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Other Stuff => Workbench => Topic started by: Leftblank on 01 January 2017, 09:21:52 PM

Title: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: Leftblank on 01 January 2017, 09:21:52 PM
Blogpost about comparing several paint brands with Citadel, with links to other, longer reviews, link here: http://amsterdam6shooters.nl/node/927 (http://amsterdam6shooters.nl/node/927)

Quote
I was getting doubts however about GW-paints and about the necessity of buying specialist 'miniature paints' in general after a creeping discontent with GW's current range of acrylics. Despite positive reviews, I feel that the paint dries out relatively quickly and and doesn't mix with water as good as the 'old' range.
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: Sir_Theo on 01 January 2017, 09:52:06 PM
I gave up on GW paints a few years ago and haven't looked back.  My paints are a mixture of AP,  Vallejo and Coat D'Arms with a few bits and bobs if other stuff. 
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: has.been on 01 January 2017, 10:09:07 PM
I stopped relying on them when I highlighted one of their greens with another, only to find they were (supposedly)
the same colour!!!!!
I now do my undercoating with a 'burnt umber' match-pot & most of my painting with sets of acrylic paints from £ land.
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: Nord on 01 January 2017, 10:15:55 PM
You bought Army Painter because they don't need thinning? You are in for a hard time if you never thin your paints. Paints are never the correct consistency straight out of the pot/tube. And they are affected by all sorts of things - temperature, humidity, etc. I have some Army Painter stuff and it's probably thicker than most of my others - coat d'arms, vallejo, GW et al. It doesn't matter, you  just have to thin it down a bit.
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: Froggy the Great on 01 January 2017, 11:55:42 PM
I found Reaper's Master Series paints and never looked back.
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: SotF on 02 January 2017, 02:29:12 AM
Never really focused exclusively on any specific brand of minipaint.

I'd also used normal craft paints (There's a great metallic blue and red colors I've really liked there), and I've used decoration paints (My old Vampire Counts force utilizes a glow in the dark blue paint that I get from a friend who works on various decoration things from haunted houses and the like, and getting a few things of it off and on is rather easy).

Hell, some of the heavier latex paints for house painting have uses (It tends to work rather well for a lot of applications in gap filling and is a cheaper/easier option than working greenstuff into the gaps or liquid greenstuff).

I've got Citadel, Army Painter, P3, Reaper and a few other paint types scattered through my stuff that I tend to use.
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: FramFramson on 02 January 2017, 08:26:44 PM
I found Reaper's Master Series paints and never looked back.

That's funny. I got a free sample of some of those MSP paints and it was such junk I threw it out (only time I've ever thrown out minis paint save the time my old Ral Partha paints sat for ten years unused and all went hard).
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: Froggy the Great on 03 January 2017, 02:34:56 AM
That's funny. I got a free sample of some of those MSP paints and it was such junk I threw it out (only time I've ever thrown out minis paint save the time my old Ral Partha paints sat for ten years unused and all went hard).
Different strokes for different folks, I guess.  I love them.
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: Johnno on 03 January 2017, 03:14:13 AM
I still use GW stuff I have kicking around but mostly buy Vallejo and Reaper now. Got into using Vallejo when I started doing WWII and Reaper when they sent me a bunch of free stuff for a club I run. Use whichever colour I find most appealing...
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: Tactalvanic on 03 January 2017, 12:34:33 PM
Vallejo, Scale75 - other oddments - craft paints, acrylic gesso and some enamels to, even some old 90's pots of GW paint - that still are usable.

None of the newer GW paint.

Basically Vallejo most of the time until recently and finding I really like the Scale75 stuff a lot, now that I bought and tried some.
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: FramFramson on 03 January 2017, 08:06:17 PM
Different strokes for different folks, I guess.  I love them.

The bottle I got felt very separated, like there was too much carrier and the paint wasn't sitting well in it, so when painted it was thin and almost oily (in a bad way). It could just have been a bottle that got very separated (I shook it well, as I do with all paints, especially dropper bottle ones). It's possible it was a bad batch, but that was the first, and so far only, bottle of MSP I've tried.  

I got it directly from Reaper though, as a sample with a minis order. So I figured if this was direct from the company (instead of, say, sitting around in a store for ages) and specifically intended to show me how great their paints are, it didn't really reflect well on the line!
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: Dolmot on 03 January 2017, 08:23:12 PM
I got a free bottle of Master Series once too. I tried it. It felt really thin. Then I forgot about it. Maybe a year later my brain finally registered that it's called "Green Liner", which apparently means very thin paint you're supposed to use for gentle shading or darklining.

Maybe not the best option for a sample pot, sent without any explanation...
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: FramFramson on 05 January 2017, 01:33:28 AM
Mine was just a generic brown.

I suspect they send out whatever they've got too much of at the moment.
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: Pijlie on 05 January 2017, 06:57:58 AM
I ditched GW paints years ago because of the short lifespan of their pots.

I now use a mix of brands, mostly Vallejo/Model Color paints, GW inks, Talens 115 varnish and various brands of spray-on primers.

Tried Armypainter dip a few times but found it too smelly, to slow to dry and too shiney. And on top of that it reacted with some underlying paints and plastics and never dried in those cases. I still have to strip and repaint my entire Zombicide base box for that reason.
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: Daeothar on 05 January 2017, 12:28:09 PM
For many years it was only Citadel paints for me, mainly because it was the only brand available around here. Then a local modeltrain shop started carrying Vallejo and I haven't looked back since.

Right now, my paint drawer is loaded with about 80% Vallejo, 18% Citadel/GW (all leftovers from back when really; I haven't bought a GW paint in years) and some small amounts of special paints, washes etc from Modelmates, Armypainter and others.

In the garage, I have about 20 cans of acrylic spraypaints and primers of assorted brands. Only a few are actual 'miniature paints' though; most are from either the crafts store or Action. I seem to use Armypainter white for undercoating mostly, and Testor's Dullcote for varnishing.

And I have some cheap craft paints for terrain projects as well. Plus a huge bucket of latex wall-paint I had mixed up to match GW Graveyard Earth as closely as possible for use on terrainboards etc. I've been using it for years, on some very large projects too, and so far, I haven't even put a dent in the contents! I do most of my basing with it too, and I'm good to go for many, many years to come with that bucket...

As an aside; it bears noticing that about a quarter of those Citadel paints still in my drawer are the old soft, white flip-top, hex-pots, which are probably 25 years or so old and are still usable today!
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: Pijlie on 05 January 2017, 12:57:30 PM

As an aside; it bears noticing that about a quarter of those Citadel paints still in my drawer are the old soft, white flip-top, hex-pots, which are probably 25 years or so old and are still usable today!

Yes, you're right. These pots were very good. Stiil, they can't hold a candle to eye dropper bottles. I have a few Citadel ink bottles left over from their very first set of inks, way back around 1988 I think. They are a bit garish and very shiney, but I still use them on occasion!
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: Mindenbrush on 05 January 2017, 10:40:47 PM
Never been much of a GW paint user, just their Boltgun and Tinbitz metallics.

Main paints of choice are Foundry, Vallejo Model Colour and breaking into Reaper Triads.

Some of the Reaper paints are a bit suspect - I cannot get the Black to work at all no matter how much I shake it and the Fair Skin Tones sit at the back of the paint rack, but all the others I have work really well.

All a matter of personal choice really.
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: Andrew May on 05 January 2017, 11:49:27 PM
I love the current GW paints. The "base" range in particular are fantastic, nothing I've tried covers like them in terms of matte opacity. I've got a few other bits and bobs, a couple of my favourites are "miniature paints" brand, technically crap but I love the colours "leather brown" and "copper green" I think they're called without checking. Rubbish coverage, inconsistent particle size, terrible lids that stick to the (glass!) pot but I love 'em dearly.
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: grant on 15 January 2017, 02:31:26 PM
I haven't used the current range, the last iteration of the black flip tops were ok; I now have over 300 Vallejo Model and Air, plus Army Painter washes which I like.
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: dampfpanzerwagon on 15 January 2017, 03:27:23 PM
I have quite a supply of old Citadel pots which with Vallejo bottles are my mainstay for painting - don't get me wrong. I have lots of other manufacturers paints, many, many different paint suppliers but the old Citadel and Vallejo are the main ones.

I have not had good experience with the new Citadel paints and find them expensive so without exception I will not be buying them.

Tony
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: The Voivod on 15 January 2017, 06:51:12 PM
Haven't looked back since I started using Valejo.

I do use some of the GW technicals, which I like, and some glazes.
I'm curious to their snow effect.
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: Reed on 16 January 2017, 11:01:42 PM
Mostly Vallejo (Model Color) with some Americana acrylics (59 ml. pots) I found in a shop in front of my house at 2'25 €. I'm considering using some Liquitex acrylics, which I've discovered in a fine arts store at 5 € a tube of 118 ml.
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: DivisMal on 17 January 2017, 09:17:19 AM
Yes, you're right. These pots were very good. Stiil, they can't hold a candle to eye dropper bottles. I have a few Citadel ink bottles left over from their very first set of inks, way back around 1988 I think. They are a bit garish and very shiney, but I still use them on occasion!

Dudes! Isn't that amazing. I also have two of those pots still left and in usage. What I hated however, was that the white appendix of the lid used to fall off quickly and then you were really in for a challenge to open your paint (without splattering it all overt the ground...did that once when I was very young...wasn't approved by my mom)!

Nowadays I still use citadel, however mostly their shades/glazes/washes and their technical stuff (blood is very good as are the "gem"-effects). They still do make pretty good colours, especially the light ones, but they are too expensive and dry out quickly.
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: rumacara on 17 January 2017, 12:13:39 PM
Mainly vallejo and foundry with some GW mettalics and the odd old cans.
Sometimes i also use vallejo model air for washes (diluted of course).
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: wellender on 17 January 2017, 03:58:28 PM
I use Reaper MSP and HD paints now.  The samples they send out are often cast offs that for some reason didn't meet the criteria for sale.  Usually they are an off color.  Could be why you are seeing mixed results with sample bottles.  All of mine have been pretty good though.
Title: Re: Adultery! Or: Why I Abandoned Citadel Paints
Post by: cram on 21 January 2017, 11:09:19 PM
Mainly Foundry and Vallejo for me. I've got some GW paints also. Over the years I've amassed a huge amount of paint and it's steadily growing all of the time!