The new Game Colors should already be available from our partner shops Wayland Games, Element Games, Firestorm Games, and Taschengelddieb, which all have them at an additional discount. 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.

highly pigmented acrylic colors formulated to provide an especially mat and opaque coating which covers all primers and base colors in one application. Layering is when the Vallejo Game Color paints really come into their own. They are spectacular layer paints and are ideal for blending. Just make sure you shake them like crazy before trying to use them, and be ready to thin things down with a little water, as you would a normal paint. Game color is a special selection of fine waterbased acrylic colours maunfactured with a special resin and permanent pigments for miniatures figures in fantasy and war games. 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 spite of knowing this, in a moment of madness, I decided to have a go at some OSL on one of the figures I was testing with – I couldn’t look at the fireball in her hand and not feel as if there should be some light on her. I seriously struggled to do this, not only due to my inexperience with OSL (this was the first time I’d ever attempted it) but also because I really struggled to get the paints to do what I wanted to on the figure.The Washes and Inks, developed with a new resin, are used for shadows and for the application of colors in layers. When applied over a basecoat, they enter into the folds and grooves of the figure, and instantly brings forth the features. They can also be mixed with the regular colors, or with the Mediums.

The silver paints are okay, but rather thin, their consistency is more like airbrush paint and much thinner than the old Game Color metallics. You can work with them, but they are not as good as Steel from the Vallejo Model Air series and Steel and Dark Steel from the Mecha Color series. Those are also airbrush paints, but their opacity is higher and they apply more nicely with a brush. Moreover, those three colours correspond very closely to the classic three silver paints from Games Workshop: Mithril Silver, Chainmail, and Boltgun Metal (or Stormhost Silver, Iron Hands Steel, and Leadbelcher for those that aren’t a grizzly Grey Hunter like me), whereas the new Game Color Gun Metal is significantly darker than Leadbelcher, and even darker than Iron Warriors. The blues and aqua-toned greeny blues were stand-out and were an absolute pleasure to paint with. In fact, across all the colours I tested, the blues were by far my favourites. I then swapped in a more familiar-looking Games Workshop figure (a Lord-Imperatant from the new AoS 3.0 ranges) to test out some of the metallic paints. I found the metallic paints actually went through the airbrush and onto a figure very well. Given how good Vallejo’s Metal Color Airbrush range is, this shouldn’t really have been a surprise. The Game Inks also stayed pretty much the same, which is good news for those that liked the old Game Color Inks. However, they removed Brown and Smokey Ink, which of all things were the only ones I was still using, and added a new Magenta Ink, Dark Turquoise Ink, and White Ink instead.

Colors for hobby and fine arts

Personally, I prefer the formula of the new Xpress Colors, and I’m not sure whether having two almost identical products in a single paint range was really necessary. I would have preferred the Inks to be migrated to the Xpress Color range instead, but that’s just me. Remember, when painting miniatures it’s not always about right or wrong, but different approaches that are all equally valid. There are many roads that lead to Terra, and if you were an avid user of the old Game Color Inks then you’ll be happy they haven’t changed. Game Color Fluorescent paints review Chances are, even if you’re relatively new to the miniature painting hobby, you’ll have heard of Vallejo. But, if you want to continue to grow as a painter and hobbyist, you’re one day going to have to take the plunge and leap from the Citadel nest. The likelihood is, as you’re plummeting towards the ground, you’ll hit the Vallejo branch at least once, if not several times, on the way down. The Best Paints for Miniatures & Models

There are also quite a few new colours that close some of the gaps of the old range, 44 colours in total. Nevertheless, the Game Color range is quite small compared to Citadel or Reaper, and what I’m still missing are petrol colours, more grey tones, dark skin tones, and more muted and natural light skin tones, as all of the light skin tones in the Game Color range are quite pink and peach. New Game Colors’ features & propertiesWith all the metallic colours I tested, I needed only the slightest amount of water to get the metallic colours thinned down appropriately. This actually caused me a few issues, as the amount of water you need to thin these down to their optimum consistency still actually varies within the range. For example, at one point during testing, I used the same amount of water to thin down two very similar amounts of Chainmail Silver and Glorious Gold. Chainmail silver drank the water up and thinned down beautifully, but Glorious Gold became a frustrating runny puddle on my wet palette.

Paint is one of those personal things. Some people love certain paints that others hate and vice-versa. As such, it’s very difficult to try and slap a catch-all conclusion on such a dynamic and varied paint range. As with just about every aspect of this hobby, certain people will love parts of this range, whilst others won’t. I myself love the browns and the blues – and even rather like the greys and whites – in this range, but would quite happily never touch the yellows ever again. Vallejo is that paint brand people first go to when stepping out of the “Citadel Comfort Zone”. You know, that point in your hobby life where you know the Citadel range inside and out. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this whatsoever, Citadel make great stuff. I am very new to airbrushing (I started using one about a week ago and it made me very cross) and, I will confess, I’m also extremely bad at it. There is, theoretically, just about everything you could possibly need in here to jump right into painting miniatures with this set alone. Vallejo Game Color Paints Review – Testing The Special FX paints are Vallejo’s answer to Citadel’s Technical paints, and here I faced mixed results.The Lord-Imperatant you see below has been painted almost entirely with Vallejo paints in this box (some Mechanicus Standard Grey and Dawnstone on the base, some Screamer Pink and Warpfiend Grey on the purple leather of the handles on his weapons, and a dash of Apothecary White on his hair). 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. Let’s take a look at the 80 regular acrylic paints first. These cover most bases from all primary and secondary colours, bone, brown and skintone colours, and greyscale paints as well. This is another feather in the Game Color range’s cap. In spite of their relative thinness, you can basecoat with a Game Color paint, you’ll just need to build your colour up in a lot of layers. You can also use the exact same paints for layering, so you’re not limited by the range in any way.