So…I’m pretty old Skool. Most of my painting experience was in the mid/late 80s as a very young child and the 90s.
Almost all my experience is with the original Citadel line of paints (the circular one), then the ones they replaced them with (hexagonal but seemed the same, then the 2000s citadel with the screw tops, then I moved to Coat d’arms as I disliked the newer citadels apart from the metals and washes.
I tried a little when I moved to Japan with Mr Hobby/Mr Color which I guess is very similar to Tamiya model paints. The results were a little surprising.
Anyway…I digress. So I’ve been watching some youtube videos on painting and it’s blown my mind. Back when I painted you only really had White Dwarf to go by, and explanations might not be what you imagined.
The Army Painter and Vallejo Game Colour paint ranges have a LOT of perfect match colours for old Citadel.
Citadel Dwarf Bronze > Army Painter Weapon Bronze
Citadel Snakebite Leather > Vallejo Game Colour Leather
Games Workshop stores also have conversion charts for old citadel to new citadel as well, or you can use the famous Dakka Dakka paint conversion chart.
I read my Citadel painting guide from cover to cover. The part that I remember very clearly was how the showed how to use a glaze - the before and after photos looked identical. One thing I wish they had put in was a section on how nearly everyone is a bit crap at the start and it just takes a lot of practice to get better. And that some models are just harder to paint than others. I never realised how easy it could be to paint until I switched from painting my Chaos Dwarfs to Goblins. CDs are some of the harder models, so much unforgiving detail.
You can’t have that outdated a painting experience if you already mention the key pieces as Coat d‘Arms (for old citadel paints) and watching youtube.
And sure, now in Europe you just take Vallejo, ScaleColour or whatever is being sold in your neighbourhood, don’t bother with getting Coat d’Arms (for being the true old citadel paints doesn’t make them better), but in Japan, you’ll have to see what is sold there.
I have no experience with Mr. Hobby (when I was looking for a product from them they were hard to find here), but Tamiya, being alcohol dilutable, works quite different from all the above mentioned water dilutable acrylics.
Have you also any of the latter over there?
Anyway, what is the question of this thread?
Do we recommend here each other or favourite painting youtubers? ^^
The good thing about contemporary miniature painting is that we are spoiled for choice now, both in terms of supplies and techniques / tutorials.
Turf wars over the best miniature paint line are unnecessary imo, the differences between the big names are marginal and mostly related to finish (matte/satin). There are even some artist acrylics which are suitable for miniature painting. Just go with what is available at your place as others have said.
When it comes to techniques, there is an exciting new array of alternatives to the classic (as in 2010s classic) GW approach of layer, shade, layer, highlight. I can only recommend to experiment around a bit with different techniques and try to find what suits you the best. Hint: contrast-like paints can easily be mixed from regular paints with some acrylic medium and airbrush flow improver, no need to waste money on even more paints.
