Reply To: [unofficial weekender] GUARDS! GUARDS!

[blinky465 17028xp 1]

I’ve heard a lot of people having problems with Army Painter but I’ve had their (original) Mega Set for about ten years and never felt like they were any better or worse than any other supplier. Yes, yellows and red are “thin” and need a few coats. But the same goes for Citadel and Vallejo too. I was sold the idea of AK paints, but I found their red and yellow to be the “worst” of the lot!

That said, Army Painter (certainly their earlier paints) suffered from “paint jizz” – often the first squirt from a bottle would be just binder and very little pigment. If you shook the life out of them, the clear goop would appear coloured, but wouldn’t be very opaque at all. So for the very first squirt from a bottle, I’d put a drop onto a paper towel and put the second drop on my wet palette – and found them to be just as good as their rivals.

Then again, even Army Painter recognised that their paints were considered inferior.
Which is how we’ve ended up with Fanatic Paints – they’ve completely re-engineered their entire paint formulation, because of user feedback. And that’s why I’m happy to scrap my old set (which still served me quite well) and buy into their new range.

Their Speed Paints got me loving mini painting again. They’re much “silkier” and nicer to use than Contrast Paint.
As a company, I love what they’ve done. I’ll find out what their actual paint is like when I get some time to sit and paint, later on this week.