Painting... and Paints - Part One

I'm currently neck-deep in the spearmen and knights for my Procession of Morr army. I'd take a few minutes to take photos of their progress, but that would take valuable time away from the actual painting of the models. With summer upon us here in Baltimore I'm finding that every spare second of my weekends is being planned away on a variety of fun activities and trips with my two little girls. Not a bad thing at all, but it does reduce the painting time. Hopefully I'll have some great news to report on the progress front early next week.

Until then, here's the first part of that mini-series on Paints that I mentioned a couple of posts back. Enjoy!

Part One - THE BACKGROUND

When I first started painting toy soldiers I was a young university student barely scraping by (well, I was living at home and working around 20 hours a week, so I had some money, but most of that was being spent on food and beer and general hanging out with friends). I used to use what ever cheap-ass paints I could find. My first models were painted with enamels, acrylics, and even gauche (did I mention I was studying graphic design at the time?)

I was pretty cheap when it came to the paints I bought. Until, that is, my girlfriend at the time bought me a set of the GW Inks (this was in 1994). The additional things I could do with the inks were great, and they looked even better when used over acrylics, so I slowly started to build my GW paint collection. Later in 1994 I started working for GW so the paint was now half off, which certainly appealed to my cheap side.

Some might also call me lazy, the convenience of having so many great colours in the store that I worked in meant there was no need for me to go anywhere else.

So, cheap and lazy? I prefer to think of myself as frugal and efficient. As time went by and I was spending more of it talking to people about how to use GW paints to paint GW miniatures, it really became part of my job. I don't like lying, so it made no sense for me to start painting my figs with Vallejo paints (and later P3), so I stuck with what I knew and I like to think I became very proficient in the quick deployment of GW paint onto GW models.

Fast forward a bunch of years to roughly 2005-6, GW decided to abandon a few great paint colors that had become integral to the way I painted models. These paints included Beaten Copper and Tanned Flesh, and it was then that I started to dabble a little on the dark side, picking up the Vallejo analogues of Hammered Copper and Tan Skin (or something similar, the name has rubbed off my bottle).

This was followed by GW's introduction of the Foundation paints, and later the Washes. At the same time a few more paints were cut from the line, with efficiency quoted as the reason. It seemed that GW struggled to be able to deal with a paint range with more than 75 colours. A confusing state of affairs really, but as long as the new staples of Calthan Brown, Tau Sept Ochre, Denheb Stone, Khemri Brown, Badab Black, and Devlan Mud were always around, things would be fine. I was incredibly happy to stick to the GW range (aside from my small and secretive dalliance with HC) and things went on as normal.

Until I was canned in late 2008. GW paints were no longer the cheapest, most convenient option. My frugality and efficiency were able to open the doors to more paint ranges, and now that I wasn't "tied down" to the GW range for purposes of promotion, I was free to explore.

And explore I did, but rather tentatively.

Next time on Painting... and Paints: The Current Era.

Cheers
Dave