Cheaper ways of painting your army

I have always had the need to find a cheaper and more affordable way of painting my miniatures. I have found that Games Workshop paints "Citadel" have gotten even more expensive than they were about a year ago, this is probably due to their new colour scheme and also new paints range along with new paint names ( I liked the old paint names) which are quite frankly unecessary in my opinion. for a 12oz pot of paint paying £2.30 is a bit steep considering its only a very small amount in the pot and once you have run out you have to go out and buy more.

Of course there are more chaeper but good  quality alternatives,such as vallejo Model Color (spanish), Reaper paints

So instead of having to pay so much for paint, I had decided on buying a set of acrylic paints which I found in my local store in town. to be honest for aset of 12 paints for £2.29 i was quite impressed as not only am i paying for 12 paints for teh price of one pot of GW paint, I'm saving that much more! If i was to buy a set of GW base paints box ( 9 paints plus a few tools plus gstatic grass and sand) in teh set i woudl have to pay almost thre timws as much £35!

Citadel hobby set

this is what comes in a Citadel Hobby starter set for £35:

1 pot of Leadbelcher (12ml)
1 pot of Macragge Blue (12ml)
1 pot of Waaagh! Flesh (12ml)
1 pot of Averland Sunset (12ml)
1 pot of Bugman's Glow (12ml)
1 pot of Mephiston Red (12ml)
1 pot of Mournfang Brown (12ml)
1 pot of Imperial Primer (12ml)
1 pot of White Scar (12ml)
1 Starter Brush
1 pair of Plastic Cutters
1 bottle of PVA Glue (20ml)
1 bottle of Plastic Glue (20ml)
1 Tub of Static Grass (10 grams)
1 Tub of Sand (45 grams)

So with the extra bits aside , for 9 pots of paint (£2.30 each) I would be paying £20.70 where as for my acrylic set I'm getting 12 paints for only £2.29 so a big saving of £18.41 !

Pros and Con's of Acrylic Paint

One thing you have to remember about acrylic paints is that they dry FAST and if you do not use the paint that is on your palette in about 2 or 3 hours, you can bet that it will solidify and then you would have wasted paint, so the best thing to do is to either add a small dab of water onto the acrylic blob or just use it up really fast. Another thing is that they are very thick paints and so you do need to thin them down slightly with water, but thin them down too much and you end up with a watercolour consistancy and that will not make the paint "stick" to the model, as it will just slide right off . The best thing when using acrylics is to apply in thin even layers and often to get the opaqueness of them. Of course you could slather it on like butter, but that is a technique for canvases. If the paint is applied to the model too thickly it won't dry quickly and so you will have to wait a good 2-3 hours for it to dry out. So if you are one of those very speedy painters that like to slp on a bit of colour just to add variety to your models then maybe acrylics would not be your choice, so its probably better to stick to GW paints or Vallejo Model colour paints. Yet if using acrylic paints then it best to apply thin coats on the said model thereby building the colour up.

Hoped this blog has helped you somewhat in determining whether to buy more expensive paints, thereby draining your wallet, or cheaper alternative paints thereby easing your wallet. Just bear in mind that "most expensive" doesn't always mean "best quality or endurability".

Happy Painting !