Army Painter Warpaints - are they all this bad?

[Dr. Zombie]

Don't get me started on their sprays!

I have had nothing but trouble with their sprays.

[Malebolgia]

Agreed...they are so weird in behaviour. I've had so many different results with using the same spray can. And yes, I followed the instructions well and made sure the weather conditions were great. But even it was so hit and miss I stopped using them.
Funny thing is that the cheapest spray cans I can get over here are the best I have! For instance, the cheap gloss varnish spray has never ever gave my any problems...even when it was pouring, misty or freezing.

[beefcake]

I use them a lot and find them great. I'm no amazing painter though. If I don't shake it enough they are thin and translucent but then I usually just shake some more, not a huge amount, and they are fine. I wouldn't say they are thin at all when I use them. Quite the opposite in fact. Then again I'm no where near pro painting ability so...

[Chairface]

Don't get me started on their sprays!

I have had nothing but trouble with their sprays.

I love their sprays Such a time saver. I've only had bad experience with one can or the MANY that I've owned.  I had been using a lot of AP washes and paints, but I did notice that the paints were on the thin side. Last summer I bought a paint shaker and I will never go without one again. Great for AP, reaper, Vallejo etc. I've even brought a few of the horrible gw paints back to life by putting in a little bit of medium and shaking for a reasonable amount of time.

[Codsticker]

I don't have trouble with their sprays either. Their Skeleton Bone (or whatever it's called) doesn't cover great; if you try to get good coverage you end up with a satin finish that doesn't take other paint well. But other than that- no problems.

[Ragsta]

I’ve had one black and one white come out like extra crunchy peanut butter (and I hate that stuff!). Found a bunch of their bottles to be rather thin and started moving to Vallejo instead.

AP do the job but there is a weird quality as previously discussed - I have now added glass agitator beads to all of mine and there’s been an immediate improvement.

AP Matt Varnish Spray and Matt Black I like a lot and I also make great use of their washes but for the paints it’s going to be a transition to Vallejo

[Captain Blood]

Okay, for the record, let me show you what I'm talking about.

Here are two figures, both undercoated with dark brown enamel spray, then each given one even coat of hobby paint, straight from the bottle.
Both bottles have been stored upside down, vigorously shaken, stirred, and then a blob of paint dispensed to the palette, and brushed straight on.

The maroon colour is Army Painter, the blue is Vallejo.





As you can see, the Vallejo coat is flat matt, totally opaque, and highly pigmented.
The Army painter is none of these things. It is translucent - you can see through it - not opaque, it is nowhere near as tonally deep (irrespective of the colour itself, it is  less intense because it lacks pigmentation), and it dries to a semi-shiny finish.
The AP also leaves small but visible ridges and lumps where the brushstrokes have passed, because of the glutinous property of the wretched stuff.

In short - it's shit. What more can I say?

[syrinx0]

I think the picture says it all for you.    A friend just picked up a full set of their paints.  I will have to see if his cover as poorly.

[Westfalia Chris]

It's disappointing, but I don't think this is a properly fair comparison - I have almost all the reds from the VMC line, and except the flat red, in my experience neither would produce a similar result on dark tones as the mid and dark blue tones.

Still, I think it is a weak coverage, but most reds and yellows are unless you get nasty stuff like Cadmium into the mix.

[Captain Blood]

As ever, Chris, I admire your dedication to fairness. I fear in this case you may be defending the indefensible though

Here he is again, this time with Vallejo 'Red Leather' (to the left) and GW 'Evil Sunz Scarlet' (right) - again, both products shaken, then one coat painted on straight from the bottle (well, via the palette), with no additions - just lightly brushed out to achieve an even coverage.
These are red/yellow spectrum shades, and I'm not sure they are any less opaque or flat matt than the previous Vallejo blue example.
I'll admit you do get a tiny bit of show-through by the undercoat here and there under the GW red; none at all under the Vallejo red-brown. But nothing like the shiny transparency of the AP product.
The fundamental problem with the AP paint is that you can't brush it out to achieve an even coverage. Because it's a thin, viscous glop, you just see straight through it. And it's exactly the same stuff from the top to the bottom of the bottle.



Why am I banging on about this? Because it amazes me that a product that is supposedly expressly designed for painting wargames miniatures, is so badly formulated for its intended task. I just think it's incredibly poor.
I agree their washes/inks are great, and their sprays are fine too in my limited experience. But their core product - small bottles of coloured acrylic paint designed for painting toy soldiers, do not appear to be fit for purpose.

Unless of course - to return to my original question - it's just the two bottles of Army Painter paints that I have that suffer from this failure. But to judge from many of the comments made above, I don't think this is just a rare duff batch... 

In short, it looks like they need to sort out their product.

Maybe someone will direct them to this thread.

[OSHIROmodels]

Having these as Lannisters then?

 

[Westfalia Chris]

That's quite the difference, indeed. I must admit, though, that I only use the Army Painter Washes shades in the dripper bottles and their superglue.

Also, I didn't realize how much thicker you apply the paint than I do. That might explain the translucency on my side.

[Evil Bob]

I’ve had mixed results with AP as well. The sprays I’ve used work fine but the bottles of paint give me issues like others have posted.

And this is after adding agitators and using a vortex mixer with them to insure they are mixed! Some colors work fine and others are basically unusable.

I have had good results airbrushing them, however. They spray great and cover well using Liquitex Airbrush Medium to thin them.

[Bloggard]

not having any AP paints (only one bad experience with a spray can long ago - but it was a bit RTFM I think ) I probably shouldn't comment, but not long back Nick Northstar told me on the frostgrave board that Kevin Dallimore has gone over to using AP paints - pretty sure that's what he said - haven't checked the post ... so go figure (if you'll excuse the pun) as we've all seen the results he gets...

particularly ironic for me, as I'd whipped myself up into a Dallimore-admiring frenzy, and, based in particular on one blog paints' review I read which stressed Foundry's superior pigmentation, and thinking Dallimore still used their triads, purchased £400 worth of Foundry paints last October...

Not sure if somethings changed with them, but I'm finding them thin and tending to shininess 

[beefcake]

I may try some bottles of Vallejo to compare myself when I next need a new bottle.