Still working on the cape mostly. Switched to English Blue (Apple Barrel) and after 3 coats:

Wargames Delivered thinks I'm swell and sent me 3 paints for shipping

As you can see I was running low on paint and I really needed them

How do you like the Golden Acrylics?

I don't like them. Or hate them. No reason to have any opinion at all as I haven't used them. I've played with them a bit, and all the other stuff, including the Army Paints, and will report back this evening.

To correct a typo above, I switched to English Navy for the Batman cape. Not "English Blue".

Cape looks better, finally has uniform and complete coverage. I would suggest not taking photos with the phone's flash if possible, harsh light makes figures look pretty bad 😀

ive been working on my Giant Frostbite Spider. not really liking it so I might take some simplegreen and see if I can remove all the paint and start over. Its resin, I've used simplegreen to clean hips plastic minis but not resin.. might just start with some water and see if it washes off first

In the last picture is that a guitar the girl is holding. Or a lute of some sort?

Yes the Batmensch is destined for a wash down. I like painting and trying different colors and combinations and this ia just a practice run. Actually they're all just practice runs. Anyway whether plastic or metal you have to be careful, but soaking in soapy water should soften paints and even primer. And scrub with a toothbrush. You can try adding some ammonia OR vinegar, but for heavens sake not both. In a cup of water say start with a tablespoon. Ammonia is actually the world's best penetrant but it takes time. I have removed paint from computer cases, not all, with ammonia and newspaper (swaddled the case in it). In 1 instance it didn't take long at all. With some paints though it has no effect. But acrylics should be easy to remove.

S9 I ordered the Vallejo medieval set. 27.03$, lowest price I've ever seen. I hope it's worthwhile.

The 3 Army Paints they sent were surprisingly good. I liked the nice even dispersion. IOW it wasn't streaky or splotchy like many many other paints are, even pricey art paints. I'll have more to say about this stuff. Been tired the last few days. Feeling blah.

I also ordered 100 15ml dropper bottles. This way I can formulate my own paints. I have done this with some success already. Really all I did was take tube paints and add water 🤣. A very specific careful formulation. But they seem to work pretty well. I also have liquid mediums, not sure if there would be an improvement. Sometimes water is all you need.

chris2021 wrote on 2022-08-18, 00:53:

S9 I ordered the Vallejo medieval set. 27.03$, lowest price I've ever seen. I hope it's worthwhile.

I just looked at this, it's a good set but not 'great'.

Half of it are colors I own and like: Dark Vermillion, Royal Blue and Light Green are great primary colors . Deep Yellow is a yellow I like and use but it is not the most opaque color so make sure to make good use of Cork Brown as a basecoat first. Cork Brown and Medium Skin tone are great flesh colors. Black/White are among some of the best there are. Royal Purple is a favorite for a lot of painters I know (I am partial to Violet and Violet Red myself).

The issue I have is that the metallics are basically useless (Model Color metallics are trash), There are two blue-green (Blue Green and Emerald) colors of questionable usability (you can mix these) while there are no real browns in this set. Aside from these five colors and the omission of a good neutral brown or a sienna tone, it's a good set. How Vallejo thought you could paint medieval stuff without a good color for leather is beyond me 😀

What would you recommend as an all around good beginning set? I found myself impressed again and again with the medieval colors. Compared to the USA BASIC set, FOLKSTONE BASIC, and perhaps another 1 or 2. Price was definitely a factor. That medieval set is consistently around 40$, it dropped dramatically a few weeks ago, jumped back up, and down again yesterday. So I no longer have a bug up my wazoon about Vallejo (thanks to you!). Now I am aiming to determine the best "set" to have ... even if I have to make it myself, so 27$ isn't going to hurt me, especially considering what I've spent on paint in the past 5-6 weeks. So now I'll be able to give my impression of the 'V'.
I almost said screw it and went whh Game Leather and Metallics set. I have loads (and loads) or primary colors, spread out across the manufacturing spectrum. Why another basic/primary set of colors? Well I guess I figured how much leathery metallic colors do I need. I like the idea of a comprehensive all around useful set of paints Less heartache, less work, you get to just paint. But, you see, I'm not right in the head, and have to obsess over most things I pursue.
The steam era set was 23$ and change a couple weeks back, the cheapest I've ever seen a 16 color set go for. And although it seemed somewhat useful, I decided if I'm going to buy Vallejo, I'll wait (for the price to come back down) and buy the set that seemed most useful. It'll likely be the only Vallejo paints I buy.

So I've been asked about my opinion of Golden fluid acrylics. Many if not most are not useful for mini painting, out of the bottle. Golden is top of the line artist paint, and overwhelmingly is beloved. To summarinze their various paint lines, there's heavy body (standard acrylic, mostly supplied in squeeze tubes), fluid acrylics, and SoFlats. The last 2 are fluids, the standard fluids in particular are pretty runny, as compared to craft paints (I have so little experience with mini paints so there's no basis for comparison). Golden, in any of their paint products, packs the maximum amount of pigment that the medium will take. This is particularly evident in colors like pthalo blue, not the darkest blue, but pretty dark. It takes extra effort to get it all out of a brush when cleaning. Oi vay. And since there's so much pigment, it determines the paints finish when dry. Most high quality acrylics dry GLOSSY as all get out. All the common fluids dry pretty darn glossy. Strangely Pyrole Orange, which is what I painted the human torch with, is only a medium satin I'm guessing. The Manganese Blue Hue I slathered over the Batmensch cape, is very glossy. Each only received 1 coat.

Both of these colors are gorgeous to me. Using Pyrole Orange as a base coat for the Torch seems like a mistake. But, to me at least, it sure looks purty.

The Army Paints seem pretty nice, in their consistency as I've mentioned, but Hydra Blue seems a bit dull, especially when compared to various art paints. All 3 that they sent me covered exceptionally well in a short test, and didn't streak, or there was very minimal streaking. Apart from the dullness of the blue, I could definitely live with them. Still not sure if I'll keep the set. I have the Vallejo Medieval set on the way, I want to paint a 25 or 28mm figure with those. Maybe use the Army paints, that I have opened, as well, and compare them. Blue, Copper, and that bizarre Rough? Iron color (a really dark rust) isn't much to work with. I didn't take much time to contemplate their usefulness. I just grabbed what caught my eye.

Golden also has the SoFlat line, which are liquid acrylics, but are all matte. I bought a 6 piece set (dubbed "PoP") and smooshed some of them on the box they came in. People will complain about some paints being chalky. Well I've never seen chalkier paints in my life. They cover beautifully, initially though they had sort of a poster paint feel to them. Maybe because I was painting them on what was essentially poster board. But I obtained more, and have yet to mix them and whatnot. I did try to quickly simulate an actually irony look. Mixed SoFlat white and black, got the gray, then dry bushed some Golden liquid silver on top of that. I guess I had some limited success.

Hey somebody should 3d print these and sell them. What a cool thing to paint:

https://www.sci.news/paleontology/saccorhytus … zoan-11104.html

An animal with a mouth but no anus. We got lots of those working in the fake news industry. All the **** just comes out their mouth LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL. O man. O man.

chris2021 wrote on 2022-08-18, 09:26:

What would you recommend as an all around good beginning set? I found myself impressed again and again with the medieval colors. Compared to the USA BASIC set, FOLKSTONE BASIC, and perhaps another 1 or 2. Price was definitely a factor. That medieval set is consistently around 40$, it dropped dramatically a few weeks ago, jumped back up, and down again yesterday. So I no longer have a bug up my wazoon about Vallejo (thanks to you!). Now I am aiming to determine the best "set" to have ... even if I have to make it myself, so 27$ isn't going to hurt me, especially considering what I've spent on paint in the past 5-6 weeks. So now I'll be able to give my impression of the 'V'.
I almost said screw it and went whh Game Leather and Metallics set. I have loads (and loads) or primary colors, spread out across the manufacturing spectrum. Why another basic/primary set of colors? Well I guess I figured how much leathery metallic colors do I need. I like the idea of a comprehensive all around useful set of paints Less heartache, less work, you get to just paint. But, you see, I'm not right in the head, and have to obsess over most things I pursue.
The steam era set was 23$ and change a couple weeks back, the cheapest I've ever seen a 16 color set go for. And although it seemed somewhat useful, I decided if I'm going to buy Vallejo, I'll wait (for the price to come back down) and buy the set that seemed most useful. It'll likely be the only Vallejo paints I buy.

What you got is not a bad set, it is actually a good set but not the best. I'd say the Vallejo Basic Colors USA set is the best set out there: https://acrylicosvallejo.com/en/product/hobby … lors-usa-70140/

It has less saturated colors all around but it covers a larger part of the color wheel IMO.

Well the brilliance of the medieval colors was a selling point. Granted most of the historical stuff I have isn't from a time that had the pageantry of the crusader period. There were colorful even vibrant elements. But whatever. The yellow in the medieval set is also deeper, more definitive imho. The USA Basic set had a putrid lemony yellow as I recall.

Saturation can be tamped down with the addition of white, grays, etc. The way I see it a set with deep colors will get you more mileage as you lots of ways.to vary them. Most variations in sets are just some primary color/s and white and/or black added in.

I bought an 8$ set of 13ml paint pots from Michaels. They're called rustic colors, and honestly the coverage isn't horrific. And it's a fairly good range of muted earthy colors. Pretty appropriate for dark age barbarians.

Any experience with Delta Ceramcoat?

chris2021 wrote on 2022-08-18, 11:23:

Any experience with Delta Ceramcoat?

No, but I used Plaid FolkArt and watched people use Apple Barrel; AFAIK all three are comparable, and will work for miniature painting in a pinch. Just be aware that they are coarser grained and less opaque compared to something like Vallejo Model Color. Don't use their whites and use better yellows when possible, you should be fine.

I doubt anyone has used stuff like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Paasche-Airbrush-Alumi … 5178&psc=1&th=1

You may even need a special airgun. Micromark was selling abrasives like this years ago for use with a bog standard air brush I think.

Anyway what made me think of this was the covetage issue. A paint may be more inclined to uniformly adhere to a surface if it was porous. I suppose sanding could accomplish some results also. The primer I've been using actually calls for it. I test paint on white unprimed cardstock and on a double primed metal plate. And get different results.

You would ruin your miniature.

So my Vallejo Medieval set came. Initial results were far more positive then negative, and this is across the half dozen colors I tested. No significant issues that I can see. Now I have to paint something ...

And incidentally the black red color it came with is brown, albeit a very dark brown. Even when mixed with some white it's still brown. Or blackish red. It just doesn't exhibit any redness at all. Not a leathery color. But I'm sure it could be approximated very well with the addition of the cork brown.

Been using the Vallejos and So Flats to paint a figure. I have to say I currently have no complaints about the Vallejos. In fact if that was all I had, I doubt I'd be any worse off. I may even purchase another set for good measure. Prices are currently bottoming out. The stuff essentially covers in 1 coat, and the colors are rich, probably more so with some then others. The Royal blue is amazing.

One paint line I definitely can't recommend for minis is Daler Simply. You see them at Walmart, a 12 piece set is 6 bucks US (12ml tubes, a little under half an ounce). The colors are vibrant, but omce you start addimg water, the poop hits the blender blades. Daler Rowney has and still makes good paint. But low cost paint has so little pigment it doesn't lend itself to thinning down too much. It quickly takes on the consistency of a wash. I started painting a cape, after 3 coats, while the color itself didn't look too bad, it probably needed 3 more, and even thinned it left a lot of brush strokes. That line has it's place, just not for minis. I finished the cape with Soflat naphtol red.