So growing up I used Citadel Paint, they were made of awesome and they tasted funny. I stopped really doing anything Warhammer wise for a while, then I got back into it with the 2014 Stormclaw box set, except my paints had mostly dried up. So I bought myself a new paint starter kit and set to work on the plastic-y goodness.
It was at this point that I discovered something had gone terribly wrong, those wondrous Citadel Paints of old had been replaced with an inferior more expensive brew. Dry brushing had become impossible because to do so would remove the layer of paint below, even holding the model, would take the paint off. Needless to say, my return to the hobby did not last long.
Forwards we go to the release of Blood Bowl 2016, which as we know I bought, to go along with this purchase I decide I need some paints that actually work. I decide on Army Painter, primarily because there was a shop in town that sold them, so if I decided I wanted a particular colour I could go and get it.
Now Army Painter paints have their pros and cons, the big pro for me was that the paint stayed on the model and the washes were nice and matt, unlike Citadel inks which have always been very glossy. The cons however were that the paint was surprisingly thin. To the point that several coats were required to achieve a decent opacity. Some of the colours were even incapable of achieving opacity, looking at you Oak Brown… I found that mixing the colour I wanted with some white gave me a suitable base that two or three applications of the actual colour could then cover satisfactorily.
All this meant that I was forced to continue with the stratagey I had developed in my last few days of painting with Citadel Paints. Paint block colours and apply an appropriate wash. Which isn’t what I enjoy doing, I love a good dry brush, and for years I just couldn’t.
Forward again we go to two weeks ago, where there was a threat at work that I might be called apon to paint some miniatures for a new client. (The job doesn’t seem to have come to fruition.) And all our company paints that we use for various applications (Citadel) had dried up, oh those Games Workshops and their lids that don’t seal. So my first concern is that we need new paints, my second concern is that I’m supposed to be doing a good paint job. And if I’m going to do a good paint job I need to play to my strengths. So that’s Citadel and Army Painter out, and I need to be able to recommend something.
So I decided to buy myself some Vallejo Game Color, as we all know Vallejo and Citadel used to be one and the same. Those were the halcyon days. Having looked about the internet a bit Game Color seems to get a bad rap for not being Model Color, but I love ’em. I painted up one of my Stone Trolls that have been sat wanting paint for years.
That’s one coat of Game Color blue I’ve daubed on him, over black. Army Painter can’t do that, Citadel can, but then the paint would come off if you touched it. And the finished model.
The one thing I will say against Game Color so far, is the black is very glossy. So where I did a black wash over the model he developed glossy recesses, and no one wants that… So I had him sprayed with a matt lacquer at work. My job does have the occasional perk.
But all in all it’s been a joy, after so many years of not being able to paint properly to suddenly have that back. I certainly know what I’ll be doing with my weekend. And yes, Game Color does taste funny.
