Vallejo Game Color - Starter Set Review

[Razblood]

Greetings and salutations my beautiful humanoids

Here I am again with another review, after my original thoughts on Vallejo Game Inks.

This time I am going over the Game Color Starter set and will be covering topics such as separation, flow, pigment density, drying time, mixability (made up word) & finally whether it's worth jumping from GW paints.

The Starter Set I have purchased contains 2 Toray (synthetic) brushes - Detail & Small Drybrush, a Colour guide for the Vallejo ranges of Model Color/Air & Game Color, a crappy hobbit model (a really bad mold that looks like Gary Coleman in a Frodo outfit) and 8 Game Color paints.

It cost just under £20 ($31) from a reputable e-bay trader.

So if we say £1 ($1.54) each for the brushes then this amounts to £2.25 ($3.47) for each paint, bearing in mind that these are in 17ml dropper bottles then this is already a massive saving compared to GW paints which only come in 12ml pots and are more expensive per pot.

Now on to the colours and a brief breakdown of each.

72001 - Dead White: It's White, pretty decent coverage, but nothing special.

72007 - Gold Yellow: Nice colour but a bit of a nuisance in that it will not cover over anything but White, and even then only with multiple coats - worst in the set.

72010 - Bloody Red: Again has severe coverage problems, but does produce a nice tone very similar to classic Blood Red - 2nd worst in the set.

72022 - Ultramarine Blue: Excellent coverage with a really nice tone, nothing but praise here. Perfect for Ultrasmurfs

72029 - Sick Green: Again an excellent tone, say hello to Snot Green. Perfect for Salamanders scheme

72043 - Beasty Brown: Had some issues the first time I used this, but after a good shake it was great, highly recommended mid tone.

72051 - Black: Bit of an odd one, coverage is not as good as Chaos/Abby Black and it's very glossy when dry, good for Black leather, but not so much for cloth.

72052 - Silver: Bit flat, not the best but not the worst, probably good for metallic basecoating but thats it.

Now, an issue a lot of people have had with Game Color which has put off some is the separation problems that a lot of the paints seemed to have.

Well I can report that I've had no issue with separation at all, not once. So it looks like they fixed that problem.

The pigment density is variable, with the Red and Yellow seeming to have a lot less than say the Blue and Green, but this is a common issue with paints from a variety of manufacturers.

All the paints flow very smoothly when thinned, which they need to be in order to get the best out of them though exception may be made for the Red & Yellow as they are quite thin to begin with.

All the colours dry reasonably quickly and all the colours are very mixable in order to achieve tones not availble in the Game Color line, or even for highlighting/shading purposes (which is what I did).

This Starter Set in conjunction with the Game Ink set give you nearly every thing you need to get going, though there is another Starter Set available that contains a fleshtone too which makes it a bit more complete.

Here are a couple of test models I did in order to get a feel for the paints and put them through their paces. These were painted with just the contents of the starter set with the ink set, the only additions to this were Glaze & Retarder Medium and Model Color Ivory (which could have been left out)

The Ultramarine was a lot easier and a pleasure to paint in comparison the the Blood Angel.

I have another model showcasing the Yellow in progress and will add him in later.

In conclusion, I really like the Game Color paints and did not have to adapt my style in order to use them, however I would say don't throw away your GW paints just yet. A large proportion of the Game Color line is however an excellently valued alternative that isn't too hard to get hold of and are fantastic if you've been missing the old GW line.

What I will say is that everybody should try every manufacturer and then choose what they like to work with, I for one am happy to work with various different makes of paint and find it provides a colour for every situation.

In my opinion the worst thing you can do is settle for one manufacturer, because what if they go out of business or discontinue a few of their colours ( I'm looking at you GW!). If you have a bit of everything then another company might still carry that colour or an equivalent.

In short, keep an open mind and you may keep a healthier wallet.....well until the new FW goodies come out

Catch you later guys

[JGeils81]

I noticed the glossiness with the black... I was basecoating a RW Speeder crew and Asmodai yesterday with some Game Color Black I picked up to try... was very suprised to come back after they dried and they were sooo shiny.  had to redo them in Abaddon Black :( 

I also have the Ink set...only thing I've used them for so far is thinning and putting on white feathers, and thinning and putting on flamer/melta weapons for the "blueing" effect on the nozzles.

[Aspecti]

I wasn't even aware that there was an Ultramarine blue in the Game Color range, I've only been using the Model Color UM blue, which is 70839.

I wonder what the difference is?

[Razblood]

I wasn't even aware that there was an Ultramarine blue in the Game Color range, I've only been using the Model Color UM blue, which is 70839.

 

I wonder what the difference is?

 

 

Model Color Ultramarine is toned to colour match Ultramarine precious stones, Game Color Ultramarine Blue is a colour match for old Citadel Ultramarine Blue, though they are very similar tones.

 

Also Model Color paints have a much higher viscosity, similar to old Foundation paints.

 

Hope that helps

[Razblood]

I noticed the glossiness with the black... I was basecoating a RW Speeder crew and Asmodai yesterday with some Game Color Black I picked up to try... was very suprised to come back after they dried and they were sooo shiny. had to redo them in Abaddon Black

I also have the Ink set...only thing I've used them for so far is thinning and putting on white feathers, and thinning and putting on flamer/melta weapons for the "blueing" effect on the nozzles.

Get some Model Color Black, it's extremely matte compared to Citadel & Game Color. Or mix the Game Color with a little matt varnish to take some of the shine out....I'll test this and let you know how it goes if you don't want to risk it.

The Inks are good for a variety of things including making washes, glazes and even improving the colour saturation in standard paints. But if you are happy with the uses you've found then more power to you