Warhammer Paint Set Thoughts

So Hobby Town had a sale where you could get a few bones off of a $40 purchase. I picked up the Warhammer Paint set. I was initially going to get the starter set but alas they did not have it. Prior to that I had bought some of the textured paints and messed around with some of the colors but not yet all of them.

So the set includes the following:

5 Plastic High Elves: I suspect these are the sames ones that come with the Isle of Blood starter boxed set. The five here in my box at least were no identical and had a lot of details in various small things that made them stand out from each other.

The main body is separate from the spear arm. the second one here I lost his spear while doing something else and found it later on embedded in my sock. Surprised it didn't break to be honest. The only thing I'd consider bad on these guys is the face. Their heads are very narrow and their eyes fairly close together so its a bit of a PIA to paint them.

1 Starter Brush: M'eh. It's okay but personally, I found it a little too small. In addition, there was one hair longer than the rest of the brush which was initially driving me nuts but I finally managed to get a hold of it and yank it out. Small out to pick out the various gem stones on these elves but I wouldn't recommend it for the eyes.

1 High Elf Painting Guide: Terrible. Well, not terrible, but basic? Very basic? With instructions on using a paint that doesn't come with the set?

1 pot of Mephiston Red: Not bad. I think it's darker than the old normal... Blood Red or whatever it was, and worked well between Blood Red as a highlight and the old Red Foundation as a base coast.

1 pot of Caledor Sky: Kind of an Ice Blue. Light but not that light.

1 pot of Nuln Oil: This worked well. Good flow control. Might even be a little too dark. I was tempted to go back over these guys after I did my initial shading with it but the point was to... you know, just test the stuff out and see how it worked overall not make some figs that would blend in with my previous efforts.

1 pot of Ironbreaker: Not bad as a metallic. Lighter than Boltgun Metal.

1 pot of Ulthuan Grey: If you've been looking for an off white, this is your color. It will probably make a great base for doing skull white highlights. I initially thought it was white until I hit it with the actual Pure White.

1 pot of Kabalite Green; Somewhat a muted Turqouise Green. Like an aqua green? I highlighted it a little using the Ulthuan Grey. Personally? Not seeing a lot of use out of this color.

1 pot of Cadian Fleshtone: M'eh? The instructions want you to paint the hair with this and then shade it with the Nuln Oil.

1 pot of Imperial Primer: Black Brush on Primer from Games Workshop? My how times have changed. I initially based some of my figures with my air brush with this and it worked pretty well. Glad to see GW offering it.'

On the base I used the Luthian or whatever the home place of the Lizardmen are, then gave it a green wash from Vallejo. That was a mistake that I've made in the past and will probably make again. Unless the Vallejo washes are extremely well shaken, I've noticed they tend to dry white in some spots. I then went over that with Goblin Green. Not bad for the time invested in it.

Could I do more with them? Yup. Some washes on the gloves for example. Heck, maybe paint the bows and spears brown or something. Highlight the metal parts with Mithril Silver! But they were a test run and I've got other figures to work on. The main thing? The GW paints remain, at least to me, another tool to use.

I still hate the bottle design. The paints are still over priced. But it looks like White Dwarf is actually putting some painting articles back in and the paints weren't bad and will be easy to find wherever I go so that's good at least.