the discontinued ones. But I've now also 'found' Scale75, and man, those metallics are to die for!
I have to be honest and say that I love the citadel range. I supplement this with inks from daler rowney, a white from liquitex and a couple of alcohol based metallics from vallejo. I find that they all have good parts and bad parts. The citadels range of colours is massive but the liquitex white has no chalkiness.
I only have one pro acryl colour paint right now, and it's their infamous Bold Titanium White. Going from using Citadel and P3 whites to using that is like night and day. It's incredible.
@@andrewobrigewitsh citadel have plenty of good paints. Their whites are definitely not though, except apothecary white contrast paint, that's pretty good at what it does. It's just commonly seen as hip to hate on Citadel. It has been for years.
@@crazeh8 I started with Citadel and frankly I don't like their paints too much. Only recently have people started to realize they are not the best. Same goes for army painter, but at least the army painter pots are not super annoying. However you can get good results with any paints, and what people think is good or not is subjective and also dependent on painting style and what you paint. I prefer AK Interactive if I want one coat coverage and scale 75 for glazing. I also use oil paints, enamel and inks. I even use some Daler and Rowney and Liquitex.
Love Pro Acryl. Finally got the courage to branch out from GW and picked up some Pro Acryl and Scale 75 … Absolutely loved the Pro Acryl and soon after had just about the whole line which has become my go to. Scale 75 is great too, but have had a couple “misses” for lack of a better word. My GW paints are now in storage bins and not really used minus a few staples.
ye, scale75 is super super thicc, they are very hard to control, great for wetblending. This review is really making me consider getting some proacryl paints. As far as GW paints, I only keep Mournfang Brown, Averland Sunset and Khorne Red. The rest is also put away.
Scale 75 works best for glazing, you can thin them down quite a bit. And they are my go to paints to make glazes. They are the only paints I use to paint skin.
I use some pro Acryl and am gradually shifting over to it, You can find replacement caps to work more like other paint brands however I find that you get used to anticipating the extra droplet and if you let it dry rather than wiping it off it will plink right off with ease.
Monument sells other lids for their bottles. I just use the ones that come on them and wipe the excess on a paper towel. I know some people also just leave it open for a few seconds to let the paint drain back into the bottle
Since trying a few Pro-Acryl colors it’s all i buy now. Agree on messy lids and also hadn’t heard they have alternatives! I have started to squeeze out less on wet pallette, then the excess that oozes out from retightening the cap i just dab onto the palette - it ain’t perfect but a little better at least!
The proacryl changed how i paint. they are so good. You get used to the top i find. Going from vallejo to these guys was just night and day. Vallejo separates badly and gets very chalky. Proacryl has better pigments. I do like to use tamiya for airbrushing though
The seperate lids also aren’t compatible with the original bottles unfortunately. ProAcryl are decent enough paints but dealing with the messy, hard to squeeze bottles makes me reach for an alternative 9 times out of 10.
Completely agree. I started with Citadel, Reaper and some P3. There are a few Vallejos i still use (ice yellow is awesome), but I find myself reaching for the Kimera and Pro Acryl bottles more than anything else.
Add Fowtrol or acrylic medium to your cheap paints. Also I often dilute more expensive paints with the cheap and add medium too. Use 70% alcohol to thin also.
If I'm not mistaken kimera's biggest selling point is that they are all single pigment paints which make them perfect for mixing. Could be wrong. Nice video.
I'm very close to ditching all my mini paints and just using golden so flat. its amazing. i and slowly replacing many of my paints with colors from golden. i love their hi flow transparent and fluros too!
Ars Manufactorea can sell you Kimera paints, and they are located in Italy. No idea how much shipping would cost to the States, or how long a wait you would have, but they can be consistently found through them if you need them.
I reached a point a while ago where I realized that my skill had actually outgrown the paints I was using and replaced all of my Reaper and smattering of Vallejo paints with Scale75 and Daler-Rowney Artist Inks. I saved up for months and dropped a shameful amount on the complete Scalecolor and Artist lines as well as their primers. I regret nothing. Everything you've heard about them is true. Some of the techniques I was struggling with before I have had much more success with using the new paints. I would not purchase their Fantasy range as they are basically Reaper/Vallejo. The primers are the best I have ever used as well. They go on easy. I used a .5 needle in my air brush and 30PSI. I tried various other settings first but the primer is thick and required the bigger needle and higher pressure. Once I figured that out they were beautiful. Once the primer is on let it sit overnight (as you really should at the minimum with ANY primer) and it dries completely flat, hard as a rock, will not come off unless you scratch hard enough with a tool to gouge the plastic and hold onto the paint just as well as the primer holds onto the plastic. I also recommend their thinner and retarder as they are made to go with their paints which have a liquid gel base and pigment and these are both meant to work with that and they do it wonderfully. Because they are meant to work with a liquid pigment paint they also work amazingly in making washes and glazes with the inks. The sealers they offer are also incredible. Rock hard when dry and the Ultra Matt is just that. A bit of advice would be to save your pennies and order a metric crapton from their main location in Spain. Shipping to the US tops out at $100.00 no matter how much you order. I saved up for months and ordered just over a thousand dollars worth. They accept PayPal which streamlines overseas payments considerably in my experience. Be prepared for about 5 weeks or so shipping time. Also be prepared and do not be alarmed when the package seems to disappear into limbo for a few days on their customs end and up to two weeks on the US end. It's normal and kind of the luck of the draw sort of thing how long it takes. That $100.00 max shipping seems excessive but believe that checked and rechecked with the prices on the US distributor site. When I am only ordering a few replacements I will likely suck up the extra cost and buy there but shipping is not free after any dollar limit as is the case with most US companies selling online these days and the price markup is very significant. I paid an extra $100.00 for shipping on my order for instance but to order the same amount from the US distributor would have been almost $600.00 more before taxes and shipping. Another thing to note is that even with my large order I did not have any taxes or customs fees due when the package got here.
I’ve tried GW, Vallejo model, Vallejo game, Scale, Reaper, Army Painter, pro acryl, and AK 3rd gen. I use them all here or there, but I prefer the silver metallics from pro acryl (preferred consistency and coverage), washes/shades from GW, standard colors from AK and Reaper. AK surprised me as it’s sort of like the pigment density of Vallejo model but thinner in consistency like Reaper and slightly more durable than the former. I like it a lot. The durability is high on Vallejo game color (true to their advertising) though the consistency and coverage varies considerably. Still it’s nice when you’re looking for paints that are like the “old” GW range.
Pro Acryl, Reaper, Vallejo and Scale 75 are my go to. Im sad that in all the years, no one has made a paint as good as Polly S fantasy colors from the 80's.
well after this ill be grabbing some pro Acryl to try out , what I use now is mainly Army painter as and I have everything but the new speed paints and ive been really happy with them once I got away from gw . Thanks Lyla for this is was very helpful for me
as someone who has the ENTIRE warcolours range I agree lol. But after basing with something else I find they're great for wet blending/feathering. And for airbrush jobs they're awesome once you've thinned them down. Pro Acryl are my go to now, you can do everything with them, but even for base coating they just can't be beat. And they're about to release a bright jade :)
I agree. I too have almost the entire Warcolours range. In the early days they broke my heart. But once I learned how to use them over a greyscale or tinted zenithal undercoat my opinion changed. You still need opaque paints. And I wouldn’t recommend their One-Coats. To me they have no association with the layer paints. Crazy good for painting vehicles and mechs, but not for miniature people. I use Vallejo Model Colour with the Warcolours and find the earthy opacity and the transparent crispness go very well together. I also really like their metallics over an opaque metal base. You can really produce a polished effect that I can’t repeat with other ranges. And their Yellow 1 is phenomenal for tinting warm colours. A strongly conditional recommendation from me.
Consider and try Scale 75. Most of the brands you mention are completely new to me,. Possibly not avalable in the UK with the exception of Green Stuff World and Pro Acryl. Vallejo do a very similar range to Green Stuff including the Colour Sifters and are readily avalable in model shops and online. But I think you have over looked Scale 75. The full set can be purchased for about £300 (UK). In some respects they are similar to Pro Acryl in that they are a gel based high pigment paint that works well with your two favorite techniques. They give a wonderful mat finish and go through the air brush very nicely after thinning. I now have the full set of Scale 75 paint including the amazing inks.
For myself? I got the basic colors from Pro Acryl (dark and bright red/blue/'yellow, plus black and white), and while I like them alright and I like supporting an American company? I find myself reaching for my Vallejo and P3 paints far more often then the Pro Acryl colors. They're not bad paints, but they don't excite me too much, here. Their airbrush primer, however, is excellent stuff on par with my Vallejo Surface Primer and I'm using their Black Brown primer often these days. Their brushes and supplies are rather good, too, IMO. I appear to have found my personal sweet spot with my Vallejo and P3 paints, and I still find use for my Citadel collection as well from time to time. Maybe I ought to try the Pro Acryl paints again and give them a fair shake?
Guides like this are so helpful! With the amount of paints on the market it feels like stumbling around in the dark to find the one that works for me, and with the prices that is not good! Thanks for this!
Before I got my (good) vortex mixer I sorta macguyvered a paint mixer to a sawsall blade blank with a drilled and pinned clamp on it to hold the pot. That (and heavy gauge metal balls) was the only way I could mix army painter paints (never again, Vallejo all the way)
Pro Acryl sells alternative caps at a very inexpensive price. I replaced all the default twist nozzles with the capped droppers. (Never been a fan of the flip/snap tops.) Don't forget to try their transparent paints line! Omg so goooood!
@Lyla Mev - The Mini Witch I have the same complaint about the tops, so when I found the new tops, I ordered some. They haven't showed up yet, so I can't comment on them. Yet.
@@LylaMev Yeah, I really like the round flip top ones. I wish they were the default! A trick with the regular ones though is to leave the bottles open for a bit after taking some out so the paint has time to flow back into the bottle and release the trapped air.
I actually swapped over to Pro Acryl as my primary paint a few months ago. I love their paint and Jade was my favorite, but the new Bright Jade might fight for it. Jade and Dark Purple make a GORGEOUS blue too.
I am increasingly switching from Vallejo, Citadel and Army Painter to Green Stuff World as, living in Northern Europe I have had swift and easy delivery experiences from them, at great prices. They are also relatively easily available in the shops here. For a cheaper and slightly easier to use option to Kimera, I find Scale75 shares many of Kimeras positive properties while having a much wider selection. As I have just purchased an airbrush I expect to be exploring using inks a lot more now.
I tried Pro Acryl on a recommendation, and I have never looked back! I have about 36 years of mini painting experiance, and Pro Acryl is by far, my all time Favorite! The tops ARE annoying, yes! I tend to waste a tiny bit each time i use it, but that is a small price to pay. You can use PA strait in an airbrush, too! for base coating and simple highlights, i run them through both my Eclipse and Patriot uncut, I do thin them down when running them through my SOTAR and Infinity. I have been using the paints since early 2020.
I remember the days before internet shopping, when hobby shops only sold humbrol enamel for airfix planes, and the citadel box sets for models. We had a choice of 2 box sets of 9 paint that we had to mix to even make a basic flesh tone. Then came an ink set, but it was years before they developed a range of paints. Wet blending was something we learnt individually. Dry brushing was the expected norm.
I literally just bought their entire line as a treat to myself. And you can use their transparent with GW contrast medium and make your own contrast paints
@@briane.johnson4235 from their website. I had ordered them like 2 weeks ago. I remember at some point in time they used to have a build your own set where you just picked out a certain number of bottles and then they would as a discount.
This is SPOT ON for at least ProAcryl and GSW since those are the brands of the 4 you reviewed that I own. Your pros and cons are 100% in alignment with me, and I have only been painting for a year and don’t have an art degree (I’m an artistic engineer). Thanks for the great video!
I am a beginner with both painting and miniature painting. I started with a bunch of Tateyama Color paints recommended by my local hobby shop and... was not a fan. The paint REALLY prefers sticking to itself than even a well primered surface, so if it was even the SLIGHTEST bit damp when I went to add another layer, it would just lift off and I'd be back to bare primer. Then I got Liquitex Gauche in Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, White, and Black (Sorry art people: "Primary Blue", "Primary Red", Yellow, Black and White) since I have a background in photography and photo printers and just started mixing all my colors from primaries. I LOVE the Liquitex Gauche! It is super opaque (and fairly thick) unless thinned, but glides on with no effort, can be painted over while still quite wet (probably embedding some bad habits it's so forgiving on this) and it really just feels like the paint is working FOR me. Probably going to pick up a brown and a could skin tones so I don't have to keep mixing those all the time, but loving the paints.
I've had a good experience with Pro Acryl other than the tops to their paints, shout out to Bright Ivory. But as a lover of magenta.....noted, on the Chimera magenta.
Warcolour - Their crystal sable brushes are now my all time favorite. I got afew paints. I have not learned to use them yet, but plan to. ProAcryl - I went all in. Worth it. Got the dropper tops to replace the twist tops. They can get chalky if you thin them too much but flowaid / medium helps. Still love P3 & Citadel but finally starting to transfer them to dropper bottles. Also still love Reaper & Vallejo. And yes I prefer a matt finish. Shieldwolf is cool, but I wish they were bigger. 32 to 40 is my prefered size.
ProAcryl's Transparent White is a total game changer for painting sheer white, highlighting pale sections, or highlighting NMM. The intense white paints can be difficult to thin without being chalky. This is a soft white, almost a glaze. It is among my favorite bottles now.
Thank you for this (and to the commenter who mentioned pro acryl new lids)! I've been looking to branch out with paints and this has convinced me. As for other paints I've tried, I really like Turbo Dork. They're expensive and metallic only, but they do some great shifting paints and just really pop overall. Thanks again!
I just use my 27 year old citadel paints with ink and mediums . I dont paint with metalics . I don't paint professionally as a full time job . Nice to know someone is reviewing new paints so i don't have too .
Pro Acryl Jade is indeed SO GOOD. A real treasure. I haven't tried the other brands you've mentioned, but I'm surprised to see how Warcolors performed since I've heard good things about the glaze range at least. That's good to know. Hardly an indie brand, but I've recently gotten some Apple Barrel paints after Eons of Battle recommended their satin black (I can confirm it's excellent) and much of their matte range is less than a buck. I was expecting them to be good for drybrushing at least, but so far I've been really impressed by how well they glaze even without thinning. I imagine it's because the pigment density is lower, but it's still not grainy, and the paint itself is nice and thick, so getting very fine glazes is super easy. I also really like Sennelier's Abstract line. Like the Apple Barrel, it's not very opaque so you kinda have to get a glob of paint on the brush and then spread it over the model if you don't want to end up needing five coats, but once I got the hang of it I found it was really worth it for just how buttery smooth the finish is, no visible brush strokes at all. I just got a few flesh tones from them after falling in love with their Caput Mortum colour, because I have a hunch they'll do very well on busts and larger models with a lot of skin.
I was really surprised about war colours as well! at first I thought that once I tried my second model it would go a lot better, but when it didn't I chalked it up to the paints themselves. But if anyone has any suggestions as to what I was doing wrong I would love to hear them! I tried to give all the brands a good shot.
Have most of the pro-acryl line minus the metallics. Love'em. As many have already said, they do offer additional cap options, either a flip or a precision drop. Went with the precision one and replaced all my caps, very happy with the change, and always a satisfied Monument customer. Paint is great, have even gifted some to a buddy, Also picked up the Kimera and the 1st expansion. Haven't used it much or at all so far. Waiting for a non-army centric piece to hit my desk.
I love Pro Acryl. I got the starter set for Xmas and I've fallen head over heels for their range. I love the matte finish on them, and the colors are so vibrant and really pop on the minis. For Green Stuff World, I'd have to agree 100%. They are great for padding out your collection of paints with their specialty products, but I wouldn't base my collection on them. I'm an especially big fan of GSW's special effects range of paints. Orc Bloid, Tau Blood, Coagulated Blood and Darth Maxx (their version of Blackest Black) are all great paints. I just ordered some colorshift paints for my Warpcoven KT, so I'm not sure how well they work yet, but I'm excited to give them a try when they get here. I haven't tried War Colours, and I probably won't. Not necessarily because of this review, but I already have my trusted Pro Acryl and a nice collection of Citadel and Vallejo stuff from before I discovered PA. No need to add another paint line to the collection, since it's supposed to be a miniatures collection, not a paint collection 😅 Another great brand that I use in specific situations is AK Interactive. Their white is one of my favorite whites from any range. And their tri-color packs are pretty cool if you're a beginner to color theory. And if you're into military modeling AK has some great stuff. I might end up with more AK products in the future as I move into a more Grimdark style. AK's oils, enamels and weathering products are the best in the game, but now you're moving into some more advanced stuff and this video feels like it's more aimed at people that are new to the hobby
I’ve been thinking on getting pro acryl for a bit since I mostly use citadel and lots of their colors just don’t seem all that appealing to me(especially the whites and greys) and this video has just given me the confidence to say my next purchase of paints is gonna be from them cause I loved the colors and outcome, tho I will still use citadel contrast paints just cause I do enjoy them and all but pro acryl looks like it would fill the place of more traditional paints for me. 😸
I bought some GSW paints in December, they arrived late January and were frozen. Thankfully they refunded the paints, but I love their other products so I will probably keep using them...just not for paints...or at least during winter...
I paint military models but still only at a beginner level because even though it is a hobby of mine I have other hobbies that prefer to do more. I have always used paints from Airfix, Revell and Citadel and have done so for many many years.
Something between Kimera and Pro Acryl... have you looked at Scalecolor Artist Paints? They come in a tube, but they have a body with consistency between those two other brands. They work perfect on my wet palette for blending and thinning, and make the best mixes of any of my paints IMO.
This video was one of the reasons, I gave Pro Acryl a try. I bought the Expansion Set 3, Copper and Bright Gold and have to say, that I really didn't like to work with the paints. Though the result is decent and the colors are nice (though they are bad paints). But it is so thin and don't blend well into each other. Also they don't stay workable on the palette long. The next day they are dead. P3 e.g. stays wet, moist and perfectly workable for a week and longer. Both main Vallejo Lines, AK 3rd Gen, P3, Scale75 and even Citadel (for the most part) are imho far better paints.
I have a very large collection of acrylics, mostly Vallejo. But I need more working time to do what I want so I’ve switched to oils. Most brands of artist grade oils are consistently similar so there’s no huge issues.
As of late I found myself using Scale75 more and more. Both their main line and 'Fantasy and games' line have amazing colors to use. Most of their 'inktensity' products are also brilliant, if you know what you're doing (or willing to learn and experiment). Also, Amsterdam is not a miniature paint brand, but their Ultramarine blue and Cobalt (ultramarine) blue work very well. Pyrrole red is great for mixes but is a little tricky to use on it's own, at least for me. I'm a little curious about green stuff world and Pro Acryl.
intresting about the Pro Acryl I know a lot of people dislike the tops, they do a normal dropper lid on there site but I dont know stockist who stock it so have to buy direct from them wish they could sort this. As I have the whole range on order from a kickstarter
Just wanted to say Lyla that you have helped me tremendously not only in my miniature painting but also across my model finishing spectrum. Thank you very much! Great channel lyla, keep it going.
as a beginner i use vallejo paints for their pricepoint & dropper bottles, for metallics i enjoy the citadel paint range and i have just recently tried army painter (dungeons & dragons edition) set for a splash of bright fantasy colours. would recommend all 3 to a beginnner
Started with P3 paint - I feel like it's an exact consistency and coverage quality as Citadel at a fraction of the price. I've gotten their full set but mainly just use their metallics now (love their "Tarnished" metals); after P3 I backed the Instant Colours range from Kickstarter produced by Scale 75 - this gave me a complete set of "One Coat Coverage" paints at the time only comparable to Contrast paints...I'm a bit weird and I felt like the Contrast Line was a bit too "messy" and "color heavy" as I wanted to use them in a glazing manner which I can do with my Instant Colours. About 4 months ago I got the entire line of Pro Acryl (just got their new expansion last week) and I will agree that the more difficult colors like yellows or whites are not an issue with Pro Acryl - out of the paint's I've used (GSW/Citadel/Vallejo/Army Painter/P3/Turbo Dork/Scale 75) I cannot stop going back to Pro Acryl for their wonderful ease of coverage - by the time I have my wet pallet set up with 3 or 4 colors I find they are at a great consistency with the little bit of hydration from my pallet and wet paintbrush. The only time I even thin them really is for the airbrush and geeze the vibrancy of color you can build up from an airbrush with pro acryl is insane. The first light pass is muted - the second pass is more like a heavy wash that dried - the third pass Epic. So looking at my wall of paints the only ones I gravitate towards now are Pro Acryl and Vallejo Metal Color. A quick note on their Transparent line up (which I was hesitant to get since I had really nice Liquitex Inks) is the combination of Vallejo's White Aluminum Metal Color tinted and colored with the transparent Pro Acryl range allows you to sneak up easier to the metallic color you want to achieve that is some times harder to get from the pure ink mixed with the Metal Color which becomes very very cartoonishly colored quickly. Plus the Transparent line from Proacryl is wonderful in getting vibrant glazes by mixing and thinning with your paint instead of water. I'm nowhere near your level of painting and your skill in color mixing so I find this much easier for a more novice user like myself.
Jade is great - but the real winner for me is their Bright Yellow Green. I'm interested in trying our their primers in comparison to my normal Stynlrez Primers that are becoming harder to find and more expensive
I was a fan of the old Citadel range because of the colours plus those hexagonal pots with the black lids.... They never dry out, I've got still some around here with good paint in them. For the rest: It's Vallejo. 1 exception: for the gold metallic I use Revell enamel, for it's so good. And when I buy a new citadel pot, I poor it over into a P3 style pot, I bought a 1000 empty ones. The paint dries out quickly in the new Citadel pots, because the rims clog up...
You might be disappointed with the pro acryl magenta. It's a mixed pigment paint that relies heavily on white for opacity. Comes out more pink. I've recently supplemented my paints with golden so-flat acrylics as well as liquitex acrylic gouache. Both highly matte, highly pigmented, soft body artist acrylics. As a painter I've always had an assortment of artist paints on hand, but these two are the best so far for minis.
My uni miniature club picked up the Pro Acryl starter paint and found it to be the best starter paint for new painters with the amount you get and introduction to dropper bottles. Wiping the top off does become annoying though. Their metalics are also worth checking out.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on Reaper's paints. Personally I enjoy them and find them easy to work with but noone ever seems to mention them anymore.
I agree, Reaper paints make up a lot of my current paints in the rack. I also do some Warcoulors, Greenstuff World, and Vallejo, but I love the color range of Reaper and the consistency seems pretty good for my style.
@@doc59911 I just recently got some GreenStuff World paints and I must say I really enjoy them. For me personally they are on par if not better than Reaper, which I never thought I'd say.
Green Stuff World have some amazing stuff. I've just started using their Ink Wash range to make glazes thinned with glaze medium. They take the harsh edges off highlights very well without obscuring the effect. GW shades are very good but I prefer the more uniform coverage from the GSW Ink Washes.
Hi, thanks for the video :) the most paints I have are Vallejo paints which are in my opinion pretty good. But I recently bought AK interactive 3rd gen paints an there amazing. Furthermore the Diorama series for basing is awesome to maybe you should check them out. Also army painter speedpaints really nice.
I think you should add that availability and posting speed may vary depending where you live in the world as it is obvious that a produkt shiped from the US to the US will be a lot quicker than a produkt shipped from the EU to the US an vice versa. Warcolours an pro acryl are hard to get here in germany while the others are not.
Maybe I'm just stubborn or that I only paint for the D&D group I DM, but my high school science teacher taught me to paint minis with cheap DecoArt Americana paint and that's all I've used. The main pros are the cost as most colors fall in the range of $1.50 for a 2oz/59mL bottle, the bottles are also readily available from Hobby Lobby/Michaels which also means if I really like a shade I mixed for a model (like a dark skin tone) I can mix up a whole bottle of it without breaking the bank, and most of the time the way they're displayed in the store makes it very easy to pick out highlights and shadows on a per color basis. They even have color-shifting paints which I've used for magic effects on models!
Once I discovered monument it's hard to buy anything else for base coating/blending. The tops are a minor inconvenience especially compared to GW's paint pots.
I bought Kimera because it was highly recommended in the painting groups that I am in. I have to say that I do enjoy mixing the colors and getting that perfect blend of what I am looking for. However, they do dry quick and I'm still having trouble getting the consistency that I want for paints. They also dry matte, which can be a pain for some colors. It can make the colors look dull on the miniature. I used a black primer and ended up having to put several layers of paint, mostly red and purple, on just to even get the colors to really show up. Other than that, I really do like them. I started paint with Citadel paints, and I have to say that even after transferring them to dropper bottles they still aren't my favorite. I'm starting to lean more toward Vallejo Game Colors for my painting range that I use and enjoy.
Word of advice don’t use black primer. It will save you hours and hours of time. Only use black if you are going to zynithal prime. Meaning spray with white from above. They will preshade your mini.
I keep reaching for Pro-Acryl. I replaced all the tips with the alternate dropper, but found shaking them up and down makes a mess within the cap. Works great with Typhoon mixer though. I want to get more into color mixing with Kimera Kolors and Scale 75 artist but again I keep reaching for Pro-Acryl. Vallejo Metal Color is still the best metallic so far. I use Secret Weapon Weathering acrylic and washes quite a bit, really like the out of bottle readiness here. I heard Pro-Acryl is going to release a wash medium pretty soon.. I can't wait for this!
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Which is your preferred brand of paint?
Hey, I am interested in the Valkyrs. Are the heads separate and do they look like fearse viking women?
I like my base set Kimeras and ProAcryl. You've probably already ordered that ProAcryl Magenta, so this warning is too late, but in case it isn't: The ProAcryl Magenta has a buttload of white pigment in it, so it will not be what you are looking for as a primary mixer. They may have a good magenta in their range, idk, but I can tell you that it is NOT named Magenta - I was SO disappointed when I got mine! :P
Yet another wonderful video. Thank you
@@NightfallTH Thank you. That's affirmative, the heads are separate (both helmeted and non-helmeted options). 21 different head sculpts total, 33 heads provided per kit.
@@shieldwolfminiatures8645 oh, thanks for the comprehensive answer! If I were to need some awesome nordic women heads fast (this sounds like a serial killer, omg), are the Valkyries heads the same as your existing Shieldmaiden set on your homepage?
Currently my favourite paints are Scale75, have you tried them/opinion?
While I agree that most people can skip War Colours, I feel that the review did them a bit of a disservice. War Colours are a gel based paint whose strength is their consistency and transparency. They are not a citadel like paint system, they are a specialized paint line with a specific purpose, wet blending and glazing. I'd highly suggest checking out other reviews that give a more indepth review to show how to really utilize them properly. Their black and white are some of the best I've used and allow you to have far more precision with the tone compared to other black/white paints. Similar to Kimera or Scale 75, they are NOT beginner friendly paints. But if you know how to use them you can get truly amazing results.
very well said!!!
Don't particularly care for War Colours from Army Painter, my main issues being opacity and viscosity. Their Washes or Tones on the other hand I think are the best in the business. I find for what they are marketed for Vallejo does the job better. Army Painter has always been the odd outlier in the miniature painting space. Citadel, beyond the sheer brand recognition, makes a great generalist paint line. Best at nothing but VERY good at most everything. Vallejo on the other hand just makes great paint. Pro Acryl is a phenomenal paint line though, and if I didn't have the money tied up in Vallejo/GW the way I do, I would shift strictly to those.
@@clamus68 Warcolours isn't an Army Painter brand, it's an entirely different company. I've only used a couple of their colours at this time and like them but I don't have a strong opinion yet. I do like their naming convention though as it makes it easy to organize and work with shades.
can you recommend a good video review for war colours?
@@NODHLAN Vince Venturella has a few videos on them th-cam.com/users/VinceVenturellasearch?query=warcolours
Here's two of them, but I counted 7 direct videos and others where they are mentioned.
Product Review 27 - Warcolours Glazes th-cam.com/video/P9VzeS7_vfE/w-d-xo.html
Hobby Cheating 86 - How to Paint with Warcolours th-cam.com/video/e-ICWnMpnAw/w-d-xo.html
I hope this helps.
I recently bought Golden Soflat basic sets and I'm in love. Single pigment, high opacity, consistent texture, very fine pigment. You can dillute the heck out of them and they don't disperse. Best white I've ever owned.
I own most of the proacryl range (can't justify the shipping cost for expansion 3 right now) and agree your notes. I strongly dislike the default lid and prefer their dropper lids over the screw top.
I have switched most of my paints to pro acryl. The vibrant color, good coverage, and extensive range have sold me. I swapped out all of the twist tops for flip tops, and they have been great. I painted some grey primer onto the flat lids, then painted on some of the color, which makes it very easy to see what the color will look like on the model, and find it in the rack. They also sell empty paint bottles, making it very easy to pour two colors together to make a bottle of a custom color. I use this mainly for transition colors between two colors. For example, I made two extra bottles for the mid points between Bright Jade, Jade, and Dark Jade.
I've got to agree on the Pro Acryl from Monument Hobbies! Every time I try one of their paints, I'm always impressed and blown away every, single, time. It is such good value for the money.
Agree! Agree! Incredible.
I absolutely fell in love with Pro Acryl paints from the moment I used one for the first time. If I could go back and tell younger me not to buy half the paints I did (ESPECIALLY the shitadel paints) and wait to get the whole Pro Acryl bundle off the bat, I would.
Vallejo's new line (the black-top Game Color ones) has become my go-to brand. Great coverage, great pigmentation, and just the right thickness. And they're not expensive, either.
I'm a professional oil, landscape artist so I am used to messy paint tube tops. My supplies are always a mess. LOL I don't think the Pro Acryl tops will be a deal breaker for me. Thanks for the great reviews, I'm going to try Pro Acryl soon.
Crazy how availability changes between US and EU. You cant find Pro Acryl in Spain but GSW, Vallejo, Mig, AK 3rd Gen is pretty much everywhere. The latter is my favourite so far, and I definitely recommend it to you.
I’m in the US, Ak Interactive and AMMO Mig are pretty easy to get in my area.
Scale 75 isn’t sold locally and Vallejo always seems to run out of stock.
If I want to buy paint from a shop in the UK its either GW or GW or maybe GW. Gotta love online retailers.
@@B4MBI72 GW and army painter are everywhere too.
Have you ever tried the Reaper Pro or MSP colors. I use them most exclusively. They are made to be thinned, but I find that one base coat of untinned paint works well. I would love to hear you opinion on these paints.
Reaper Miniatures makes my favorite paints. If you like magenta, their Clear Magenta is a single pigment paint, works great for mixing and glazing, but opacity is low due to the nature of the pigment. They have a magenta with more coverage called Thuvian Sun Orchid which I think is lovely.
I love the pro acrylic top. Took a little getting used to, I learned to close the top then wipe the tip on the pallette
Just got to keep a paper towel at your side.
@@funchick202 no, I just wipe the tip on the pallette and leave it be. The paint on the top dries and falls off easily next time I use it. Also, the colored tip helps me find the right color I want when I'm looking into the box.
Love your videos, they are really helpful for noobs like me!
Just a note regarding Green Stuff World, they're not the greatest company out there, whether it's trademarking other people's work, or putting a strike against a hobby youtuber (Sworde & Steele) I'd recommend choosing a different company to buy hobby supplies from if at all possible.
Lyla, first time I have seen one of your videos. I like your style of painting. Your minis look awesome. I really like speedpaints by army painter. Not a fan of their other colors so I agree with you there. Honestly, I have never found a brand of paints that were great across the whole color spectrum. Reaper, I have found is the most consistent, but their yellows aren’t great unless you use their HD line which they sadly discontinued. You mentioned Color Shift paints. I love using Color shift paints! The ones from Folk Art are amazing and surprisingly consistent. A trick I do with them- water it down, apply then wipe it off. You will leave the color shift part only on the raised surface without the color. gives the glisten without much color. Makes an item magic by giving it that color shift glow.
I love pro acryl but hate the tops too. However, to avoid too much mess or gushing when opening after shaking, I've learned that waiting roughly 10 seconds after shaking and a few seconds after applying paint to a palette makes less of a mess to clean from the top.
Thank you!
I recently purchased the pro acryl base set in hopes of getting back into miniature painting. After your review, I feel I made a good choice!
Glad I could help!
i hope it helps.
If I were to start buying paints now, I'd buy a combination of Scale75, Reaper, probably some Vallejo, and artists' fluid acrylics/acrylic gouaches. Reaper's browns and neutrals are generally very nice, both in consistency and color, Scale75 has brilliant metallics and quite good flat colors, Vallejo has everything, and artists' colors are heavily pigmented with excellent acrylic monomer density, though they do require a bit more knowledge of mixing (and the price per volume for artists' colors is quite good).
I started with Army Painter(the less said the better), then bought some Reaper paints... Now I have just about all of them, even some of the discontinued ones. But I've now also 'found' Scale75, and man, those metallics are to die for!
I have to be honest and say that I love the citadel range. I supplement this with inks from daler rowney, a white from liquitex and a couple of alcohol based metallics from vallejo. I find that they all have good parts and bad parts. The citadels range of colours is massive but the liquitex white has no chalkiness.
Gotta try that liquitex white ink, I have some DR but it doesn't go thru my airbrush well at all.
@@B4MBI72 Did you end up getting to try it? I have the same issue with DR white through an airbrush being crap
@@B4MBI72 @Hobominded If the ink isn't going smooth through the airbrush, you're simply using any of the tools or products you're using wrong.
Thank you!
Just got the full range of Pro Acryl paints, and converted over to the new bottle lid/dropper option Monument sells😎
I absolutely love ProAcryl. I bought two full sets. One for home and one for my work office during lunch breaks. Incredible opacity.
I only have one pro acryl colour paint right now, and it's their infamous Bold Titanium White. Going from using Citadel and P3 whites to using that is like night and day. It's incredible.
I agree!
Citadel isn’t that good.
Ak interactive, ammo Mig, scale 75, and Pro Acyl are all far superior.
@@andrewobrigewitsh citadel have plenty of good paints. Their whites are definitely not though, except apothecary white contrast paint, that's pretty good at what it does.
It's just commonly seen as hip to hate on Citadel. It has been for years.
@@crazeh8 I started with Citadel and frankly I don't like their paints too much. Only recently have people started to realize they are not the best. Same goes for army painter, but at least the army painter pots are not super annoying.
However you can get good results with any paints, and what people think is good or not is subjective and also dependent on painting style and what you paint.
I prefer AK Interactive if I want one coat coverage and scale 75 for glazing. I also use oil paints, enamel and inks. I even use some Daler and Rowney and Liquitex.
I'm confused as what you you mean by Infamous though. Infamous means well known for being bad.
Love Pro Acryl. Finally got the courage to branch out from GW and picked up some Pro Acryl and Scale 75 … Absolutely loved the Pro Acryl and soon after had just about the whole line which has become my go to. Scale 75 is great too, but have had a couple “misses” for lack of a better word. My GW paints are now in storage bins and not really used minus a few staples.
ye, scale75 is super super thicc, they are very hard to control, great for wetblending. This review is really making me consider getting some proacryl paints. As far as GW paints, I only keep Mournfang Brown, Averland Sunset and Khorne Red. The rest is also put away.
I use scale75 at 50/50 paint to water it's so thick.
Scale 75 works best for glazing, you can thin them down quite a bit. And they are my go to paints to make glazes. They are the only paints I use to paint skin.
I use some pro Acryl and am gradually shifting over to it, You can find replacement caps to work more like other paint brands however I find that you get used to anticipating the extra droplet and if you let it dry rather than wiping it off it will plink right off with ease.
Monument sells other lids for their bottles. I just use the ones that come on them and wipe the excess on a paper towel. I know some people also just leave it open for a few seconds to let the paint drain back into the bottle
Since trying a few Pro-Acryl colors it’s all i buy now. Agree on messy lids and also hadn’t heard they have alternatives! I have started to squeeze out less on wet pallette, then the excess that oozes out from retightening the cap i just dab onto the palette - it ain’t perfect but a little better at least!
The proacryl changed how i paint. they are so good. You get used to the top i find. Going from vallejo to these guys was just night and day. Vallejo separates badly and gets very chalky. Proacryl has better pigments. I do like to use tamiya for airbrushing though
It's just too bad the alternate lids are a separate purchase.
If you could buy from them with your top of choice, it would be perfect.
The seperate lids also aren’t compatible with the original bottles unfortunately. ProAcryl are decent enough paints but dealing with the messy, hard to squeeze bottles makes me reach for an alternative 9 times out of 10.
Completely agree. I started with Citadel, Reaper and some P3. There are a few Vallejos i still use (ice yellow is awesome), but I find myself reaching for the Kimera and Pro Acryl bottles more than anything else.
I'm going to have to get new shelving for my pro acryl and kimera paints
@@LylaMev Scrap wood in the garage. Paint shelves are the easiest thing to build by hand plus you can build to suit your space.
Add Fowtrol or acrylic medium to your cheap paints. Also I often dilute more expensive paints with the cheap and add medium too. Use 70% alcohol to thin also.
If I'm not mistaken kimera's biggest selling point is that they are all single pigment paints which make them perfect for mixing. Could be wrong. Nice video.
I'm very close to ditching all my mini paints and just using golden so flat. its amazing. i and slowly replacing many of my paints with colors from golden. i love their hi flow transparent and fluros too!
Never heard of it. Link?
Ars Manufactorea can sell you Kimera paints, and they are located in Italy. No idea how much shipping would cost to the States, or how long a wait you would have, but they can be consistently found through them if you need them.
I replaced my citadel and army painter paints with the whole range of Pro-Acryl and the Scalecolor set by Scale75. I love these matt paints.
I reached a point a while ago where I realized that my skill had actually outgrown the paints I was using and replaced all of my Reaper and smattering of Vallejo paints with Scale75 and Daler-Rowney Artist Inks. I saved up for months and dropped a shameful amount on the complete Scalecolor and Artist lines as well as their primers. I regret nothing. Everything you've heard about them is true. Some of the techniques I was struggling with before I have had much more success with using the new paints. I would not purchase their Fantasy range as they are basically Reaper/Vallejo.
The primers are the best I have ever used as well. They go on easy. I used a .5 needle in my air brush and 30PSI. I tried various other settings first but the primer is thick and required the bigger needle and higher pressure. Once I figured that out they were beautiful. Once the primer is on let it sit overnight (as you really should at the minimum with ANY primer) and it dries completely flat, hard as a rock, will not come off unless you scratch hard enough with a tool to gouge the plastic and hold onto the paint just as well as the primer holds onto the plastic.
I also recommend their thinner and retarder as they are made to go with their paints which have a liquid gel base and pigment and these are both meant to work with that and they do it wonderfully. Because they are meant to work with a liquid pigment paint they also work amazingly in making washes and glazes with the inks.
The sealers they offer are also incredible. Rock hard when dry and the Ultra Matt is just that.
A bit of advice would be to save your pennies and order a metric crapton from their main location in Spain. Shipping to the US tops out at $100.00 no matter how much you order. I saved up for months and ordered just over a thousand dollars worth. They accept PayPal which streamlines overseas payments considerably in my experience. Be prepared for about 5 weeks or so shipping time. Also be prepared and do not be alarmed when the package seems to disappear into limbo for a few days on their customs end and up to two weeks on the US end. It's normal and kind of the luck of the draw sort of thing how long it takes. That $100.00 max shipping seems excessive but believe that checked and rechecked with the prices on the US distributor site. When I am only ordering a few replacements I will likely suck up the extra cost and buy there but shipping is not free after any dollar limit as is the case with most US companies selling online these days and the price markup is very significant. I paid an extra $100.00 for shipping on my order for instance but to order the same amount from the US distributor would have been almost $600.00 more before taxes and shipping. Another thing to note is that even with my large order I did not have any taxes or customs fees due when the package got here.
So which 2 should I avoid?
I agree with the Pro Acryl tops. I did replace all my paints, other than cheap craft paints for terrain, with Pro Acryl paints.
I’ve tried GW, Vallejo model, Vallejo game, Scale, Reaper, Army Painter, pro acryl, and AK 3rd gen. I use them all here or there, but I prefer the silver metallics from pro acryl (preferred consistency and coverage), washes/shades from GW, standard colors from AK and Reaper. AK surprised me as it’s sort of like the pigment density of Vallejo model but thinner in consistency like Reaper and slightly more durable than the former. I like it a lot. The durability is high on Vallejo game color (true to their advertising) though the consistency and coverage varies considerably. Still it’s nice when you’re looking for paints that are like the “old” GW range.
I use Army Painter because you can buy a large set all at once for a good price. But your video showing alternatives is very helpful. Thanks!
Oooh I just got a bunch of light Pro Acryl colors, I hope those are as good as the others you reviewed.
The Bold Pyrrole Red by Pro Acryl is by far the best red in my collection. I look forward to buying more of their stuff next time I get the chance.
It's the best red for me as well!
Pyrrole Red is great as an oil color as well. Though Napthol Red is my favorite shade. Stop light red basically.
I haven't heard of most of the paints mentioned. Thanks for bringing them to light.
Pro Acryl, Reaper, Vallejo and Scale 75 are my go to. Im sad that in all the years, no one has made a paint as good as Polly S fantasy colors from the 80's.
I like knowing more about other brands, keep it up. Makes the more popular either step up their game, or even (miracles) they get cheaper...
well after this ill be grabbing some pro Acryl to try out , what I use now is mainly Army painter as and I have everything but the new speed paints and ive been really happy with them once I got away from gw . Thanks Lyla for this is was very helpful for me
is kimera not just rebottled artist acrylics, cause i honestly prefer jo sonjas, liquitex or golden paints
as someone who has the ENTIRE warcolours range I agree lol. But after basing with something else I find they're great for wet blending/feathering. And for airbrush jobs they're awesome once you've thinned them down. Pro Acryl are my go to now, you can do everything with them, but even for base coating they just can't be beat. And they're about to release a bright jade :)
I agree. I too have almost the entire Warcolours range. In the early days they broke my heart. But once I learned how to use them over a greyscale or tinted zenithal undercoat my opinion changed. You still need opaque paints. And I wouldn’t recommend their One-Coats. To me they have no association with the layer paints. Crazy good for painting vehicles and mechs, but not for miniature people. I use Vallejo Model Colour with the Warcolours and find the earthy opacity and the transparent crispness go very well together. I also really like their metallics over an opaque metal base. You can really produce a polished effect that I can’t repeat with other ranges. And their Yellow 1 is phenomenal for tinting warm colours.
A strongly conditional recommendation from me.
I have war colours explained to me as: "they are very good at what they are good at, and bad at everything else."
@@LylaMev Ha Ha! That pretty much nails it.
Consider and try Scale 75.
Most of the brands you mention are completely new to me,. Possibly not avalable in the UK with the exception of Green Stuff World and Pro Acryl. Vallejo do a very similar range to Green Stuff including the Colour Sifters and are readily avalable in model shops and online. But I think you have over looked Scale 75. The full set can be purchased for about £300 (UK). In some respects they are similar to Pro Acryl in that they are a gel based high pigment paint that works well with your two favorite techniques. They give a wonderful mat finish and go through the air brush very nicely after thinning. I now have the full set of Scale 75 paint including the amazing inks.
For myself? I got the basic colors from Pro Acryl (dark and bright red/blue/'yellow, plus black and white), and while I like them alright and I like supporting an American company? I find myself reaching for my Vallejo and P3 paints far more often then the Pro Acryl colors. They're not bad paints, but they don't excite me too much, here. Their airbrush primer, however, is excellent stuff on par with my Vallejo Surface Primer and I'm using their Black Brown primer often these days. Their brushes and supplies are rather good, too, IMO. I appear to have found my personal sweet spot with my Vallejo and P3 paints, and I still find use for my Citadel collection as well from time to time. Maybe I ought to try the Pro Acryl paints again and give them a fair shake?
Pro Acryl is my go to paint. Other lines have individual colors I enjoy using but for a complete set Pro Acryl is absolutely the best.
Right where I am, too!
Guides like this are so helpful! With the amount of paints on the market it feels like stumbling around in the dark to find the one that works for me, and with the prices that is not good! Thanks for this!
Glad it was helpful!
Knew pro acryl was the thumbnail lol. If I was a new painter I'd be going pa too.
Been super happy with Vallejo though and will incorporate the two.
Before I got my (good) vortex mixer I sorta macguyvered a paint mixer to a sawsall blade blank with a drilled and pinned clamp on it to hold the pot.
That (and heavy gauge metal balls) was the only way I could mix army painter paints (never again, Vallejo all the way)
I like the Scale color paints. They have some really nice matte finishes and colours. Also they appear to be that gel like medium you like too.
Thanks for the info!
Pro Acryl sells alternative caps at a very inexpensive price. I replaced all the default twist nozzles with the capped droppers. (Never been a fan of the flip/snap tops.)
Don't forget to try their transparent paints line! Omg so goooood!
Ive been wanting to slowly get rid of my gw paints with another and this helps. Ill keep em till they run out but....
I've recently found out monument hobbies has released an alternative top for the proAcryl paint bottles.
No way!
@Lyla Mev - The Mini Witch I have the same complaint about the tops, so when I found the new tops, I ordered some.
They haven't showed up yet, so I can't comment on them. Yet.
@@LylaMev Yeah, I really like the round flip top ones. I wish they were the default! A trick with the regular ones though is to leave the bottles open for a bit after taking some out so the paint has time to flow back into the bottle and release the trapped air.
Yep, I bought the dropper tops for all of mine.
@@Tannhauser42 how are they?
I actually swapped over to Pro Acryl as my primary paint a few months ago. I love their paint and Jade was my favorite, but the new Bright Jade might fight for it. Jade and Dark Purple make a GORGEOUS blue too.
I am increasingly switching from Vallejo, Citadel and Army Painter to Green Stuff World as, living in Northern Europe I have had swift and easy delivery experiences from them, at great prices. They are also relatively easily available in the shops here. For a cheaper and slightly easier to use option to Kimera, I find Scale75 shares many of Kimeras positive properties while having a much wider selection. As I have just purchased an airbrush I expect to be exploring using inks a lot more now.
I definitely looked at this from Ann American view point
I tried Pro Acryl on a recommendation, and I have never looked back! I have about 36 years of mini painting experiance, and Pro Acryl is by far, my all time Favorite! The tops ARE annoying, yes! I tend to waste a tiny bit each time i use it, but that is a small price to pay. You can use PA strait in an airbrush, too! for base coating and simple highlights, i run them through both my Eclipse and Patriot uncut, I do thin them down when running them through my SOTAR and Infinity. I have been using the paints since early 2020.
also, I am looking to try Cuttlefish Colors, from Cephelpod Studios, next...... they are supposed to be pretty transparent throughout thier range....
I'm new to painting minis, thanks for sharing your tips, I'm finding them really helpful
I remember the days before internet shopping, when hobby shops only sold humbrol enamel for airfix planes, and the citadel box sets for models. We had a choice of 2 box sets of 9 paint that we had to mix to even make a basic flesh tone. Then came an ink set, but it was years before they developed a range of paints. Wet blending was something we learnt individually. Dry brushing was the expected norm.
ProAcryl does offer an alternate "normal" dropper cap but you have to buy those separately from the paints.
I literally just bought their entire line as a treat to myself. And you can use their transparent with GW contrast medium and make your own contrast paints
Where did you get them? The Basic set is out of stock on their website..
@@briane.johnson4235 from their website. I had ordered them like 2 weeks ago. I remember at some point in time they used to have a build your own set where you just picked out a certain number of bottles and then they would as a discount.
@@littleslappy Thanks for that info! I will see if the "pick and choose" option is still available.
This is SPOT ON for at least ProAcryl and GSW since those are the brands of the 4 you reviewed that I own. Your pros and cons are 100% in alignment with me, and I have only been painting for a year and don’t have an art degree (I’m an artistic engineer). Thanks for the great video!
I am a beginner with both painting and miniature painting. I started with a bunch of Tateyama Color paints recommended by my local hobby shop and... was not a fan. The paint REALLY prefers sticking to itself than even a well primered surface, so if it was even the SLIGHTEST bit damp when I went to add another layer, it would just lift off and I'd be back to bare primer. Then I got Liquitex Gauche in Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, White, and Black (Sorry art people: "Primary Blue", "Primary Red", Yellow, Black and White) since I have a background in photography and photo printers and just started mixing all my colors from primaries. I LOVE the Liquitex Gauche! It is super opaque (and fairly thick) unless thinned, but glides on with no effort, can be painted over while still quite wet (probably embedding some bad habits it's so forgiving on this) and it really just feels like the paint is working FOR me. Probably going to pick up a brown and a could skin tones so I don't have to keep mixing those all the time, but loving the paints.
I've had a good experience with Pro Acryl other than the tops to their paints, shout out to Bright Ivory. But as a lover of magenta.....noted, on the Chimera magenta.
Warcolour - Their crystal sable brushes are now my all time favorite. I got afew paints. I have not learned to use them yet, but plan to. ProAcryl - I went all in. Worth it. Got the dropper tops to replace the twist tops. They can get chalky if you thin them too much but flowaid / medium helps. Still love P3 & Citadel but finally starting to transfer them to dropper bottles. Also still love Reaper & Vallejo. And yes I prefer a matt finish. Shieldwolf is cool, but I wish they were bigger. 32 to 40 is my prefered size.
ProAcryl's Transparent White is a total game changer for painting sheer white, highlighting pale sections, or highlighting NMM. The intense white paints can be difficult to thin without being chalky. This is a soft white, almost a glaze. It is among my favorite bottles now.
Im 99% sure transparents are inks in acylic meduim.
I had never thought to use the white that way. I'll have to try it out, thanks!
Thank you for this (and to the commenter who mentioned pro acryl new lids)! I've been looking to branch out with paints and this has convinced me. As for other paints I've tried, I really like Turbo Dork. They're expensive and metallic only, but they do some great shifting paints and just really pop overall. Thanks again!
I just use my 27 year old citadel paints with ink and mediums . I dont paint with metalics . I don't paint professionally as a full time job . Nice to know someone is reviewing new paints so i don't have too .
Pro Acryl Jade is indeed SO GOOD. A real treasure. I haven't tried the other brands you've mentioned, but I'm surprised to see how Warcolors performed since I've heard good things about the glaze range at least. That's good to know. Hardly an indie brand, but I've recently gotten some Apple Barrel paints after Eons of Battle recommended their satin black (I can confirm it's excellent) and much of their matte range is less than a buck. I was expecting them to be good for drybrushing at least, but so far I've been really impressed by how well they glaze even without thinning. I imagine it's because the pigment density is lower, but it's still not grainy, and the paint itself is nice and thick, so getting very fine glazes is super easy. I also really like Sennelier's Abstract line. Like the Apple Barrel, it's not very opaque so you kinda have to get a glob of paint on the brush and then spread it over the model if you don't want to end up needing five coats, but once I got the hang of it I found it was really worth it for just how buttery smooth the finish is, no visible brush strokes at all. I just got a few flesh tones from them after falling in love with their Caput Mortum colour, because I have a hunch they'll do very well on busts and larger models with a lot of skin.
I was really surprised about war colours as well! at first I thought that once I tried my second model it would go a lot better, but when it didn't I chalked it up to the paints themselves. But if anyone has any suggestions as to what I was doing wrong I would love to hear them! I tried to give all the brands a good shot.
Been really enjoying Green Stuff World and P3 lately. Gonna go to my LGS this weekend and see if they still have that box of Kimera on the shelf.
Good luck!
Have most of the pro-acryl line minus the metallics. Love'em. As many have already said, they do offer additional cap options, either a flip or a precision drop. Went with the precision one and replaced all my caps, very happy with the change, and always a satisfied Monument customer. Paint is great, have even gifted some to a buddy,
Also picked up the Kimera and the 1st expansion. Haven't used it much or at all so far. Waiting for a non-army centric piece to hit my desk.
I love Pro Acryl. I got the starter set for Xmas and I've fallen head over heels for their range. I love the matte finish on them, and the colors are so vibrant and really pop on the minis.
For Green Stuff World, I'd have to agree 100%. They are great for padding out your collection of paints with their specialty products, but I wouldn't base my collection on them. I'm an especially big fan of GSW's special effects range of paints. Orc Bloid, Tau Blood, Coagulated Blood and Darth Maxx (their version of Blackest Black) are all great paints. I just ordered some colorshift paints for my Warpcoven KT, so I'm not sure how well they work yet, but I'm excited to give them a try when they get here.
I haven't tried War Colours, and I probably won't. Not necessarily because of this review, but I already have my trusted Pro Acryl and a nice collection of Citadel and Vallejo stuff from before I discovered PA. No need to add another paint line to the collection, since it's supposed to be a miniatures collection, not a paint collection 😅
Another great brand that I use in specific situations is AK Interactive. Their white is one of my favorite whites from any range. And their tri-color packs are pretty cool if you're a beginner to color theory. And if you're into military modeling AK has some great stuff. I might end up with more AK products in the future as I move into a more Grimdark style. AK's oils, enamels and weathering products are the best in the game, but now you're moving into some more advanced stuff and this video feels like it's more aimed at people that are new to the hobby
I’ve been thinking on getting pro acryl for a bit since I mostly use citadel and lots of their colors just don’t seem all that appealing to me(especially the whites and greys) and this video has just given me the confidence to say my next purchase of paints is gonna be from them cause I loved the colors and outcome, tho I will still use citadel contrast paints just cause I do enjoy them and all but pro acryl looks like it would fill the place of more traditional paints for me. 😸
I bought some GSW paints in December, they arrived late January and were frozen. Thankfully they refunded the paints, but I love their other products so I will probably keep using them...just not for paints...or at least during winter...
I paint military models but still only at a beginner level because even though it is a hobby of mine I have other hobbies that prefer to do more. I have always used paints from Airfix, Revell and Citadel and have done so for many many years.
Something between Kimera and Pro Acryl... have you looked at Scalecolor Artist Paints? They come in a tube, but they have a body with consistency between those two other brands. They work perfect on my wet palette for blending and thinning, and make the best mixes of any of my paints IMO.
I have not used any Kimera yet, but how is it to base with Kimera, and glaze over? Also, what paint would you recommend using to glaze over Kimera?
This video was one of the reasons, I gave Pro Acryl a try. I bought the Expansion Set 3, Copper and Bright Gold and have to say, that I really didn't like to work with the paints. Though the result is decent and the colors are nice (though they are bad paints). But it is so thin and don't blend well into each other. Also they don't stay workable on the palette long. The next day they are dead. P3 e.g. stays wet, moist and perfectly workable for a week and longer.
Both main Vallejo Lines, AK 3rd Gen, P3, Scale75 and even Citadel (for the most part) are imho far better paints.
I have a very large collection of acrylics, mostly Vallejo. But I need more working time to do what I want so I’ve switched to oils. Most brands of artist grade oils are consistently similar so there’s no huge issues.
As of late I found myself using Scale75 more and more. Both their main line and 'Fantasy and games' line have amazing colors to use. Most of their 'inktensity' products are also brilliant, if you know what you're doing (or willing to learn and experiment).
Also, Amsterdam is not a miniature paint brand, but their Ultramarine blue and Cobalt (ultramarine) blue work very well. Pyrrole red is great for mixes but is a little tricky to use on it's own, at least for me.
I'm a little curious about green stuff world and Pro Acryl.
intresting about the Pro Acryl I know a lot of people dislike the tops, they do a normal dropper lid on there site but I dont know stockist who stock it so have to buy direct from them wish they could sort this. As I have the whole range on order from a kickstarter
Just wanted to say Lyla that you have helped me tremendously not only
in my miniature painting but also across my model finishing spectrum.
Thank you very much!
Great channel lyla, keep it going.
as a beginner i use vallejo paints for their pricepoint & dropper bottles, for metallics i enjoy the citadel paint range and i have just recently tried army painter (dungeons & dragons edition) set for a splash of bright fantasy colours.
would recommend all 3 to a beginnner
Started with P3 paint - I feel like it's an exact consistency and coverage quality as Citadel at a fraction of the price. I've gotten their full set but mainly just use their metallics now (love their "Tarnished" metals); after P3 I backed the Instant Colours range from Kickstarter produced by Scale 75 - this gave me a complete set of "One Coat Coverage" paints at the time only comparable to Contrast paints...I'm a bit weird and I felt like the Contrast Line was a bit too "messy" and "color heavy" as I wanted to use them in a glazing manner which I can do with my Instant Colours. About 4 months ago I got the entire line of Pro Acryl (just got their new expansion last week) and I will agree that the more difficult colors like yellows or whites are not an issue with Pro Acryl - out of the paint's I've used (GSW/Citadel/Vallejo/Army Painter/P3/Turbo Dork/Scale 75) I cannot stop going back to Pro Acryl for their wonderful ease of coverage - by the time I have my wet pallet set up with 3 or 4 colors I find they are at a great consistency with the little bit of hydration from my pallet and wet paintbrush. The only time I even thin them really is for the airbrush and geeze the vibrancy of color you can build up from an airbrush with pro acryl is insane. The first light pass is muted - the second pass is more like a heavy wash that dried - the third pass Epic. So looking at my wall of paints the only ones I gravitate towards now are Pro Acryl and Vallejo Metal Color. A quick note on their Transparent line up (which I was hesitant to get since I had really nice Liquitex Inks) is the combination of Vallejo's White Aluminum Metal Color tinted and colored with the transparent Pro Acryl range allows you to sneak up easier to the metallic color you want to achieve that is some times harder to get from the pure ink mixed with the Metal Color which becomes very very cartoonishly colored quickly. Plus the Transparent line from Proacryl is wonderful in getting vibrant glazes by mixing and thinning with your paint instead of water. I'm nowhere near your level of painting and your skill in color mixing so I find this much easier for a more novice user like myself.
Jade is great - but the real winner for me is their Bright Yellow Green. I'm interested in trying our their primers in comparison to my normal Stynlrez Primers that are becoming harder to find and more expensive
I was a fan of the old Citadel range because of the colours plus those hexagonal pots with the black lids.... They never dry out, I've got still some around here with good paint in them. For the rest: It's Vallejo. 1 exception: for the gold metallic I use Revell enamel, for it's so good. And when I buy a new citadel pot, I poor it over into a P3 style pot, I bought a 1000 empty ones. The paint dries out quickly in the new Citadel pots, because the rims clog up...
You might be disappointed with the pro acryl magenta. It's a mixed pigment paint that relies heavily on white for opacity. Comes out more pink. I've recently supplemented my paints with golden so-flat acrylics as well as liquitex acrylic gouache. Both highly matte, highly pigmented, soft body artist acrylics. As a painter I've always had an assortment of artist paints on hand, but these two are the best so far for minis.
That's what people keep telling me!
Pro Acryl offers several different tops on their site which i was happy about! Just for those out there who didn't know.
My uni miniature club picked up the Pro Acryl starter paint and found it to be the best starter paint for new painters with the amount you get and introduction to dropper bottles. Wiping the top off does become annoying though. Their metalics are also worth checking out.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on Reaper's paints. Personally I enjoy them and find them easy to work with but noone ever seems to mention them anymore.
I agree, Reaper paints make up a lot of my current paints in the rack. I also do some Warcoulors, Greenstuff World, and Vallejo, but I love the color range of Reaper and the consistency seems pretty good for my style.
@@doc59911 I just recently got some GreenStuff World paints and I must say I really enjoy them. For me personally they are on par if not better than Reaper, which I never thought I'd say.
Green Stuff World have some amazing stuff. I've just started using their Ink Wash range to make glazes thinned with glaze medium. They take the harsh edges off highlights very well without obscuring the effect. GW shades are very good but I prefer the more uniform coverage from the GSW Ink Washes.
I got the kimera set by buying all the colors individually on their website as they became available
Hi, thanks for the video :) the most paints I have are Vallejo paints which are in my opinion pretty good. But I recently bought AK interactive 3rd gen paints an there amazing. Furthermore the Diorama series for basing is awesome to maybe you should check them out. Also army painter speedpaints really nice.
I think you should add that availability and posting speed may vary depending where you live in the world as it is obvious that a produkt shiped from the US to the US will be a lot quicker than a produkt shipped from the EU to the US an vice versa. Warcolours an pro acryl are hard to get here in germany while the others are not.
Maybe I'm just stubborn or that I only paint for the D&D group I DM, but my high school science teacher taught me to paint minis with cheap DecoArt Americana paint and that's all I've used. The main pros are the cost as most colors fall in the range of $1.50 for a 2oz/59mL bottle, the bottles are also readily available from Hobby Lobby/Michaels which also means if I really like a shade I mixed for a model (like a dark skin tone) I can mix up a whole bottle of it without breaking the bank, and most of the time the way they're displayed in the store makes it very easy to pick out highlights and shadows on a per color basis. They even have color-shifting paints which I've used for magic effects on models!
I get the impression that we aren't supposed to admit that we use DecoArt Americana paint.🤐 I have a massive collection of them.
Once I discovered monument it's hard to buy anything else for base coating/blending. The tops are a minor inconvenience especially compared to GW's paint pots.
I bought Kimera because it was highly recommended in the painting groups that I am in. I have to say that I do enjoy mixing the colors and getting that perfect blend of what I am looking for. However, they do dry quick and I'm still having trouble getting the consistency that I want for paints. They also dry matte, which can be a pain for some colors. It can make the colors look dull on the miniature. I used a black primer and ended up having to put several layers of paint, mostly red and purple, on just to even get the colors to really show up.
Other than that, I really do like them. I started paint with Citadel paints, and I have to say that even after transferring them to dropper bottles they still aren't my favorite. I'm starting to lean more toward Vallejo Game Colors for my painting range that I use and enjoy.
Word of advice don’t use black primer. It will save you hours and hours of time.
Only use black if you are going to zynithal prime. Meaning spray with white from above. They will preshade your mini.
Enjoyed the video. Would love to see you review The Army Painter's colors.
Interestingly I was recently in a gaming store in Florence Italy and saw the Greenstuff World paints being sold from a display there.
I keep reaching for Pro-Acryl. I replaced all the tips with the alternate dropper, but found shaking them up and down makes a mess within the cap. Works great with Typhoon mixer though. I want to get more into color mixing with Kimera Kolors and Scale 75 artist but again I keep reaching for Pro-Acryl. Vallejo Metal Color is still the best metallic so far. I use Secret Weapon Weathering acrylic and washes quite a bit, really like the out of bottle readiness here.
I heard Pro-Acryl is going to release a wash medium pretty soon.. I can't wait for this!