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great big cardboard tube posted:Super long and not informative post, tl;dr is if you want to help me out look at my list and tell me if I'm stupid or could make better choices. Splurge for a Tamiya 74001 or 74123 side cutter. You're going to be doing a lot of precision cutting of tiny plastic parts and better cutters cut cleaner so cleanup takes a lot less time. Thickly cut gates means you need to use your exacto knife to cut thicker bits of plastic which means more force which means drastically higher chances of cutting yourself. Safety and time savings for only like $30 more!
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Apr 4, 2024 10:57
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Virtual Russian posted:I used to teach kids art, I feel your pain deeply. My kid wants to paint everything red. I'm not sure if he's an ork or a budding world eater. Bohemian Nights posted:I made my own and it worked alright, but I picked up one from greenstuff world that came packaged with 50 sheets, and I love it! Biggest pro about buying rather than making a wet palette is not having to constantly cut your own sheets but otherwise they're functionally identical. great big cardboard tube posted:Vallejo "acrylic 16 colors for fantasy figures": $33 seems to have the majority of colors I'd want, heard good things about the brand. I was a citadel paint slave before I've never tried a Vallejo paint. You've gotten a bunch of good advice already but here are my 2p 1. Vallejo paints are good but can be a little finicky sometimes and are less "reliable" than GW. They're also dropper bottles so you will need a wet palette (nbd you can make it for pennies out of a takeaway box, paper towels and some parchment paper). Citadel are damned expensive but generally reliable and easier to source. I've semi given up on regular Vallejo paints because getting them requires a mail order which is uneconomical if you just need 1-2 bottles compared to just getting paint from my local GW. Vallejo Metal Colour, Vallejo Model Air Metallics are all excellent though and are well worth a premium to get. 2. Citadel Washes are expensive but $20 sounds like a lot even then - ard you sure it's RRP? Nuln and Agrax are old standbys but they've changed the formula recently and some people don't like it. If you're up for an adventure you can try oil washes - $20 should be able to get you a bottle of low-odor thinner and 2 tubes of oils - black and burnt umber which will give you a lifetime supply of black and brown wash. 3. You dont need a whole pack of brushes. If you have painted before at all I would suggest avoiding synthetics as they'll hook within a few hours and be very irritating to paint with. You can get a cheap synthetic 2/3 brush to do basecoating, a pack of makeup brushes (any cheap China product) and a size 1 sable brush to do your actual detail work (Rosemary Series 33 is good and cheap). You don't need much more than that. 99% of my painting is done with a size 1. I switch to a 00 occasionally for eyes and fine details and I have trash brushes for my oils and drybrushing. 4. Get one of the proper tamiya side cutters (the expensive ones 74123). You can flush cut most parts and save the trimming time. Well worth the cost.
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Apr 4, 2024 11:18
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my partner bought me the redgrass wet palette as a present. i wouldn’t necessarily recommend spending your own money on it but it is very nice and i like it a lot
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Apr 4, 2024 11:30
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Z the IVth posted:You've gotten a bunch of good advice already but here are my 2p You can absolutely use dropper bottle paints without a wet palette. Any rigid non-porous surface will make a servicable hard palette which is absolutely fine for starting off. Like I love my wet palette but I still use a hard palette a lot of the time for various reasons, its fine. As someone mentioned a piece of plastic from a blister pack, a spare tile or old side plate will do fine. Wet palettes just keep the paint hydrated for longer and can help with thinning which, dont get me wrong, is nice but isnt necessary at all. I totally agree that £10 for a bottle of nuln oil is properly insane. I disagree that the solution is for someone buying supplies to get back into the hobby after an extended break to go straight into oil washing. Its a different type of paint, with its own solvent, and its own learning curve. Just buy a cheaper acrylic black wash from literally any other paint company who does washes. Black wash is black wash. Agrax is a harder direct replacement, I loving hate the new contrast-like formulation and dont remember what Army Painter have called their equivalent of old-agrax. I know it used to be strong tone but then they changed all the wash names (and presumably have changed them again with the refresh of their paint line). Again, nothing wrong with oil washes but it doesnt feel like a "first week back at the paint desk after 8 years" activity. Same reason I'm not suggesting "gently caress around with inks, flow improver and matt medium and make a big bottle of home made agrax!". I've got synthetic brushes I've been painting with for over a year which have not hooked/developed a J-tip at all. All synthetic brushes will do that eventually, absolutely, but not "within a few hours". I've got a nice sable brush too, but buying it didnt make me a better painter or let me do anything I cant do with my synthetics, it just meant I had a comparatively pricey brush I had to actually care about and use brush soap on and be careful with, and I probably shouldnt use with contrasts or washes... gently caress that, cheap synthetic brushes 4 lyfe. If one hooks it gets chucked into the coffee can of disposable brushes for PVA/Oil washes/drybrushing/texture pastes. Makeup brushes for drybrushing is a good tip though, I have a pack of cheapest of the cheap lil makeup brushes from amazon and when they all die I'll buy more. Yeah, dont cheap out on side cutters, a nice pair is absolutely worth it in saving time, preventing mistakes and generally removing some frustration. I'd personally recommend you get a nice set for removing models from sprues which you use for literally nothing else, and a cheapo amazon special set for cutting literally anything else (paperclips/brass rod for pinning figures, coffee stirrers to make planks for basing, your toenails, I dont care) because that will keep the expensive set nice for longer.
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Apr 4, 2024 11:51
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haven’t used it myself but have seen people recommend the Duncan Rhodes agrax-alike, it’s called Battle Mud Wash
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Apr 4, 2024 12:13
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SiKboy posted:You can absolutely use dropper bottle paints without a wet palette. Any rigid non-porous surface will make a servicable hard palette which is absolutely fine for starting off. Like I love my wet palette but I still use a hard palette a lot of the time for various reasons, its fine. As someone mentioned a piece of plastic from a blister pack, a spare tile or old side plate will do fine. Wet palettes just keep the paint hydrated for longer and can help with thinning which, dont get me wrong, is nice but isnt necessary at all. It might just be how dry my environs is but with dropper paints the need for a wet palette is acute. I do have a ziploc bag that I use as a dry palette for drybrushing or when I can;t be bothered to open up the wet for a quick job but I find the paint goes from ok to dry within 15 minutes or so and the consistency changes very rapidly in this time. For quick jobs nbd but if I'm going to be slowly laying on paint I prefer the wet. It's really no bother to make one. I wouldn't suggest going out to buy RGG's latest and greatest as the first move though! I've not had great experiences with synthetics, even with the W&N Cotmans which are supposed to be better quality. The tips just go to poo poo very quickly. Maybe I'm just fussy about having a perfect tip but I've found sable brushes just generally hardier all around. And when I can get a Series 33 for GBP6 which will easily last me a year or more it's fine. The good synthetics will have a similar cost with much less durability. The only downside with sables is some of the big brands have QA issues even with their expensive brushes so you can get Series 7s and 8404s splitting in half right out of the box which is deeply irritating.
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Apr 4, 2024 12:23
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Z the IVth posted:It might just be how dry my environs is but with dropper paints the need for a wet palette is acute. I do have a ziploc bag that I use as a dry palette for drybrushing or when I can;t be bothered to open up the wet for a quick job but I find the paint goes from ok to dry within 15 minutes or so and the consistency changes very rapidly in this time. For quick jobs nbd but if I'm going to be slowly laying on paint I prefer the wet. It's really no bother to make one. I wouldn't suggest going out to buy RGG's latest and greatest as the first move though! I'm not buying good synthetics, the brushes that have lasted me over a year came from poundland (they do a pack of 2 "daler and rowney" branded brushes for £1, one hilariously big so only really useful for terrain or maybe tanks, but the other a size 1 with a decent belly and a nice point. The "watercolour" pack, not the "golden acrylic" pack) and temu or possibly wish.com (hosed if I remember which chinese reseller website I got them off, all I can tell you is they were like 20 for £5 or something like that, and I think the pictures were all nail art or calligraphy in the listing). Now, synthetics are something of a lottery, no doubt, but I figured if I got a year out the pack of 20 and you got a year out your series 33, I come out ahead both by saving some money and by having extra junk brushes.
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Apr 4, 2024 12:37
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SiKboy posted:I'm not buying good synthetics, the brushes that have lasted me over a year came from poundland (they do a pack of 2 "daler and rowney" branded brushes for £1, one hilariously big so only really useful for terrain or maybe tanks, but the other a size 1 with a decent belly and a nice point. The "watercolour" pack, not the "golden acrylic" pack) and temu or possibly wish.com (hosed if I remember which chinese reseller website I got them off, all I can tell you is they were like 20 for £5 or something like that, and I think the pictures were all nail art or calligraphy in the listing). Now, synthetics are something of a lottery, no doubt, but I figured if I got a year out the pack of 20 and you got a year out your series 33, I come out ahead both by saving some money and by having extra junk brushes. I can easily use my sables for 3 years without any noticeable loss in performance until the very end. My last 8404 got me 3 years before the tip abraded so much that I couldn't do eyes with it any more and I retired it for a Series 33 - Raphael had jacked their prices up to the point where even I didn't think it was worth it.
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Apr 4, 2024 13:35
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SiKboy posted:I'm not buying good synthetics, the brushes that have lasted me over a year came from poundland (they do a pack of 2 "daler and rowney" branded brushes for £1, one hilariously big so only really useful for terrain or maybe tanks, but the other a size 1 with a decent belly and a nice point. The "watercolour" pack, not the "golden acrylic" pack) and temu or possibly wish.com (hosed if I remember which chinese reseller website I got them off, all I can tell you is they were like 20 for £5 or something like that, and I think the pictures were all nail art or calligraphy in the listing). Now, synthetics are something of a lottery, no doubt, but I figured if I got a year out the pack of 20 and you got a year out your series 33, I come out ahead both by saving some money and by having extra junk brushes. Revisit this post after trying a sable brush that has the same surgical precision over that three year lifespan and has a thick enough belly to hold enough paint to actually glaze an entire armor panel without reloading. It's such a game changer and I seriously think switching to nice brushes leveled up my skills dramatically
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Apr 4, 2024 14:40
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A nice natural bristle brush makes painting so much better and easier. It's night and day, and everyone should get one when they can.
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Apr 4, 2024 15:25
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I still use a ton of the bargain bin brushes for a lot of work, particularly for the initial sloppy stages. But the meticulous level of detail and precision when going that extra mile really benefits from a quality tool that you don't have to fight with or hold a certain way because the tip is starting to hook.
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Apr 4, 2024 15:32
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Spanish Manlove posted:Revisit this post after trying a sable brush that has the same surgical precision over that three year lifespan and has a thick enough belly to hold enough paint to actually glaze an entire armor panel without reloading. It's such a game changer and I seriously think switching to nice brushes leveled up my skills dramatically Let me just check something real quick... SiKboy posted:I've got a nice sable brush too, but buying it didnt make me a better painter or let me do anything I cant do with my synthetics, it just meant I had a comparatively pricey brush I had to actually care about and use brush soap on and be careful with, and I probably shouldnt use with contrasts or washes... gently caress that, cheap synthetic brushes 4 lyfe. Yeah, I've revisited it and I stand by it.
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Apr 4, 2024 15:36
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great big cardboard tube posted:Super long and not informative post, tl;dr is if you want to help me out look at my list and tell me if I'm stupid or could make better choices. My friend got me the Citadel one at Adepticon, it has a little spring loaded clamp that works fine. I have also seen brands with an adjustable vise on the end. I'm sure people here with more experience could tell you which is best for various use cases.
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Apr 4, 2024 17:23
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Super easy to 3d print one as well if you or a friend has a printer.
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Apr 4, 2024 18:13
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I use old pill bottles filled with rocks and some double sided tape on the top.
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Apr 4, 2024 18:14
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What's the secret to having primer actually stick to metal models? I scrubbed it down with soapy water, rinsed it, let it dry. Primed like I usually do, but if I touch it or look at it too hard, it comes off. Also, I hate metal models.
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Apr 4, 2024 18:34
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Lumpy posted:What's the secret to having primer actually stick to metal models? I scrubbed it down with soapy water, rinsed it, let it dry. Primed like I usually do, but if I touch it or look at it too hard, it comes off. Also, I hate metal models. Metal minis love your suffering and chip a lot. Basically you’ve just got to deal with it as best you can and gloss varnish them for protection.
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Apr 4, 2024 18:46
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mellonbread posted:If you don't have one you should consider getting one of those painting handles with a little clamp on the end for holding miniatures. It's not essential but it makes everything easier when you can just grab a handle rather than having to awkwardly pinch the base with your fingers, especially if you have to rotate the mini at an awkward angle. I use a dowel rod I cut into a bunch of smaller pieces + some bluetack
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Apr 4, 2024 20:02
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Lumpy posted:What's the secret to having primer actually stick to metal models? I scrubbed it down with soapy water, rinsed it, let it dry. Primed like I usually do, but if I touch it or look at it too hard, it comes off. Also, I hate metal models. Use proper primer - something automotive would be good or something that specifies metal primer. I've toyed with the idea of a etching primer as well. I think the actual metal composition itself appears to make a difference in adhesion (surface porosity maybe?). GW metals, and most other metals manufactured in the UK have been ok, as have Infinity miniatures. I painted an old RT terminator recently that I'm pretty sure is lead which the paint rubbed off like mad even with very gentle handling. I have some 1/600 Pico Armour jets from Poland which are made of some super hard alloy that the primer just seems to love flaking off. Warmahordes models are also horrible for this with paint coming off at the slightest provocation especially with their love of heavy models with lots of pointy bits.
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Apr 4, 2024 20:25
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Vallejo's spray primer is pretty great on metal models in my experience. I quite like that you get 2 nozzles with the can for getting into smaller spaces too.
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Apr 4, 2024 21:26
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Thanks for all the advice everyone. I will definitely swap the clippers for the Tamiya you all recommended, either add one sable brush or drop the synthetic brush pack altogether, and look into other wash sources and a guide to make a wet palette. Is there a go-to brand and or a must have best overall size for a sable brush? I can't remember what I used last time I painted up some little guys.
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Apr 5, 2024 01:22
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great big cardboard tube posted:Super long and not informative post, tl;dr is if you want to help me out look at my list and tell me if I'm stupid or could make better choices. Everything you picked ranges from an outrageous deal (that Dominion box) to essentially fine. If you're not tied to Amazon for some reason: That VGC set is basically the perfect kind of thing I want to recommend to people but it's many years old at this point, and hobby acrylics have gone through a real race to improve their paint quality. Instead, I recommend this, because it has the new, nicer VGC paints. When the Army Painter Fanatic starter comes out, I'd recommend that instead I suppose. AK 3rd Gen has an okay starter but only if you're paying that price for it and not the inexplicable $80 it apparently goes for in USD. Likewise Scale75 FnG Basic 1 and Basic 2. In addition to basic colors, you want at least a neutral silver metallic, a black ink/shade/wash, and a brown ink/shade/wash. There's nothing magic about a particular brand's washes, so don't feel like you need Nuln Oil or Agrax in particular. I use AP Dark Tone and Soft Tone but honestly use whatever brand you can get at your hobby store. This is something you go through a lot of. Cease to Hope fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Apr 5, 2024 |
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Apr 5, 2024 02:16
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Expanding on the above: The ideal starter for wargame miniature painting imo would be a white/near-white, a solid black, a pure red, pure yellow, pure blue, a dark brown that's within the range of human skin tone, a neutral khaki/drab, a green of some sort, an orange of some sort, a peach or pink, a brown ink, a (near-)black ink, a neutral or bright metallic silver, and a hard-wearing and self-leveling matte or satin varnish. It's weird how hard it is to find a starter like this! I know of sets you can technically still find, like Army Painter Warpaints and Vallejo Game Color, but they're discontinued lines. And just look how old that old VGC paint looks. Citadel's AOS3 "Paints & Tools" set is surprisingly well-rounded but either already cancelled or very soon to be. (The 40K 10e equivalent is an eccentric mix of blue, purple, and brown.) I'd really like to point new people to one of the new-generation acrylic brands, but Vallejo and AP are working through total overhauls, Citadel isn't really the best around any more, the other Euro brands tend to be ruinously expensive anywhere else, and the Kickstarter-focused brands don't sell anything with a good selection of basic colors that is less than $100. It's frustrating that there isn't a paint set large enough to justify ordering by mail but not some massive "here's every paint in the line!" nonsense or a box that is just 15 shades of orange.
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Apr 5, 2024 03:34
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great big cardboard tube posted:Super long and not informative post, tl;dr is if you want to help me out look at my list and tell me if I'm stupid or could make better choices. https://usa.warhammerstormbringer.c...BMaAgaFEALw_wcB
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Apr 5, 2024 04:14
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50% off Dominion which itself is already a big value set is probably the best deal you can get for any AoS minis in terms of Dollar:Plastic ratio
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Apr 5, 2024 05:08
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IncredibleIgloo posted:If you like the sigmar stuff and want to get back in slowly, the monthly magazine will send you a few paints and models and rules at a time. It might be worth checking out. I appreciate the suggestion but I feel like I would just get frustrated lacking the proper paints and tools until that eventually built up, I've already got my feet wet in the past and know I enjoy painting. Last foray I did start off on a smaller purchase but I cut cleaned glued primed basecoated shaded and highlighted a whole unit (admittedly of gnoblars so extra small guys, I wish I still had them those minis have character and I was inspired by Labyrinth) and I won't say they were actually "good" but I was happy with my results and progress learning and I don't see myself being happy working with a drip feed of tools and paints like that.
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Apr 5, 2024 07:03
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Cease to Hope posted:Paint stuff Much thanks for this info too I didn't realize the Vallejo set I was looking at was so outdated. I'll do a little more thinking and research. Another goon mentioned that upcoming army painter set too and it has more paints and a wash so maybe I'll just wait another couple weeks and go with that. I haven't painted in years a couple weeks I can do. It is super frustrating to not have an easy recommended "start here" paint set I feel like there should be like 5 of those.
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Apr 5, 2024 07:11
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Well the new Army painter Mega Set with 50 paints is out, that should keep you happy for awhile: https://us.thearmypainter.com/products/warpaints-fanatic-mega-set-combo  You'd think that has everything, but no. There's also complete set with 216 paints out for those who https://us.thearmypainter.com/products/warpaints-fanatic-complete-set  (They're both awesome collections) The smaller 11 paint starter set and individual paints should be out within 2-3 weeks.  If you're planning to get any, just make sure you get warpaints fanatic (new range), not the regular warpaints (old range). Paint names are going to be same on both ranges. Issaries fucked around with this message at 09:30 on Apr 5, 2024 |
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Apr 5, 2024 09:18
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I've never used their paints, but Army Painter tones are quite good.
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Apr 5, 2024 09:32
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Their old line of normal acrylic paints was a dumpster fire, but their new fanatic line is apparently quite good.
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Apr 5, 2024 09:36
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I bought the old AP 50 paint set when I started out and regretted it (except for the tones). Sounds like they’ve improved with the new line though.
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Apr 5, 2024 09:42
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Geisladisk posted:Their old line of normal acrylic paints was a dumpster fire, but their new fanatic line is apparently quite good. For a little more than a year I painted everything with those paints, because my daughter wanted the Owlbear mini that came with their D&D set. I have Stockholm Syndrome so I think they are not _that_ bad: once you know how each individual bottle needs to be thinned, which individual bottle has which insane variation of opacity, etc. If you look at my chart (imagine I am pointing at a notebook full of crazy man notes) you'll see.... Starting year three, and I still use a lot of them because I can't bear to throw anything out.
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Apr 5, 2024 14:11
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I used the old ones for a decade. They were fine. and more importantly available from my local store. the Warpaint fanatics (and speedpaints) have been perfect so far. I haven't used most of them yet, though... and probably never will.
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Apr 5, 2024 14:17
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My wife got me a big set of the original AP line one christmas. So I felt obligated to make the most of them. If you liberally pour off the excess medium, then add a mixing ball and really go at them, and then ruthlessly cull the terrible ones, at least half that set is still around. The good colors are absolutely on par with all but the latest 3rd gen stuff, tones/washes are good to great, metallics are again mostly on-par to the point I can't tell which silver is AP/Vallejo/Reaper/AK on the same model. Their light warm colors were universally poo poo. I think I chucked every single yellow, orange and pink.
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Apr 5, 2024 14:50
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I've tried old AP and 2 thin coats at painting demos. Neither are better than Vallejo and AP was worse with respect to coverage. I find GW paint is formulated to prioritise coverage in general which makes them a lot easier to handle even if you're stuck with their colours.
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Apr 5, 2024 15:06
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buy actual paint from an art store, cheaper and better selection
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Apr 5, 2024 16:38
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My biggest issue with the AP boxed set is that it's heavily skewed towards blues and cooler tones. Like, there's what, two, three browns in the 50-paint set? One orange and one red? That's great for people like me that paint in blues and greens, but you'll quickly be wanting another red or two.
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Apr 5, 2024 16:47
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Pro-acryl has some nice starter sets, and even has a bulk buy discount that basically lets you make your own starter set out of the paints you want. It's generally better to have an idea of what you want to paint before buying paints as most of the time with the starter kits you'll use 6/8 of the paints and never find a good use for the other 2, effectively eliminating the discount of buying the bundle. Pro-acryl are also very beginner friendly as there's very little thinning required for them and their coverage is awesome.
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Apr 5, 2024 16:50
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I think figuring out paint lines has been the most annoying part of getting in this hobby. First I started with Citadel, then I tried original Vallejo game color and though they were too glossy, then I bought into the second two thin coats kickstarter and almost immediately after the Army Painter fanatic line gets announced. There's just so many many paint lines and opinions on them!
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Apr 5, 2024 18:27
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I went all in on Reaper paints after getting annoyed with putting GW stuff into droppers & I've been pretty happy with them. My one big issue is the metallics don't seem great, tried some Vallejo instead and I had the same sort of issues where the metallic either wasn't very shiny, or was shiny+speckled in a very obvious way. Out of what I've tried I've only ever been happy with GW metallics, but I hate their pots.
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Apr 5, 2024 18:47
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