Grab my hand-painted swatches for Warpaints Fanatic, AK 3rd Gen, Vallejo Game & Model Color and many more: www.patreon.com/stahlytaleofpainters/shop Also check out my follow-up video that covers Two Thin Coats wave 2: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ht991RqXumg.html (an updated video for wave 3 will follow ASAP!)
Hey Stahly! I think I’ve bought all your swatches at this point, but most of my paints are Pro Acryl, and it would be amazing if you could do swatches for them. That way I can compare the colors I have with the colors in the other paint ranges and buy complimenting colors without getting colors that might be very similar.
I mean this literally. I kinda wish there was a Stahly core paints list. Like preferred brand/choice for each color, with the idea of using a good white/black to lighten/darken. Different brands do have standouts.
If you get his speed/contrast/xpress color swatches, there’s one file that has his preferred colors out of all the brands. But it’s just for those, he didn’t do that for the regular acrylic lines. That would be a pretty big paint chart I imagine.
Got to fully agree... I absolutely love the complete set of the fanatics. As a beginner / intermediate painter, it is so convenient to simply select your color of choice, every color acts pretty much the same way (once well shaked) and goes on so well and smooth. Only challenge I have is to thin them enough when you actually dont want the strong coverage. And some good real reds are def missing...
Thank you - I learned a lot. Of particular note, for me, were your warnings about the use of polyurethane varnishes and the warning about the different finishes of some of the signature pro-acryl range. Food for thought....
One suggestion....would it be possible to include "which color to buy" recommendations with your color swatches? I had the difficulty of choice with AK interactive 3rd gen you described....
Absolutely brilliant video, I kinda wish I waited a year to do model painting and buying since I feel like I've waisted too much on bad paints and beginner kits- thanks to your more objective and scientific approach things are sooooo much better to cross-examine and compare. Thanks so much!
Loved the in-depth comparisons. Already jumped on the AV Game Color before the new Army Painter released but glad I did. The clear bottles are top notch and at the best prices. Now filling in with the new Model Color line to add color depth and they seem to be the same formula. As far as the GC Metallics I've really only used Chainmail and Tinny Tin to any extent and they work well for me. As far as bubbling, any of my paints will act like that if over mixed. Pro Acryl and Kimera would be my next go to paints with the very specific Citadel's such as Cadian Fleshtone, etc.
Love this format of video! As an experienced painter, it communicates tons of valuable information saving me time and most importantly money! Thanks Stahly!
@@Bound2Asgard interesting, thanks for sharing. I’ve recently realised how important paint selection is when airbrushing - the clogging made it almost unbearable for me to learn at times! 😩
I've had massive issues with them clogging up my 0.15 nozzle. Did not have this issue with any other line except the base Scale75 line (Scale Games and Artist work fine).
3:50 It's not providing you with a premixed set of shades to have consistent colors over an extended period, but olive drab is actually dark yellow; you can obtain it by mixing yellow and black (simulate this in a graphics editor by setting the color to 0xFFFF00, then reducing the brightness). As such, you can make a range of olive shades from the yellows in the set - Ice Yellow to Fiendish Yellow - mixed with black.
I'm seriously thinking about Pro acryl for my acrylics, Scale 75 for metallics, Citadel for the few contrast and washes I love and a mix of Fanatics, AK, and game color for the few rounded out additions
Hello! So i started recently with modelling and i been looking around for paints, buuuut i do more scale modelling, and people are so vague on what paint is good! Is any of These paints good for scale modelling or do you have other recomendations?
Vince was the only set I got the full version of, I picked certain selections for the other signatures series based on what seemed like what I wanted to try.
Could you try the Vallejo Metal Color range please ? It's a range of metallic paints coming in unusual 32 ml pots. They're very liquid (prob made for airbrushes even if it doesn't say so in the name), but their coverage is nonetheless insanely good when applied with a brush. Very surprising. You can find a couple videos about those if you want to have a look.
They are made for airbrushes. The old label even said "Metal Color - Airbrush Colors" on the label. Either way, they're fantastic paints for airbrushing and regular brushing.
He mentions them in both Vallejo videos, although he doesn’t go in depth. I think Vallejo is really missing an opportunity to make their Game Color metallics more like the Metal Color paints, but with more variety of colors. (Especially golds and bronze)
@@svelle37 thank you, I suspected that and I think I heard a youtuber mention it. It's quite obvious when you see how thin it is, but I appreciate the confirmation !
Proacryl has received a couple of extra signature series that really helped cover some of the holes in the color range: The orange red, the dark magenta, a single pigment ultramarine... Still not built simple triads, but far closer to a range that one could use exclusively
My qualms with triads is a large portion of them are simply desaturated down the line. Especially with the fanatic paints. I picked up a few and found all the highlight colors just added white which not only gave then that chalkiness that comes from white pigment but is a lot less pretty on a model than just adding a yellow white like ice yellow or sunny skin tone (or a similar color across other lines) what I really like about pro acryl is they don't desaturate many of their colors just to make a triad. As you can always add one of their desaturated color ends if needed. Like light yellow green for greens or pink/pale pink for red. I understand not wanting to mix colors but new painters lose so much vibrancy by not using a warm white instead of picking up a desaturated triad and then they wonder why their models are dull. But I'm a big fan of pro acryl in general as them and ak are a large portion of what I use (some PA paints are a little too light body for some colors for me).
I agree. I also think the triads are a little over rated because it forces beginners to think colors need to be shaded and highlighted with a version of the same color. But if you’ve ever painted an orc and shaded it with a red glaze, and highlighted with sunny skin tone mixed into your base green, it can open up your entire concept of painting and color theory. That said, it’s nice to have bright and dark versions of colors if you can maintain good saturation. If all you’re doing is adding white or black, I can just do that on the pallet, but sometimes you can change the actual pigments used and have access to rich colors that you wouldn’t be able to create by mixing.
Thank you for your video! It's really cool 👍👍👍 I need to choose between Army painter Warpaints, Warpaints fanatic and Scale75 fantasy &games. So, from your point of view wich paints I should choose? And is there big difference between old Warpaints and Warpaints fanatic?
By the way, I'll out myself as someone who likes the Pro Acryl twist caps. I usually twist it open and then let just enough paint to the tip that I can dip a Round 1 or smaller brush into the cap, and that's all I usually need to paint. Not a microgram wasted, no palette needed.
Agreed! Then wipe clean on a bit of paper towel. No clogs, no mess, no wasted paint. It's wild to think people still buy and deal with the terribly bad citadel pots!
@@Prickles2001 Everyone seems to complain about Citadel pots. Why? They don't knock over and have a built in palette, but aren't quite transparent and...?
3:46/19:00 The timing of this video :D I recently purchased your paint swatches and started to make single tone comparison charts for personal use, since I wanted an easy way to check what range can replace citadel pots best, how much I can replace it with mix and match, and if the full Army Painter Set is worth it. And I stumbled about these same points regarding Army Painter. Their 6 tone ranges are great on the one hand for shading and highlighting, but they are missing quite a lot of tones one will find regular in Citadel, Vallejo and Two Thin Coats Ranges. The last of witch will probably close more gaps once wave 3 rolls out. Currently I am on path to go mainly Vallejo, since I can buy them locally, and fill gaps with TTC. Admittedly, Army Painter has some tones you find nowhere else (like the metallics) so some singular bottles still might find their way to my desk. 8:25 "Old man yelling at clouds", but same. Forever in love with Badab Black & Devlan Mud.
I'm getting reactivation/lifting issues with the new Fanatic paints. On two models that have dried overnight, then I a wash applied and the paint has lifted off, or cracked. I noticed it the first time I used them but put it down to the slower drying time of this new range. But even after drying overnight I've had this issue. I seen it in one of the reds (can't remember which), the deep & uniform grey and just had it happen with Magecast magenta which had dried over night. I using the old warpaint brush-on primer and the old washes, otherwise the colours are all the new fanatic.
One thing I would add to your recommendation of getting Ninjon's Pro-Acryl series - Watch out for the Dark Magenta, it seems to be much less opaque than a lot of the other paints in the range. It's more in line with the transparents than even the other paints in that Sig series
Yes, the wanted a true magenta color, which is incredibly vibrant because the magenta in the core set has a lot of white in it. It’s nice and covers well, but feels more pink than magenta to me. 😢he transparency of the quinacradone pigment they use is actually really useful because it mixes with other colors really well and it turns into an incredible glaze, which is fantastic for working into skintones. Before they introduced that, I went out of my way to get the Liquitex Acrylic Gouache quinacridone magenta which is amazing and very similar, although much thicker consistency out of the bottle.
I think they have some really nice choices for some of their colors too, although the consistency and coverage can be hit or miss. The paints that are good are good, though and I use them a lot.
When I first started painting I had some of those old Army Painter sets based on recomendations from Reddit that they "were everyone's favorites." I had exactly the same problem with them in this video and now I feel vindicated. I ended up just getting a bunch of citadel paints that my local shop stocked and was happier with those frankley. These day's however I am upgrading my range to Vallejo.
It's interesting you bring up mecha color. There is so little coverage of that line. I bought it to paint toys with my kids and have seen almost nothing on it.
So I went ahead and got the Cuttlefish Colors paint set. They are basically Pro Acryl’s missing colors. Only real difference is they are pre thinned. Coverage is good and color selection is perfect.
Nice video :) The popularity of the paints is also region related. In the south of France, to be honest I still see a lot of Citadel, AK, and Green Stuff World. Some are using Army Painter and I've seen Pro Acryl once, and that's it. To be honest I use Green Stuff and Citadel paints, but the more I look at AK paints, the more I think that I'm going to buy some. again thanks for the video, it is very instructive.
New to the hobby (although I will be a historical vice fantasy/sci-f war gamer). I have been looking all over for paint comparisons but of course 95% of such content is fantasy focused. However, reviews of paint regardless of miniature is very helpful. I ran across your video and found something you said interesting. Folks from the UK and into Warhammer would naturally gravitate towards Citadel. The bit you mentioned about Warlord was a light bulb moment. In that historical space they chose Army Painter. So my question is if you were in my shoes as a newcomer who will focus mostly on 18-19 th century historical miniature painting, who would you go with. I am from the U.S. so no bias or history with any company at all. It seems on the surface that Vallejo model color is well suited to historical but then again I like the base/layer/highlight ease with Citadel.. again as a beginner. I very much welcome suggestions. Thanks!!
Great video! I happen to have bunch of paints from everyrange included, and I agree with most of things said in video. My biggest "issue" with the fanatic is that the "darkest" colour in the triad has little difference to the 5th color on the triad. Perhaps it's just me, but when I airbrushed their blues, starting from 6th color, there was little difference to the 5th color, and overall, the 6th color in the triad in the colours i got, are simply not "dark" enough. But overall I think Fanatic are great improvement compared to their previous range. Also, their metallics are quite good. Not Vallejo metal color good, but they are nice. Shame they dont have metallic similar to Iron warrior steel, but on the other hand, I havent found anything similar in any range
Epic. Satin paint is good due to abrasion resistance while painting but I tend to use a mixture of paints with different finishes and washes and stuff so at the end I tend to use matte varnish (or satin for largely metallic eg necrons) to protect everything and unify the look.
Well, here where I live only Vallejo, AK and Tamiya are widely available and I was using Vallejo since early 90s so... I won't be running around in search for Two Thin coats, for example. And Prices for Vallejo and AK is more than sensible at around 3.4$, so...
Great video as always, Stahly. If I could make a suggestion for a video - make a custom video about your favorite colors always appearing on your palette. I'd love to see what you enjoy using outside of your favorite ranges. :)
I would love a video series where you go through each color and test as many as you have, I'd prefer one for turquoise. Or pink, turquoise I use a lot pink I never use
Oh nooo-w, it's too many collaassz. Lol this is a great video so far, haven't watched it all, so idk if this was added, but it would be cool to get a comprehensive breakdown on all the different types of terrain paints & effects. From vallejo ocean water effects to aks terrain paints & citadel technical terrain paint. That could be pretty cool to get indepth info on each.
Do ammo mig atom paints, golden high flow acrylics and Liquidex Inks please. Most miniature painters have no idea how good the last 2 are and I want to know more about Atom.
I'll need to get my hands on some of these paints because their claims seem very misleading or heavily influenced by marketing. For instance with the army painter metallics I'm seeing mica in them in this video but that could be the video but aluminum pigment paint generally wont look like that as that covering power isnt right. I think they made their paints thicker for two reasons 1. To stop the separation they had before 2. To claim they had higher pigmentation which pigmentation really doesnt affect the viscosity of paints. The color change is because they added way more white than they had before and this is because the hobby community has a bad conception for decades of higher pigmentation means more opaque when it doesn't but this has been changing as of late and novice painters tend to prefer opacity over transparency due to it being easier to paint with. Also that blue fluo from army painter has adulterants in there as that is far from the color of what the blue would normally be.
Stahly, do you find Warpaints Fanatic to be a little bit too desaturated and bland in color (due to the added titanium white) than the others? How do they compare in vibrancy and saturation to for example, Vallejo Game Colors? I'm wondering which to get as these 2 are easy availabe where I live, and I only painted with speedpaints before ;)
Yeah I wish they'd have some richer colours. But since I mix and match different paint ranges, it doesn't bother me that much. Gives the Fanatic range its own vibe. (New) Game Colors are in general slightly more saturated, but some of the brighter yellows, greens, and oranges also trade covering power for saturation. Pro Acryl or AK has really intense bright colours.
I've been watching a lot of your videos the last 24 hours as I try to decide which way I'm going to go with my next painting chapter (was going to go speedpaints but leaning toward Vallejo model air now - I like thin paints, I used to use Reaper ones a few years back.. I'll keep researching), your web blog is excellent too. Excellent videos. Subb'd.
P3 would deserve it's place in the spot light. I'd also be super happe, if they came out, new, in droppers and with a little more variety. A man has to dream.
@@KaimanaOhana Really!? That's great ... I guess. Really dunno, what to make out of this, but P3 paints are great, so nice, that there is hope. Thx for informing me. =)
I have some p3 paints that sat unused for about 2 years and all of them are chunky now. They aren't large chunks, they're small ones that give unwanted texture that makes them unusable for me now.
@@Max-fg4dm Wow. Really? I never had any problem like that. I put two heavy agitators in each pot and firmly shake them for like ten seconds and they are great. The only somewhat problematic paint pot is Rhulic Gold for me. And even that is only a minor problem.
I loved the metallics from P3 for the unique golds, but i never understood why people loved the rest of the range. Every one I bought was incredibly thin and low pigmented, even more than old Citadel (before the current range). I bought a bunch that still sit, probably dry and useless now, in my old paints box. They had interesting colours, but getting them to cover was too annoying for me.
Great video! I purchased your PATREON paint examples and highly recommended for real world representation. I very much welcome more comparison videos. Primers? Varnishes? Dry paints? Auxiliaries?
Do you plan to release a one in all comparison chart for all acrylic paint ranges you tested so far inlucding color conversion chart? Btw keep up the great work. Cheers Mate
I personally prefer the new Vallejo ranges and AK 3rd. I have some Pro Acryl ones and A are they a lot more expensive and B not that different bottles aside. Plus Vallejo has a great customer service.
Thank you for your insights. Personally I am Missing Kimera, Ammo Atom, Molotow One4All, Molotow Liquid Chrome, Golden Acrylics Highflow, Golden Acrylics Fluid, Golden Acrics SoFlat, P3
@@stahly_taleofpainters Thank you for your reply. As I love your channel and reviews I would to see tests of these color ranges by you :) I do understand that this a lot to ask.
I would like to see a video or a chart where similar 3d printed test bits are painted with all paint ranges and displayed next to each other, so you can compare. If I had money or paints like you do, I'd make a website where you can pick and chose colors and didplay them next to each other. But that's thousands of pounds in paint alone.😮 Edit: byou actually address this later in the video.
I've been trying out some new paint ranges so this is a great video to help me along. But I simply cannot agree with all the pro-acryl love. every single bottle i have has come with a gritty, sandy texture which leaves a horrible finish on my models. Anyone else have this? I have mixed them thoroughly and not used any mediums so it's not like anything has reacted with them. I am loathe to buy any more of them to test if it's a bad batch considering every one of their paints is like it, especially as I bought them in mutiple batches including some of the new signature series
Two things - have you done a Scale 75 paint video that I might have missed? I'd love to get your opinions on it. Second - maybe a video where you create your own dream triads using what you consider to be the best of the best from every range? Personally, I don't want to just stick with one range if there are better deep reds in a different brand.
In the yellow paints comparison Scale75 appears. He doesn't sound particularly impressed 😅 Personally I use Scale75 a lot and find them amazing. But that's me
Army Painter owes me like 3 cans of primer. They are the only brand that had a primer like Chaotic Red. Each of the last 3 cans I bought failed around 1/4 of the way in. For as much as I like using that shade as a base on my World Eaters, I'm done buying them Also I want to add: I recently got a set of the Vallejo Model Air metallic paints. Almost all of them are fantastic. However, the one I was most excited to use, Black (metallic), may be the worst metallic I've personally ever used. The flakes in it are massive and it leaves a terrible grainy finish. Plus it takes several layers to get a full coat. Unlike the silvers in the set. I really haven't used the golds yet bc I just always use Pro Acryl gold metallics. I did however find the new Army Painter Death Metal to be great and does what I was hoping the Vallejo black metallic would have been
Their customer service is actually very accommodating. I recently got two new cans as replacement for cans I bought 4-5 years ago that stopped spraying despite being half full.
I love your videos. However, wha I wished you mentioned after the review of the Two Thin Coat paints is that there are now 180 paints with a far wider color range.
@@stahly_taleofpainterslooks like I’m signing up for patreon. The biggest hurdle to me buying pro acryl over citadel is I don’t know what colors translate. For instance, I don’t know what the pro acryl version of mephiston red, wazdaka red or evil suns is so I haven’t bought them for my reds yet.
@@stahly_taleofpainters finally on PC, would you recommend getting the citadel and pro acryl charts and comparing from there? thats how you use the swatches right
Outside of a small handful of paints, like bold titanium white and a lot of their browns, I've moved away from pro acryl. I love Ak 3rd gen, Two Thin Coats and the new Model Color. There's nothing that I can't get between those ranges and I'll probably stick with them
I'm a big fan of the Pro Acryl line. I have almost all of their paints. That being said their metallics aren't to my personal liking as they don't look like real metal to me. The smaller selection of paints is also a drawback and I've had to mix a fair bit to get even some basic colors like a darker Khaki and something approaching Khorne Red. That being said they have possibly the best pure red out there and the new Rogue Hobbies signature series set is fantastic for its bold colors.
yeah but which is your favorite brand overall 🤔? So much effort put into this video, I'm sure everyone appreciates the information. Buying new paints can be daunting when everyone just says "this" is the best and you can't find out until buying them.
"The best" is often *very* personal - do _you_ prefer how it flows, behaves, dilutes, glazes, mixes, blends, covers, etc. The big point I took from the video: Acrylic paints have, _in general_ improved tremendously over the past couple of years. They are, well, maybe not light years, but they are in an _entirely different league_ than when I tried out my first model acrylic paints in 1993! Or even versus ten years ago. I can tell you this: If you're in the US, the "Folk Art" or "Apple Barrel" matte paint you can get at WalMart is shockingly good stuff, if you take the time to learn to dilute it properly. Is it the best? Nope. Far, far from it. I guarantee you *can* afford to try it out a whole color scheme's worth of paints, and not feel bad if it doesn't work out for you - because it'll cost less than a single bottle of black paint from any of these paints. Sometimes "the best" is "the best for right now" - meaning "I can afford to paint and practice a TON" with this paint. Maybe you want to spend the money on more minis/models to paint, instead of just paint? Best takes many forms.
Pro acryl easiest to work with for beginners, but has a lot to offer any level of painter...takes the cake for consistency, vibrancy, and mixability. The price is not great though.
While I love the properties of AK paints, I have found them the hardest to judge, colour-wise. The swatches - both online and in person - seem to be wildly inaccurate, the frosted bottles make it hard to judge the exact hue inside the hobby store, and the official paint chart is (as you mentioned) chaotic and not organized into triads or similar groups. It's a frustrating aspect of what's otherwise a very nice product to work with.
I did not see much metal color Vallejo love in this I keep seeing paints compared directly to citadel metal paints, like they're not the gold standard. They're pretty low, like don't get me wrong Pro-Akrol has some bad metal paints, but they're dark bronze magnesium, any of the newer ones are much better, and army painter fanatics metal great, but Vallejo metal color is easily the best still, blows the hell out of scales and citadel
I don't know why I am so stoked for these videos, because whenever I buy a new paint, even if it's better than what I'm currently using, I'm still stuck with the old one and my desk space is getting low. It also weighs a bit on my conscience because of all the plastic involved when there's no Farbpfandflaschensystem. Maybe we shouldn't leave paint manufacturing to the foreigners.
Hey there! I appreciate the effort of this video. But the Two Thin Coats paint into, especially regarding the limited range of colours it's pretty outdated, and doesn't reflect the current state of the paint line (120 paints)
A lot of this must have been recorded some time back. Towards the beginning of the video, when talking about the new Army Painter paints, he mentions how they'll start to be released very early 2024
@@jefff3023 although I totally understand that, and that making a full 90 video again it's a big commitment, putting a lot of outdated info makes this video pretty less useful, and potentially mis-informative. I think at least this video needs a few disclaimers and edits put between the old video with updated info
Army painter could tell me day is light and night is dark and you'd catch me outside with sunglasses at 9pm just in case. 10 years in the hobby ive learned trying to save some bucks going the AP route always ends up costing more because you get theirs, try it, then get what you wanted originally.
Hard disagree on all this list ATOM by Mig and Scale75 Artist dramatically outperform all these. The ones on most of this list would be more accurately described as "easiest to use". The Fanatic paints are very overrated. AP very obviously cut the paint with white pigment to boost opacity, which desaturates the color and makes it difficult to accomplish some effects with them.
