The Joy of Paint

No, I don't have that set.

For years as a miniature painter I accumulated paint, from all sorts of manufacturers.  I still do.  But for a long time it was mostly a matter of "oh, I am going to paint X, I need a color like Y", and picking up replacements for things that tend to get used up.  I never had a really comprehensive set.

Until I was fortunate enough to win a set of Reaper Miniatures Pro Paints in an online contest they ran.  My story featuring "Kilt Green" secured the mass of pigments for me.

Now, I already had a lot of paint.  Craft store, Ral Partha, Citadel, Vallejo, I-kore, Model Master, Testors, what have you.  But I never had a complete all in one set before, and now I had 100+ in one line dumped on me all at once.  I was stunned.

At first I just used them like I used all my other paints, grab a basic color, rinse, repeat.  But over time having all that variation there started opening possibilities for me.  Why yes, perhaps that particularly light shade of blue or that slightly darker orange is just what I need there.  While there are some bottles that have only been opened to add water and agitators to them, I've used more than I thought I might at the beginning.  Highlighting aside, it has been great to have like eight different skin tones or types of browns for leather and such.  While not as important for base coats on large armies, it has been nice to have tons of options for little details, and for my RPG figures it has really opened things up.  I look forward to getting even more use out of the lesser-used ones once that mass of Reaper Kickstarter figures arrives!

A full paint set is expensive.  I'm not sure that I ever would have bought one on my own unless I was prodded.  But now, having had one, once these run dry I may have to invest in another one someday.  Yes, I could mix my own paints, but there's something special about being able to say, "Hmm, which of these four olives would work best here?"

If you paint a lot of different types of figures and you can afford it, I think that a full set would pay off.  Especially if you have some paint buddies you could split the cost with.  If you just paint one chapter of marines, buy more models and the ten paints you actually use instead.

Unfortunately the line I got was later discontinued (because of the bottles themselves getting too expensive of all things), but I'm still getting great use out of it, and slowly replacing the ones that get used up with equivalents from their Master Series paint line.  Eventually I may have a full set of that!

Thanks again Reaper!