Vallejo paints vs GW

[strewart]

Well, today my first pot of vallejo arrived and since there have been a few threads on it lately I thought I would report. I want to also make this thread for other people to post their firsthand experience of the different paint brands, not what you have heard but firsthand experience so we get a bit of a comparison closer to home. So if you have tried others, tell us what you think!

The first and most obvious thing is the pot is larger than GW holding 5ml more and is cheaper! Next, I open the lid and there is a dropper system so I can very easily control how much comes out, and there is no wastage in having to rinse the excess from a brushful off. This also means you don't have to change your water every time you use an ink because far less gets to the jar. Nice. I want a pot or two like this to put water in so I can very easily control ratios of paint or ink and water. Again, much better than getting a brushful.

So I tip it upside down carefully, and none comes out. Good, some droppers tend to squirt out under pressure. A gentle squeeze and a drop comes out. It appears a lot thicker than GW ink, possibly higher pigment level though it didn't end up quite as dark as the GW blue after just 1 coat (50% water). The effect on the model looks quite similar to GW aside from being a little lighter, but it dries up a lot differently to GW. Quite thickly, maybe more water is needed.

Another thing you notice straight away is it has a fairly strong odour. Of course all of us are fume heads from being exposed to so much paint and glue anyway, so it wasn't unbearable in any way, a bit worse smelling than GW ink. I will also add that it tastes worse than any paint I have tasted yet, even worse than brown paint. If you are a brush licker definitely try to resist with these things.

I'll try to get a comparison pic up at some stage. Overall, I am pretty happy with how it turned out and think it is a good alternative to the now dead GW blue ink. My skinks will be a simple 3 steps; regal blue followed by ice blue followed by blue ink. Well... For the skin anyway. The scales have 7 layers of highlighting. :S

Hope this is helpful to some.

 

[J.J.]

Hey Strewart - I've also had good luck with the Vallejo inks as replacement for GW's inks, although I echo your comments about thickness - they do need to be watered down significantly.

On a related note - those dropper bottles are the absolute best. I switched to Vallejo Game Color mostly instead of GW paints (I just use the GW metallics/washes now, plus some of the foundation line), and it makes mixing so effortless. No more tedious trial-and-error to match the color you used last week - I find a mix I like, I just jot down the number of drops of each color in a notebook along with what I used the color for, and matching becomes virtually effortless. In fact, even when I use GW colors I typically pour the paint into a washed-out Vallejo pot just so I can use the dropper - I'm that spoiled. Sorry for pouring my soul out about the dropper, but for anyone who mixes colors a lot I can't recommed it enough.