Which brands are the good ones?
In the past I've heard Delta Ceramcoat and Plaid's Folkart and Apple Barrel praised, on CMoN no less, but apart from a couple of bottles of Folkart I've had trouble finding them over here. I've heard Anita's described as a junk brand, but that's the one I've used the most and I think it's pretty good. They've got a nice range of more muted colours with generally decent matt coverage. Not much worse than some mini paints and colours. (See Anita's coffee on the right side of
this swatch. It didn't need much more brushing-on than the foundations and bases and vallejos etc. beside it.)
The two brands I'd advise you to steer clear of if you see them, are Royal & Langnickel's Essentials and Lefranc & Bourgeois' Multi. (Latter seems to be long gone from their site, anyway) One relentlessly glossy and a bit transparent (when you can't make a decently opaque black...) the other chalky with an immense colour shift.