Vallejo Game Color Advanced Acrylic Paint Set - Assorted Colours (Pack of 16)

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The silver paints are okay, but rather thin, their consistency is more like airbrush paint and much thinner than the old Game Color metallics. You can work with them, but they are not as good as Steel from the Vallejo Model Air series and Steel and Dark Steel from the Mecha Color series. Those are also airbrush paints, but their opacity is higher and they apply more nicely with a brush. Moreover, those three colours correspond very closely to the classic three silver paints from Games Workshop: Mithril Silver, Chainmail, and Boltgun Metal (or Stormhost Silver, Iron Hands Steel, and Leadbelcher for those that aren’t a grizzly Grey Hunter like me), whereas the new Game Color Gun Metal is significantly darker than Leadbelcher, and even darker than Iron Warriors. Looking to spread your wings and fly from the Citadel Colour nest? Wanting to set foot out of your painting comfort zone? Or just looking for something new to try? You can’t go far wrong with Vallejo. An excellent alternative to most game-brand colour ranges and a solid rung up on the painting ladder, Vallejo’s Game Color range will see you right. Vallejo Game Colour Paints Review – Introduction And that was the complete new Game Color range in fast forward, except for the 24 Xpress Colors, which I have reviewed in a separate review.

No matter how much I blended the shades on my palette, or tried to wet blend them on the surface of the figure, I just couldn’t quite get them to do what I wanted to. As such, the end result was a bit of a mess.The Game Inks also stayed pretty much the same, which is good news for those that liked the old Game Color Inks. However, they removed Brown and Smokey Ink, which of all things were the only ones I was still using, and added a new Magenta Ink, Dark Turquoise Ink, and White Ink instead. All in all, with a few exceptions the Special FX colours are not bad, and better than The Army Painters’ Effect paints in my opinion. Though if in doubt, I would always go for the Technical Paints from Games Workshop. I feel these are more straight-forward to use, and do what they say on the tin better. But for those who want to create more subtle effects and like to experiment, the Game Color Special FX paints might be worth a look. Game Color Additives & varnishes review However, on the other side of this coin, the semi-glossy texture of the medium does allow and encourage a smoother blend if you are aiming for airbrush level transitions. It just takes several more coats. I’m not saying this is the fault of the paint – it’s probably as much my own inexperience – but it’s worth bearing in mind. I think the lesson here is that if you’re tempted to try some new techniques, do so with paints you’re more familiar with. In addition, most advertising networks offer you a way to opt out of targeted advertising. If you would like to find out more information, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/or http://www.youronlinechoices.com.

Something to note with the range if you are a long-time Citadel user looking to shake things up are that many of the colours are equitable to Citadel paints, so you needn’t worry about having to change from one paint scheme to another mid-army, or some of your figures not quite matching the other. I am really disappointed with the gold colours, though. Shining Gold and Glorious Gold are not only thin but weak, and need quite a few coats to cover. By now, we have many better options for gold paints, and I recommend Retributor Armour, as well as Duncan Rhode’s Two Thin Coats and ProAcryl golds, which just cover so much better.Because the consistency of the paint is that much more aqueous, it can be quite difficult to get a decent amount of paint onto the brush for drybrushing. The paint tends towards being too wet and prone to splodging on textures as opposed to leaving a good, crisp highlight. One of the benefits of Vallejo Game Color is their versatility. The paints can be used on a variety of surfaces, including plastic, metal, and resin. They can be applied with brushes, airbrushes, or even with a sponge, allowing for a range of painting techniques and styles. In general, I have moved on to Contrast-like paints. In fact, Game Color Inks and the new Xpress Colors are very similar in terms of consistency and pigmentation. The only difference is in their behaviour. As you can see, the Game Color Inks create harsher transitions as the pigments tend to collect in the recesses more, whereas Xpress Colors create a more even tint with softer transitions. There are also quite a few new colours that close some of the gaps of the old range, 44 colours in total. Nevertheless, the Game Color range is quite small compared to Citadel or Reaper, and what I’m still missing are petrol colours, more grey tones, dark skin tones, and more muted and natural light skin tones, as all of the light skin tones in the Game Color range are quite pink and peach. New Game Colors’ features & properties There is, theoretically, just about everything you could possibly need in here to jump right into painting miniatures with this set alone. Vallejo Game Color Paints Review – Testing

The Lord-Imperatant you see below has been painted almost entirely with Vallejo paints in this box (some Mechanicus Standard Grey and Dawnstone on the base, some Screamer Pink and Warpfiend Grey on the purple leather of the handles on his weapons, and a dash of Apothecary White on his hair). Game color is a special selection of fine waterbased acrylic colours maunfactured with a special resin and permanent pigments for miniatures figures in fantasy and war games. highly pigmented acrylic colors formulated to provide an especially mat and opaque coating which covers all primers and base colors in one application. You wouldn’t know the difference between those paints on his armour and robes and their Citadel counterparts. Again, the blues – Imperial Blue, Magic Blue and Electric Blue – were excellent, and could go toe-to-toe with their Citadel equivalents.There are a couple in this range that do take well to drybrushing and arguably with enough practise and time, all can be drybrushed fairly well. They just wouldn’t be my go-to range. Vallejos own Model Color paints fair much better in this area. With all the metallic colours I tested, I needed only the slightest amount of water to get the metallic colours thinned down appropriately. This actually caused me a few issues, as the amount of water you need to thin these down to their optimum consistency still actually varies within the range. For example, at one point during testing, I used the same amount of water to thin down two very similar amounts of Chainmail Silver and Glorious Gold. Chainmail silver drank the water up and thinned down beautifully, but Glorious Gold became a frustrating runny puddle on my wet palette. Let’s take a look at the washes. These didn’t change very much at all and should be consistent with their old versions, but for some reason, Vallejo removed the green and grey wash, and added a yellow wash instead. While the colours themselves stayed consistent, I did notice that they flow better than the old washes, I heard they switched to a medium based on the new Xpress Color formula. On the base of the figure above, you can see where the paint has smeared on the base, as opposed to applying properly. As you may suspect, though, there are certain paints within the range that are better at being drybrushed than others. In spite of knowing this, in a moment of madness, I decided to have a go at some OSL on one of the figures I was testing with – I couldn’t look at the fireball in her hand and not feel as if there should be some light on her. I seriously struggled to do this, not only due to my inexperience with OSL (this was the first time I’d ever attempted it) but also because I really struggled to get the paints to do what I wanted to on the figure.

There are some really lovely browns in the range too, as you can see on the boats, gloves, chest armour and hat on the figure above. The browns seem to have the best consistencies: not only are they good and smooth, but they also react very well to being thinned with water and maintain a good spread of colour when applied to a figure. LayeringBut apart from these minor issues, the new Game Color acrylics are amazing, and really feel like next-gen miniature paints that are up there with more pricier paints like ProAcryl or Two Thin Coats. Game Color metallics review The blues and aqua-toned greeny blues were stand-out and were an absolute pleasure to paint with. In fact, across all the colours I tested, the blues were by far my favourites. You have to be careful with the new Game Color varnishes, because they are not water-based, unlike the old ones, but polyurethane-based. Polyurethane varnishes are more durable, but more aggressive and can reactivate Inks, Contrast and Xpress Colors as well as washes and Shade paints and also damage decals. Polyurethane varnishes are useful for preparing models for oil paints and enamel washes, but what’s the reason to put them into an acrylic paint range I don’t know. I don’t think polyurethane varnishes are suitable for the average painter, so maybe that’s a question for Angel. Value & verdict Paint is one of those personal things. Some people love certain paints that others hate and vice-versa. As such, it’s very difficult to try and slap a catch-all conclusion on such a dynamic and varied paint range. As with just about every aspect of this hobby, certain people will love parts of this range, whilst others won’t. I myself love the browns and the blues – and even rather like the greys and whites – in this range, but would quite happily never touch the yellows ever again.