Downgrading Army Painter — SAD FACE

I’ve had to downgrade the ratings for The Army Painter Warpaint, and there is no way to do this but bite the bullet and rip that bullet out of my shoulder, Doc.

The world of “mini paint” is vast and, in some ways, alarming. I’m entering this foreign world with a simple goal– to find paint to use on my plastic model kits. There are many, many folks who want to get in on this rapidly growing business. New paints are rolling onto the market. Old paints are being reformulated and repackaged.

It’s a boomtown.

But in a boomtown, a fresh-faced newcomer like me is in for a wild ride.

The Army Painter Warpaint covers so well– I’m really, still, just ecstatic over the coverage provided by the white and yellow paint. I mean, I’ve been looking for a LIFETIME for this stuff. Please forgive me for being a little TOO enthusiastic. Further testing has revealed some significant problems. The whole paint line is now on “hold” status. I won’t be investing in any more of this paint. I hope this clarification isn’t seen as a nasty, backhanded betrayal of my loyal reader. I mean readers. Both of you.

No seriously. You gonna forgive me or what?

Well, whatever you do, I’m moving on. I’ve heard rumors of “super paints” that are spoken of in whispers by the mini painters and their little people helpers. Paints called “Pro Acryl” and “Kimera.” This paint is not cheap and buying it just to review is something I’d like to avoid– so don’t expect to see it here soon.

…but someday.

In the meantime, I’ve learned a lesson. When dealing with new and marvelous things, I can’t let myself get carried away, because, at my age, being carried away isn’t a metaphor.

Now that’s all the goddam humility you’re going to get from me today. Get back to work.

2 Replies to “Downgrading Army Painter — SAD FACE”

  1. What were the other problems you ran into? I bought white, black and silver. I was impressed with the silver for wheels and landing gear, and the white for landing gear but haven’t progressed beyond that.

    1. I ran into several problems, and I’ll summarize them all. The first problem was thinning. One thing about these “mini paints” is that they are thick. When I thinned this, it failed to do what I want– it did not simply flow on smoothly. It acted as if I’d used the wrong thinner (I used water, and that might be wrong?) so that was a problem. The pigment and the liquid medium separated, slightly, which leads to losing the ability to draw a solid line. I got “skips” where the color didn’t appear. Also, the pigment piled up in other spots, leading to brushmarks and “clumps.” It wasn’t so severe that it caused a major disaster, but it was serious. My solution was to add no less than 5 ml (eyedroppers) of Windex to the 12 ml of paint. That’s a lot of Windex! But it brushed on well after that. Not great– but very usable. Coverage became a problem, but that’s also true of Vallejo Model Air. Both paints can be used with plenty of Windex, but adding the washin’ soap makes coverage “iffy.” It will take three coats to have good coverage. This seems to be the way that these modern acrlic mini paints tend to act. I believe it’s a trade-off. You get the great coverage, at the price of being really, really thick. This means you can smooth them on with a brush– but the only problem with that is that I need to be able to draw camouflage, curved lines, scallops, spirals on spinners– all kinds of things that most people don’t paint free-hand. But because I do it I need a paint that behaves when thin.

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