New GW Citadel Paints Pot Design Review
I am having a great time with my experiment of painting my SYW Swiss Eptingen regiment with only 16 paints and inks. I chose the new Games Workshop Citadel paints and (for the most part) I have been very pleased with the paints themselves. However, there is one thing that has been bugging me.
For some reason Games Workshop designed some of their new paint pots with a funky new design. You can spot them easily by noting the raised tab on the back where the lid hinges with the rest of the paint pot. Avoid these pots like the plague. They don't seal properly. They don't return paint to the pot when the lid is opened. They leech paint near the back of the hinge. They get paint on your hands when you open the lid. Check out the two paints above. Both the red and the yellow have been used extensively, but the yellow looks like it could have been just pulled from the shelf. The red is just a big mess. Look at all of that paint back on that hinge. It is ridiculous!
See what this leaves you with: red all over your hands, paint brushes and on other paints that you mix with. I already threw out a goopy pot of Tau Light Ochre when I saw that color in the classic style. Now I just have to get rid of that Evil Suns Scarlet. I pray that GW is phasing the poorly designed pots out. Do yourself a favor: if you have a choice, pick the pot without the tab. You'll be glad you did.
For some reason Games Workshop designed some of their new paint pots with a funky new design. You can spot them easily by noting the raised tab on the back where the lid hinges with the rest of the paint pot. Avoid these pots like the plague. They don't seal properly. They don't return paint to the pot when the lid is opened. They leech paint near the back of the hinge. They get paint on your hands when you open the lid. Check out the two paints above. Both the red and the yellow have been used extensively, but the yellow looks like it could have been just pulled from the shelf. The red is just a big mess. Look at all of that paint back on that hinge. It is ridiculous!See what this leaves you with: red all over your hands, paint brushes and on other paints that you mix with. I already threw out a goopy pot of Tau Light Ochre when I saw that color in the classic style. Now I just have to get rid of that Evil Suns Scarlet. I pray that GW is phasing the poorly designed pots out. Do yourself a favor: if you have a choice, pick the pot without the tab. You'll be glad you did.
I've had the same problem with the new pots, forced me to go back, dig out old style paints I had stored away and rehydrate them with flow improver.
ReplyDeleteI've been wanting to switch my paints into Vallejo / Reaper style dropper bottles, but it is currently an unneeded expense.
Less a review, more a damning indictment!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, though I moved to Vallejo this year and haven't looked back.
i use both vallejo and gw plus americana. i like the gw but your right those tab hinges suck.
ReplyDeleteTsold9K - Both of those paints are good and I have used them in the past. The GW range has a lot going for it, but that pot design is flawed.
ReplyDeletePhyllion - I tried to start with the good news first: the paints are nice! Luckily those pots seem to be slowly disappearing. They look cool and they are sealed when purchased which is kink of neat. But after 3-5 uses they show their true colors... all over everything. I still don't know why some are normal and some are tabbed. Its almost like GW figured it out and now they are (hopefully) phasing them out.
Fire$torm - Since I only purchased a few colors, I only had two tabbed pots. If I had a bunch of them I would have been pretty angry. Now every time I go to my friendly neighborhood game store I look to replace them. I agree with you that dropper bottles are the best by far, but like you I would rather purchase more models!
You and I think alike hehe. Paint < Miniatures
DeleteI've decided to take a leaf from your book and attempt to paint an entire SYW unit using only a select palate of paint, but I'm going to use Vallejo instead of GW, mucho-cheaper at the hobby store.
Fire$torm - Absolutely! Models over paints any day!
DeleteI am excited for you to try out your limited palette SYW regiment. I have learned a lot since I started on mine. I think that you are smart to start with Vallejo. I am still somewhat hindered by my less-than-perfect color choices. It is much easier when using Vallejo to pick out your Violet Blue, Green Blue, Green Yellow, Red Yellow, etc. and your three browns: Umber, Sienna and Ochre. The Vallejo paints actually have stats and real names, whereas the GW paints have ridiculous names and a lack of concern for the above mentioned artist's concerns.
By the way, I stumbled across your Poodles & Power blog. Nice work!
Poodles & Power? This is my blog: http://firestorm99.blogspot.ca
DeleteI agree with you on the Vallejo front, I own every GW paint from the last generation + the discontinued inks and cannot stand the names and pots. Shame they changed the recipe for their washes, I'm not liking the new Devlan Mud.
Fire$torm - I am so sorry! I mixed your name up with FireMonkeyBoy. Yes, I know that they are not that similar. My sincerest apologies. FireMonkeyBoy has a SYW blog that chronicles his battles with his fellow grognards. It is well written... you should check it out.
ReplyDeleteThe non-tabbed new pots are pretty good for GW, but they pale next to Vallejo eye droppers.
I have heard pros and cons for the new Devlan Mud. I don't use washes too much in my painting, so I don't have strong opinions one way or another. As I recall, Army Painter makes a good copy of GW last gen inks. Maybe those would work for you?
No worries, interesting you brought that blog up, the people who run it are from where I was born and lived a good chunk of my life.
ReplyDeleteI might have to try out the Army Painter "ink". I find the only good use for the new Devlan Mud is basing, it actually does a better job then the Tamiya Smoke X-19 wash that I've used for the past three projects. I find the pigments in the new Devlan to be too... soft. A little too light compared to the old one. Apparently Secret Weapon also make a comparable wash.
Fire$torm - That is interesting. Sometimes it is a small world after all.
DeleteYeah, the softness is what I have read as well about the DM. Good call on the Secret Weapon washes. The guy at FromTheWarp loves loves loves their stuff. He's one of the few non-historical painter blogs that I visit regularly and I value his opinion.
Once I switched to Reaper and Vallejo dropper bottles...I never looked back. For thinning your paints(a must for good painting imho), dropper bottles are hugely preferable. Additionally, for those mixes many of us like to make it is a lot better to be able to do "2 drops of this, 1 drop of that" etc. than messing with paint pots. The only paint pots I use are 30 year old Ral Partha metallics which are still going strong :-)
ReplyDeleteGareson - You are right. Having dropper bottles would make my life easier. Maybe I'll pour my GW paint into them! Do you use GW paints in those dropper bottles or have you forsworn GW to only use Vallejo and Reaper?
DeleteI have heard good things about Reaper Master Series Paints HD colors which are supposedly highly pigmented for good coverage on a single coat. - Jeff
I think you'd be better off just phasing out the GW stuff. Because they're a pretty thick paint they are not easy to work with. You could move them to dropper bottles but you'd like have to add some medium to them to thin them down so they could flow properly. Whicheve GW paints you might be really attached to(Boltgun Metal?), just keep them in their pots....that's my two cents :-) Nice thing about paint is, its a relatively cheap investment.
ReplyDeletelike=likely (sorry)
DeleteGareson - Yep, GW paint is pretty thick. I normally put a blob on my palette and thin it down before I brush it on. Adding it to droppers and thinning it down sounds like a hassle... and it makes me wonder if I could keep the consistency even between colors and new bottles to make my mix notes work properly.
DeleteI continue to be intrigued by the Reaper HD paints. Since I only use about 12 colors or so, the investment wouldn't be too much. Nobody in San Diego sells Reaper so I would have to order it. One of the things I like about GW is that you can get it anywhere. The WarStore can ship them pretty quickly... but maybe I should spend that $40 on more miniatures? Ha ha! Decisions! - Jeff