Because the consistency of the paint is that much more aqueous, it can be quite difficult to get a decent amount of paint onto the brush for drybrushing. The paint tends towards being too wet and prone to splodging on textures as opposed to leaving a good, crisp highlight. Looking to spread your wings and fly from the Citadel Colour nest? Wanting to set foot out of your painting comfort zone? Or just looking for something new to try? You can’t go far wrong with Vallejo. An excellent alternative to most game-brand colour ranges and a solid rung up on the painting ladder, Vallejo’s Game Color range will see you right. Vallejo Game Colour Paints Review – Introduction Because the Vallejo Game Color range are, on the whole, very thin, the non-metallic paints aren’t the best for drybrushing. Sure, you can do it – as evidenced by the images below – but it might just be easier to reach for a less watery paint in the first instance and save yourself some time, and stress. Something to note with the range if you are a long-time Citadel user looking to shake things up are that many of the colours are equitable to Citadel paints, so you needn’t worry about having to change from one paint scheme to another mid-army, or some of your figures not quite matching the other.

I was, however, pleasantly surprised by the whites and light greys in the Game Color range. White can be a bit hit and miss, either being too watery or too clumpy. Vallejo’s whites and light greys – Wolf Grey, Ghost Grey, Arctic White and Dead White – are excellent.There are some really lovely browns in the range too, as you can see on the boats, gloves, chest armour and hat on the figure above. The browns seem to have the best consistencies: not only are they good and smooth, but they also react very well to being thinned with water and maintain a good spread of colour when applied to a figure. Layering I then had a go with another WePrintMiniatures figure: Salome. This time, I tried a basecoat of Scarlet Red and then a top-down highlight of Bloody Red on her cape (and any other part of her figure that happened to get in the way at the time).

In general, I have moved on to Contrast-like paints. In fact, Game Color Inks and the new Xpress Colors are very similar in terms of consistency and pigmentation. The only difference is in their behaviour. As you can see, the Game Color Inks create harsher transitions as the pigments tend to collect in the recesses more, whereas Xpress Colors create a more even tint with softer transitions. Chances are, even if you’re relatively new to the miniature painting hobby, you’ll have heard of Vallejo. The Special FX paints are Vallejo’s answer to Citadel’s Technical paints, and here I faced mixed results.

Colors for hobby and fine arts

I’m not saying this is the fault of the paint – it’s probably as much my own inexperience – but it’s worth bearing in mind. I think the lesson here is that if you’re tempted to try some new techniques, do so with paints you’re more familiar with.