There are so many paint brands, it’s can be hard to know where to start. Why should you go with Vallejo, a staple of miniature painting?
Paint brands all come with their pros and cons. As such, it’s important to figure out what you are looking for in paints before you look for what each brand has to offer.
Why Buy Vallejo Paints
Vallejo is one of the staple paint brands for miniatures, and has been since the early 2000’s, gaining a lot of popularity from Confrontation’s mind blowing painters.
This tradition lives on, they are still used by some amazing painters, like my favorite, Angel Giraldez.
Of course, the tools don’t make the man, and vice versa.
Pros
The best thing about Vallejo paints is that they have such a wide range of colors, you are guaranteed to find the color you’re looking for. “If you invent a color, chances are Vallejo already makes it” is my favorite saying.
Their paint is offered in various ranges, depending on what you are looking for. The Game range is based off old Citadel colors, and offers more vibrant tones. The Model range is mainly the military colors for all the historical stuff.
Consistency is another great thing from Vallejo. Every color has roughly the same thickness and pigmentation. This takes away a lot of the guess work about thinning down paints to your desired consistency.
Along with the model color and game color ranges, Vallejo paints are also available in cans, airbrush-ready, airbrush primer, and a plethora of other technical specs, like extra opaque or fluo.
Cons
The main issue with Vallejo, at least across North America, is the poor availability. This is not a game store problem, but a distribution problem from Vallejo themselves.
The availability issues has stopped me from using Vallejo products a lot in the past, because back when I was painting full time, not having access to colors I needed was a deal breaker.
Arguably victims of their success, some colors can go out of stock for six months to a year. Quite frustrating when you run out and it’s the main color of your army.
Another drawback, specially for newer painters is that with the wide variety comes a lot more ‘figuring out’ and trial and error.
Compared to The Army Painters ‘Base, Mid, High’ color selection, which green highlights or shades your base color from the hundred green they offer can be mind boggling.
Another problem of the various ranges is that colors don’t match exactly. The Gory Red spray, the Game Air Gory Red and the Game Color Gory Red are all slightly different.
It is not a deal breaker, or such a huge issue, but it is well worth knowing ahead of time.
The Best Vallejo Paints
Despite not being a large part of my own paint collection, there are a few banger that I love and keep coming back to.
- Game Color Dead White (best white paint out there)
- Model Color German Field Grey (grey-ish green)
- Airbrush Primer, Grey (lighter grey tone than most grey primers)
- Model Color Chocolate Brown (dark matte brown)
- Vallejo Metal Colors – any of them. Shiny and opaque, they are the real deal.