Vallejo

The old guard of painting.

Acrylicos Vallejo, or just Vallejo, is a Spanish company that produces acrylic-based paints for various purposes, including for models. They have the prestige of being one of the oldest tabletop paint and modelling company, having been established in 1965 and originally making paints for Scooby-Doo and the like. They are considered to be the standard bearers of good paint companies because it is the only thing they really do, and the easiest to recommend over your average Citadel paint pot.

What they're good at

• Everything works with metal, plasic, and resin. If you can prime it, you can paint on it.
• Easy to understand website with a clear, concise UI.
• Everything's in a dropper bottle so the paints are never going to dry out on you prematurely.
• Every Vallejo pot has about 5ml more paint in it than Citadel's.
• They sell primer in 400ml containers you could use to get an Apocalypse-level army together and still have plenty left over. If you buy it, you will almost certainly never need primer again. You can get black and white for less than $15/£13.
• Everything on the site is set up for model use, with ridiculously impressive metallic colors down to what different kinds of metal something could be made of, though you'll probably only ever need the "Model Color" and "Game Color" series.
• Face and Skin Tones hit all the bases. The Game Color version of this is even better.
• The Color Charts on their website include both old and new Citadel paints and their reference numbers, so you can just go through that and get your preferred color if you're not looking for a whole starter set.
• Basic airbrush starter set comes with an airbrush!
• Starter sets in general are roughly on-average a few dollars cheaper than what Citadel sells.
• The "Shifters" series look fucking great for the airbrush types; they're specially formulated paints that change color in the light. You can make either your most lisa-frank ass version of Your Dudes, or make your Chaos Sorcerer look like he's about to tear open the Warp right on your tabletop.

What they're not so good at

• THE BIG ONE: Citadel changed their paint names at some point between 2012 and now, so the Vallejo color chart on their website is not a one for one anymore like it used to be. Their catalog PDFs are regularly updated with color equivalences.
  • You can also use this chart.
  • Or this one.
• Your FLGS is almost guaranteed to have most of their Vallejo rack picked near clean in comparison to the Citadel, Reaper, and P3 racks.
• Can't order paint online directly from their website; you're gonna have to go to the local hobby store/FLGS for it, and third-party sellers -will- mark it up.
• Their Primer is somewhat thin, as they formulate it with the expectation of airbrushing with it. Depending on the model's size, you may need to do an extra coat.
• Their paints need to be shaken HARD before they ever come out of the bottle. Sure, you need to shake all of your acrylic paints, but you need to really give these little shits a good once-over before they go on your models.
  • You can order stainless steel balls (1 eurodollar for a bag of fifty on AliExpress): put one in each paint pot and it'll help a lot with the shaking/mixing process. Absolutely make sure they are stainless steel by testing with a magnet that they're not magnetized, leaving them a few days in a water pot to check they don't rust (use salted water for faster results). Some Aliexpress sellers lie and sell steel balls as stainless steel, which will rust and ruin your paints. You can also buy stainless steel at your FLGS under specialist brands (Army Painter, Green Stuff World and others carry them as "mixing balls"), but expect a price markup.
  • You can also use hematite (beads for bracelets), glass (might break though), ceramic (used in cooking pastries).
  • Do NOT use fish weights, shotgun pellets or anything else made of lead, otherwise you'll get lead paint and nervous system damage at your next brush lick.
• Certain colors fluctuate wildly in terms of actual price. Stuff everyone uses will be at least three to four pounds/dollars more expensive than others, you're probably gonna have to figure out how many shekels you're actually gonna need.

Prince August and Italeri paint ranges

Prince August and Italeri are european companies, respectively from France and Italy. Prince August mainly sells modelism tools with an emphasis on aerograph supplies, while Italeri makes model kits. Both also have a paint range, which is rebranded Vallejo. Prince August even has the same part numbers : for example with the Game Color range, Vallejo's Arctic White numbered 72.002 = Prince August's Base White, numbered PG002.

• You might want to compare prices, since it's the same stuff.
• In France, Prince August is also the official importer for Vallejo, so shops carrying one brand has the catalog for the other. Of course, most shops don't have both on display since that would be selling the same paint twice, but ask the staff to place a special order.

Links

• Vallejo website