Vallejo must haves

[Dr Death]

Hello there, for a long time now i have been thinking about changing over to vallejo model colour as my main paint range, i have dabbled in Vallejo before, impressed by their more natural and wider range than my previous favourites GW but now im about to make the push into Vallejo proper. The thing is i cant afford the whole range of vallejo (only around 60 depending on how strong the pound is against the dollar) and so im wondering how to make the most effective use of my cash. Should i work on getting the full range of colours i use most often or are there a few i could safely miss out on? I want to know your \"must haves\" and \"dont bother\'s\" of vallejos range.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Dr Death

 

[Spacemunkie]

The Game Colour range include all the GW equivalents. There\'s about 60 pots and you can get some pretty nifty deals on them.

Check out Game Mart....

 

[Ritual]

There are plenty of colours you can do without. There are several paints that are very similar in tone and you can do with only one of them. What paints to get depends a lot on your painting style. I use a lot of earth tones, so my collection consists of LOTS of browns, greys, and greens. I\'d say the colours I use most often are:

German Cam Black - dark brown similar to scorched brow
Basalt Grey
Sky Grey
Beige Brown
Pale Sand
Ivory
White
Cork Brown
Flat Flesh
Cavalry Brown
Pale Greyblue
German WWII Luftwaffen Blue
Field Blue
Cadmium Maroon
Intermediate Blue
Medium Olive
Golden Olive
Yellow Green
Orange Brown
Ice Yellow

I\'ve got plenty of others, but these are the most commonly used. But if you prefer a brighter style of painting you\'d probably need other colours.

*edit* all of the above mentioned are Model Colors.

 

[Fizl]

The model colours I use all the time -

Ivory
Beige
Smoke
Oily steel
English uniform
Black - for some reason i find this black better than the game colour version, dunno why!

Shaz

 

[Dragonsreach]

Try thinking about the range of colours you use most often from GW. The Game colours are designed to emulate them almost exactly. So what you can do is to replace the paints that have dried up or you are almost out of. The value of Vallejo paints is that you will use less, they will last longer and cost less for more.

But if you want to extend your range then consider the Model colours as Fizl has suggested.
I can recommend the Ivory, Smoke and Beige as being 3 highly useful colours. The Smoke is a transparent colour and can be used to great effect to alter the apperance of metallics, or brown paints.

http://www.game-mart.co.ukIs one of the best suppliers know to this site for Game Colours and if you want to venture in to the Model Colours then try http://www.art-of-war.co.uk.
Both owners of these companies are regulars on Coolmini and active in the forums as Beelzebrush (Game Mart) and Propaintjob (Art-of-War).

Hope that this helps.

 

[KingM]

A quick word of warning on the GW-to-Game colour transition, while the colours are a near perfect match, some are very slightly different. This won\'t matter on small areas which are going to be blended etc, but for continuity on large flat areas it might be best to do a top coat in the GW colour.

Eg I began my Tau army in GW colours, then switched to Vallejo, the Vallejo desert yellow is slightly darker, so where I have large areas of this I use a top coat of the GW colour to match the rest of the force. I still use the Vallejo colour as the basecoat as it has miles better coverage

 

[Corvus]

Cadmium Maroon is one of my personal favorites. It\'s the perfect basecoat for , red brown, leather and red, and I also use it to shade skin

 

[vincegamer]

I use cavalry brown as the base for my reds.

 

[MalleusMiniArt]

I`d add dark sea blue (898) to the colors already mentioned

 

[mickc22]

Originally posted by Dr Death
Hello there, .......... (only around 60 depending on how strong the pound is against the dollar) ..........\"haves\" and \"dont bother\'s\" of vallejos range.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Dr Death

Why do you nee to worry about the $? I stock the full 220 Model Color range. I\'m at the Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre every fortnight, I\'ll be there next on Sunday the 29th, If you don\'t want to wait that long you are welcome to pop down pm me If you are definately going to have 60 colors I\'m sure I can give you some discount

Mick

 

[Dr Death]

Thanks very much for the references guys and any more are always appreciated. Nice offer Mickc22 but im in west london so getting across to Gillingham is a bit of a trek, still much thanks for the offer.

Ive heard Vallejo Metallics are a bit of a weak link when compared to GW, can anyone verify this or put my mind at rest?

Again many thanks

Dr Death

 

[Fizl]

The game colour metallics have larger flakes in them than the GW equivalent I think, but they still work fine. I only have Vallejo, and can still get OK effects with them as long as I keep them thin. I only have 2 model colour ones, the oily steel that I use alot and an alcohol based one, which is extremely fine flakes, but strange to use (although I\'ve got used to it now).

BTW there is a shop in north london that does Vallejo, and for the life of me I can\'t remember it. If I do I\'ll let you know

Shaz

 

[tiannastarfall]

I have been using GW and mini-paints (?)up till now but have heard great things about Vallejo. Do they do starter sets like GW that would be suitable for fantasy/sci-fi - links to UK sellers appreciated (or USA considering the excellent exchange rate at the moment).

I am a bit of a beginner and would not know where to begin in specific single paint pots!

 

[Dr Death]

They do do some sets of colours all of which (from a randomly selected sample) include black and white, hence why to save some cash on endless repeats im going for singular paints. As for where to get them, theres a full list of paints and accessories over at The War Store

Hope that helps

Dr Death