Alternative Paints

vallejo as most of the hobbyist here know is a very good paint substitute from GW paints....the only thing is...vallejo i believe is a rarity here in the middle east or at least the UAE. i've been using before PEBEO acrylics coz its commonly sold at Magrudy's....one thing bout Pebeo is that you must thin it down carefully coz of the paint consistency. But if you're runnin on a cheapskate budget i recommend SEMCO acrylics really cheap compared to the obscene prices of GW products. Semco paints also are best used as washes if thinned down properly.

I swear by vallejo paints - out here i would suggest you always keep a thick needle on hand to unblock the nozzles. - although i do like the GW washes.

Also for speed painting large armies as i believe kangor stated previously - Army Painter is excellent shading medium.

General Charion

Only problem I have with Vallejo is the 'pots' they come in, other than that I think they are much better than GW with a larger colour pallette.

Jay

I've also heard alot of good stuff about vallejo and would love to try them out, only does anyone know where to find some in Dubai?

the bottles are designed to be used with something called a wet pallet.  its easy to make, take a shallow plastic tin and a dish cloth, add water so it becomes damp or saturted but not to wet and add drops of the paint, the wet pallet stops the paint from drying up and allows you to not waste paint. if you wann know more i suggest you google it.

im hoping that kangor will listen to these recommendations and maybe get a shipment in coz im sure they would sell(as the american say) like hot cakes.

Wraithlord wrote:

I've also heard alot of good stuff about vallejo and would love to try them out, only does anyone know where to find some in Dubai?

Not possible I'm afraid - the qty required and cost doesn't make it viable at the moment.
But fear not, once we have a dedicated shop in town it'll have Vallejo paints for sure. Same thing about Army Painter btw.

Grand_Master_Telos wrote:

Are you making any hints ther noxy ;)

hmmmm.....is the store gonna be named WARCAMEL? ^_^x

nameflow wrote:

Grand_Master_Telos wrote:

Are you making any hints ther noxy ;)

hmmmm.....is the store gonna be named WARCAMEL? ^_^x

lol
No I don't have any plans to open my own store :)

I think we know who that's suggested too. But to be honest I don't think the small amount of people would make it viable to bring in Vallejio paints when many people would rather use or continue to use the GW ones. It's just not cost effective. If everyone turned around and wanted to use them, that's another story. But that wont happen and I don't think it ever will to be honest. If you want them, pick them up whilst you're on holidays ;)
Oh and I'm sure a few websites would send the paints out to the UAE but with huge packaging costs.

Jay

@ Jay. most people do want to use these paints insstead, but we know we cant get them so we dont bitch aout it all the time. we buy GW coz there is no decent alternative available.

swarmlord wrote:

@ Jay. most people do want to use these paints insstead, but we know we cant get them so we dont bitch aout it all the time. we buy GW coz there is no decent alternative available.

ahem ok i sat back a moment here to see where this went.

@Jay I agree get them outside the market for your use, or better yet bring alot back and sell them out of a suitcase.

@Swarm do you realize where you currently live? Your level of entitlement is astounding. Like Jay said if you want to not use GW then pay the price and get the alternative yoursel and not rely on me to do it for you. You dont just buy GW because its local you buy it cause its cheaper than having other brought to Dubai. If I brought it in and started selling it at a price that covered cost an gave me a profit you would complain that it is sold for to much. C'mon now do you realize you live in the Middle East! Prices here is not the same price as jolly old England, your lucky you dont have to pay rent, im sure you would say "landlord, i dont pay this much back in England its not fair".

....and finally when did you become the public majority? where are all these masses that want change from oppressive GW's paints and demand a switch? Im sure if I only carried Vallejo paint you would say "why dont you have GW paint, everybody wants it but we have no choice". Im sorry, but as a consumer you have all the choice in the world...buy it or don't buy it. Its that easy, and since you rarely purchase anything here in dubai, and mostley online, you made your choice clear... but don't ever complain there is no store here in Dubai and that "the man" just wants to take money from kids. This is freemarket, and i encourage everyone to exercise their right to use that given right and purchase what makes them feel comfortable, but when options are limited look deeper at the reasons and not just that its "the man" keeping you down. If I start to carry Vallejo then why not Privater Press P3 paints there very good, or even how about Testors Masterpiece range, another great paint, or what about the 2 mentioned above? I chose GW because it fits the line I carry and also has one of the best pigment counts on the market. Their washes are virtually the best out there, but most of all, its what the consumer wants. I sell out of paints almost 4 days after I refill the rack, so some people must be happy.

ok now for a calm comment. I have carried Vallejo for many years in the US. they are not the most friendly manufacture to order from nor are they easily accessable. They have issues with batching that creates large discepensies in pigmentation that I dont appreciate as a retailer, and finally they are expensive to carry as a retailer. I would have to charge almost double the GW cost due to shipping here. Maybe i'll get them though regardless cause according to Swarmlord everybody wants them...

I'd rather use GW paints than vallejo paints purely because thats what I'm used too, and I'm sure that goes out towards 90% of the warhammer players here or even anywhere in the world. It's a known brand. I'm sure if there were enough people voicing their wants for the paints then it would become feasable to import/stock them. But as I said before. That wont happen. Although when there are gaps in GW paints I have to go towards other brands to get my pink!!!

Jay

Grand_master_Telos I would actually be interested in that, if you're going to get Vallejo paints I would love to get my hands on the following;
Squid Pink x2
Warlord Purple x1

Let me know,
Thanks,

Jay

Kangor

Obviously i don't want to start a fight here. But again going back to sunny old england - the most expensive paints in england are produced by GW from both retail price and shop stock price.

Personally i had no issues stocking Vallejo paints in the UK (maybe supply to US is different) which by the way were nearly half the price of GWs  - not just their games range which just emulates GWs range but particularly good are there historical packs. For any world war 2 or napoleonic gamers out there, these ranges are second to none. The price difference may have changed in the last 3 years, but i doubt it as GW paint prices have been hiked twice since then.

I also agree there are other very good paint ranges out there, wargames foundries paint system is excellent to as their packs give main colour,shade and highlight for each colour. I also agree that the quality of GW pigments has improved over the years, so quality is a lot closer now than it used to be.

Ok thats my rant bit out of the way. As for stocking in the UAE as i have stated many times before, i agree with Kangor for all of the legitimate business reasons he has stated that unless there was a significant demand which simply cant be generated at the current time, then it is not practical to stock them in the UAE.

Others - this is not directed at Kangor

Just another note, although we have a very restricted hobby market here - please try not to put your GW indoctrination goggles on. Just because you can only buy,paint and play with GW stuff. Does not mean they are the only or even the best producers of rules,army lists,figures,paints,accessories - they are eclipsed in all of these fields by various other companies, the only area that no-one can touch them in is fluff. - Please try to keep an open mind on all aspects of gaming, as GW blinkers are not good for the fantasy/wargaming hobby as a whole.

I am sometimes guilty of this in the opposite direction - just because you have only used one thing does not mean it is the best. Try to keep advise (when given) as objective as possible.

Ok - that its, time for my immolation as a GW heretic

General Charion

all right heretics line up! its purging time LOL

back to our regular programming..... Kangor and General Charion are both generous enough in explaining all the details regarding paint/stocking and other hobby issues. my take on this is...we all want our minis to be painted the best possible way with the best possible paint. its not a debate about GW paints or Vallejo paints or whatever comes in mind...the real issue in my own perspective is "supply and demand" but not necessarily the end justifies the means....if you catch my drift. 

ok here's an anecdote to ponder....a good soldier (hobbyist) will always be a good soldier no matter what kind of weapon (paints) you give him, but provide him top of the line stuff and he can be the best soldier you want him to be. TRUE ... but in WHFB/WH40k there are hobbyist and there are gamers although both of this can be one person but lets face it some of us aren't really doin well on the painting department (and that includes myself)....... so i'll leave all the argument to those seasoned veteran painters on what paint brand is the "cream of the crop". like Kangor said...he's not forcing anyone to buy the "uber" expensive products at PnS juz to be bombarded with negative remarks...but hey its really kinda expensive i was there last friday and noticed that the vindicator tank price went up from 210 2 weeks ago to 230 ( correct me if im wrong)...BUT PnS stocks gives us a wide range of selection compared to Magrudy's (btw al wahda mall branch replenished their stocks last sunday so there's a decent selection to choose from..if you're in abu dhabi)......so that's it, guess THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS really - nameflow here...just thinking aloud ^_^x

uhmmmm can we go back now to the topic.....ALTERNATIVE PAINTS "share your experiences - more on paint quality wise and less on the supply and demand issues" this would really help us noobie painters tnx!

Just bought 2 new GW paints... in Magrudys.... they say its 15dhs each but now its 20dhs... I guess no one is buying much of these things in the store~ >.<

iIbigdaddyIi wrote:

Just bought 2 new GW paints... in Magrudys.... they say its 15dhs each but now its 20dhs... I guess no one is buying much of these things in the store~ >.<

well they're 21 at  PnS

Shme wrote:

iIbigdaddyIi wrote:

Just bought 2 new GW paints... in Magrudys.... they say its 15dhs each but now its 20dhs... I guess no one is buying much of these things in the store~ >.<

well they're 21 at  PnS

lol 1aed difference

iIbigdaddyIi wrote:

Shme wrote:

iIbigdaddyIi wrote:

Just bought 2 new GW paints... in Magrudys.... they say its 15dhs each but now its 20dhs... I guess no one is buying much of these things in the store~ >.<

well they're 21 at  PnS

lol 1aed difference

actually they're 15 AED at PnS.

noxy wrote:

iIbigdaddyIi wrote:

Shme wrote:

iIbigdaddyIi wrote:

Just bought 2 new GW paints... in Magrudys.... they say its 15dhs each but now its 20dhs... I guess no one is buying much of these things in the store~ >.<

well they're 21 at  PnS

lol 1aed difference

actually they're 15 AED at PnS.

As the big man just said , they go for 15 at P'n'S  , however some paints do go for 21 or at least used to till recently ( not sure which , maybe foundation ) . What happens sometimes is that the checkout girls are trying to scan things quickly or the pots may be missing the price tag and haven't been entered in to the barcode system . In that case they will the just multiply the number of pots by the price of a scanned one ( the 21 AED one in my case ) and you end up being charged at 21 for all pots even though they should cost 15 each , I've actually had to point that out a couple of times and ended up recovering 12-18 AED that were mis-priced 

Karlan wrote:

noxy wrote:

iIbigdaddyIi wrote:

Shme wrote:

iIbigdaddyIi wrote:

Just bought 2 new GW paints... in Magrudys.... they say its 15dhs each but now its 20dhs... I guess no one is buying much of these things in the store~ >.<

well they're 21 at  PnS

lol 1aed difference

actually they're 15 AED at PnS.

 

As the big man just said , they go for 15 at P'n'S  , however some paints do go for 21 or at least used to till recently ( not sure which , maybe foundation ) . What happens sometimes is that the checkout girls are trying to scan things quickly or the pots may be missing the price tag and haven't been entered in to the barcode system . In that case they will the just multiply the number of pots by the price of a scanned one ( the 21 AED one in my case ) and you end up being charged at 21 for all pots even though they should cost 15 each , I've actually had to point that out a couple of times and ended up recovering 12-18 AED that were mis-priced 

Does P'n S sell sets of paints?

Think so , however would suggest just buying the paints you need as you go along instead of accumilating paints you might not really use .

noxy wrote:

iIbigdaddyIi wrote:

Shme wrote:

iIbigdaddyIi wrote:

Just bought 2 new GW paints... in Magrudys.... they say its 15dhs each but now its 20dhs... I guess no one is buying much of these things in the store~ >.<

well they're 21 at  PnS

lol 1aed difference

actually they're 15 AED at PnS.

well then you should make sure the right prices are put on cos i'll have you know i payed 21dhs for all my latest paints

Shme wrote:

noxy wrote:

actually they're 15 AED at PnS.

well then you should make sure the right prices are put on cos i'll have you know i payed 21dhs for all my latest paints

There's a big sticker with "ALL PAINTS 15 AED" written all over on the paints racks.
Like in any other shop you're entitled to say "hey, this item is priced wrong!" cause mistakes can happen.