ionic crescent
I paint minis occasionally and I've pretty much only been using cheap craft paints (those $.50-$1, 2oz bottles). I've been looking into getting some nicer hobby paints and saw good reviews from the Army Painter Warpaints Fanatic and Speedpaint 2.0 lines.
Any recommendations on which would be better and why?
ivory oasis
I haven't tested Warpaint Fanatics, but I can recommended two other brands/lines:
Both are really easy to use, with very good coverage and have an excellent ration quality/price
iron trout
Depends on what you're going for! If you want to just paint for tabletop play and don't have a ton of hobby time, speedpaints might be worth looking into- there's lots of youtube videos of them in action. the idea with speedpaints is that you apply one coat over a white miniature and it does all the shading and highlighting for you.
the new fanatic line is more traditional paint- more opaque, more "normal" basically. it might be a good pick if you want to learn more specific painting techniques, have more time to commit to the hobby, and want a more traditional hobby experience. most tutorials and resources use normal paints and not contrast paints or speedpaints.
that said, you'll get a decent amount of people saying army painter isn't the best brand. their old paint line was really not great (i learned with it and still use it- it gets the job done! but it's inconsistent and kinda thick) and other lines from them have their pros and cons. that said, the 2.0 speedpaints and the fanatic line (from what ive heard about both) learn from a lot of those past issues.
if i could go back in time and do it over again, i'd start with vallejo game color and vallejo model color. (the only difference is color offerings- model color is a little more realistic, game color contains some more vibrant options). they're affordable, pretty widely available at least where i am, and they're a good consistency and very consistent in terms of texture and pigment strength
ionic crescent
Depends on what you're going for! If you want to just paint for tabletop play an...
Yeah I think a mix of both might be the way. I'll probably mostly be painting board game minis. Armies with lots of the same units might make more sense to use speedpaints with less detail and maybe for the fewer larger minis use more traditional methods?
solar osprey
What would a suggestion of must haves be?
sonic bolt
What would a suggestion of must haves be?
it depends on what you define as must have. for me a full colour range (primarys and secondarys at full saturation) a nice selection of browns and skin tones; good black, mid tone grey and white, got me started. everything else can be mixed on pallete but i would recommend looking into vallejo's bsl system for different tones and shades to help you pick things out a bit easier
solar osprey
What would these be in Vallejo?
ivory oasis
pulsar temple
Ak has some sets
https://ak-interactive.com/product/basic-starter-set-14-colors-selected-by-josedavinci/
Without white
https://ak-interactive.com/product/signature-set-josedavinci-3g/
I like this one too
obsidian jungle
I wish someone would have told me early on to avoid army painter products. I spent a year wrestling with them as I wanted a big set that didn't cost hundreds of dollars.
The next year my wife got me a Vallejo game color suitcase for Christmas. This was better but still not what I really needed.
I spent a year with scale75 after that that was better but not what I needed still.
The medium of paint and difficulty working with it made it very difficult.
I started using AK interactive 3rd gen last year 2023. I have used them ever since and stopped using mettalics and "technical" paints and trying to paint what I wanted instead of using "products" to cut corners to it... Shadows , highlights, volumes and depth. I wish I would have started there in the first place .
My advice is to skip army painter Vallejo and citadel...
Learn to make washes and glaze paint light ... The AK Jose davinci set could be a good start ...
Paint what you like and buy a few paints at a time to try to add things to your repoitoire...
Get some decent brushes and learn to point and load your brush well
pale fulcrum
Paints are incredibly subjective. Vallejo is incredibly popular but I don’t like them. Go figure.
AK, scale75, Vallejo are all very popular and well loved brands though so maybe buy a bottle each and feel your way through it.
ionic crescent
I wish someone would have told me early on to avoid army painter products. I spe...
Army painter stuff now is a lot better than it used to be. i got some speedpaint 2.0 and I'm pretty happy with it.
I'm very new to the hobby but I think it came out alright
Could use some highlights probably
But I don't have paints for that right now unless I use my really crappy hobby paints
ionic crescent
But I don't have paints for that right now unless I use my really crappy hobby p...
These are what I "learned" to paint with first
sonic bolt
firstly im just impressed you had the patience to learn to paint with those kinds of hobby acrylics.