Citadel? Vallejo? Army Painter? other brands i dont know?

[LucidLovecraft]

what paints should i use?

im a complete beginner when it comes to painting.

i know certain people have there favourites and i would like to know why

Also as a beginner is it worth buying the beginner/starter paint sets?

Should i get decent brushes now or later?

Can you mix brands, not like mix on a palette i mean can i paint a models skin with citadel and clothing with vallejo?

Should i just buy say 5 prime colours first?

sorry for so many questions but you guys have really been brilliant on here, helping me get into this hobby

Thank you all!

[Mako]

I personally like Vallejo, most of my paint is their Game Colour range, with some Model Colour, some GW stuff, and the occasional P3 paint too. Mixing them is totally fine, each behaves a bit differently so having several makes gives you some more options.

In therms of basic colours, you probably want a red, yellow, blue, green, purple, brown, cream, skintone, black, and white. Oh, maybe an orange and a silver / gold (I like Vallejo for Metallics, some people swear by their Model air range). That would be my selection to give you the ability to mix any colour you want without too much messing about.

Don't spend a fortune on brushes as a beginner, but don't get cheap rubbish either. Luckily for you, Rosemary and Co make sensibly priced, top of the line brushes, and she's based in Keighley so postage isn't too bad. I'd suggest a 0, 1 and 2 of the series 33.

[Guy in Suit]

I am a big fan of vallejo for most colors.

I've also had a fair amount of success with the new reaper line, and GW for foundations and washes.

Really, all the name brand paints are quite good these days. You may find you like certain manufacturers better for certain colors. I suggest you grow your collection organically based on what you are actually painting, and don't be afraid to try a little of each.

[Mister Monkey]

Paints from different companies usually mix well, and as with most thing favourite paint brands is a personal thing.

I suggest maybe buying a couple of a few different brands and trying them out see which ones suit you the best....

[Mako]

Monkey and Guy in Suit are dead on, try them all and see what works and each tie you need a new paint look at them all to see what's the best fit.

It all depends on how you want them to behave and what works for you.

[Serigala]

Can you mix brands, not like mix on a palette i mean can i paint a models skin with citadel and clothing with vallejo?

I've never had any problem mixing different brands of paint on a pallette. They are all fairly similar.

Vallejo's dropper dispensers are great...keep paint for a long time...and allow small amounts of paint to be taken without drying out the entire pot. Saying that I am still using some citadel paints which are 30 years old!

Look online for instructions on how to make a wet pallette. Basically plastic tub with a sealable lid, a layer of blotting paper or the thin sponge insert from a Malifaux boxset then greaseproof paper on top. Water keeps the blotting paper/spong damp, paint is mixed on the greaseproof paper. Keeps mixes workable for a long time.

[MetaphoricDragn]

My thoughts go as follows:

First, What do you have access too, if you feel you're going to be using a lot of paint, you don't want to always wait on an order to ship to replace something. So what your LGS stocks might be a key point.

Second, What color do you want. Check different brands to see what best hits the color you want.

As a whole I tend to use citadel paints, particular for basic colors as they are easy for me to replace at nearly any gaming store. However, the two main colors on my Menoth army are from Reaper Master Series paints as they had a great off-white color I wanted for my Menites. I also used the Privateer Press' p3 Frostbite paint as it worked great for my icy Rasputina crew.

[ICleadpeople]

I use all the paints you have listed there and P3. I regularly mix them with no problem. I think the Reaper master series brushes are a good start. You will get a lot of use from any brush as long as you take care of it. I clean with pink Soap after every paint session.

GW panit for me is too costly.

Reapers are fantastic with a huge selection.

Model colors are good, but dry to flat for my taste.

Game colors are good GW replacements.

P3/Foundry are my personal favorite because I like to use a wet pelette and do a lot of wet blending/feathering.

If all you have near you is GW there is nothing wrong with using that.

[decker_cky]

Army painter washes are great if you got used to GW's devlan mud and babab black washes from their old range. Near perfect matches.

Reaper is great, and has the triads of colours making highlighting a breeze. Nice way to help you figure things out. I also find that because they don't colour match GW as much as Vallejo, they have some interesting colours that always catch my eyes.

Vallejo is always good. Nice selection, good colour matches with GW's old range (important for some people) and good quality.

Army painter is good too. Their metallics got great reviews in particular but I haven't had much of a chance to mess around with them. Haven't had any issues with the basic colours, but the range is a bit limited compared to the competition. Not a weakness per se, but it means you likely need to supplement it with other ranges.

GW has nice specialist paints. Tough to beat their foundation paints, and their drybrush paint is handy too. For all the standard stuff, I don't really buy GW anymore, as it isn't any better quality, and you get less paint for more money. Texture paint is terrible - stay away from it.

[*Jack*]

I'd shy away from getting a "Starter set" of paints, because it's quite expensive to begin with.

You need loads of various colours, but I'd recommend getting them as and when when you need them. What are you painting to begin with? Death Marshal? Then get a brown, a black, a silver, a skintone and possibly a green or blue for the flames from the coffin.

I'd recommend vallejo - Lovely paints, fairly cheap. Heard good things about p3 too. In general, citadel is expensive for what you get, so I'd recommend shying away, but its up to you, they've apparently improved stuff with their new range. As for brushes, you want something decent, but not top tier. I'd go for citadel, or army painter brushes. Both will last a decent while if you take care of them (And my god, you need to take care of your brushes!) and are fairly cheap, about £3ish I think.

Get yourself some washes too. Army painted strong tone (brown) and dark tone (black) are the same as the old citadel devlan mud and badab black, and they're amazing. They will make your painting look much better with only a tiny amount of effort. I love washes

[Ben Steele]

I'll second the vote for Army Painter washes as a replacement for GWs Dev.Mud.

I started using Army Painter when they first came out, the colour spray primers are fantastic although not really economical when your only painting skirmish game mini's as you end up with half can's knocking about for ages.

As for brushes you really need to start off with something decent, I'm not saying spend hard earned cash on Kolinsky Sable but there are plenty of reasonably priced Sable brushes out there that will last a long time if looked after. I got some recently from the guys that supply me with bases www.fatspider.co.uk (I think I got the link from this forum long before I joined) their brushes are very good value and hold their points well, service is good too, ordered mine at 3.30 in the afternoon and they dropped though the letterbox the following morning! The only drawback is they only take payment with Paypal.

[LucidLovecraft]

so i went for it and ordered myself some Vallejo paints as it seems to get good reviews from almost everyone and i like the droppers because i think i will save paint and waste less.

I ordered:

Dead White

Pale Flesh

Bald Moon Yellow

Bloody Red

Royal Purple

Ultra Marine Blue

Sick Green

Filthy Brown

Black

Steel Grey

Silver

Warlord Purple

Squid Pink

what you guys think?

[Mako]

That's a good range, the one thing I'd say is to be ready to mix the skin with other stuff to make it look right, the bronze and pale fleshtones on their own aren't quite right in my opinion. That's just my personal thing though.

[dgraz]

That's a good range, the one thing I'd say is to be ready to mix the skin with other stuff to make it look right, the bronze and pale fleshtones on their own aren't quite right in my opinion. That's just my personal thing though.

So what's off? What do you mix in?

[Mako]

With the pale, I find it a touch pink so I mix in a bit of leather, maybe a touch of olive. The bronzed I usually add in some bone white. And then of course for specific skin tones there's a whole array of things I mix in.

That's entirely my preference though, I've never looked at a model and thought it looked off and been able to tell it's because of that colour. I just thought it was worth mentioning that skin tones are the bit that I find need adjusting the most.

[dgraz]

Experienced opinions are worth having. Thanks.

[JisaacT]

Im going to write a simple guide to painting here in a bit so keep an eye out for it

[CaptSSinbad]

Hello... I'm Dad Buying for my 14age Daughter, I live in a Mobile home trailer but I spent a lot of my money on her than my bills, She has the Complete set of "Conan Kickstarter" & the Complete set of "Mythic Battle Pantheon," (Core, Pandora, Expansions,) She loves reading Greek Mythology, That was how it started, (It's Wonderful to see a young person love to read, always encourage that in a child,) To the Point, not knowing what to buy, I bought all the Army Painters wash , Ink, Effects, & Colors, (80 Bottles) My thoughts on how I made my Decision was 1st, - was the Eye drop Bottle, (No Brainer) 2nd, - there web site shows Growth & investment to be a reputable Company, There Web site looks Awesome, & 3rd, - *(my favorite reason) The Paint names are so cool listed on the Bottles to help a young person new to it to in-joy painting, Example, The colors "Old Boots" brown for boots "Were Wolf Fur" for wolves "Disgusting Slime", "Wet Mud", "Hemp Rope" & so on & so on.... That looks to me Amazingly easy to focus on painting... 4th, Attractive Bottles, Clarity, the colored caps for a Purpose, 5th, - 6oz bottles, more?.... To me its a new Company that will be #1 in 5 years, Even investing in Stock, (what do I know about stock?)... But am just Dad, my day it was Testers & I was very good at it, now you have "wash" & "ink"... * Did I go wrong or did I take the right path with Army Painter, Clearly a Excellent Beginners start..